Chapter 135
As they hoped, when the sun almost disappeared, Alpha Samuel joined the searching party led jointly by Dax and Mirella when they were about half way down this deep valley, the bottom of which was still out of their sight.
Seeing the alpha arrive with his warriors, Dax immediately shifted back to his human form and filled him in on the situation along with the witch.
“Because of the dense vegetation around here, it is quite hard to pick their scents.” The royal gamma was clearly frustrated when he expressed that he couldn’t reach Micah at all. “I don’t know how, but I can’t contact him through the mindlink, either.”
“Okay, let’s not give chance for anything to discourage us, we will find them.” Alpha Samuel reassured him.
The royal gamma’s fear was not something unwarranted, because it was almost a day since Micah and Abby went missing at a time like this, when a dark sorcerer like Calpin was running rampant with the rogues no more than puppets in his hands.
“We can not let them fall into the enemies’ hands!”
Just like protecting the kingdom and its people’s welfare was the King’s duty, protecting their sovereign was the topmost priority of the royal warriors. Everyone has their own role to fulfill!
Only Dax couldn’t help but dread the thought of what would happen if they failed like the last time, where Calpin managed to corner the king and lady Abby right in front of their eyes before hurting them gravely…
“This is driving me crazy,” Dax admitted. “But I won’t stop until I bring them both back safely.”
He was normally a carefree soul, with easy going nature and a goofy personality, but once he set his mind on something, it was hard for anyone to change his mind.
“And we will make sure you do!” The alpha squeezed Dax’s shoulder, silently telling him that they shared the same goal.
The witch was silent as the royal gamma explained further to Samuel how they couldn’t find a single trace of them along their way down here. “But it’s hard to confirm where exactly they fell, so we are searching every inch down their possible trajectory.”
“Mirella, do you have any way to locate them?” Alpha Samuel looked at the witch, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Yes, I do and I’m sure I’ll be able to trace them immediately if it works,” Mirella said, folding her hands across her chest.
Since the shifters couldn’t trace their scents, she came up with an idea to locate them, but it was not as simple as she stated.
“Queen Abby is the focal point of this method.” Mirella didn’t know if they could understand her words. But she went ahead and explained her idea to them briefly anyway. “She has to use her fire magic.”
She then explained how magic would always leave traces behind, no matter how small, and Dax and Samuel didn’t know if it would be a good thing or bad thing for Abby to use magic.
“She would use it if only a special circumstance arises!” Dax tightened his jaw.
“But it will lead me to her equally quickly,” Mirella pointed out, even though she understood why they didn’t feel this method was ideal.
If Abby used her magic, it meant she and the king were in danger.
This was all very frustrating.
“We have limited options, let’s just keep our eyes and ears open for every possibility,” Alpha Samuel said, hoping things wouldn’t turn even more complicated than they already were.
“But she didn’t use her magic until now, so it means they were fine, but just stranded somewhere on this mountain, right?” Dax suddenly blurted out.
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“You can say so,” Mirella nodded her head, hoping he was right. Because they could also be in a position where they couldn’t do anything. But she didn’t open her mouth, lest her speculation dampened their spirits.
“We just have to intensify our search then.” Dax felt reinvigorated.
On her first attempt, Abby couldn’t really make Micah gulp any water down. With him being unconscious, it was pretty hard to pour water down his throat, but she didn’t give up.
He already lost so much blood, and with the chilly air around, if he got dehydrated as well, his condition might worsen even further, not to mention, she couldn’t make him take food even if she succeeded in finding some fruits.
So she concentrated on keeping his throat from going dry completely, as she let drop after drop into his slightly ajar lips. She hoped if he drank some water, out of instinct, when his body subconsciously craved water, her efforts would be paid.
“Thank Heavens!” Abby couldn’t help but pat her chest in relief, when she saw his throat work, even though quite minimally, finally letting some water into his system.
When she looked at his bloody face and arms, she decided it would be better to put this water to some other use, as she rushed back to the stream and brought more water.
After that, she stayed where she was, guarding her sleeping mate, not wanting to try her luck too much. Even though she felt quite exhausted, apart from silently pleading for Micah to stay with her, she wasn’t interested in anything.
She wanted to save her energy in case they encountered any wild beasts or rogues, since energy was what she needed to fight those off.
She still expended some of the last bit of her energy to keep Micah warm, though, or when she needed to make trips for more water.
However, when the night had fallen again and there were still no signs of her mate waking up, Abby felt her whole body turning numb from the emotional wreckage that kept challenging her system.
Only she knew how many times she roughly wiped at her tears, which kept spilling from her eyes every now and then, even though she tried hard to will them back.
Seeing him lying motionless like this, in this dark and depressing place, was taking a toll on her. But she seemed to have fallen asleep at some point of the night, because, the next thing she knew, paws thumping heavily on the ground startled her awake.
Judging by the brightness around them, it seemed almost noon again, as leaves rustled in the wind that carried over the sound from far away.
Her senses were already meager compared to an average shifter, not to mention her weak composition, coupled with her exhaustion, she couldn’t really guess who was making their way here and her heart thudded painfully in her ribcage at the endless possibilities.
It could be anyone, rogues or the royal warriors, or even a false alarm by the wild animals.
“Please, don’t let it be rogues, don’t let it be rogues!”
Abby chanted in her heart repeatedly as she kept looking across the path and then above her head, willing the worst possibilities from not coming true.
In her current condition, she didn’t think she would be able to fend off too many rogues, because they always attacked in groups, but wild animals would at least find her fire scary.
And when she saw a huge head appearing high over the rocky structure to her right, looking scarily similar to a wolf’s head, her heart almost skidded to a screeching halt…
She immediately got ready to hurl her fireballs at it, deciding to go all out.
But at the last second, she stopped and snuffed her fire, because she saw another yet familiar wolf looking down the rock, followed by a lithe figure of a woman. “Dax?! Mirella?!”
Immediately, Dax’s wolf jumped down a few feet from her and Abby almost collapsed from relief. But she still staggered back, prompting the royal gamma to shift back as he hurried to her side.
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“Queen Abby, the King…”
Dax’s voice trailed off, and with one look at him, she could see that he could tell how bad his king’s situation was.
“He has been unconscious for two days…” Abby sobbed silently as hiccups raked her body, while more warriors jumped down into the pathway before they shifted back as well.
Dax seemed to have mindlinked them, because, as the warriors carried Micah out of the rocky structure with the royal gamma leading the queen, she could see several more beasts rushing there.
“We are going back now.” Dax informed Alpha Samuel, behind him were the group of Red River pack warriors that followed him.
“I understand,” the alpha nodded, as he immediately called his pack’s warriors, so that they could leave ahead. “I’m leaving first, be careful on the way back.”
Since he came incognito, it would be best for him to return first, just to avoid trouble. They could also eliminate any obstacles on their way back, which would make the transfer of the king easy.
But Mirella stayed behind after sending the Silver Moon pack warriors away, before she hurriedly checked on the queen.
“I’m fine, exhausted but still in one piece!” Abby reassured the witch. She then asked her why it took them so long to find them.
“This place is quite strange, those shifters can’t detect your scent at all. Only when I traced the magic you used, we were able to find you both.”
“You used your fire so sparingly, so it took me time. But I’m glad you weren’t forced to use your magic in large amounts!”
Abby was glad she didn’t use up all her luck as well.
No one back in the Silver Moon pack knew that Micah and Abby had gone missing, even Alpha Samuel left with his warriors saying he had a new task from the king.
But when they finally returned to the pack, two days later, in the dead of the night, the royal healer was waiting for them anxiously.
“You need to leave for the Silver Moon pack right away.” Alan told her two days ago, and she immediately packed and rushed here, thinking something bad had happened to Abby, as the royal beta remained tight-lipped as to why she needed to travel so far suddenly.
What could Alan do when the issue was so serious like this, where they didn’t know what kind of news that they had to wait for?
He suddenly received a letter from the royal gamma, which carried news that could shake the entire kingdom, and put so many shifters’ lives in jeopardy, so he did what he thought was rational to do at that time.
Sending help in any way possible! Like more royal warriors and of course healers, just in case they needed them.
And Nadia was definitely needed there when they were finally found because Micah didn’t gain consciousness all the way back to the pack.
“It will be forty eight hours soon!” Abby said in a trembling voice, when the royal healer asked her since when the king was unconscious. She didn’t look any better, but she insisted that Micah be treated first.
“He fell unconscious right after you guys went missing?” It was Dax who blew his top at her confession, but then it made sense, because, had Micah been conscious enough, he wouldn’t have let Abby stay in that creepy place for two days.
He wondered why he couldn’t reach Micah through mindlink even once since they fell down, only now he got an answer. Because his king was dead to the world.
But then he saw Abby collapsing to the floor from overexertion, prompting him to catch her before she hurt herself.
Seeing all this, Nadia finally understood why the royal beta didn’t reveal anything to her about the king going missing. This would cause a huge uproar if news went out.
However, Alan had more reasons. Because he couldn’t afford to let anyone from the royal council catch wind of this news.
Their hearts were already filled to the brim with negative emotions toward the queen, and if they learned that Abby had caused Micah to suffer another misfortune, he couldn’t imagine the impact.
Nothing good would come out of it, since the former king was waiting for a chance to pave his way back onto the throne.
