Winter Wolf

Chapter 28

"Are you crazy?" Ada growled at Rafe. They were off Byron's territory now, in the neutral zone. They had cars waiting down the road, and a decent amount of Byron's enforcers. He hadn't refused to aid them, despite having lost his 'bargaining chip'.

It infuriated Tristan that Byron even thought of her that way.

"I've been accused of that, yes." Rafe chuckled. Tristan just stared at him.

"I'm not letting her get away. I've waited far too long for this." Rafe said in a more serious manner.

They had relayed everything they had found out about those females to him once he admitted to Tristan those girls that had escaped with his mate, were daughters of his own. He scented her on them. Tristan felt odd about it.

...what were the chances of that?

Rafe was now determined to hunt her down before they could leave the woods again.

So they told him everything the Navarre had told them. Their names, that Gila was a desert female Alpha daughter who deserted her pack and went rogue to avoid an arranged mating, and that they were basically nomads. They never stayed anywhere for long periods of time.

One of her young's mates was in Navarre. Rafe immediately sent one of his scouts back to tell them to leave the area, Tristan had overheard him even offer them protection on his land. Impending wars were never kind to the small packs that got caught in the crossfire.

Rafe hadn't even met his mate yet, and was already making sacrifices for her...

It made Tristan feel odd. Regretful.

"It doesn't mean you go at it alone, especially with everything going on." Ada growled at him. Hutch just put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's worked for him thus far. He can probably get around better going unnoticed, more will just draw attention." He said. Tristan kept glancing toward the south.

The pulling connection was gone. Everything he'd felt previously... was gone. It felt wrong, not to have any kind of feeling where she was or how she was.

It was panicking his wolf not knowing.

"Safe travels then." Rafe said as he looked at Tristan again. Tristan felt the frustration rise.

"I'll bring her back to my territory, if they fled down toward the south roads in the human region which I suspect, I'll take them around on the human roads and go through the Northern pass region, I'll keep her safe." He said. Tristan tightened his jaw. Going around the forest rather then through it did settle his nerves, it meant that they wouldn't be trekking back through an area near Cecil or Arthur, but that would triple the length of the journey through heavy human settlements.

The frustration rose to actual anger when it was truly settling in he wouldn't be seeing her for a while. He wanted to go. It was almost painful holding his wolf back. He glanced to his grandfather again.

His grandfather thought it best they get home, and prepare for the inevitable conflicts to come. He knew their homeland was vulnerable, even with their preparedness.

As an Alpha, he knew he was supposed to put the pack first.

...but his wolf was seeing things differently. He felt desperation, a deep sense of loss. It was digging a hole in the pit of his stomach that wasn't going away.

Tristan tried to make peace with his irritated wolf by reminding himself that they needed a pack to live and be safe, so he should deal with this and let Rafe track them down... but his inner self was still not seeing it that way.