Mia's Path
Aftermath

RAINA

It’s been a month since Mia was kidnaped and everybody around here was going crazy with it. I still couldn’t believe it. How the hell I let that happen? I knew that Seth guy was bad news, I could sense his bad intentions and I did nothing about it. I just took her back to the dance floor instead of taking us home immediately. No matter what people said or thought, I was the one responsible for what had happened. I knew Mel blamed herself because of the crash, but that wasn’t her fault. Accidents happen, even if they were planned out. I should have known better at the club. Even Sam blamed herself, saying she always had Mia on her vision, but when the vampires came, she got distracted and took her eyes away from her. Sam was a hell of a good fighter, but even she couldn’t stop all the vampires that came for her at once.

What really kills me is that we didn’t notice she was in trouble until I heard her scream. What kind of friend am I? Ok, she had a history of being a good fighter herself, but she had no weapons there, what could she have done? That vampire guy was killing her, I could feel it and yet I could only watch as he took her away and into the shadows of the forest. Something about his smile told me he wouldn’t really kill her. He wanted her for something. Or someone. After all she confided in me, I promised myself I would protect her. And look at how well it all went. My thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing, I knew who it would be and honestly, I didn’t want to answer it. I had nothing new to tell him, so I just let it go to voice mail.

Keep thinking about that night wouldn’t help right now, so I decided to finally get out of bed and start the day. At least the camp was comfortable enough that I had a good night sleep. Well, as good as it could be sleeping in the middle of the woods while feeling guilty as hell, without showering, without a good lead and with hopes dying by the second. That was the mood going around all of us. It was taking us too long to find Mia and the hopes were getting thinner with every fail attempt we had. Whatever trail Tom was following, it had gone cold days ago. So, we just kept going in false hope that we could find her anyway.

With a month on us, who knows what that creep had done to her. He could have handed her over to Logan and if so, I was afraid that the only thing we could do was start a war. But how could I tell that to Drake? I mean, I would tell what horrors and abuse Mia suffered under Logan’s hand, but would that be enough for him to start a war and get her back? I knew he was struggling with her, without really knowing if she was his mate or not. Would that little chance she was be enough to help save her from that horrible Alpha? I had to hope it would.

At this point I saw no other way around it. It has been too long, and we couldn’t get anything out here. Seth must have made the trade and that meant Mia was again in the abusive hands of Logan Scott. I just prayed to the goddesses that she would still be alive by the time we got to her.

“RAINA!” Sam came running into my tent, her eyes wide.

“Is everyone ok?” My first thought was that someone got hurt or kidnapped again.

“Tom caught Mia’s scent. It’s fresh. Like no more than an hour fresh.” Sam said agitated.

I got it, we had to act quickly.

“Let’s go.”

KYLE

“Morning, Beta Kyle”

I saw Zoe bringing me a tray with food. It was the same every morning since I came here. I would wake up early and start the training with Alpha Philip’s warriors and by eight in the morning his daughter, Zoe would come to us with food for those who forgot to eat it or for those, like me, that just didn’t give a damn about it. For some reason it just pissed me off more and I would refuse to eat till noon, most days. Today wasn’t any different and I could see Zoe realizing the same thing. I nodded at her and carried on barking orders to the warriors.

“You know, breakfast is important. You need to eat something.” Zoe said softly.

The girl couldn’t take a hint. So, like always, I just ignored her. I knew why I was here, and I knew it had nothing to do with training warriors. Drake had been offered Zoe to mate and create a strong alliance with Black Waters pack. Instead of accepting or rejecting it, he decided to send me here to ‘train’ Alpha Philip’s warriors and show them we were no threat. But I knew better than that. I knew Drake was just trying to get me out of the game by sending me here, in hopes that I would forget about Mia and find someone else.

So, to say I was grumpy as fuck was an understatement. Mia was still missing and as far as I knew, we had no leads and no hopes of finding her. Instead of letting me lead a search team, Drake ordered me to come to Black Waters. I was his best fighter, having me here was a waste of time. I should be out there, trying to find her. Stone was just as pissed as me, making every emotion even harder to control. So even though I knew Zoe was innocent in all of this, I couldn’t help but snap at her anyway.

“I don’t need a spoiled child babysitting me. If you are not here to train like the others, just go.” I hissed.

Zoe huffed at me in annoyance and to my surprise she took off her hoodie and joined the other female warriors in training. I was here for over a week now and it was the first time I saw her do anything other than pleasing her dad with good manners. I ordered everyone to pair up and start sparring so I could help them see what needed to be improved. Again, Zoe surprised me, she had a good fight stance, and she could be petit, but she knew how to use it in her favor. She reminded me of Sam and that made me smile to myself.

I moved on to help some not so good warriors and the morning flew by for the first time since I arrived. I guess really focusing in helping them had helped me in the end. It was the first training I wasn’t trying to do two things at once. Train them while trying to figure out where Mia could be. Raina was kind enough to keep me updated to what they were doing and how things were going. So, I knew a little bit, not that there was much to know. They weren’t anywhere near to finding her.

All I could do right now was focus on my task at hand and pray to the Moon Goddess that Mia would come home sooner rather than later.

TOM

Finally, we had caught her scent and it was fresh. After chasing her for a month and getting nowhere. Finally catching her scent like that was unexpected but appreciated anyway. I just hoped that my instincts were wrong for a change, and it wasn’t a trap. It just felt odd to get a trail out here, in the middle of nowhere after a month of chasing ghosts. It felt like it was on purpose and if it was, well, it couldn’t be a good thing, right? Hopefully I was just being paranoid, and we got lucky.

I really don’t know what was going on with that chick, but somehow, she managed to get the attention of all the important members of the pack. Not all of them were brave enough to talk with her after the incident when Drake broke Ben’s arm. He could deny all he wanted; we knew where his head had been at the time. So here I was, not only doing my job as the best tracker on the pack, but I couldn’t let her go like that. I needed to be sure she was okay and safe. Something about her pulled me in.

All this time after her trail made me feel like a failure. Every time we found something, it was an empty house or motel room. Sometimes we could see signs of struggle and even blood here and there. This Seth vampire guy was a pain in the ass, also good at running away and hiding from us. Drake and the others hadn’t gotten anything useful from the vampire we captured, so I felt like I was chasing a ghost. But this time was different, I caught her scent, and it was fresh. I knew she had to be nearby. Had to be.

I was on my wolf form and Colt – my wolf – was leading the chase. He was excited and wanted nothing more than kill Seth and rescue Mia safe and sound. Protect. It was all he could think about. We knew that she might be injured, Raina told us that the vampire who took her had drained a lot of her blood. There was a chance she needed medical attention and that was why Lilly was with us. She was a training nurse and would help with any problems we might have in that area. But it had its bad side to it.

Raina, Lilly and Sam were right behind me, and I had to remind Colt a few times that he couldn’t run that fast or they wouldn’t be able to keep up with us. Raina could be a witch, but running was not her thing and Lilly wasn’t a warrior, which meant her cardio wasn’t the best either. Lilly and Sam were also on their human forms, delaying their speed even more.

Now I was sure we were on the right track, Colt just caught another scent, a sweet aroma, like - cheap - perfume. That was the vampire. The trail was leading to the edge of the forest and that made me slow down the pace. If they were in the small town, we couldn’t go as wolves. Okay, more like I couldn’t go as Colt.

I changed back to human, and Raina was kind enough to hand me some clothes.

“Her trail leads to the village. I don’t want to split up, is best we stay together. We don’t know what that vampire has planned for us.” I instructed our small group. And they all nodded.

“Do you think it might be a trap?” Sam asked while searching the outskirts of the town.

“I can’t be sure, that’s why I want us to keep together.”

They nodded again at me, and we made our way through the little town. The closer I got to Mia’s delicious vanilla with a touch of honey scent, the more I could smell the sickening sweet perfume-like scent of that nasty vampire. Wherever she was, she wasn’t alone. But I could only smell one vampire, what wasn’t so bad. If we had to fight, I knew Sam and I could take the bastard down easily.

The place itself was nothing much, mostly one large street with several business, which gave me the impression it was a tourist town. With all the hiking spots and mountains around, it made sense. We passed some gift shops, some sports gears ones and a hotel. I was starting to think it was all a trick when someone got out of a coffee shop ahead and Mia’s scent hit me like a brick. My eyes snapped in the direction and sure enough, there she was. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Mia was inside the coffee shop, sitting by the big window chatting with a man. She was talking with a man, and they were laughing at something. The scene itself was harmless, just another couple having fun while in vocation, that’s what it looked like. The fact that she was acting so freely and seemed very comfortable in the vampire’s presence made me pause. I might not know a lot about her, but I knew she didn’t easily trust people, let alone someone that almost killed her and kidnapped her.

“Something is off.” I said over my shoulder.

Sam followed my gaze and found the scene for herself. Now we all had eyes on Mia, but the couple seemed oblivious to our presence so far. Could it be we got lucky and found them without the vampire knowing? Maybe. Raina narrowed her eyes at them and grimaced. Like me, she didn’t like what she was seeing.

Laughing again and playfully swatting the vampire’s hand Mia turned her face around and looked outside. Our eyes met instantly, and a big smile spread across her lips. With a jump she said something to the guy and made her way outside. My muscles tensed, I knew now was the time the vampire would flip and cause a scene. To my utter surprise he smiled at her and let her go without a word. Mia exited the shop and came running toward us, engulfing me in a big hug.

“You’re here!” She sang happily.

I hugged her back a bit surprise with her antics, Colt on the other hand loved it and was wagging his tail in my head. She let go of me and went to hug the girls. I took the opportunity to place myself in front of her, in a protective manner. The vampire was leaving the coffee shop with a smug smile on his face, and it made me want to rip his head off right there.

“Took you guys long enough, I was starting to think you wouldn’t come to us.” He teased.

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