110. Chapter One-Hundred-Nine
Chapter One-Hundred-Nine
Trick
It would be weird to admit that I could still kind of smell her perfume, and even taste it, while we were claiming each other, now that it’s clear to me Kian didn’t have that same experience.
Truth is, I’m almost certain her perfume isn’t gone.
If I concentrate in here, I can still smell the faintest hint of it.
Of the three of us, I might be the one who could use that scent to find her.
Aside from that, we can’t send Kian, because all he would do is run around in a panic, screaming Scarlett’s name. And Riley’s way too injured to go out there and look.
I have no doubt he’d have the most level-headed approach, but it would take him so long he might as well not bother.
That only leaves me.
“I think I should go look.”
Kian blinks at me. “What?”
Riley frowns. “I don’t know if that’s a smart idea.”
“You already said it wasn’t,” Kian complains.
Riley sighs. “Okay. How about this? We’re gonna time you. Ten minutes. You walk for five, look for some sign of where they went and come back to tell us if there was anything.”
“I can do that,” I decide, nodding.
“Great. Give me a sec to check the time, and you should do the same.”
“What? You’re gonna let him go? I should go …”
Riley looks at Ki while I find my phone and switch it on to get the time.
“You won’t come back in ten minutes like he will,” he states. “If I can’t trust you to follow orders, then I can’t trust you to do this.”
He looks back at me. “Okay, let’s make sure we’re on the same page.”
“I should go with him!” Kian blurts.
“You’ll stay right here,” Riley orders him. “Where I can watch you. I don’t need three missing persons on my conscience.”
Kian sighs in exasperation.
Riley and I have the same time on our phones.
“Ten minutes, from now,” he tells me. “Go, and don’t make me regret it.”
“Awww …” Kian groans, putting his hands over his eyes and dragging them down his face.
I leave, knowing I only have a limited amount of time to find out if I can pick up some kind of scent trail from Scarlett.
It feels a little weird, but it’s easy to find those vague traces of her perfume, even outside.
I’m not sure how well it’ll work the farther away I walk from the jet, but I’ve gotta try.
The jungle seems way more forbidding in the downpour.
Cloud coverage has made the sky dark, and thunder is rolling back in as I slip through the trees, not completely sure if I’m following Scarlett’s faded scent, or my own instincts.
This is probably crazy.
It doesn’t matter. I move ahead anyway, stopping every sixty seconds to check for her trail
Nothing visible, on the ground or nearby, but I think I can still smell traces of her perfume.
Maybe it’s her natural scent, and her perfume is just a thicker, stronger version of that.
I don’t know how that stuff works.
I never thought I’d have a mate, so I didn’t research it like some Alphas do.
That’s an advantage Kian has over me.
Tracking Scarlett by scent is something I have over him.
If I’m not crazy and imagining it.
There’s a chance of that, sure.
But I hope it’s a slim one.
I check my phone around the five-minute mark, and I let out a soft sigh.
There’s nothing here that I can go back to Riley with. No footprints. No bits of fabric tied to a tree. There’s no evidence that Scarlett came this way, other than what I think I can smell.
“Scarlett!” I call out, as loud as I can, running forward and only stopping to listen for a reply.
The thunder rumbling above is all I get in return.
I keep moving quickly, until my foot gets caught on something.
A branch. No. A bundle of branches.
Crouching down, I can see that these branches didn’t just fall. They were cut.
I smile as I disentangle my foot before standing back up.
Xane probably cut those branches down, and I’d bet anything Scarlett noticed and came this way. That’s why I can pick up her scent trail.
I’m not crazy.
And I’m also not turning back to go tell Riley before I go looking for my mate in the storm.
I feel a little bad about it, but I’d feel worse if Scarlett’s out there alone and scared and I wasted time I could have used to find her.
I run onward, bolstered by the evidence I found.
I’m going to find my true mate and bring her back to the jet safely.
There’s no one and nothing out here that could stop me.