Chapter 4 - Where are you?

Axel

It had been over twenty four hours since the escape of the human. Axel stood in his office, bags under his eyes and his hair dishevelled. He stood behind the desk staring at the wall, which he had pinned a map of his entire territory. Every inch of Orion Valley laid out in front of him.

His emerald eyes gazed at it intently, as though he were waiting for the map to point something out. He had placed red pins in areas where his trackers and warriors had searched thoroughly and found nothing. No trace of her.

There were more red pins than he cared to see.

He sighed, running his hand through his hair for the millionth time and then rubbed his heavy eyes.

Has predicted, when his parents had returned from their ‘run’ they were furious with him after learning that he had thrown the human in jail. His mother refused to speak to him and left, his father had stayed only to warn him that he had made a huge mistake. Axel barely had time to ask him the circumstances of the humans stay, but his father refused to tell him and then ran off to join in the search for her.

It was frustrating! Where could she possibly have gone!? She was on her feet, her bare feet! One of the trackers had found her shoes, she had run away on her bare feet and yet no one was able to locate her! There was no trace of her!

At first he thought that she was maybe hiding somewhere and even thought it adorable, but apparently he was wrong! It was like she had vanished, without a trace!

‘Alpha!’ Oscar’s voice appeared over mind-link; he was out searching as well.

‘Yeah?’ Axel answered, bracing himself with a little hope.

‘Sorry Alpha, no trace of her by the south lake. She’s not here.’ He informed him, making Axel deflate for the hundredth time that evening.

‘Okay, keep searching.’ He sighed.

‘Yes Alpha!” And then he disappeared again.

With a heavy heart Axel picked up another red pin from his desk and stuck it in the map near the bottom, over the little patch of blue which indicated the lake.

"Where are you?” He groaned, searching the map over again with his tired eyes.

‘Mate is gone…' Leon whimpered in his head.

‘We’ll find her!’ Axel tried to reassure him.

‘Mate doesn’t want us…’ Leon continued on with the pity party.

‘She will! We just have to get her back safe and sound first!’

‘Mate would still be here if you hadn’t imprisoned her!’ Leon accused.

At this accusation Axel just lost it. He roared so loud the entire forest would hear him, he spun around and threw everything off of the desk. Red pins scattered all over the carpet, the bottle of whiskey smashed against the wall spreading glass everywhere and the papers floated down; no longer neatly organised.

“I know! It’s all my fault! I fucked up!” He yelled, unable to contain his voice to his head so that only Leon would hear him.

It was true! He had royally fucked everything up. If he had just calmly approached her, then none of this would have happened. But he let his temper get the best of him and now he was paying for it.

“That’s an understatement!” Suddenly came a snarky voice he instantly recognised.

Slowly he rose his head to look in the direction of the door way. Standing in the door way, leaning against the frame was his little sister, Fidelia. Her eyes were red and puffy, she’d clearly been crying. Her face was taught and had an un-amused expression on it, and she was looking down at her brother with disgust.

“What is it Fi, as you can see I’m not in the mood for company!” He told her through gritted teeth.

“Well, excuse me!” She huffed, rolling her eyes. “I was just coming to check and see whether you found my friend yet?”

“No, we haven’t!” He answered her, feeling his jaw clench.

“Good, I hope you don’t!” She smirked.

Axel felt his nails scratch the desks surface as he clenched his fists tight. Of course she didn’t want him to find her! She probably thought he was only searching to throw her back in jail!

“You know, it would help if I knew more about her! Perhaps if someone who knew her well could give me some information.” He spat and then gazed back at her, with determination.

“Nope, I’m not gonna help you hunt down my only friend!” She huffed, crossing her arms.

“It’s not a request Fidelia.” He warned, making sure to keep eye contact. “It’s an order, from your Alpha!”

“Screw you!” She shrieked. “Don’t you dare try and use your stupid Alpha power to extort information from me!”

“Tell me about her!” Axel yelled back, using his Alpha voice on her. Something he never thought he would need to do. He saw her stiffen as her body tried to reject the order. “What is she?”

She looked at him alarmed, her puffy eyes widened.

“You know she wasn’t human, didn’t you?” He accused.

“Yes, I knew.” She whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek as she was forced to answer.

“Then what was she?”

Fidelia sighed and shook her head.

“I don't know...She never told me…I tried to ask her once but she said…” She paused, struggling to answer.

“She said?” He pushed.

He felt hungry for the information; he needed something to connect him to his mate. Any little thing would do, he needed something!

“She said I was safer if I kept on believing she was human…she wouldn’t tell me any more, just that…she’d be putting me in danger if she told me…and…”

“And?” He urged.

“She already felt guilty that she had told…dad…” She sighed.

That was it! He would just ask his father again, even if he had to use his Alpha power, he would! For his mate!

He felt a smile start to curl his lips, but Fidelia quickly made it fall again.

“He can’t tell you!” She told him firmly.

“What do you mean? He’ll have to!” He growled, hinting his plan. But this only made her sigh heavily.

“I thought the same; I told her if she wouldn't tell me I would just get it out of dad. But…she said he wouldn’t be able to tell me even if he wanted to.” To this Axel raised an eyebrow, very confused. “She said she had a…what was it called?” She thought to herself, while he huffed with his impatience. He didn’t have to wait long though. “Oh it was something like…an unbreakable vow of silence…” Again Axel looked at her completely confused.

“Yeah, that was my expression to. She explained that when she told dad what she was, he agreed to have a spell put on the information he had, so that he could never tell anyone, not even mum, unless she said it was ok. So, basically, dad can’t tell you without Nessa’s permission.” Fidelia finished explaining, with a smug smile on her face.

Axel mulled over the information in his head and then cursed. This only seemed to please Fidelia even more.

“Yeah, so good luck with the search Alpha! I hope you don’t find her!” She laughed, before leaving the room and leaving Axel alone again.

He turned back to his map. Staring at it, willing it to somehow magically show him where she was. Of course it didn’t, because it was just an ordinary map. But he couldn’t lose hope, she was out there somewhere! He had to find her! He could never be whole without her. He couldn’t even begin to think what it would be like to never look into her mesmerising sapphire blue eyes again. He needed to see her! She was the only one destined for him and he felt incomplete without her.

Leon could sense these emotions and thoughts as they ran through his head and Axel heard him howl in pain at the thought of never finding her.

He closed his eyes and let his forehead fall and rest on the wall, on top of the map.

“Where are you?” He mumbled, feeling a single tear slide down his cheek from his tired eye. Leon was still howling. “Please come back!” He choked, picturing her beautiful face in his mind.