The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Noah-

"Noah, I think I can help," Cassia had said once she'd caught up to us.

I waited patiently for her to catch her breathe.

"I've been... I've been practicing..." she says.

I raise my eyebrow.

"I've been practicing some tracking spells that I found in the library working with Elden. I think,

I think if I can find something of hers with enough... essence... I think I can track her."

"And how long have you been practicing for?" Eli asks, cynical.

"Long enough," she says, narrowing her eyes.

Cassia is young, and from what Vera told me she doesn't have that much magic; not yet at least. But fuck if I won't try every method at my disposal.Visit Job n i b.com to read the complete chapters for free. "What do you need, exactly?" I ask. "Hmm... does she have like a childhood toy or something that's been with her a long time?"

"No, that's all back at the pack house and we don't have time to go there right now."

"Hmmm..." she thinks, turning everywhere, searching for ideas.

"Does her toothbrush work?" Eli asks, sarcastically.

It annoys me that he'd joke at a time like this, but I let it go for the sake of moving along faster.

"Noah," I hear a small voice, "I think I know what can help," Charlotte comes towards us, slowly. She doesn't look so well.

"Charlotte! I thought I told you to stay in bed," Cassia says, offering her hand to Charlotte for support.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she says, waving her hand dismissively, "the flowers, Cassia. Vera's flowers."

It takes a minute for this to register.

"Of course!" Cassia says, understanding what Charlotte means, and runs off into the Castle.

I stare at Charlotte, curious as to what she means and concerned that she looks so sickly.

"Are you okay?" I ask her, guiding her inside the Castle to one of the chairs in the courtyard. Thankfully, Alcott's body has already been removed and the Council has scattered. It's like nothing happened; not the trial, not his death. Nothing. "I'm fine, it's just this baby, it's kicking my ass," she says, sitting down carefully.

I'm about to offer to call Ethan, but Cassia returns, panting.

"This! This works!" she says, holding several flowers in her hands.

I cock my head, still not understanding a damn thing.

"When Vera feels stressed or anxious, she usually channels her magic through the Moon Peonies,

it's why they've grown so much and bloom year round."

"So, you're saying these flowers...?" Eli asks.

"These flowers have Vera's essence," Charlotte explains, "quite literally."

Realization dawns on me.

If that's the case, this could actually work.

My moods lightens up. For the first time since this morning. I feel hope.

"Cassia, do what you have to do," I tell her.

She nods enthusiastically and runs further into the Castle again.

"Charlotte, thank you, but you should really rest," I tell her.

She gets up.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just... when I heard... I had to come down here and at least try to help," she says, standing up.

"Charlotte!" Someone yells.

Charlotte rolls her eyes.

"Here we go," she mutters to herself.

Ethan approaches us with an angry look on his face.

Goddess knows this isn't something I want to stay for. I thank Charlotte again and leave her to Ethan.

Once I'm outside the Castle, I'm met with Elden and Caleb who are leading the trackers; each of them carrying something belonging to Vera.

"You didn't actually have to kill him, you know?" Caleb mutters when I'm close enough.

"He absolutely did, Alcott was a huge pain in the a*s," Elden says.

"It sends a message," Eli shrugs.

"Yeah, a message of fear. I don't know if that's how you want to lead your people," Caleb says.

"Listen, we can talk all you want about this literally any other time, but right now, please, let's focus."

"Very well," Elden says, "we will begin where Vera was taken, from there, we will each move into the forest, trying to pick up a scent. Remember, don't just focus on Vera's scent, focus on any other unfamiliar scent. They might have disguised Vera, but not themselves," Elden instructs. He promptly changes into his lycan.

It takes us all a minute to process the image. None of us, maybe with the exception of Caleb, had seen Elden turn. His lycan is notably old, but very, very lean under all that gray hair.

Eli and I share a look. Caleb just chuckles.

We have only ever seen Elden with an oversized robe too, but it seems like the old man is seriously lean under that. Afterall, lycans take after their human shape when it comes to physique.

Soon, we are all turned and ready to go when Lucas rounds the corner in his lycan form, carrying Cassia on his back.

We nod at each other and take off.

Running full speed in our lycan form, we get there relatively fast; perhaps in under four hours.

With the clarity of the day, the level of destruction is scaringly clear. The scouts and warriors with us also have to pause to look at the trees and how cleanly they've been cut. Also, if lycans could gasp, I'm sure most of them would. The hole Vera created is enormous. She must have used all of her power to create it, which is why she probably passed out and became such an easy target.

Elden and the rest of the trackers start rounding up the hole with their noses up in the air; some of them are walking on all fours, smelling the ground. Beside me, Lucas has arrived with Cassia and she's setting up a map and taking the moon peonies in her hands. She sits in front of the map, closes her eyes, and begins some form of chant.

She opens her eyes again, releasing the moon peonies onto the map from above ceremoniously.

She frowns.

"No, that can't be right. Hold on," she says.

She retrieves the flowers, repeating the process all over again. When she opens her eyes again and releases the flowers, she frowns... again.

"Goddess, what am I doing wrong?!" She yells, frustrated.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

She digs into her bag, retrieving an old looking book.

As she does that, I realize that maybe she does need a little more practice before we can rely on her to use her magic. Regardless, I appreciate her effort.

I make my way to the trackers, keeping my distance as to not interrupt their process. Elden is at the lead once again, his nose lifted to carefully sniff out any scent, whether it's Vera's or not.

This goes in for a while. Some of the trackers have even had to go back to their starting point to begin the process all over again. At one point, one of the guys thought he had something but it was just a small prey animal.

As the hours pass and we lose daylight, this whole situation gets more and more frustrating. We have repeated this process over and over, having to re start over and over as the guys, even Elden, lose the smell they were tracking. More than making Vera's scent vanish, it's like they scattered her scent everywhere, making it impossibly diluted with every other scent in this damn place.

After several more hours, the trackers have scattered all throughout the forest, looking for leads.

I rub my temples, not only because I'm tired and desperate, but because that *thing* inside me keeps pouncing in my head. I still don't understand it, but I don't have time for this. I have to find Vera. Now.

"I got it!" Cassia yells in the distance.

I make my way to her quickly, without hesitation.

When I'm beside her, I crouch down.

"Here!" She says, pointing at a mountain range far, far north. On the map, it connects to the mountains that spread all over lycan territory, but it's not part of it.

I shift back to my human form in order to talk to her.

"How sure are you of this?"

She stutters as she tries to speak, staring at me wide eyed.

Oh, right, I'm naked.

"Get over it," I tell her.

She clears her throat, her eyes returning to the map but it does little to hide her blush.

"Very sure, I did it three times. I'm sure it's correct this time."

I frown. It's so far off our territory that the map doesn't even show it completely, it cuts off right behind the mountain range, and that's where the flowers are piled up.

"I got something," I hear someone say behind me.

Elden comes towards us. At least he was more decent than me and put a robe on.

He comes over, pointing north.

"I didn't catch Vera's scent, but I did catch the scent of a witch and the wind carried it that way.

I nod. This is confirmation of Cassia's map, too.

On impulse, I change to my lycan, ready to organize this scouting party into a rescue party but a voice coming from the woods stops me.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."