Chapter 130

The plane had been in the air for six hours now and I wanted to scream. I just continued to pace the cabin, my mind frantically coming up with different scenarios.

Thresh was continuously on the phone, talking to the Alpha there and all of the hunters they have on the ground.

So far, no sign of him.

I sat down, I was hyperventilating my breath was shrill. 'He's not dead. He's not dead.'

I felt Thresh put a hand on my shoulder, "You should probably sleep, the flight will be another fourteen hours or so."

I shook my head, "I can't sleep."

He sighed, "Very well."

More phone calls, more video chats all of them I sat through and did my best to pay attention.

"Where was he?" I asked Alpha Ditri. We had opened a Zoom chat with him.

"We were all inside the Haven; me, Rob, my Gamma, and Raphael. Solar was the Fae helping us. He'd just taken us to where the first death had been when Rob mind linked me and told me he'd found something. We followed him and found a small cave, Solar said that it was most likely shared by the two victims. At one point all three of us were inside and Raphael was still outside. When we went back out he was gone. We called him and when he didn't answer we began tracking him, there were a few tracks but they led nowhere."

I'd listened to different renditions of the same story but it still didn't make any sense. What had he been doing?

"I'll leave you two now, must be getting late."

Thresh closed the laptop and said that he would be in the bedroom sleeping.

I nodded.

What had he been doing? My mark felt like it was burning now, I grabbed a water bottle and rested it on it to try and sooth it but it did nothing.

I swallowed, 'Why, why is it so hard?' I didn't mean the pain, but how scared I was.

'Please don't die.' I pleaded silently.

~~~~~~~~

I woke with a jolt. The plane had landed. I rubbed my eyes and stretched my stiff limbs, I must've fallen asleep.

I checked my phone and saw it was eight in the morning, wait, that doesn't feel right. It took me a few seconds, oh right. Time zones.

My heart sunk with the realization, he'd been missing for twenty hours, almost a day.

I bit my hand to stem the scream.

'Keep it together. You can fall apart after you find him.' I took a shuddering breath. 'Have to find him.'

"Thresh! Wake up!" I banged on the door.

The door open and Thresh stood on the other side, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"We have to go." I said urgently.

"Alright." He shut the door and I could only assume he was packing.

I paced the cabin once again, "Okay, this isn't helping. Think, something to do." I was talking to myself, "Call Ditri."

I somehow managed to pull my phone from my pocket with uncooperative hands.

Me and Ditri had previously exchanged numbers.

I paced as I waited for him to pick up. I heard a click, and then a gruff voice, "Hello?"

"Ditri, any news?" I asked quickly.

"Uh… oh, Brooke right? Raphael's mate?"

"Yes, yes. Any news?"

"No, I'm afraid not. We've had hunters out all night and, nothing." He sighed.

I swallowed, "We just landed and should be there as soon as possible."

"There's a truck waiting for you at the airport."

"Thanks." I hung up.

'We're fine, we're fine, we're fine…' I wanted to curl up in a ball and hide, but no, no. I had to find him.

~~~~~~~~~

We drove for almost the whole day, by the time we got to the main Pack where Ditri lived it was late at night.

I burst from the car and ran up to the house.

"Anything?"

Ditri was standing on the porch, his bearded face grave, "No, I'm afraid not."

I stared at the wall behind him, thinking about what to do. I couldn't sense him, he wasn't nearby. He wasn't dead, I'm sure the mark would've stopped hurting if he was. But it still meant that he was in pain.

"Can you take me to where he went missing?" I asked, my breath misting in the mountain air.

"That's in the Haven. Only our Heads and me can go in there." He said.

Thresh came up behind me, "She can go in." His commanding voice said.

"Alpha." Ditri nodded.

-Rob, lead Alpha Thresh and Brooke to the Haven.- I heard him mind link.

-Yes, Alpha.-

A few minutes later a small jeep came up the road and we climbed in. I don't know how long it took but it felt like hours when we finally reached what was the entrance of the Haven. A hedge.

The driver of the jeep, the Gamma apparently, got out and we followed as he did something to cause the hedge to split in two and another world came into view.

We walked through a narrow pass and reached a cliff that overlooked a small village. I observed it all robotically, categorizing each detail as best I could.

I turned to the Gamma and asked, "Where was it?"

He nodded his head in the direction of the path that led down to the village, "This way."

It was dark, but the entire place was lit with glowing butterflies and flowers. It was beautiful I admitted but I didn't have time to enjoy it.

As we walked further into the trees it became colder until it was the same temperature as it was outside the Haven.

I rubbed my nose to try and bring some warmth back.

"We're here." The Gamma called as we reached a clearing.

It wasn't a clearing per se; it was a slope, to my right there was a rock wall and to my left the snow continued to slope down.

"The snow started falling and covered any tracks and it also blocks out scents." He said as he continued walking.

I nodded numbly. I still couldn't sense him.

'Breathe Brooke, breathe.' It definitely wasn't the cold that was making it hard to breathe, I was suffocating with fear. He can't die.

I touched the mark and teared up from the pain and the fear. He can't be dead.

"The cave's right here."

I looked up and saw that the Gamma was pointing to a small hole in the rock face.

I walked to it and crouched down to see, without much hesitation I crawled through and emerged inside a small room, house thing.

There were furs in a corner, old fire, pots and pans, dried food, sticks, leaves, dirt, stones.

I quickly surveyed the room and found the thing of interest. There was a pile of stones in the corner. I approached them and picked one up rubbing it gently with my thumb.

"I found this." I said when I was back outside, Thresh and the Gamma were still out there.

I handed the stone to Thresh and he studied it carefully, "I recognize this." He mumbled as he held it up in the dim light.

"From where?" I asked.

His eyes darted to his left as a memory resurfaced.

"It's a key." He said and walked down the slope, holding the stone up.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Finding your mate."

"How?"

"There!" He exclaimed pointing to a faint glowing circle on a tree.

He walked to it and rubbed it away with his hand to reveal a symbol matching the one on the stone.

Another one appeared further down the slope.

'They're clues!' I realized as Thresh marched down the slope.

We continued down finding more of the symbols. As we neared the last one I felt a rush of cold air and I fell to the ground.

"What-?" I asked as I raised myself to my feet.

"We just left the Haven." Thresh stated.

I dusted my coat off, 'How?' I exhaled when I finally felt something I thought I might never sense again.

"Raph." I breathed as I ran clumsily through the snow in the direction he was coming from.

I stopped and turned in a circle, 'Where are you?!'

Thresh appeared next to me and began searching the ground while the Gamma, who had shifted was sniffing, his nose low to the ground.

"Here!" Thresh shouted.

I gasped and tried to catch my breath as I ran to a form buried in the snow.

"Oh…" I breathed. He was buried face first in the snow, his hair and clothes cold and damp. He looked dead. But I knew he wasn't, his channel was still there and so was the pain from my mark.

Thresh helped me roll him over and I wiped the snow and blood and hair from his face. I fought the tears that threatened to form at the sight of seeing him like this.

"He needs to get out of the snow." Thresh said and removed his two coats as the Gamma lifted Raph's lifeless body and laid them beneath him.

Then the Gamma began CPR and Raph's breathing began to regulate.

"His clothes are still wet." The Gamma said as he began to take his shirt off.

"I'll do it." Thresh said and the Gamma started removing Raph's cold, wet clothes. Thresh was now shirtless in the snow and Raph had a dry shirt and coats on with new socks and shoes.

I held his head on my lap, stroking his ice cold features.

"He's alive." Thresh said crouching next to me, "Ditri, we've found him. Can you send a chopper to my location? Excellent. Bring the necessary equipment for hypothermia, including a shirt and a pair of Raphael's underwear and pants."

I wasn't listening to his words, I could only stare at my mate's pale face.