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Chapter Four
Trace
We had all our camping gear but not much food left. After all, we’d expected to return to a fully stocked kitchen—and probably another feast in our honor. Instead, we’d faced a horror beyond imagining. If it had been just me, if I had not had Finton with me, I think I’d have given up. For shifters, pack was everything. Family, friends, support system. Sometimes someone married into another pack, but the connection formed by that mating would serve to unite the two, like extended family.
Our pack had been rather isolated, which was one of the reasons we’d intended to visit others. Unfortunately, we’d been all about being alone together and in love and never made it that far. Now…well, now we had a whole slew of problems that innocent honeymoon couples did not. Or at least did not know they did. While our families were dying, we were enjoying romantic sunsets and frolicking four-legged. Making love. My stomach churned as I tried not to chant over and over in my head that I should have known, should have sensed we were needed back home. Should have been there to help.
Finton turned back to face me, likely sensing my flagging steps. “Mate, I’m picking up some of what you’re thinking.”
Shit. Not what I wanted to have happen. I didn’t want him to share my guilt. “Sorry.” I stepped over a rock in the middle of the trail. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
He came back to stand in front of me. “Disturb me? I don’t think that’s an issue. What is an issue is how you’re feeling. We were on our honeymoon, spending time together. I refuse to regret that.”
“Why didn’t we hear though? The alpha should have been able to contact us, and he wasn’t one of the first to die. From what we saw, he was among the last.”
“Has it not occurred to you that he did not want us to know?” Finton shook his head, his eyes holding so much sadness. “Mate, if we’d known, we would have gone right back and been in the thick of it. We likely would have been among the dead instead of burying them. What were we qualified to do that those present were not?”
“The animals…” I’d been involved in their care, but not one was around, something I hadn’t noticed right away. That lack of notice spoke to my shock. “Where were they?” We didn’t raise a lot of them, but we had a small herd of cattle, a few goats, some horses.
“I think the alpha must have ordered them let loose. Maybe. Unless someone stole them, but I can’t imagine how that happened.”
“The poor things.” My throat tightened. “What will they do? We have to look for them.”
“Mate, first we need to find somewhere safe for ourselves. Then we’ll come and look for them.”
“All right.”
He studied me, eyes narrowed. “Just like that? You don’t want to argue with me?”
“Let’s go east. Triple L isn’t that far away. It’s one Alpha wanted us to visit…let’s do that now.”
We had begun to walk again, conveniently in the direction he pointed. “Funny we didn’t see much of them. I think we visited when we were small, didn’t we?”
“Very small. I don’t remember much about it, except shifting and going for a run with a bunch of the other kids. But I know the leadership stayed in touch. Do you think it’s safe for us to approach anyone?”
As the sun dropped behind the mountains behind us, we stopped and set up our tent. The night before, we hadn’t bothered to do more than unroll our sleeping bags outside the village and crawl in for a few hours of restless sleep, but we really needed a good night’s rest, so we’d give it our best shot tonight. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in it happening.
My mate’s eyes were shadowed, sadness and exhaustion melding together. I ached for his pain, as I knew he ached for mine. Everyone said once we mated, we’d be even closer than before, and everyone was right. But everyone, our everyone, was dead.
“Don’t.” Finton held out his arms and I walked into his embrace, drawing comfort from his warmth and love. “We have to hold each other up if we’re going to get through this.”
“You’re right again.” After a cold dinner, we crawled into the tent and into the bags, zipped together unlike last night. I was just drifting off when a thought occurred to me. “Maybe we shouldn’t go to Triple L. We were exposed to whatever it was…”
Finton propped up on his elbows in alarm. “Do you feel sick? Is your stomach off? I know the canned hash wasn’t very good without heating it up, so maybe it’s that.” He planted a hand on my forehead. “You’re not warm.”
“I’m fine. I mean I feel fine.” Drawing him back down to lie beside me, I snuggled into his heat. “I just thought…we don’t know what they had. What if it takes a while to…”
“They’d been gone since right after we left, judging by what we found. I don’t know how long contagion lasts, if it was contagion. But maybe we should get close to the Triple L lands and then wait a little.”
Finton yawned. “Maybe we can figure out a way to get word to someone there without going right into the center of town?”
“Maybe so. At least the weather is holding.”
