Not a word is spoken as the car is started and the warrior guides them to the spot. Ava doesn't move a single muscle as she stares out the window, clasping Hunter's hand tightly.
The darkness is all consuming, the moon barely a sliver in the sky, the atmosphere in the car is bleak. Jade and Axel know first hand what it is like to see, but nothing can prepare them for what they know they are walking into. Ava and Hunter have seen the photos, so they try hard to prepare themselves, but photos can be passed as fake. Photos will never give the true idea of seeing it first hand and they know that so there is a certain level of anxiety lingering in the car, all the occupants feel it.
The car is parked in the wide open space at the edge of the thick treeline, the warrior motions in the direction and then runs off.
The four step out of the car and move quickly in the direction that the warrior pointed. They have already wasted enough time.
The smell of death comes upon them, but like last time, there is no smell of blood.
They walk forward as a tight knit group, footsteps silent on the forest floor as they make their way forward.
Ava grips Hunter's large hand tightly, trying to sap his strength and resilience for herself.
Finally, the small group walk into the small clearing. While they all knew what they were going to see, it is still a harrowing experience. Maybe even more so now, because they were meant to protect and save others from this same fate, but this is just the first evidence of their failings.
It is the same as last time, hard to look at, even in the low light, the darkness surrounds them, bringing the chill to them in the still of night.
Two bodies hang hauntingly by their feet, tied with rope to a branch, their bloodless pale look seems to soak in the even small amount of moonlight giving the bodies an unsettling white glow.
It seems that the moon goddess is illuminating their failings.
The luna was obviously very young, only just Jade’s age, Her hanging dark brown hair swinging back and forwards in the slight breeze of the night.
Lifeless arms hanging down around their ears, fingers slightly curled, no defensive wounds, no fight.
Just dead and gone.
The spotless scene with the lack of blood is still something that they are not able to comprehend. Axel squeezes Jade's hand then, his voice is soft in such an atmosphere.
“Okay lets start”
They can only take a moment to grieve the loss, they have work to do, they don't want this to happen again. Ava and Hunter both shift and start combing the area, while Jade concentrates on the bodies and Axel works on the area surrounding the bodies.
‘Have you noticed the severe lack of scent?’
‘Apart from death, I can’t even smell the two that are dead’
‘It is impossible right?’
‘I am not sure what is or is not possible. With the presence and use of magic this is so far out of our league, I don’t know what they can do. It is beyond my scope of knowledge’
‘Without a single scent, what are we really meant to do?’
A wolf's nose is its biggest advantage. Without a scent, they are pretty much lost, there are no trails to follow, there is no evidence, well the most obvious evidence.
‘Does anyone else feel like we are fighting a losing battle?’
All eyes meet and they nod, they could not feel anymore useless, without a scent their advantage is nothing, so they might as well wait for the morning to see things in the light of day.
With heavy hearts they get back in the car and drive back to the pack house it is hard to blame themselves. They were waiting for deaths to find clues and now they find nothing.
In the cave, Phoenix is the first one to wake. Due to the confined space, as soon as he moves the others all wake up, no one complains, as the moon is already high in the sky and they know they have already wasted way too much time.
After a brief stretch, they take off at a fast pace, the moon is at half full, not casting too much light on the situation, but with their increased senses, it is easy for them to move quickly and the risk of being seen is minimal. They cover a lot of ground very quickly, making sure to dodge any pack lands on the way.
It takes three and a half hours at their increased pace before they reach the edge of the blood moon pack lands.
Of course, Jade has already reported, what is happening within the pack is not their job. After all, the perpetrators had to come from somewhere. The group are tasked with the perimeter of the pack. They have done a lot of running already, but now they are tasked with even more. It is going to be a long night, but they don’t complain, they are well aware of what they signed up for, if there are clues they will find them, every single guardian wants to prove his or shes worth.
Of course, the mating pairs don’t want to be split, so they each take one way and will meet up on the opposite side. Once they have met up again, they will cover the side that the other couple covered, not that there is no trust, but it is a lot of land to cover, so something can easily be missed. Alina and Phoenix take off to the left and Alexis and Lucas to the right. They can not travel at as fast speed as before as they need to pay more attention to their surroundings. The tiniest thing missed could be the difference between life and death of another set of wolves.
No one is playing. They all know the seriousness of the matter.
While they are all keeping their noses open, they know the chances of finding scents is unlikely. They have to rely solely on their eyes, which in the low light makes things very difficult, so there is not much pace to their search.
They know there will be no more sleep for the foreseeable future.
The dawn breaks through the night sky, the beautiful pink and yellow colors casting a magical light over the heaviness in the air. No one slept particularly well. The four stand out the front of the pack house, ready to get in the car. The ex-alpha runs out to meet them, his face twisted in anxiousness.
“Brodie…..Brodie, I don’t know where Brodie is”
Phoenix and Axel look at each other, Ava grips Jade’s hand tightly as the boys run off. Ava slips into the driver's seat while Jade sits in the they take off toward the site of the murders. They are already well behind where they wanted to be.
They have no clues, they have only seen death, without anymore information they will not be able to prevent anything. Ava drives steadily to the spot they arrived at yesterday. She pulls up the car and Jade and her exchange a glance before they take a deep breath in and alight from the car.
Axel and Hunter have left the girls to follow the ex Alpha to the Alphas house. Everyone is running around worried out of their minds, the chatter is intense but no one seems to be accomplishing anything.
“STOP”
The people all stop at the sound of Axel’s authoritative voice.
“Where was he seen last?”
“He was in his bed”
Hunter looks at Axel. Was it where Ava left Brodie last night?
Axel can understand the frustrations and high level of fear and nervousness, but it is ineffective, whatever the hell they are trying to do.
“Well lets go there, have to forgotten what you are? Where are the trackers?”
He is trying not to get frustrated, but seriously, what is the point of being a wolf if no one is trying to track the scent. It is easy to come up with solutions when one is looking in from the outside and not embedded in the situation, where emotions are controlling every move.
Sudden realization sweeps over the room. Hunter stands back and looks at the situation. It would look comical if it wasn’t for the severity of the situation.
Axel and Hunter get pointed in the direction of the room. Of course, now that they are here, they are going to take over the situation. Both of them are talented trackers. The pack members have already wasted enough time, so they don’t want to waste a second more.
Both Axel and Hunter shift and pick up Brodie’s scent before following it from the room. It is slightly faded, it was never really all that dense as he does not have his wolf yet, but it is still easy enough to follow.
The 2 big black wolves look at each other before taking off at a run, leaving the others behind. Others will just slow them down. The most important thing right now is to find Brodie, not to take care of others feelings. Hunter links. Thanks to Ava he has a connection to his wolf that is not seen in such a young wolf, a connection that usually takes years to cultivate. So what he loses in age he makes up for in skills.
‘Axel, have you noticed there is no other scent?’
Axel’s large head swivels back and looks at the golden eyes of Hunter. He really has an appreciation for these wolves that the moon goddess gave him. They are not sheep, just willing to blindly follow Jade and Axel, they have their own thoughts, opinions and skills and are not scared of voicing out their opinions which in this scenario is so helpful.
Axel is not embarrassed that he didn’t notice that fact. The whole point of the group is to work together.
‘I didn’t. What are you thinking?’
‘So he just wandered off by himself?’
Brodie is only four but would he wander off into the night by himself, especially when he was so tired? Axel takes in a big breath of scent and looks around, his blue eyes darken significantly.
‘Look which direction we are heading’
Hunter’s and Axel’s eyes meet and their pace increases instantly.
Jade is busy communicating with the others outside the pack lands, it really is trying to look for a needle in the haystack. They didn’t scent anything yesterday so trying to find anything without using scent is nearly impossible. Is there even anything to find?
Jade and Ava walk side by side toward the site of the murders.
Jade looks back as she feels Axel getting closer and closer. She thought he would still be a little while off.
Ava stares straight ahead and screams, everything in her life that has led to this point, every bit of blood she has seen, every bit of fear she has felt, every second of training that she has endured.
NOTHING..... Absolutely nothing prepared her for what she is looking at.
Jade turns and looks ahead, an audible gasp comes out her mouth, her body frozen, her blood stops flowing, her heart stops beating.
Ava collapses onto her knees, her hands covering her face, she doesn’t care if she appears weak, she just can’t stand to look at it for a single second longer.
Jade stumbles and barely keeps her footing. She wants to look away but can’t, her eyes won't listen and her mind can't process enough to protect herself from what she sees.
Just as Jade's legs collapse, a big black wolf with blue eyes catches her on his large back. Jade buries her face in the soft black fur, closing her eyes tightly as she tries to forget what she has seen.
The other large black wolf is wrapped protectively around Ava, his golden eyes not daring to look a second time at the sight that has sent his strong mate to her knees. Hunter links.
'Ava you take Jade back to the car'