Page 65 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

“It’s nothing, just seeing the similarities is all,” I said.

“Care to share then?” Baer chuckled.

I joined him with a soft laugh and patted his shoulder. “Neither of them really like it when we do what is for the best for them.”

Baer choked on his laughter then, his eyes widened as the two cousins returned from upstairs. Aurora looked devastated, a sure sign that there had been no sign of indoor plumping upstairs. Sasha, on the other hand, looked exactly as she had when she went up the stairs.

Completely withdrawn from me.

“Chamber pots,” Aurora cried to Baer. “How could anyone have thought those were a good idea? I’d rather use an outhouse than that.”

Sasha sighed as she looked at her cousin, then headed for the doorway. “I’m going to have another look around. Maybe I can find us an outhouse after all.”

“I’ll come with you,” Aurora offered as she pulled back from Baer.

“No, I’ll be okay. I’ll just be right outside here. Besides, if there’s no toilets, then there is no running hot water. If we want baths tonight, you’re going to need to heat the water for us.”

I looked over at Aurora as her face paled more. When I looked back at Sasha, she was already outside the door alone.

“Shit,” I sighed as I rushed to follow her.

I could hear Baer assuring his mate that he would help her get bath water ready as the door closed behind me. My head turned back and forth to find where Sasha had gone to, only to just barely spot her as she turned a corner.

‘Mate can’t be alone,’my wolf growled.‘There could be danger hiding here.’

“I know,” I said out loud.

Flashes of the griffin attacking her at the last city flashed in our mind as I ran to catch up. I couldn’t understand why she was moving so fast or where she thought she was going. Not until I rounded the corner myself and found her leaning against a large rock and looking down at the path leading away from the city.

I slowed down as I approached her, my eyes scanning our surroundings and the sky above her as I walked. The closer I came to her, the clearer the area became, and I realized just what it was she was inspecting on the ground.

“More prints?” I asked, though I could see them clear as day.

Sasha looked up at me, only a little startled. She gave me a nod before looking back at the trail leading away.

“I thought I saw them when we first came by, but we were all so invested in finding our housing for the night that I couldn’t take a closer look.”

I walked closer to her, my gaze moving between her and the trail of footprints leading off down the road. It was strange to see so many of them when before I had only barely made out the shape of one. I touched the ground and reached out to the roots beneath the ground, my reach going out farther than it had the last time I searched for any sign of the witch’s location.

“You feel anything?” Sasha asked me, though her eyes remained on the ground.

I shook my head. “No, it’s odd though. She’s gone all this time without any sign that we were following the right path, and now here we are staring down the best set of prints yet. Enough that we could even follow them from here, yet she isn’t anywhere that I can find.”

“Maybe she got careless because she thinks there was no way we could have followed her this far. I mean, it’s been like a month since we chased her down that alley. She may not even know we found the portal at all.”

“If that voice you keep hearing is involved with her, how could she not know?” I asked, hating the idea that I could pop her bubble any more than I already had.

Sasha sighed and nodded. “You’re right. She probably does know we’re here, but she still could have gotten careless not thinking we could catch up to her yet.”

We sat there in silence, both our backs pressed against the large boulder as we stared out into the world where the prints lead.

“What do you think we’ll find?” Sasha suddenly asked.

“Find?” I asked.

“With Minerva. Nothing in all my studies before leaving home showed a hint of what the darkness she was after really was. All I know is that The Fates seemed to think it was a genuine threat to all of the world.”

I frowned as I thought it over, then shrugged. “I imagine it will be an ancient being just like any of the others our families dealt with in the past. We’ll have to fight it just like our parents fought theirs, and we’ll have to think fast on how to take it down before it’s strong enough to leave the Forgotten Realm.”

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