Chapter 13 - Back to the mountain

Author POV - 

**Mark's anger melted away into sorrow quickly when he realised that his actions had caused his mate to feel rejected, that was the very last thing Mark ever wanted. He knew his actions would cause Brian pain, and he had regretted it, but he had had to keep him at arm's length for his own good, he was trying to protect Brian from the fall out of a mission gone wrong and from the heartbreak of possibly losing his mate. It had all been for Brian that he had behaved as he had, he was desperate for Brian to understand now.**

"Please, Brian, don't ever think I don't want you, I do, I love you, you are perfect for me" Brian scoffs at that but Mark continues, "You are, I did it all to protect you, you weren't there Brian, you have only heard of all he did, you were not there to witness it as I was, I felt helpless, I felt useless and I want to be the one to end this, I want to protect them even if they are not my pack anymore.

"Ok, this is not the time to get into all of this, we have a job to do," Brian sighs heavily, knowing that they will have to talk about this in depth at some point in the near future, "for now, since we both know they are there, we might as well bring the others into camp, get to know them and work out where we go from here."

Mark feels a weight lift from his shoulders when Brian doesn't immediately walk away from him and their bond, he is positive that if he has a chance to really explain himself that he can make Brian understand. Now all they need to do is find the hideout and finish this.

The warriors and trackers join them in the little area they have selected to set up camp and they all talk, getting to know each other and going over the plan for the rest of the day.

The group decides to split into 3 to cover more ground, each group has 1 tracker and 2 warriors, group 1 is Brian, who is a great racker, Mark and Tasha from Twin Lakes, group 2 is Keith, the tracker from Twin Lakes with Eric and Georgina from Rival River pack, and group 3 consists of Aria and Harry from Twin Lakes and Penny, the tracker from Rival River. 

After spending some time at the camp, setting up additional tents and deciding not to call in the change of plans, the groups gather their maps and cameras and with group two heading east and group three heading west they circle the base of the mountains tracking their progress, making notes on the maps and taking pictures of the surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, group one heads up the side of the mountain to get aerial shots of the land below and to scope out the various entrances into the caves.

Mark, Brian and Tasha climb for a while before they decide to stop and take some aerial photos of the bottom of the mountain, they set their packs down and spread out along the ridge they came across and all three of them hold their cameras at arms length facing the ground tilting the cameras slightly this way and that to get different angles incase the miss something with one shot.

As they are gathering their packs and preparing to climb a little higher Brian spots something blowing in the breeze caught on one of the bushes about 2 metres above their heads on the side of the mountain. Standing on Mark's shoulders, Brian is able to reach up and grab the fluttering item and brings it down with him. A small ripped piece of fabric sits in the palm of his hand, after looking at it thoroughly he brings it to his nose and breathes deeply, inhaling the scent.

Brian doesn't recognise the scent but he pockets the fabric for future use and the three move on up the mountain, closer to the cave's entrances. They stop about 5 metres below the entrance to the caves and find that to get to the cave entrances they will need to scale the side of the mountain as there is no clear path. They spend some time snapping more pictures of the area, the mountain itself and the bird eye views of the ground below them. Deciding they have enough photos for now and knowing they will be back tomorrow they decide that it is time to return to the camp they had set up. With the sun setting behind the mountain the area gets dark quickly and it doesn't take long for visibility to be severely impaired. Thankfully with their wolf vision it is still an easy trek down the side of the mountain. 

About half way down Brian suddenly freezes and Mark and Tasha both walk into him from behind. 

"Brian?" Mark stops talking almost as soon as he starts, he hears it too, a faint clicking sound, similar to the sound their own cameras made all afternoon. Tasha spins on the spot, trying to find the source of the sound, but Brian raises his head and looks towards where the caves sit. A glint of light reflecting off of something glass catches his eye and he turns fully pulling Mark close to him.

"There," Brian whispers, "Do you see it?"

"See what? Brian, what is it?" Mark whispers back, barely audible.

"A camera, they know we are here," Brian replies, pulling Tasha towards himself too. "We need to go, head straight back to the camp, don't stop, no matter what, don't stop."

All three of them take off at the same moment, running almost blindly down the side of the mountain. They are not running because they want to escape, they are all running for the same reason, if their presence is known, the others are in danger as well as themselves, they need to be together if they want to stand a chance. They have no idea how many they are up against, or how strong they are, all they know is that the safest option is for them all to be together.

Brian skids into the camp, bringing up the rear, he refuses to let either of the other two out of his sight at the exact same moment that Harry and Aria come rushing in, panting slightly. Penny is already sitting on the fallen tree like a bench and Keith, Eric and Georgina come in seconds after Brian.

"They…Know….We are here," Aria manages to wheeze out.

"They chased us halfway around the mountain," breathed Penny.

" But then they just disappeared," Aria continues.

"We kept running," Penny pauses, "we wanted to get back here and warn you guys,"

"We know" Brian replies, looking at each of them in turn, "We saw them, they were taking pictures of us, but I don't think we were followed."

"We weren't," Mark says, they didn't leave their posts."

"But why not? It was only the three of us, they could have gone for help, they could have taken us as we ran, what held them back?"

"I think they were doing the same thing as us," Brian looks around at the confused faces, "Gathering intel, only where we were scouting the mountain, they were scouting us."

"So he knows we are here? And he knows how many of us?" Mark asks.

"I would say yes, it seems he is better protected than we originally thought, I need to think, and some of us need to rest, we will need to have someone keeping watch at all times for the remainder of our trip." Brian speaks confidently, " I will take the first watch, you all need to relax, unwind, eat then sleep, Harry, Aria? You guys can take the second watch if that works for you?"

"Of course," Aria responds immediately, "let's get something to eat and then we can try to get some sleep."

"Good, I'll set up watch here, Mark, can you take the otherside?" It isn't a big camp, but they need to have eyes and ears open as much as possible so having 2 people on watch will be safer.

"Of course,"