A Werewolf's Mate

Reunited

They raced past borders, combed thru forests, sought out possible trails and didn't stop till they could find anything that'd lead them to her.

"Are you even sure about this?" Rin risked asking when they took a short break to catch their breaths.

"Yeah." Zyll only answered briefly.

"Then who was that woman there back home then?" Len asked.

"I don't know."

"You don't know? Just how sure are you anyway that that wasn't her? What if we're only chasing our tails looking for someone that should've been back home?!" Alex asked, the exasperation and fatigue already catching up to him, as he stomped his way towards Zyll, grabbed him by the neck and slammed him up against a tree.

"I just know because I would never serve a woman besides our princess. You should've noticed it by now too, given that you're her guardians too- that woman isn't our Princess!!" Zyll cried and looked down to Alex with bright golden eyes, showing the presence of his wolf. "Did you not see the way she addressed us?" he inquired more calmly this time.

Alex slowly let him down and thought back to when Ella returned that night.

• Flashback •

"Good evening Everyone." she greeted- for the first time and quite formally too- as she lowered her head, as if in submission.

"Y-Yeah. Go-Good Evening." the four of them answered hesitantly. They'd never seen her as formal as that. Sure, she was sweet and kind of slow but she was not that formal when addressing them.

"Let's just go upstairs and have you rest, okay?" Jem said and gently pushed her towards the stairs. Their princess only nodded her head and clung onto Jem's arms, wearing a beaming grin.

•end•

"I've never heard her say Good Evening in a formal tone like that. Even ignoring us when if ever something happened bad she'd come to us asking comfort. Didn't the both of them have a fight prior to her disappearance?" Zyll pointed out.

Alex knew it. He knew it but pushed it to the back of his mind thinking it was nothing too serious and that their princess must've only been tired. He didn't like to think about it but Zyll was right. He did notice the difference to the old Ella and the new Ella, which they think, is not her.

"I know it's hard to believe and accept but.. we might just have lost our princess and we don't have any means of tracking her." Zyll whispered regrettably and gave Alex a comforting pat on his shoulder.

He knew everyone was weary and scared for their lost princess and that was one job they were supposed to do- to guard and protect her- yet they failed once again.

"I just can't take this anymore. We always fail Ella!" Rin cried and collapsed into a heap of sobs. Len, her twin, crouched beside her and comfortingly rubbed her back, trying to make her stop and calm down.

They all fell silent. It was true. They failed their one sole purpose of living- to protect her- again. Their failure was slowly starting to crush them when a sound of a twig snapping caught all of their attention and got all of their guards up.

"Who's there?" Alex cried and growled, ready to attack even with the slightest move.

"That voice.. Alex?" a feminine voice said and came out from the bushes. A lady in a ragged black cloak.

"I said who are you?" Alex exclaimed and called forth turrets of fire targeting the cloaked lady.

"My, I just vanish for a month and you don't remember me anymore?" she sang in a silvery voice and waved her hands at the turrets, mysteriously making them vanish and evaporating in black smoke. "It's me."