Chapter 31; Hope

                                    

                                          


                          
There was a hollowness inside of his chest that he couldn't fill. The sheer pain of it radiated through his entire being and through everything that he was; a friend, a mate, an Alpha... Days had blurred into one film of depression since she left. It felt like a living nightmare. Her scent was everywhere, in every corner of every room, in every nook and every cranny...it coated the forest like a blanket until finally, it disappeared. But where, he did not know.
                          
Colden had taken off the moment he had realised the meaning of her note. She had gone for the Lycan King but she may as well have walked to her death. He had torn through the house and ran after her with every ounce of his being, further and deeper into the forest. He liked to think that he'd find her anywhere; across the oceans, across every galaxy and in each lifetime that they shared. Yet there was no trace of her. 
                          
When he had realised this, agony had crippled his wolf to the back of his mind. Naked and cold he walked back to the pack house, defeated and broken as Tom gathered search groups. But there was no lead to follow and so the days went on. 
                          
He flicked through the pages of the death report, eyes scanning for her name to come up. Each time his heart rose to his throat and he had to hold back on the urge to throw up. Yet her name didn't show. It was a small mercy, at least, that Lucien hadn't killed her. Or perhaps he had and he was simply holding that information hostage, whether to torture him or to hide the truth, Colden wasn't sure. 
                          
"We've searched almost every inch of our land, Colden. She's not here, in America at least." Tom's voice was hoarse as he placed his hand on his shoulder, as if to comfort him. 
                          
He felt an inch of guilt at the sight of the bags that lined Tom's eyes. They had been searching none stop, every warrior and man or women that he could spare had been out there, looking for that tantalising scent. Realistically Colden knew that she wouldn't be here, not if what she had written in the letter was true. But there was a part of him that hoped she hadn't gone to Lucien. Her rejection surely wouldn't hurt as much as her death. 
                          
"She's got to be somewhere," Colden scanned the map once more, praying to every God and Goddess for some inkling of where he could find her. 
                          
"Her scent disappears at the border, and even then there are only faint traces of it, not enough to go off. It's as if she has disappeared into the shadows," Tom sighed as he tugged his hand through his hair. "We're going to have to start going into other packs, Alpha. We won't fight this alone_"
                          
"I had tried," Colden snapped, his canines lengthening. Every Alpha in the nearby packs had declined his request to aid him in taking down Lucien. They would not go after his mate, considering that she had run from him before. There was only so much he could do without breaking wolf law and forcing another Alpha into submission, and even that was a death warrant. "We're in this alone."
                          
"Maybe Lorenz will have changed his mind. His mates pregnant, you could ask him to reconsider," Tom squeezed his shoulder before he let his hand drop. "But we both know that Alice isn't here and the only way to get her back is by going straight to Lucien."
                          
Colden's eye twitched at the sound of her name. Every nerve in his body flared, taught from recognition and the pain that flared brightly in his chest. A growl vibrated out of him as he crumbled up the new report and threw it into the blazing fire. The flames crackled and sputtered as if to taunt him. He couldn't bear to look at it for long.