Fire And Ice

Chapter 5 - Survival

Natalia's P. O. V

I ran and ran until I came to a river. I threw my bag to the other side and removed my clothes then walked into the water, making sure to wash my scent. When I reached the other side, I moved to put the clothes back on but Candy stopped me.

'Nat, they'll be looking for you, right?'

'Yeah. Most likely.'

'So, why don't you leave something to make them think that something happened to you?', She suggested.

'Good idea. Let's go back to the other side.'

I crossed the river again and tore my clothes up. Conveniently, a rabbit chose that moment to show itself. I caught it and killed it then poured its blood all over my torn up clothed and used my werewolf strength to throw the body back in the direction of the pack house. I used sticks to make claw marks and bear tracks in the ground then used a knife to make claw marks in the trees. I jumped around, making it look like there was a struggle.

I crossed the river again and put a new set of clothes on. I admired my handiwork then picked my bag up and continued running.

Callum's P. O. V

I wiped my eyes and walked around the pack house aimlessly. In my funk, I bumped into Andrea.

"Hey, man. Where are you going?"

He hesitated before replying, "The Alpha sent me to find the omega."

I looked behind him and saw Michael Dean and Jonathan Crude - two of the eighteen trackers we had. I looked back at Andrea, "I'm coming with you."

We walked to the attic room and sniffed her mattress and memorised her scent- not that I had to, I'd always know my mate's scent. We went outside through the kitchen door and followed the scent to the school. It stopped at the window of the records and storage room but she wasn't there and there was nowhere to hide inside the room.

We followed the scent to the border and paused as Andrea sent a message to Harry. I listened in, 'She crossed the border. Should we still follow her?'

'Bring that bitch back.' Was Harry's reply before we were cut off. Cade and I growled.

We shifted and followed the scent. 'I'm only doing this because we might find our mate.' Cade told me before he sank back into silence. Throughout the journey, the scent was unusually thin for a roughly six-hour-old trail – assuming she'd left around the time I rejected her. At night, we came to a tree where the scent wasn't as thin. 'She must've spent some time here.'

The others nodded their wolf heads. 'Hey, look at this.'

Michael was standing over the dead body of a rabbit. It looked like a wolf had mauled it. It also smelled very faintly of Natalia. My wolf whined.

'I think that's all. Let's continue following the scent.' I'd been eager to find her. I wished I hadn't.

We ran non-stop for a long time and I wondered how she'd been able to get so far in less than a day. At noon the next day we came to a river. The scent stopped on our side of it. I saw bloody torn up clothes and recognised them as what she was wearing when I rejected her.

'I found something.' I told the others.

There were bear tracks and claw marks on the ground and trees. The grass was bloody and looked like it had been trampled on during a fight. There was blood and the fading scent of Natalia all over the place.