"Mistress Tonia," the Alpha of the Obsidian Pack called. "You know where he stays... go and get him!"
Rafael noticed their strange tone. Curiosity and suspicion rose in him as he glanced between everyone. These people seemed afraid for some reason.
"Then I'll go along with you," he said.
The alarmed looks on everybody's faces made the unease in the pit of his stomach grow.
"As... you wish, Alpha," the woman the Alpha had called Mistress Tonia spoke.
Rafael gestured for her to move, and they began walking deeper and deeper into the pack house.
They walked past what Rafael was sure should be the normal rooms designated for pack members. She led him down a pathway that he could have sworn led to a dungeon.
Until she stopped, turned to the right, and knocked on a small inconspicuous door.
There was no answer.
She knocked again.
"Julian... hey! Open the door!" she asked as she knocked again.
Still, there was no answer.
"Move," Rafael said.
She almost tripped in her haste to oblige him.
Rafael twisted the doorknob, and it opened. Then he took a step into the room and was hit with the overwhelming scent and presence of his mate.
"Mate... my mate!" The words echoed and resonated in him.
He unconsciously brought a hand to his chest. After all these years, he'd found...
His eyes scanned the room.
His mate was not here. The room was empty.
It was like water splashed down his back. He examined the room closer. It was small and bare. There was no bed, no mat, not even a blanket. It looked like a prison cell. His mate had lived in such pitiful conditions?
The fire within Rafael began to cool. He turned back to the woman.
"Where is my mate?" His voice was calm, not even a hint of hostility. And yet, she began to stutter an incoherent mess.
"Speak clearly," Rafael spoke again, his voice ice cold.
"I--... This is where he stays," she said. "I swear, Alpha, this is his quarters."
It was then the usage of the pronouns clicked in Rafael's head. Him... his mate was a him.
The fact surprised him. He had always imagined... well, no matter. Rafael did not care what gender his mate was. He could already see some people disgruntled about it—he'd take care of that later.
Now he needed to find him.
He inhaled deeply in the room. His mate's scent was still very strong, so it meant that...
"He just left here," Rafael muttered under his breath before turning to the woman beside him.
"He should still be within your territory. Go and tell your Alpha that I want my mate found, or there will be hell to pay."
---
Julian stumbled through the woods with fierce determination. He had to get away from this pack.
He was finally doing it... running away. He may end up like his mother, dead and torn apart by rogues, butat least he would die a free wolf.
He stopped to readjust the oversized trousers he had stolen from somebody's room and began to trudge forward again.
Suddenly, there was this ache in his chest.
Something telling him to stop, to go back... but he pushed through. This was his chance to escape the hell that was his life, and nothing was going to stop him.
---
Rafael shrugged off his suit jacket as he scanned the pack lands before him.
What he was about to do was very taboo.
It was disrespectful to search another pack's lands without the permission of its Alpha. But Rafael did not care. His mate was out there.
And he had a growing suspicion that this pack had not treated his mate well.
He undressed himself quickly and shifted into his wolf form. It was better suited for tracking. His senses were sharper, so he was able to pick up his mate's trail.
He followed it carefully.
Even though it seemed like it, it didn't take long for Rafael to catch up to his mate.
Rafael caught sight of a figure marching forward, and he knew instantly that was his mate.
Something stopped Rafael from speeding to meet him. Instead, Rafael chose to creep within the shadows and coverage of the trees, approaching slowly until he got a better view of his mate.
The first thing he noticed about his mate was his bright red hair, kept in a messy upright bun. Such a unique color of hair.
Another thing he noticed was how petite his mate was. Considerably shorter than Rafael himself, and from the way the very thin clothes hung from him, it would seem he was very thin as well or was he malnourished?
The thought ignited anger within Rafael, especially his wolf. Their mate should never have experienced a lack of anything.
In his moment of carelessness, Rafael had already revealed himself.
He looked up to see his mate, a shocked look on his face. He seemed petrified for a second before he began to run away.
Seeing his newly found mate running away from him...
It felt like a punch in the gut to Rafael, to have caused such a look on his mate's face.
He immediately chased after him.
Don't run away from me, he pleaded in his mind.
It would have been easy to overtake his mate and pin him down, but Rafael didn't do that. Something about the way his mate had looked...utterly terrified to see him...
He didn't want to see that fear again.
So he just trailed his mate, willing him with all he could... stop running.
And he did. Suddenly, his mate slowed down and stopped.
He turned back to face Rafael.
Rafael had slowed too and moved forward cautiously.
He took in his mate, and Goddess, he was beautiful.
Like a candlelight... but Rafael could also see the taint of suffering and pain. And by the Goddess, he was goi
ng to remove that taint from his mate if it was the last thing he did.
"You," his mate muttered quietly, "are you my mate?"