Across the River

Chapter 2

The bear pictured above is the bear Orsin saw in the previous chapter.
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Orsin stayed up all night thinking of the bear across the river, he had so many questions running through his mind. Orsin decided he had to meet with Harlan in the morning, the Warrior House wasn't having a meeting that day so he had nothing else to do. He only got up and showered when he could hear his family downstairs preparing themselves for the day. He wanted to move out and build a house close to the river, but his family really wanted him to find his mate first so that he wouldn't be alone. Orsin didn't understand that reasoning, he had a whole house he was leading, why would he be alone? Plus he had the river for company, and maybe if he started building his house now on the east side of the river the bear would come back! "Am I really going to move out for some random bear across the river?" Orsin thought to himself. Deep down Orsin knew that wasn't just some random bear across the river, that was his mate.

When Orsin arrived at their clan leaders home he was met by a couple bear guards, but they immediately let him in knowing who he was. Orsin greeted them with a nod, the clan really enjoyed being in their bear forms and even though Orsin was in his human form at the moment, he could completely understand what they were saying as they gave soft huffs and nods in reply. "Ah! Look who it is, Orsin my boy what brings you here?" Harlan's voiced boomed across his huge office as Orsin walked into its open doorway after bowing respectively to his leader. He didn't feel comfortable sitting down at the moment so he just stood close to the big desk Harlan was sitting at. "Harlan, I have some questions about the river..." Harlan looked shocked, he adjusted his posture and cleared his throat.
"Well ask away,"
"So, I saw a bear across the river, but not a bear from our clan. I thought we were the only bears in miles? Also what's the real reason why we don't cross the river, we've never found anything or saw anything over there so why not explore it and maybe get more territory?"
Harlan took a deep breath and sighed "Orsin, I don't know why you saw a bear across the river, but I can tell you this. We were almost completely wiped out by the werewolves in that land. I came here with some of the last remaining bears of that area, and we all crossed the river and established our territory, the river protected us. The werewolves couldn't handle the rushing water back then, they'd get swept away by the water and drowned." Harlan leaned in close to Orsin and said "We don't cross the river for our safety, that's werewolf territory over there, Orsin. If you saw a bear over there, they're probably dead by now, werewolves probably sniffed 'em out and did what they did to us all those years ago." Orsin felt absolutely crushed, was the bear- his mate okay? He felt the urgent need to jump in the river and see if he could sniff his mate out himself, he needed to find them and fast. "But Harlan we never see anything over there, maybe the werewolves have moved on?" Harlan chuckled, "Look Orsin, if you want to go in that forest go ahead be my guest! Be prepared to say goodbye to your family though because you'd sure be a dead bear, I don't think your mother could bear the thought of her alpha son making a dumb decision like that." Orsin clenched his jaw and bawled up his fist. "Thank you leader for your time, I will take your advice into consideration," Orsin bowed and quickly fast walked out of his office. "Dead bear my ass, I can handle myself." Orsin angrily whispered to himself, his mind was made. He was going to cross that damn river.

"Are you insane?!" Xeno yelled in his face. Orsin had gone to his best friend to discuss his plan, it wasn't going so well.

"No, but I have to find that bear! I'm positively sure they're my mate, you would do it too if that was your mate across the river!"

"Harlan specifically said what was over there though! We need you here, there are plenty of other bears here that could be your mate."

"No there aren't, I've never smelt anything like that before." Orsin was getting really frustrated with Xeno, this would benefit his clan as well as him. Orsin and his mate would make beautiful cubs, okay scratch that he was getting way too ahead of himself.