Jacob

The cottage in its gray and black dullness from the fire is abandoned, as it had been for years before Anastasia moved in and made it her own. My steps quicken as I fight to get closer, but with each step I feel my heart thump louder, quicker, in my chest.

I thought that only Derek would follow me out here, to the border, where our warning call had come from. But a few members of the pack who managed to take down their opponents are following close by. It's Derek that makes the vocal observation that Ana is nowhere in sight.

He howls, long and low, like the sorrowful weep of a helpless mate. It sounds familiar, like the sound that ripped through me back when I discovered Gisele's body at the bottom of the ravine.

I try my best not to linger on that dread and instead keep my focus on what counts the most now - finding Anastasia before it's too late. I'd have to push aside my disdain for my Beta, and we'd have to work together to find her.

'Derek,' I call out to him, watching him sniff the outer walls of the cottage, 'can you track her scent?'

Being the Alpha means that I can easily track any member's scent easily. But Ana's scent became less traceable to me the moment I lost hope in her. Maybe it's because there is still a trace of their fated mate-bond, or because I'd shot myself in the foot by casting out her scent from my senses, but Derek nods and presses his nose to the ground.

'Alpha, do you hear that?' Garett, an Omega that should not even be here, steps in front of me with his wolf eyes widened.

Of course I hear it! There's no mistaking that harrowing cry of a wolf thug. What is this? I think. Some contest for first place of the title of Anastasia's hero? Questions that begin filling my mind when I remember seeing Ana kiss this Omega, his heart-eyes only for her.

No! No, Jacob! This is not the time for all of that!

It's my inner wolf that speaks sense into me. I shake off the nagging thoughts, and beckon towards the rest of our small group to follow Derek in his pursuit of her scent.

Another howl, but this time it's not the rogue leader. It's Anastasia, and the link any Alpha has to his pack members allows me to feel her fear as if it's my own.

'Hurry, Derek!' I yell into his mind when it takes too long for him to give us any directions.

'They went down this way,' he nods with his head, his nose pointed along the border line, 'I think she tried keeping them from crossing into our territory.'

'Why would she -'

I make a twisted sound as realization dawns on me. That's what she meant by 'Jacob, be safe.' She was trying to protect me, protect the pack, by leading Luthor away from us.

My steps hasten as I set out through the border line, the trees all around me fading into a long stroke of dark browns and greens. It's only when I reach the clearing, I realize where I'm heading to.

The ravine.

I hit brakes on the pedal of my own paws, struck by the lightning that is the memory of finding Gisele's body at the bottom, with Anastasia standing above like a spectator. And then I see it - all around us, the bodies of rogues laying lifeless on the ground, some bleeding from wounds inflicted by the claws of a wolf, others from the fall they've clearly taken.

Again, that painful cry rips through my ears, and snaps my head towards the source. It's Ana as she's attacked by the rogue leader and forced to fall.

'No!" I cry out, rushing forward just as Luthor snaps his body in my direction. Around me, the Beta and the other wolves take their protective stances.

She doesn't seem to notice our presence, or maybe she did but chooses not to acknowledge it for what she does next. Hanging on my merely a thread, Anastasia reaches out with one paw just as Luthor is about to spring forward. She sinks her claws into his ankle, dropping him to his belly before she falls.

'No!'

All I can do is watch in horror as the rogue leader falls off the edge, Anastasia having taken him down with her. In a flash, I'm at the edge, but all I can see down below is the rushing, raving water of the stream, having risen due to the moon. I ready myself for the jump, believing that my Alpha can fall into those waters without drowning.

Just to save her.

Only to save her.

I throw my body forward, but I'm stopped by teeth gripping onto the skin behind my head. I snap my head around, but the Beta pins me down with both paws.

'Stop, Jacob! You'll get yourself killed!'

'Get off me, Beta!'

I strike him in the face, knocking him off me as I get to my feet.

It's Garett who finds a way down, carefully climbing down a less steep incline towards the stream. I rush away from the Beta to follow him, but the rapid waters at the bottom would swallow us whole if we tried to go down. And in the distance, we see nothing at all. Not even the shape of Anastasia flowing down the stream

~

"Silas, Garett, take the north end. Derek and I will go south."

I hand out instructions to all the werewolves who volunteered to join the search party today. It's been almost a week since the rogues attacked us.

And exactly six days of endless searching for Anastasia.

Endless on my part. The others who'd join us in searching for her would eventually retreat for the night, while I would sit on the ledge as my viewpoint and wait. Wait for any sign of her down below. And finding nothing at all.

Even going back home is pointless. The house feels even emptier now, especially when I find myself staring out of my bedroom window towards the cottage at the border. There's no sign of life at all, and with no idea where she is, I know there won't be life in that pitiful excuse of a house.

As the minutes turned into hours, and hours stretched into days, any hope I might have had was slowly slipping through my fingers. And it came to a point that I had to tell my pack members that we weren't searching for one, but two lifeless bodies.

"Yes, Alpha Jacob. We'll come back as soon as we find something."

I nod my head and watch as Silas and Garett head out towards the north side of the ravine. It was the direction the stream flowed that night, but still we had to search every inch of the bottom if I had any hope in finding her body. There's no way she could have survived the fall, I realize as I look up to the ledge. And I remember that it's the very same ledge Gisele fell from.

A light tap on my shoulder pulls me from the painful memory, and I turn just as Derek shoves a sandwich in my hand. I groan as I look down at it, having forgotten to eat all week. I haven't even hunted at all, and my belly rumbles in protest.

"You realize it's been six days already?" Derek presses as he takes a bite of his own meal.

"Of course I do," I reply grumpily, "but the water's calmer now."

"She may have drown-'

"Don't!" I yell, "don't fucking say it!"

Derek simply shrugs in response, and I realize that this is easier on him than it should be. At least, for me, who feels something more for Ana. It takes me a while to figure him out, frowning as I watch him walk away with a mouthful of bread and ham. Their connection, the fated mate-bond, had long ceased to exist. It was only because of me and the cold shoulder I'd shown her, that she even agreed to go out with him.

That's why it's so hard for me to accept that she's gone. I didn't want to blame her, but I found myself doing so as a coping mechanism for the pain I felt from losing my mate. But it seems easier to break that connection, than having to accept that the girl you're madly in love with is gone.

No! She's not gone! I try convincing myself as I take a bite of the sandwich and feel the nausea return. It's been there ever since I watched her fall, and it doesn't seem to back down now, even as I try forcing food down my throat.

I bend down at the side of the stream and reach into the icy water. It stings, that's how cold it is, and I can only imagine what it feels like being struck by this cold. Even if she didn't drown, she would have frozen to death if she was in this water long enough.

I'm just about to reach in deeper to pick up a sharp stone with claw marks in it, when I hear the urgent footsteps of the two Omegas I sent out not long ago.

"Alpha Jacob!" Silas is the first to reach me, taking a moment to catch his breath as he keels over with his hands on his thighs. "We found him!"

"Anastasia?"

Garett shakes his head with and apologetic look. "Only the rogue."

"Where is it?"

"About five meters down that way."

We set out down the stream, Garett leading us towards the rogue leader's body. When we approach, notice that he's not in wolf form.

A wolf can do many things, but it cannot swim. Luthor must have shifted in the water in an attempt to swim to safety, but by the look of his swollen neck, he must have drowned anyway. I bend down and pull open his eyelids to find the blank stare of his brown eyes.

Good riddance!

Derek steps forward and gives a meaningless kick into the paled leader's ribs. "What will we do with his body?"

"Take it back to the den," I stand up and dust my hands on my denims, "I'll stay here and carry on looking."

"Should I stay with you?" Garett asks.

"No. There's work to be done at the den."

Garett, Silas and Derek reach down, each grabbing a limb to pull the rogue by, when we hear someone coming towards us. I turn around to see Connor, his arm tied in a brace.

"Connor? What are you doing out of the Healer's clinic?"

I grab him by the shoulders, surprised to see him walking at all. His injuries had been so bad, we all thought it would be weeks until his full recovery. But instead of returning my smile, Connor looks as if he's the bringer of bad news.

"What's wrong?" I narrow my eyes and stare into his face intently.

"There's something I need to tell you."

"Not now, Connor. We've just found the rogue's body, and we're still looking for Ana's."

"It's really important, Alpha," he insists, grabbing my arm when I turn my back to him.

"Does it have anything to do with Ana?"

"I'm afraid," Connor sighs, "it has everything to do with her."