Profound Devotion

Chapter 9

July 23rd
Cassius

I spent days avoiding all signs of life, resorting to hiding within the trees bordering the Gurydia mountains and watching the chaos from a distance.

Raian was slowly getting better, his limp nearly gone and his wounds closing up enough to no longer need a fresh bandage.

He tried to lure me out of the shadows on more than one occasion, only to give up each time when I stayed quiet and waited until he realized it was no use.

The Luna's story only confirmed what I already knew--wolves were not to be trusted. It was only a matter of time before their true intentions were revealed, and we were once again painted as soulless beasts. They didn't really care about the truth.

I chose to linger near the water within the sunlight, savoring the limited peace and quiet while remaining on edge with my guard up. That is what allowed my ears to pick up on the pounding of footsteps on the dirt that were growing closer to my location, their speed increasing the closer they became.

My brother burst through the tree line, the frantic Alpha wolf hot on his heels. Their wide eyes scanned the cliff I had been perched along, only to huff and divert their attention to me once they failed to find whatever it was they were looking for.

Atticus' fists clenched and tugged at the strands of his rustled blond hair, his chest rumbling with a frustrated growl.

"Has Naia been through here recently?" Raian lowered to the ground at my side, trying to draw my focus away from the roaring current over a hundred feet below us. The Alpha cursed under his breath and dropped onto his own rear in the dirt, his eyes pressed closed as if trying to internally reason with himself.

"No." I grumbled, turning enough away to block them out of my sight. My brother sighed and drummed his fingers against his leg, only increasing my level of irritation with him. Finally, after his shift in weight and erratic breathing, I had enough. "Why?" I had a better chance of being left in peace if he just spoke his mind.

"She's missing. Alpha Atticus claims it has been happening once a month around the same time." He mumbled and peered over the cliff again where my legs were dangling.

I huffed and slid back, climbing onto my feet and dusting clean my borrowed pants. "If this happens so often, why bother searching for her? She's bound to come back at her own time."

And annoy us with her presence once again.

Atticus' head shot up, and he, too, climbed up on his shaky feet. "It started off that way. Over the course of five months, she would always find her way home after a day or so, but..." His face fell into a horrific stare, and a dark shadow casted over his usual lively eyes.

"But what?" I growled, wanting this all to be over with. I didn't care one way or another where she went or why she was missing. I just wanted to be left the hell alone.

"Last month, she didn't come back." He swallowed hard and let his lengthy legs pace the floor in front of us. Raian watched him nervously, a stark opposite to my irritated glare. "After four days, I, along with a group of our warriors, searched for her. By the time she was found, she had lost so much blood..." His face paled, and my brother's soon followed. "She won't talk about what happened to her or why she disappears, and I worry something like that will happen again if we don't find her."

Raian joined us far from the cliff's edge, resting a hand on my shoulder. "We need your help."

I scoffed and brushed his hold away, increasing the distance between us.

"Absolutely not."

My brother's nostrils flared, his yellow eyes narrowing. "Why the hell not? I know you have been watching everyone over the past few days. You could be the only person that knows where she went." His voice morphed into a rare growl.