The Unwanted Wolf

MARK

I started climbing out of bed, despite my body protesting. Rie and Scythe tried to get me to lie back down, but I just brushed them off. I couldn’t just sit in bed, knowing we were a step closer to finding my mate.

“Where is she?” I asked. I was ready to charge out of this room right now.

“I will need a map,” Ginger said. “I know the general direction and distance, so I can narrow this down.”

I started ripping the wires off of me, so I could fully get out of bed. My body screamed in pain, but that didn’t matter. None of that mattered. I started walking out of the room. “Let’s get you a map then.”

When I opened the door, I came face to face with Zayla. The frown on her face was deeper than I had ever seen.

“I didn’t say you could be released,” she said in a flat tone.

I knew she was serious about her patients’ health, and normally I listened to her, but not today.

“Ginger has a lead on Adira.” I slipped past Zayla, and she quickly moved out of the way, not saying anything.

I rushed down to the conference room, looking for one of the maps of the area we used for war planning. I started spreading as many maps as possible, filling the table completely. The others followed into the room shortly after. When I was done, I took a step back and gestured to Ginger.

“Where is she?” My voice was shaking with nerves. The desperation to find Adira was filling my core. I didn’t know if I was thinking straight, but I didn’t care.

Ginger approached the table, and looked over all of the maps in front of her. She clasped her hands behind her back and hummed as she reviewed everything. I was practically buzzing with anticipation.

The door to the conference room opened, making me jump. Reyland stood in the doorway, looking confused at what was going on. There was also a level of exhaustion I hadn’t seen in him before.

He looked over at me, and his expression shifted. “What’s going on?”

“Ginger got a ping for Adira’s location. She said she could narrow it down for us, so we could focus our efforts better,” Daniel explained, keeping his eyes glued to Ginger.

Reyland walked over and stood next to Ginger and looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. Ginger paused and looked back at him, eyebrows raised.

“Give me some space, big guy,” Ginger said. She waited for Reyland to move before continuing.

Reyland took a step back looking sheepish, but he quickly complied with Ginger. It was almost amusing to see such a small woman giving a large man, like Reyland, commands, especially when most people shrank around his strong alpha presence. When she got the space, she went back to the maps and returned to analyzing everything. She made a mark on where the pack house was, just using her finger and magic. She shifted around the table and then traced a line away from the pack house. She closed her eyes and then created a large circle on the map. She took a step back and looked at it for a moment.

Finally, she nodded and said, “I’m confident she’s somewhere in this area.”

I walked up to the table to get a closer look at the area she circled and frowned. It was much larger than I had hoped, and it would still take some time to send search parties to cover the entire area. It was better than what we had at least.

“We should deploy several search parties there immediately. We’ll need at least five.” I turned to Ginger. “Did you get any other information to help narrow it down at all?”

Ginger looked me straight in the eyes. “She said that it was some kind of prison that was holding her. You’re not going to like this, boy, but she confirmed that Cain is the one holding her captive. She mentioned that Jori was also helping her.”

It felt like someone punched me in the gut. “They are working together? That makes no sense.” Hearing the confirmation that Jori was in fact involved made me realize I no longer knew Jori the way I used. Maybe I never truly knew him before. One thing was for sure. I was going to make sure they both regretted taking my mate.

“Did you say prison, Gingy?” Daniel asked. His face was tight with focus.

Ginger nodded. “Boy, don’t make me repeat myself.”

Daniel suddenly ran out of the room, leaving the rest of us confused. Now that Ginger was done drawing the map, Reyland approached the table again, making sure to leave some space between himself and Ginger. He traced the lines Ginger had created.

“This isn’t wolf territory. It’s in a neutral zone that doesn’t belong to any magical creatures,” he said. He dug through his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He looked it over, taking a few moments to look back and forth between the paper and the map.

“What is that?” I asked as he silently looked at everything.

“Adira’s mother gave me a list of places Cain might keep her. I’m cross referencing that with this map to see if any of the places fall within this range,” he explained.

I found myself waiting anxiously for him to finish. I found my desperation to go find Adira growing. If I could just leave this room and run after her this minute, I would. Scythe placed his hand on my shoulder, so I glanced back at him. He gave me a reassuring nod, and I knew he could feel my anxiety. He was probably the one who could understand my feelings the most. He and Percy had spent several months apart, not knowing if they would ever see each other again. The big difference was that they knew where each other were and could visit at any point.

Reyland pulled out a pen and started marking the map in a few locations. When he was done, he pointed them out to us. “We should be able to focus our search in these areas. According to Freya, these are areas she knows Cain to have visited, at least while they were together.

I looked at the map myself. With Reyland’s added information, it narrowed the search area in half. I curled my fingers into fists to stop my hands from shaking. I felt so close to getting my mate back and so far at the same time. I was about to start barking orders, but Scythe stepped up instead.

“Let’s get the search parties organized immediately. I want to send eighty percent of our warriors to that area, and I want to leave the rest here to make sure the pack members who cannot fight are safe,” Scythe instructed.

I took a step back, realizing it was best for Scythe to take control. If I had given orders, I would have sent everyone to help me find Adira, but that would have been irresponsible as the alpha. My mate was important, but I couldn’t sacrifice the safety of my pack to get her back. It wasn’t easy to let go of control, but I trusted Scythe and Rie to do what was best for me and the pack better than I trusted myself at the moment.

Scythe pointed to the map at the edge of the determined search party. “We will have the rescue party wait here as the search parties confirm Adira’s location. This will give the rescue party the easiest access to joining up with the search party, no matter where Adira is located.” Scythe turned to me. “Alpha, you will be waiting with the rescue party, so you can get to Adira the moment we know her location.”

“I would like to be in that group as well,” Reyland said.

“Of course, Alpha Lyna.” Scythe turned to Mason. “Do you think you could handle running one of the search parties?”

Mason nodded. He was clasping Rie’s hand. “It would be my honor.”

“Perfect. I will lead another one, and-” Scythe stopped talking when the door to the conference room flung open.

Daniel stumbled in with his arms filled with books. He dumped the books on the table on the maps that weren’t being used. Everyone watched silently as he searched through the books. He was quickly flipping through pages before tossing the book to the side and grabbing another one.

“Boy, what madness is this?” Ginger asked.

Daniel ignored her, continuing to flip through pages. When he found what he was looking for, he let out a loud, “Aha!” He then pulled out a pen and moved to the map with all of the markings.

He spread the book out next to it as he compared the two. “As I was doing my research, there were these camps mentioned that were made to hold sorcerers. Since Gingey hasn’t been able to contact Adira until recently, it’s clear that Adira’s magic has been blocked. I just assumed Cain was using belladonna to do this, but what if he was holding her in one of those prisons? This particular book lists the locations of various prisons throughout the country.”

Daniel stopped to take a breath, saying all of that in one go. He double checked the book and then circled a small part of the map with his pen. “This is the only prison within the areas you both have marked. If he has Adira in one of those ones, this is where she would be.”

No one said anything for a moment. If what Daniel was saying was true, we knew where Adira was being held captive. We went from having no idea of where my mate’s location was to basically knowing the exact spot in less than an hour.

“We’ll send the main search party there,” Reyland said, breaking the silence. “We should still send search parties to other locations in case Cain has moved Adira by now, but this should be our main focus.”

“I want to be on that search party,” I said firmly.

“Mark-” Rie started, but I quickly interrupted.

“I understand that there’s a chance she won’t be there, which will make it harder for me to get to her, but it seems like there is a high probability that my mate is right there.” I pointed to the map to emphasize my point. “I can’t just sit back, waiting for someone else to confirm she is there. I want her in my arms as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” Scythe said.

“Let’s go.” I started to walk out of the room, but Rie stopped me, standing between the door and myself.

“We need to prepare and get the search parties ready. I know it’s hard waiting when we are so close to finding her, but we have to do this right. We can’t walk in blindly or risk Adira or others getting hurt if there is a trap set up,” Rie said, placing her hand on my arm to comfort me.

I knew she was right, but every inch of my body buzzed with anticipation. I know Ginger said Adira was okay, but her mark was gone, and I had no idea what that actually meant. She could be hurt. Our baby could be hurt. Or worse.

I nodded reluctantly, but I didn’t say anything, not trusting myself to speak.

“Let’s start preparing,” Scythe said. He walked out of the room, with the others following.

Rie held back for a moment, still holding my arm. “We’ll get her. We’ll bring her home, and you can have your happily ever after.” She gave my arm a squeeze before leaving.

I felt like I couldn’t move. If I took a step, I knew I would end up running for my mate, so instead, I didn’t even try to take a step.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to sit here and wait, giving that bastard a chance to hide Adira.”

I looked up, seeing Reyland still standing in the room. I hadn’t even noticed that he didn’t leave. I blinked at him a few times, trying to process what he was saying. He gave me a firm look, and I could see a similar determination in him that I felt.

“I made a mistake with Adira years ago and left her on her own. I’m not going to do that again. I realize this might be a mistake, but I’m going to go after her,” Reyland said. He seemed taller in this moment. Out of all of the moments where he showed his alpha strength and power, this was the moment I respected him the most. His love for his daughter was shining through, brighter than the moon itself.

I nodded my head. “Let’s go get my mate back.”