Chapter 2

We had spent the next week laying traps through our territory and the Kyser's. I would check them every morning and every time I could smell her scent and the traps would be empty. She was smart and had probably watched us set them up. Her scent was different I could tell she was female, but her scent wasn't feminine like most other girls.

She smelt like ash and fire with a hint of pine needles or pine trees I couldn't tell. I had grown use to smelling it every morning and I kept the fact that my wolf enjoyed the smell deep in the back of my mind. I couldn't make out what the other smell was that she was giving off. It was odd and sickly sweet.

She smelt young and anytime I did find her tracks I could tell her wolf was smaller then usual. No wonder she could spread her scent like wild fire, she was small enough to squeeze through the smallest areas and it was driving my wolf crazy that we had been so unsuccessful in catching her.

That was only for the fact that I was unmated and the blue moon was coming closer, making my other half crawl with anticipation. Mating was different for Alphas unfortunately. It wasn't like it was for the others, who had a chance of catching their perfect mate's scent at any point in time. For Alphas though, their mates scent is only reveled by the blue moon.

So once a year I get the chance to hunt and look for my mate. This would be the forth year in a row that I had gone without a mate and I was hopeful that'd I'd find her this time. The thought of going through another year of loneliness was painful to my wolf and to me personally.

I wasn't always lonely. Their was a woman in my pack who would warm my bed every once in while when one of us needed it. It was wrong because she wasn't my mate and I wasn't hers and we both knew that. I'm more then just my wolf though and have my own needs.

I like Autumn, she was smart and attractive and would make a good mother one day.

My wolf wasn't too impressed with hers though and since it was closer time for the blue moon I had put distance between me and her in case our actual mate ever showed up.

' She's not going to just show up'

Lunas couldn't smell their mates scent until after they've been marked, so it was all on me to find her.I ignored my wolf's thoughts and continued checking traps until I heard the snap of a twig.

My head went up and I stayed as still as possible trying to listen. I slowly lowered myself to the ground and shifted into my wolf and began to sniff the air. It was still her scent, but this time it was warm and stronger then normal.

I slowly turned around, but I was alone in the woods and I couldn't tell which direction she was in. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and the sound of a high pitched growl was heard right behind me. I went to jump back, but something hard slammed into my back legs and I was knocked onto the loose ground that my pack had covered with leaves and brush.

It fell from right under me and I fell with it into the deep hole we had dug to catch the rogue. I got back to my feet and looked up from the bottom of the hole. I had made sure to tell them to dig deep so that she couldn't jump out and now I was regretting it because neither could I.

I let out a growl and began snarling and barking hysterically out of frustration. I spun around in a circle a minute and stood up pressing my paws into the dirt to sniff the air.

She was still there and close by too.

Eventually a small head reveled itself from above me and a pair of missmatched eyes met mine. One was a bright glowing green while the other was a dark almond brown. The she wolf was white and had streaks of grey and silver running through her face. But most of it was covered with dirt and old blood that stained her fur. I stared into her green eye for a while and when I felt my tail wag unwillingly, I scolded myself.

I jumped off the wall of dirt and back on all fours before looking back up at her. She slowly circled the hole watching me curiously and sniffing low to the ground, taking in my scent.

I watched in amazement as she did. I hadn't seen a wolf so small in my life before. She almost looked like a puppy.

I bared my teeth and snapped at her, but that only made her cock her head to one side at me. Which only made her look more of a pup then a wolf. I could clearly see the object that was tied around her small neck and a green blinking light. Panic went through me and I picked my head up and began to howl as loudly as I could and when I looked back up she was gone.

'You scared her away idiot'

I let out a low growl at my wolf and picked my head up to sniff her scent again. It wasn't warm in the air like it had been before and I was already mind linking my pack to get here as fast as they could. I didn't want her to get too far away.

Johnson's brown wolf came into view and I could hear his snickers through the mind link. I growled and went to shift back into my human form. I stood on my two feet and looked up to see a naked Johnson, literally, standing above me and I looked away and gagged.

"Fucking hurry up, she's getting away!" I yelled without looking up at him.

"Well stop being a little kid and playing in the dirt hole and c'mon." he said teasingly.

I looked up to see him crouch down holding his hand out to me and I took a few steps back to run and jump up to grab a hold. He pulled me up and without another word he slipped a necklace over my head. I looked down at the small vial with the hazel wood ash in it and back at Johnson.

"I'll be right behind you, Alpha." he said with a serious face and bowed his head slightly to me.

I turned to see Fins small grey wolf and nodded to him before I shifted back and began smelling the ground again to find out which direction she went.

I didn't like not always being in control, but my inner wolf was howling and scratching the back of my brain to be let loose and take over. So I let him in hopes he'd have better luck in tracking her then me. He had taken being knocked down by such a small wolf personally.

It was like riding in the passenger seat of your own body. You could see a blurred version of things around you that gave you a vague idea of what was happening, but time felt different and people have been known to lose months and even years of their time letting their wolf have full control. It would only feel like a few seconds, but whenever I was fully conscious again and was the one running through the woods I realized it was night.

I slowed my run to a stop and could hear Johnson and Fin do the same behind me. I picked my head up and sniffed the air and then the ground. Her scent was here and it was warm and a low growl was let out from my chest when smelling it.

'She is close'

I looked around us for a moment, it was nothing but large pine trees and small shrubs. It was dark and the moon was going higher in the sky and that's when the sound of a howl was heard a few miles away. It was hers and you could hear the desperation in her call towards the moon. It was unlike anything I had heard before, she sounded as if she was in pain and she howled over and over and it sounded just like a small puppy calling for it's mother.

It made my chest hurt hearing her broken call and I had to use every fiber of my being to not howl to her. My wolf was desperately trying to take back over, but the sound of another howl from behind me made the urge stop. I spun around to see Fin's grey head sticking up as he continued to howl back to the pup.

Johnson's brown wolf growled and then stepped right on Fin's tail causing him to yap in pain.

Now we no longer had the element of surprise and I turned away from him and began running towards the direction her howls had been coming from. After Fin called back to her she stopped and I'm sure she has taken off again.

'She's lost'

When Zeb said this I nodded my head in understanding that she wasn't familiar with this area of the woods.

I dug my paws deeper when hitting the dirt to push myself further into the pine trees to find her. I didn't think she was calling to us. I assumed she was calling to the moon, but Fin obviously had the idea she was calling to him. Which bugged me, not because he gave us away, but for a different reason I didn't have time to reflect on.

I wasn't even sure what we were going to do when we found her since we had gone way beyond our territory and the Kyser's. There were no traps out here and I couldn't exactly use the vial around my neck in my wolf form.

This had just been the closest we had come to catching her and I didn't want to lose this chance. Not after seeing the device around her neck. That proved that she was one of Scout's and she wasn't going to get away from me this time.

It's when we came to the bottom of a mountain that I finally slowed down. I started sniffing the ground and I couldn't smell her scent anywhere. I tried not to give up hope and stayed moving and sniffing any and everything that I passed to try and find her scent. We were walking right along the mountain side and eventually I got a small wiff of smoke and ash.

I began to trot a little faster and when we came around to an opening of a cave her scent had grown warmer and I knew she was in there.