Chapter 400

400 Veering off course

The prince dashed through the woods, following his mate’s scent as best as his wolf could follow. After getting out of the girl’s home, he’d been able to pick on the trail it took... and just like her mother had mentioned earlier, the trail led straight into the forest and in the direction of the Origin.

It was only a matter of time before Jane’s scent grew even stronger, spurring him to strike his paws even harder on the ground. The grey wolf, together with the starry black wolf, tore through the forest at dizzying speeds in search of the prince’s runaway mate. The night was upon not long after they’d begun their search. Cirrus had no desire to give up chase. In fact, he was sure he could keep running for days on end without stopping.

This, obviously, wasn’t the case with his beta alpha. The more hours that ticked by, the shorter the prince’s patience grew... and so did the growing feeling of anxiety. What if he didn’t find her like Jane’s mother had tried to assure him earlier? The thought was just as terrifying as it was dreadful. “Your majesty, we should stop and camp,” the man’s beta alpha interrupted Cirrus through the mind link.

“I can’t do that, Rana. She had a large headstart and I don’t how far she’s gone already. I can’t even tell if she’s even alright. What if something happens to her in all this madness? What if the goddess offered her some sort of sanctuary and reaching the Origin will only spell our failure?

What if she’s not even stopping to rest just so she could get away? If she does sleep in the night, that’s only a chance for us to catch up to her,” Cirrus went frantic, “We’ll hunt, then continue our search when we’re not as hungry as we are now.”

The beta alpha didn’t argue... not like he could anyway. Soon enough, they’d spotted an unsuspecting doe and killed it with barely a chase. Their movements were silent when they hunted and painted an image of the experienced hunters they were.

When they were full and had just rested for the smaller part of an hour, they continued their search for the girl.

Overflowing with determination and a burning desire to see this through, the prince led his beta alpha through the forest, following his mate’s scent once more. What got on the prince’s nerves, however, was how the scent had almost vanished over the span of a few minutes.

It was almost... unnatural.

.....

The two of them ran like this for two days before the prince realised where they were going and got the bright idea to just race for the Origin. Since it was now clear that she was heading for the Origin, the prince switched his attention to going back to the place where the goddess had forbidden all wolves from ever going again.

With this slight change in means of navigation, the prince was able to rush faster, unhindered by the role of having to focus on Jane’s scent.

Knowing her destination, Cirrus allowed them to rest for the first time in two days. Rana collapsed to the ground as soon as the prince allowed it, revealing how tired he actually was. Cirrus, on the other hand, had a hard time sleeping that night, but when he did drift off, the clutches of sleep were tighter than they’d ever been, holding the two wolves down for longer than the prince had ever slept in his life.

The sun was high in the sky by the time the prince awoke. The man got up feeling groggy. The tree he’d been leaning against seemed several times thinner than it had been when he fell asleep and groaned slightly against his body’s weight.

Cirrus dismissed the thought and turned to his beta alpha. “Hey, Rana, get... up. What the...?”

Unlike Cirrus, who’d woken up to an oddly immature tree, the crimson-eyed man was in a similar, but several times more dire situation. The king froze at the sight before him. Growing around Rana were creeping plants that thickened by the minute and looped around his limbs and torso at frightening speeds, ensnaring the beta alpha in a growing cocoon of green.

“Rana, wake up,” the prince snapped out of his daze and rushed to his beta alpha. The unintentional command took root in the beta alpha and his eyes shot open. However, when he tried getting up from the ground, the vines stopped growing and took hold of his body, securing the roots’ purchase of the earth and holding him firmly close to the ground. Cirrus willed his nails to extend into sharp claws and began slashing at the vines that held his companion’s body captive.

“Your Highness, what is the meaning of this?” Rana’s voice was panicked while he fought against the surprisingly sturdy grip of the rogue vines. Cirrus, at some point, wondered whether his beta alpha was playing a prank on him, but shook the thought upon remembering the man’s loyal character.

With the strength the man was capable of, he’d been sure breaking out of the vine grip hold would have been a walk in the park... but that wasn’t the case. Rana’s muscles were bulging in his struggle against the vines. He was using more strength than he normally required to lift a full-grown human and even that wasn’t enough.

Rana groaned against the vines holding him down, summoning all the strength he could muster. Having cleared his mind from the morning grogginess, he was finally able to assess the situation he was in and summon all his strength to escape his flower prison.

The prince saw an opening and slashed at the taut vines, striking at their thinnest points. His claws cut notches into the vines and weakened their overall grip on the beta alpha. After a short moment, the weakest of them began to snap, giving the beta alpha some room to move.

Rana wasted no time once he’d noticed an opening. The man braced himself for another powerful tug at the vines. This time, he was in a better position to tear himself from their grip. After a loud groan, the sound of snapping vines filled the air, some being ripped from the ground at their very roots, raising a small dust cloud around the beta alpha in the process. The crimson-eyed wolf was soon torn free from the green cage.

The moment the last one had snapped and there was nothing else pulling the man to the ground, Rana collapsed yet again, panting with exhaustion. The vines didn’t move again and the rumbling of the green life around them had come to a standstill, “What the hell was that?” Rana coughed.

Cirrus retracted his claws and ran his hand along one of the trees surrounding them. Something felt completely wrong with their surroundings. The trees weren’t at all in any way he remembered them. He wasn’t in the habit of memorising his surroundings before he slept, but when he looked around, his instincts were all wrong.

Where he expected to lean against a tree like he had the night before going to sleep, there was nothing. The ground was moist and slightly less disturbed than the bed of torn vines that Rana had ripped himself from. At first, he’d thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but something was definitely wrong about this. ‘Plants...?’, “I don’t know, but let’s keep going.”

The two wolves shook off the shock and hunted, prepared a meal and ate to their fill, they turned in the direction of the Origin and resumed the journey.

A second before leaving their camp, Cirrus looked back to the spot his beta alpha had almost gotten encased in vines and noticed there wasn’t a shred of the odd wriggly vegetation left.

The vines were nowhere to be seen and all the signs of the recent struggle had vanished. What was even more peculiar was that the grass had grown back to normal and assumed a clean carpet undisturbed. ‘Something is very wrong,’ the prince’s grey wolf snarled at the patch of green before turning away.

He took a reluctant step in the direction they were following. His mate’s scent had gone even fainter over the course of the night it made him feel like he’d made the mistake of resting that night. He could not tell how much further they were supposed to be going before finding her. The two of them tore through the woods in pursuit of Jane Riverwood, the woman Cirrus was fated to live the rest of his life with.

“Your highness, if we are going to the Origin, shouldn’t we be following the flow of the Great Sirius River?” Rana suggested after they had been padding through the forest for a while.

The prince would have scoffed at the beta alpha the moment he heard this question, considering the best way to find the Origin was to follow the Great Sirius river. Everyone knew that... and so did the prince.

Cirrus had actually been listening to the sound of the rushing water to guide him through the forest and south to the Origin. It was that simple, really... and yet, now that he strained his powerful sense of hearing, he heard... nothing.

“Yes, Rana... we should... be following... I was listening to the tide a while ago, but... When did we veer this far from the Great River?” Cirrus asked, shock and anxiety rattling his nerves.

“I thought you were listening for it as well. But yesterday, as the dusk drew near, I noticed how quieter it got the more we ran looking for the Origin,” the large starry wolf rumbled replied, “I thought maybe that her scent had gotten stronger and that you’d figured she wasn’t going to the Origin exactly. Now, however, I know the river is nowhere near us.”

'

........

‘Ashley...’ Katie looked around the scene surrounding the two wolves, wide-eyed.

‘Yes, Katie... I see it too...’ the wolf replied, mirroring Katie’s horrified tone with one of her own.