Caspian's POV
She stood at the edge of the desert. Just like that.
Half a reality, half a vision. It wasn't the first time I was seeing her like that.She would often appear in my dreams but they never ended on a pleasant note. I would often find myself outside my tent, claws out, staring at blank nothingness or half shifted, twisting and turning in agonising pain. And I begged nobody saw me like that-vulnerable and weak. And I hated her so much for that. I hated her for everything. I hated her. Period!
But this time around,right in front of me, heat bent her shape, blurring the lines, but I knew that posture anywhere.
One hip tilted, weight resting easy, hand on the other side.
"Ki…" My breath left me.
But she didn't answer. Just watched me.
Her hair lifted in the wind, dark brown with a hint of burgundy,exactly the way it used to after a run. The sight punched straight through my ribs. My feet moved before my brain caught up.
One step.
Then another.
Even the sand whispered under my feet.
The poison was still riding my bloodstream, messing with my head. I knew that. I'd run this desert a thousand times. I knew exactly what thorn-venom did once the high dipped.
Didn't stop my feet.
The desert narrowed until it was just me and her.
I frowned slightly. "You're not supposed to be here."
She smiled.
Fuck! Fuck…that smile.
"Ki, you left," my tongue was no longer listening to me.
The silhouette wavered, but the scent didn't.
Her moon-warmed blood.
So real.
My heart slammed too hard.
I drifted closer, drawn in by years of longing I had tried so hard to bury.
"Cas…" finally she whispered.
Or maybe I imagined that too.
But the sound brushed the edge of my hearing. Faint. Too distant.
"…Alpha!Cas!Stop!Where do you think you are going?"
I ignored it.
Another step.
The ground dipped slightly. Thorns scraped my calf. I barely felt it.
"Don't disappear again," I muttered. "Ki, I warn you…"
"…Cas, you need to stop…"
The voice grew louder. Annoying.
"She's standing right there," I snapped without turning. "I can smell her."
The silhouette tilted her head.
Something tugged at my awareness…multiple scents now, overlapping…
Pack.
My pack.
"…you smell that?" someone asked. Riven perhaps. Closer this time.
"Yeah," another muttered. "SilverTooths.The smell is fresh!!!"
I hesitated.
Just for a second.
The hallucination flickered.
Then something slammed into me from the side.
Hard.
I went down in a spray of sand,"Fuck you!"
The breath knocked clean out of my lungs. The desert spun as a knee pinned my chest.
"Stay. The. Fuck. Down," Jax snarled, gripping my collar.
The silhouette shattered like heat haze.
Gone.
Just sand. Thorns. And the endless sky.
I sucked in air, heart pounding, the poison still roaring in my veins.
"What the hell…" I coughed.
"You were walking straight into a thorn basin, idiot," Jax snapped. "Talking to air like a lovesick moron."
I shoved at him, sitting up. "You didn't smell her?"
Riven crouched beside us, eyes sharp, nostrils still flared. "We did."
My head snapped towards him.
"Faint," he continued. "But real. Pack scent. Female scents.All the ranks.Even the Alpha. Strong.Very strong. They were definitely here! Perhaps a few minutes ago."
"That means! That means I… " I almost gasped trying to sit up.
Dan nodded grimly. "Was not hallucinating.Nope..."
My pulse spiked.
"So she was here," I was on the edge. " She was really here! She's back!"
Jax exhaled slowly. "Yeah.Perhaps! But whatever you saw?" He glanced at the empty desert. "That was the poison filling in the gaps."
I stared at the horizon where she'd stood, jaw tight.
"She was close," I said quietly. " And if she is really back… " Suddenly the love was gone. It simply evaporated… and another powerful emotion rushed in to take its place. Hatred. Overwhelming hatred for that one woman whom I had once wanted to give the moon and the stars, who had been the axis of my world, my entire universe.
But no longer. She meant nothing to me anymore.
My claws curled into the sand.
"…then she didn't come back for nothing." I stormed around, striding forth in redoubled leaps. "JASPER! Where the hell is Jasper!"
" Alpha, calm down! Jasper didn't come for the run with us! " Riven tried to pat my shoulders but I was a boiling lava from the inside.
" I don't give a fuck! I want Jasper and his men deployed immediately. I want all his eyes activated at the SilverTooths. I need to know what's going on at that wretched place immediately! Now! "
" But Cas… "
"Move!" I was in no mood for discussions."I want a report before night falls.Understood???"
They stood in stunned attention. Jax's judgemental eyes were trying to read past my angry haze but he too lowered his gaze after a few seconds and nodded. "Yes, Alpha! We are on it!"
But I was no longer standing there to hear it. I had long marched past, towards my sanctum. I was storming my way inside when suddenly, "Alpha! Alpha please wait!"
Annoyance was at its peak. I could have snapped a twig or his neck… wouldn't have made any difference. But I did not. Took a long, deep breath instead and slowly turned around.
" What. Is. It?! " I barely chewed the words out.
" Alpha! Alpha the inner circle…"
" The inner circle what?!!! "
" The inner circle has been… " But before he could finish his words a loud shriek filled the air, followed by hysterical screams and then vibrations. Footsteps coming our way…
Women, children, elderly people… basically everyone who lived in the inner periphery of our camps, were rushing out in their numbers. Gushing out to be precise. They were scared, lost for words, flabbergasted beyond shock.Nobody could utter even a single legible word. They kept screaming and running and luckily by this time my boys had caught up!