AIDEN
However I was too worried to listen to reason.
" A run?" I scoffed.
" Where would she go for a run? She barely knows the area." I added.
" Perhaps she's asleep then." Chris suggested.
" My wolf has been highly attuned to her for weeks Chris, don't you think I would be able to sense her if she was in the woods?" I demanded.
" I'm sure the guards we sent into the woods will find her." Chris tried to reassure me, choosing to ignore my question.
" Besides Selena also had a day off, perhaps they went to visit her family, you know they live only a few leagues away." He added.
" You really think Selena and Ava would get along?" I asked.
" Those two are as different as night and day, besides Selena's too full of herself to be friends with Ava."
" I suppose so." Chris agreed in a calm tone although traces of exasperation were beginning to crept into his voice, not that I could blame him. I was been very unreasonable even the most patient and tolerant of wolves would be exasperated at my pigheadedness, but who could blame me, my mate was missing for cripes sake.
Not that I would ever admit it to any other wolf, Ava herself included, but I could admit it to myself.
" But stranger things have happened, they could very well be sitting at her parents table and laughing their heads off to an inside joke right this moment." Chris said.
" Send a team to Selena's home then." I ordered.
" They are not to disturb them in any way when they find them but rather return and inform me." I added.
" Right away." Chris agreed, paying obeisance with a slight nod before exiting the room to carry out my orders leaving me at the mercy of my thoughts.
" Where could she be?" I wondered out loud wandering to the window I had watched her out of when she left this morning.
I couldn't believe all that had been this morning, it felt like a lifetime ago.
She had been so happy then, smiling and skipping, her basket dangling from her arm like a child eager to deliver a message to her grandmother because she knew there would be treats for her.
I shuddered to think of the expression that could be on her face right this moment. I couldn't bear the thought of her in pain and pulled my hair in frustration, pulling so hard my scalp tingled.
" No." I told myself, shoving away from the window and emphatically shaking my head. I had to have faith, she could be asleep or having the fun of her life for all I knew.
Or she could be in pain and the worst situation of her life. My subconscious delighted in informing me.
Running left hand through my hair, I raised the right one to the heavens in supplication. " Dear goddess please watch over her." I implored.
A soft knock on the door had me running back to the middle of the room and throwing myself in my chair, my heart in my throat as Chris and two of the guards that had come searching in the woods entered.
From their grim expressions I knew they had no good news for me but I still said nothing and waited with bated breath that one of them might have a piece of information, no matter how small, to prove that she was safe.
However none of them appeared in a hurry to speak, all three of them stood before the fireplace, their gazes traveling across the room jumping from one of their objects to another and of course refusing to meet my eyes. I didn't need a soothsayer to tell me that if I didn't say anything we could remain in this awkward silence for hours maybe even throughout the rest of the night.
" I take it you didn't find her?" Both guards threw pointed glances at Chris who must have been chosen as the official speaker because he cleared his throat and stepped forward.
" I'm sorry Alpha, but she's gone." He announced, his eyes firmly planted on the floor.
" What do mean she's gone?" I asked." And why are you averting your gaze? Since when are you too scared of me to look me in the face?" I questioned further.
Clearly his throat once more, he raised red rimmed eyes to look me in the face, he looked like someone trying very hard to conceal his tears.
" What's wrong Chris?" I demanded. "Why do you look so distraught?"
Running his wrist under his nose and sniffling quietly he turned to one of the guards behind him and nodded, acknowledging the nod with one of his, the guard stepped forward with the bundle he had come in with and held it out to me.
My eyes recognized what he was holding out to me, but my brain blatantly refused to. " Is that...?" I whispered.
" The clothes Ava was wearing when she left the grounds today." Chris supplied.
" It's torn and bloodied shredded were all we could find, I'm afraid Ava has been torn to pieces by either wild animals or the rouge wolves that roam the forests." He continued.
********************
Later they would tell me how I gave such a blood curdling yell that everyone who heard me swore that their blood ran cold. They would tell me how I screamed so loud the house shook. They would tell me how I threw myself on the floor and tried to pull my hair out from its roots. They would tell me how it took five of my strongest soldiers to hold me down and how they all had sweat pouring down their bodies when the healer finally arrived. They would tell me how it took strong men to pry open my tightly clenched lips so the healer could administer the sleeping draught. ( Of course only Chris knew why I was talking about the news so badly, everyone simply thought I had lost my senses or worse. Of course Chris had taken the trouble to modify their memories. That was another reason Chris was such an invaluable asset, he had witch blood in him as his grandmother had been a witch and he could modify memories.)
Of course I couldn't remember any of my actions,but since I had a sore throat and my limbs ached, I had to believe they were right ( of course by they I mean Chris and Chris alone. I had an annoying quirk of referring to him in plural at times.)
" She isn't dead." I announced as soon as Chris had finished his story and leaned back in his chair.
Sighing heavily, Chris sat up again.
" Trust me when I say I understand how you feel, Alpha." He said sounding like one speaking to a strong headed child who was refusing to listen to reason.
" But you have to let go of this denial,I went into the woods with the others last night when you were asleep and saw the signs of battle, there was no way she could have survived that." He added.
" You don't understand Chris." I said sitting up in bed and swinging my legs to place them on solid ground.
" She's my mate, don't you think I would know if she was dead? When Krystal died I knew instantly." I added.
" Ava may have been your mate, but you two weren't bonded, she doesn't wear your mark and you don't wear her's. How are you certain she's wolf you sense, she doesn't even have a wolf." He added sounding like he was fast losing his patience and I couldn't blame him,but I had to explain to him. He was the only one I trusted in the pack, the only one whose help I could rely on whole heartedly.
" She does have a wolf." I explained to him.
" And have you forgotten that she was able to calm me with just a touch?" I asked.
" That could have been a fluke." He said.
" For all we know the goddess could have chosen to give you respite and we mistook it and gave credit to Ava instead. And how do you know she has a Wolf?" He asked.
" I watched her change." I replied, choosing to ignore the former part of his Statement. The moon goddess had forsaken me, surely he knew that as much as I did. If she wanted to grant me respite she could have done that a number of times over the years. Ava had healed me and we both knew it, even though we couldn't place exactly how she could work such a miracle.
" I found her in the woods last week." I continued.
" She looked so beautiful I just couldn't resist kissing her and when I did I felt a surge of warm energy and watched her change into the strangest and most beautiful wolf I've ever seen. Her fur grows in different patches and of color to form miniature rainbows on her tail and feet." I finished.