From The Ashes

Chapter Thirty-Four

We spent the majority of the day just watching and waiting. Nothing even remotely interesting happened, and to be honest, I was starting to get a little bored. I adjusted my position again, trying to get comfortable on this tree branch. 

Valen had suggested we watch from up above, and I agreed with him. It gave us an amazing vantage point, but it was extremely hard to stay up here for hours at a time.

I glanced over at Valen and saw him already watching me with a mischievous glint in his eye. 

He was enjoying watching me suffer. I stuck my tongue out at him and he grinned back.

We hadn't talked much since we were trying to be quiet, but I couldn't take it anymore. 

"Can we get down now?" I hissed over to him.

"There's no one there. Let's let our wolves out and see if they can find anything." 

He pretended to mull it over for a second, before nodding his head and jumping to the ground.

He landed gracefully on the balls of his feet and only a soft thud was heard when he connected with the earth. I was jealous.

He made it look so easy. 

I followed him down, landing on the balls of my feet as well, but I had underestimated my balancing ability.

I began to topple forward but caught myself at the last moment and somersaulted over, landing just in front of Valen. 

"I meant to do that," I stated while he helped me back up. 

"Of course you did," he chuckled. 

We walked back to our little campsite and stripped down before shifting. I felt my bones cracking and the fur sprouting from my skin.

The first time I ever shifted it was incredibly painful, but now it was almost like popping my knuckles.

It felt good in a weird kind of way. I shook my head and turned to see Orion standing there staring at me. 

"Finally!" Sienna shouted in my head.

She bounded over to him and rubbed her muzzle against his, licking his face with fervor.

Orion licked her right back and began nuzzling his nose into her neck. She craned it up to the sky, showing that she submitted to him and trusted him.

He nipped at it delicately, before rubbing his body all along hers. He wanted to make sure she was fully coated in his scent. 

Sienna was overjoyed at the attention she was receiving. She was purring in my head and ruffling up her fur.

I rolled my eyes at her but let her have her moment. 

Valen had been right earlier when he guessed that she was getting restless.

She'd been bugging me for days to complete the bond and mate with Valen. She wanted it just as bad as he did. I was the one putting a damper on things. 

Orion finished up and stood in front of me once more. I licked his nose once before we both turned to the castle and made our way over.

We made sure to stick to the tall grass, as we didn't want to risk being seen. We didn't know if someone was out here watching just like we were.

 Orion nudged my side and I looked over at him. He pointed toward the back of the castle, and I understood that he was saying he was going to check over there.

I nodded my head at him and watched him go, before putting my nose to the ground. 

I searched around the perimeter, stopping to examine things more closely than I had before with Anton.

Now that my senses were heightened, I could barely smell the fading scent of my old pack. That still didn't shed any light on how they got in, though. If they had masked their scents it would have made more sense to me.

I kept searching, making my way over to the pile of rubble where I had found the dagger. 

As I got closer, I picked up a new scent. It was still faint like the others, but it didn't belong to anyone in Moonlight pack.

I followed it all the way to the spot where everything had been placed. The scent was strongest here, but I couldn't identify it.

It was familiar, but at the same time foreign. Like whoever had been here had purposefully messed with their scent to throw us off of their trail. 

I yipped to get Orion's attention and he soon joined me. He leaned down and sniffed, and I watched as he clenched his jaw and his eyes hardened.

He looked back to me and nodded toward our camp before turning around and taking off. I followed, abandoning all attempts at being stealthy, and caught up to him just as he shifted back and threw his clothes on. 

I did the same and turned to him.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

His hands were balled into fists and his face was contorted in anger. He was breathing hard and I could see him trying to calm himself down.

"I think I know that scent," he ground out.

I reached out to touch him, but he jerked away. The rejection stung a little, but I knew better than to read too much into it.

"Who's is it?" He began pacing, kicking up dirt and rocks as he did so. 

"Celia's." 

My jaw flew open.

 I disagreed.

It was similar, yes, but her scent had been imprinted into my mind ever since I'd seen her leaving Valen's room. This wasn't hers.

 Sure, she was a grade-A bitch, but there was no way she was a traitor.

She wasn't smart enough to be able to pull something of this magnitude off. I grabbed Valen's hand to stop him from wearing a hole into the dirt. 

"How could it be Celia's? She's been with you guys at the cave since the incident."

He paused for a moment and ran his hand along his jaw. He reminded me so much of King Ruben whenever he did that.

"You have a point," he finally admitted.

"But we'll still need to get to the bottom of this. If it's not Celia, then someone else is trying to mask their scent and frame her. I don't trust her alone with anyone, anymore."

His eyes widened in realization. 

"Von and Artemis are there with her."

I gripped his arm tightly. If his theory was correct and it was Celia who was apart of the attack, Von and Artemis could be in serious danger right now. 

"We have to go to them."

Valen nodded his head and picked up our backpacks, loading whatever his hands touched into them. 

"We'll come back for the rest later. Let's go."

He tossed one over to me before sprinting into the woods. 

I looped it over my shoulder before following him, hoping like hell that Artemis and Von were okay. 

Author's Note: 

What do you think; is Celia really the traitor? Or could someone else be at play here? Do you think Artemis and Von are in any trouble at the cave? 

Comment and Vote to let me know what you're thinking! 

Xoxo, 

CrimsynIris