Page 23 of Heart Broken Mate

“It’s not about the money,” he said. “It’s about the girl. She did something to him the last time she was here.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” I told him, but he chuckled dismissively.

“It’s all over you, Luke,” he said. “You’re awestruck. You can understand the girl and her mysterious nature as you wrap around her finger. Do you know what I think?” he said as he stood up. He dropped the book he was reading and walked towards me. I knew he was going to make some ludicrous proposition. “I think this is all part of her plan. She killed the Alpha because she knew she had you already, and you would come tottering after her like a mouse after a cheese. She knows you won’t stop until you find her, so she’s enjoying the chase and the hunt. She’s a frenzied adrenaline junkie. She’s somehow like you.”

“You shouldn’t drink coffee this early in the morning,” Jared said to Allister and shook his head.

“There’s something different about her,” I said suddenly, which caught everyone’s attention. “And yes, I want to find out what it is, but that is not the only reason I am going on the hunt. I am going on the hunt for us too. When I get her and take her back to the council, they promised to leave us alone. No disturbance ever again.”

“Oh, they say that every time. Nothing is going to change,” Ben hissed.

“Maybe, maybe not. But it is worth a try. If all the hunters fail, and I get her, it will show them we are indispensable, and they need us.”

“Did you see what she did to those two?” Ben asked. “She mauled them like an animal like they were nothing but dolls. Do you think you can go up against her?”

“When our past cross, we’ll figure that out,” I told them. I could see Hayley's power now, but it didn’t particularly worry me. There was something bigger between us; a mere conflict wouldn’t topple it. I said hello to the rest of the group and headed into the woods, where I could still smell her. She smelled like a mix of daylilies and mud. It was a very distinct smell, earthy and very natural.

“You guys keep an eye out for her for me, will you?” I told the guys.

“We will,” Ben said. “But Luke, what will you do when she refuses to come with you, and the only thing you can do is kill her?”

Bonne asked me that same question. “It shouldn’t come to that,” I told Ben. I prayed it never came to that.

I walked past them and into the woods. It was still early in the morning, and the sun wasn’t as hot. The dampness from the morning dew was still evident in the woods, and I could smell it. Mornings like this are supposed to be used to enjoy the sweet smell of nature, but I didn’t have time for that. I filtered out the scent of the forest and focused on Hayley’s, following it. I wasn’t just following her smell. I was following a connection between the two of us. It felt like a tug in my heart, thumping quietly and directing me. I followed it obediently, and it led me through the forest until I came to a tree with blood on it.

It was dried and caked. I moved closer to it and smelled it. It was hers, I knew immediately, she had been injured in the fight, but it didn’t look like anything serious. A scratch, probably. I wondered if, during the fight, any of the three turned, or maybe either of the twins, because a scratch from a turned werewolf can be very lethal. It injects the blood with poisons that can kill in hours. It weakens the body first, then causes a terrible fever, which reduces the victim to a shivering pile of flesh, and then death.

Bonne was rather fascinated with the venom in a werewolf's claw, but it was hard and nearly impossible to extract. First, changing was painful and used a lot of energy, and most werewolves don’t bother with it. They just use their claws, strength, and speed to fight. A change werewolf can go through a little army in hours, but once he is energy sapped, he is as defenseless as a chicken and would need hours, sometimes days, to get their full energy back. The reward for the risk wasn’t worth it.

So, I doubted either of them changed. Werewolves only change in dire situations when the other option is certain death.

I dusted the blood off the tree, so others won’t use it to track her down. She must have gotten in on the tree by mistake, or she put it there knowingly. She put it there to pull me in.

I shook my head at the foolish thought. I can’t let Allister’s grand imaginings make their way into my head. She was on the run and had just fought two powerful wolves, killing them. Of course, she was shaken and distracted.

I pushed on into the woods, following her scent and the link between us. I heard a ruffle behind me and stopped, it stopped also, and I thought it must have been my own feet making the sound. I continued, and for a while, I lost her scent. It was replaced quickly by a different smell, but I could tell it was a werewolf. There was another werewolf in the woods with me. Her scent came back, but I ignored it. I can always catch on to it later. I wanted to know who this werewolf was.

I focused on the new wolf’s scent but acted like I was still on Hayley’s trail. I kept at it so that the wolf would get distracted and think I haven’t noticed them. Whoever it was wasn’t after Hayley. They were after me.

Who would they send a wolf after me? There was an obvious answer, but I ignored it, not wanting to jump to any conclusions just yet. I could hear a river coming up as I went further into the woods. If Hayley wanted to lose her scent, she would have passed through the water and washed herself. I don’t know if the scent I was getting from her would survive that. I didn’t want to lose it, but it didn’t matter much. I knew she was long gone anyway. The attack on The Twins happened close to midnight, so she probably was halfway out of town.

But something made me feel she wasn’t gone yet. She was still somewhere in town, waiting for something.

I started walking fast to put some more distance between the tracker and me, and slowly, his scent started to lose potency, and when I figured I had put enough space between the two of us, I began to run. I ran as fast as I could, and as I got very close to the river, I jumped on a tree, gripped its trunk, and climbed it until I rested on one of its branches. I balanced on it and looked around me, looking to sight the tracker. He would think he had lost me and would ascribe my scent left in the forest to residuals. He would assume I had jumped into the river and swam away. I made sure I was well covered by the leaves on the tree, giving me enough shade, and watched as he ran towards the river, and then he stopped right underneath the tree I was on.

It was Buff. The man that had challenged me in the throne room and asked the new Alpha to rescind me from hunting. He looked around for a while and then turned away, going in the other direction. He didn’t even bother tracking Hayley because he wasn’t there for her. He was there for me. And he couldn’t have come for me unless it had been sanctioned.

The council and Alpha must have put him on my detail.

What was happening? What game were they playing?

Chapter ten (Hayley)

I was dripping wet and a little shaky. I had no choice but to go through the river as I knew I would have dropped my essence in the woods. It would be hard to pick it up with all the wood's dew and smell, but a wolf with a sharp sense of smell and the ability to focus it won’t have that much of a hard time—a wolf like Ilad. Besides, I had gotten cut during the fight, and heaven knows where my blood had dropped along the way. It is very easy to pick up a scent from blood. The water will mask my scent for a while, but once I get dry, it will be open season for everyone.

I have to make a reasonable distance before I dry off, but I really wanted to start a fire, lay beside it, and dry off. A runner doesn’t get to enjoy such luxuries. The floral pattern and composition of the woods beyond the river were different from that of the woods before it. This new one has fewer trees than the former and more grazing land. I wouldn’t be surprised if I come across a shack soon or just some random cabin house or farmhouse that has been abandoned.

I would rather I didn’t, though. The lesser number of people that see me, the better for me. I had a destination in mind, but I had to shake off the hunters on my heels first before I started towards it.

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