Warriors of Blue moon
Chapter 12 - Part 3, Search for the enemy.

Heath's POV:

I ran as fast as I could, the smell of my mate was overpowering as I got nearer, it hit me hard, the smell of cherries and camomile soap, it was delicious. My eyes shot to her and widened as I saw she was running just as fast toward me a longing look on her face which matched the way I felt. I finally got to her as we embraced, I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly. I then pulled away to look at her, cupping her cheek I took in her beauty.

Her long golden blonde hair and blue eyes, her slim figure dressed in black and khaki armor… ahh she’s a fighter too... perfect! “mate” I spoke to her feeling ecstatic as I looked into her eyes. “mate” she whispered back with a bright smile as she ran her hand through my hair. We both smiled intently at each other, then I grabbed her hand and motioned for her to follow “come, my love” she nodded and smiled eagerly.

We began to walk when a strong hand fell on my arm, I turned to my right to see Trey smiling. “I’m happy for you Alpha.. have some time together I’ll see to everything here and settle everyone in”

I grasped his hand “thank you Beta, I’ll be back shortly” I left them outside and took my beautiful mate into the pack house and led her to a back room with posh comfortable sofas and chairs, it was meant as a lounging area, but because we had several of them and no one really came to this one at the back of the house. I sat her down on the chaise longue next to me, her beaming smile still spread across her face. “what’s your name?”

“Adeena, and your Alpha Heath, right?”

“Yes” I nodded happily ”Yes I am… I can’t believe this... this is so unexpected”

“I know, here I thought I was just here in case of another attack, I never would have thought I’d replace my true mate”

“I lost all hope… I thought I’d never meet you”

“I know” she giggled “me too, I thought my chance had gone, but here we are, this is just so.... incredible… I’m so happy”

“You are? your happy that I’m your mate?”

"Oh yes! I’ve heard great things about you from our Luna, I already know you’re a good and kind man, that’s all I want”

"Phew, I’m so glad my love, your happiness makes me feel happy... your just so beautiful, and you’re a fighter?”

“Yes” she nodded proudly “I’ve trained for years, I have fought a few rogues in the past so I’m ready to fight by your side”

I cupped her cheek again and marvelled at how sweet and beautiful she looked and her smell.... ohh her smell.

We talked and talked, the conversation flowed as we asked each other questions about our lives wanting to know everything about each other. she told me about her pack and her family, she said she only had her mum and that they were close, I told her, if she stayed here with me to bring her mum to live here too. She stated straight away she wanted to stay that she couldn’t imagine leaving and being away from me and that her mum would be happy to move.

We talked for two hours when she moved the conversation onto the situation we were facing with the rogues. “Have you any knowledge on when they will attack?” she asked sweetly.

I shook my head ”no, we were trying to pinpoint their location of where they’re hiding, we went to look yesterday but we didn’t replace much” then my body stiffened as my thoughts went to Lelanna...shit… fuck... shit! I fucking left her there alone on the hill… with all the rush of replaceing my mate I left her alone!

“What is it? you look worried?”

"Oh, I’m sorry my love its’ just that, when I sensed you were here I kind of abandoned a friend of mine and I’m worried if she’s ok or not”

“She?... is she a lover?” she asked anxiously

“What?... no, no, I mean we used to date a few years ago but she’s just a dear friend and I do care for her, she’s been through a lot, and I just left her. if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t even know half of what we do about the rogues. she even helped me, and my men fight them in the attack”.

“She’s a fighter too?”

“Yes, she’s a trained warrior, but she knows rogues and the forest well. She’s helped us tremendously, I’m sorry, but I need to replace her and make sure she’s ok, she’s not used to being around loads of people”

Adeena held her hand to my cheek tenderly “its ok, I understand, there’s a lot going on right now and actually I should get back to the rest of the warriors I came with I don’t want to lose sight of why we’re here and the matter at hand, so I better replace them”.

I stood up and took her hand ”it’s ok, I know where my Beta Trey would have taken them, so I’ll take you there first then I’ll look for my friend”

“ok” she nodded giving me another sweet smile.

I found trey in one of the conference rooms in the pack house with my men and the warriors from Crescent moon. I kissed Adeena’s hand before letting it go as I walked over to Trey. “Have you seen Lelanna?” I whispered in his ear.

“No, I haven’t not since last night"

"Ok…. I’m going to replace her, I’ll be back soon, you can handle things here, right?”

“Of course, Alpha… but if you’re planning on heading into the forest, take someone with you”.

“I will”.

I walked back over to Adeena and placed a small kiss on her lips and looked her in the eyes “I’ll be back soon my love, I promise”.

I had checked the hill, checked the Palace and the pack house, but knowing Lelanna she wouldn’t’ have wondered around the pack mingling with people she didn’t know, the only place left to look was her cave, I remembered the way, so I mind linked Yen to come with me.

We ran through the forest and as we reached her cave I pushed back the boulder, and looked inside, to my disappointment she wasn’t there but I could smell her scent, it was fresh, she hadn’t long left, so at least I knew she had come back here. I noticed Yen’s face, his mouth agape and his eyes wide open as he looked around her cave… or rather what was meant to be her home.

“I know" I nodded “I was just as shocked when she first bought me here”

“She’s been staying here the whole time?”

“Pretty much… come on we need to move, let’s see if we can track her scent”

We tracked her back to the place me and her went that Benson had told us about, but all we could smell was rogue. The same smell that was here before. We traipsed around the forest trying to replace her scent, but I knew Lelanna was careful and clever she would have covered her tracks well.

I knew we had to head back to the pack and as much as I wanted to replace Lelanna, my priority had to be my mate and my pack, Trey had already covered for me enough today and the last thing I wanted was for the newcomers to think of me as rude or too distracted to do my duties as Alpha, first with this morning, leaving to tend to my mate and now this, running off to replace Lelanna… that’s exactly what I was allowing myself to be… distracted!

"Come on Yen, we need to head back”

"Yes Alpha… but what about Lelanna, what if she’s in trouble?”

"I’ll think of something… but let’s get back first, there’s so much I have to tend to”.

We reached the pack and I headed off to meet the newcomers, after I went over a few protocols with them and told them of our schedule to train while off patrol duty, I saw to making sure they had some cooked food and their rooms in the pack house sorted when I mind linked, Trey, Mitch, Yen and Danny to meet me in my office. All I wanted was to see my mate again and just have some time with her ”that’ll have to wait till tonight" I thought. “I’ll arrange for us to have dinner alone… something posh and romantic”.

All four of them came into my office and sat down…

“Well, me and Yen couldn’t replace Lelanna, we went to her cave, she had been back there, and her scent led us to where Benson had been taken, we tried to replace her from there but we had no success”.

“What should we do?” Trey asked a worried expression on his face.

"Yen first thing tomorrow I want you to go back out there back to where her scent led us to and go from there, you know the way now and Danny, I want you to go with him, you our best tracker... me and Trey will cover your patrol duties and our other duties with Mitch’s help while you’re gone but you are to make sure your back on our land and report back to me before nightfall, I don’t want you out there when its dark”

“ok” they both nodded in agreement.

“Great, go and have some food, help with patrols till midnight then get some rest I want you up and out at first light”

“Yes Alpha” they all said in unison. They all got up and left apart from Trey who was still sat looking worried.

“Trey? care to share your thoughts?”

He shook his head as if he was shaking off his anxious mood ”I’m just hoping she’s ok, she strikes me as the type to charge in without giving a thought to her safety, I Just hope nothing bad has happened to her”.

“I know, she is that type of woman, and fighter, but she’s quick and clever, let’s hope that serves her well until we replace her”.

When the day was drawing darker and everyone got on with their duties, I set to have a late dinner with Adeena on the roof of the Palace. I had it lit with candles and a picnic specially made. We went up to the rooftop together talking and laughing for hours, under the stars. It felt incredible to finally be with someone I knew I belonged with.

Five days later:

It’s been almost a week since Lelanna left, Danny and Yen have been out every day looking for her. On one of the days, me and Mitch took over and went to replace her, but we kept coming home with nothing, no sign, no scent, no trail. It was as if she had just vanished off the face of the earth. How was it we could scent rogues but not her?

I spent time with Adeena every day, we even did patrols together and as wonderful as it was to be in her company and become closer to her, it didn’t stop me and my men from becoming more anxious as to Lelanna’s whereabouts or if she was even alive still. That thought had crossed our minds many times now and a part of me was actually starting to believe she had been caught and killed.

But we kept trying our best to remain hopeful.

I had Alpha Layton contacting me almost daily for any updates on the attacks and who was behind it, not to mention all the other neighbouring packs asking me the same things, feeling concerned for the safety of their own packs. But with Layton, every time I spoke with him, I would feel guilt rise up in the pit of my stomach, not toward him, but for her family. If I hadn’t of run off, she would still be here, and she’d be safe.

Do I tell him the truth now? DO I tell him that May is really Lelanna?

Thoughts of her safety never left my head. As well as keeping our pack protected it was also our main goal to replace her and keep her safe with us. Even Adeena had noticed my change in moods and how distracted I kept becoming. I told her why and how hard we’ve been looking to replace Lelanna. Adeena volunteered to go help to look for her but the last thing I could handle is my precious mate out there with dirty rogues lingering around.

When she knew I wouldn’t agree, she helped keep things in check around the pack, doing extra patrols and kept checking in on her pack warriors so it was one less thing for me to do. As it was, I was exhausted from the patrols, training and all the other pack duties as well as trying to replace Lelanna, but we all were! Not to mention the stress of constantly wondering when the next attack would happen.

“Alpha” Danny mind linked me

“Danny?”

“Me and Mitch are back! we think we might know where abouts she is” he informed me as he rushed out his words.

“Meet in my office” I excused myself from training and ran to meet them along with Yen and Trey at my office. As soon as we were all in, I looked to Danny ”tell me what did you replace?”

“We finally noticed a scent Alpha, it was faint, but it was very similar to hers, but there was also a strong rather overwhelming scent of rogues...many scents. We tried to track just hers, but it wasn’t strong enough, but we’re sure it must be hers”

Yen then intervened ”We know whereabouts she could be but as the sun was setting, we had to head back but now we know where she might be, we can go straight there in the morning”

“How could her scent just fade? how could she not be pinpointed?” Trey asked

“We don’t know” Danny replied ”we still don’t know if she’s even ok now, but we know she could be there, we just have to head back, we have to know if it is her”

“So, who goes tomorrow?” Trey asked this time looking to me with a serious look on his face

“We all go" I answered “you said you caught the scent of rogues, right?” I looked to Danny and Yen

“yes” they both answered

“Then we all better go just in case we get ambushed by any. I’ll speak to Adeena tonight and let her know what we’re doing she can handle things here. I’ll tell our guards Clint and Andrews to stay with her and keep her safe they can help her keep things running while were gone. We go and come back before dark… go do your patrols then get some sleep, we’ll meet outside the pack house”.

They all got up and left and I went to replace Adeena straight away to do patrol with her and tell her what we needed to do, but as soon as I saw her all I could think was how much I couldn’t wait to be cuddling up to her in bed and that thought alone made me feel less anxious and tense... I couldn’t wait to be alone with her tonight even if it was just for a few short hours.