Dylan and Killian roamed around for a long time but they were not able to find traces of this person anywhere. It had been two days so the trace of scent had also disappeared.
Dylan was desperate. As he walked around, suddenly, he got a small sniff of that delicious orange scent. He ran in that direction. It led to a broken-down hut. The scent was very fresh around here.
His heart started to pound loudly. Grabbing his chest he held back his excitement.
At this spot, he noticed two other bloody scents join in with his mate.
"Who's there! Come out!" he shouted.
From the broken down hut a pair came out. The man looked tall and strong but the woman looked very thin and malnourished. "Who was kept here?"
They both bowed their head. "leeches... mister wolf." The man said.
"Leeches? Are you calling vampires leeches now?"
The man started to tremble. "I'm sorry, mister wolf. Please spare me."
Dylan sighed out loud. There was no use talking to these guys. He followed the scent into the forest.
His keen eyes noticed a pair of small footprints leading to the shore. His mate's scent was getting more intense. He ran.
He ran into the forest and in the end, it led to the ocean shore.
Dylan frowned. The salty smell of the ocean masked that delicious scent. His Wolfie was getting agitated again.
{'you lost him again! I need my mate! Give me my mate!!!'} Wolfie screamed in his mind.
Grimacing, he just looked at the ocean ready to jump.
"Ah ha! No! Don't you dare jump!" Killian came up behind panting. "I'll arrange a ferry,"
"He could have already left then."
He did not have the patience to wait. He jumped in and swam.
The cold water dampened his excitement a bit.
Dylan swam and swam until he could not find the traces of the scent. "fuck..."
"Alpha king!" Killian came up behind in a small rowboat. "get on, well search in teams. I've hired a lot of wolves."
Dylan immediately got in. "I sniffed two other vampires with him. see if you can sniff them out," he peered out into the open ocean with anticipation. Only he could smell his mate's scent. The others could not even track him. That's how good he was.
A small fleet of ten boats started to scour through the waters searching for the scent. Killian his beta had also brought some traveling wolves with them. They could help sniff the other vampires out.
Dylan was getting anxious. After a thousand years, he finally felt like he was happy. When he sniffed that coffin, he was overjoyed. He did not know what to do.
In fact, he had smelled that scent before...
'it was that day by the ruins... the unconscious man... was it Nico? Shit.. I should have run after him then,'
That day when he saw him he stood there frozen in shock. He was able to smell that delicious scent of orange and apple but he was not able to move from the shock.
His wolf was going crazy that time, just demanding he let him out..
Dylan was doing his utmost to keep him contained.
'Shit I should have let Wolfie take control back then....' he thought, watching as the sun came out the horizon.
{'Do you finally understand that I'm right....'}
"I get it, you're right. We missed our mate because of my mistake."
{'I'm glad you understand your mistake,'}
"I'll listen to you if you speak calmly. I don't take any shouting and screaming and scratching. None of that,"
{'Fine, deal.'}
"Good,"
For the first time in his life, he had an agreeable conversation with his wolf. Dylan smiled. It felt good to know his wolf was still in there somewhere.
"how do you think it happened?" Killian suddenly whispered close to him. "I mean it's been thousand years right, where could the vampires have hidden him? why did they bring him out all of a sudden? It's all a mystery,"
"no it's not," Dylan sighed. he should have known this long back but he ignored all the cues. "Nico was very close to us. he must have been burred under the old castle."
That place was his resting spot. Rue had said that a blast took his mate out and no one bothered to dig out the bodies. As years passed, even Dylan did not want to disturb the piece of the dead and left the old ruins be.
And plus every time he went close to that place, Wolfie went bat shit crazy.
{'Because I could sense him!!'} Wolfie suddenly shouted.
"Well, you must have been more verbal instead of shouting and screaming. We could have avoided a lot of years spending in solitude if you had," he said gripping the side of the boat tightly.
Killian gave him a look. "is your Wolfie talking to you? oh my god, he is actually talking rather than shouting?"
"Yes, he's blaming me for not finding Nico earlier."
"He must have told you so. It would have made things a lot easy, right?" Killian just shrugged.
{'Tell him to shut up, I was repressed and suppressed since the moment I was awakened. I was tied up and put in a basement. Why do you think I was in a blind rage all the time?!'}
"you were unstable. You caused the earthquakes and killed so many wolves.. you had to be contained."
{'my mate could have contained me! bring him to me right now!'}
Dylan felt a huge headache coming his way. He had to find Nico soon, or else he feared his Wolfie would revert back to the shouting screaming monster in his head.
They searched all night and a day but they could not find him. his mate has officially gone missing.