The Lost One

Chapter 5

Even as they all stood gawking at her Aislinn showed no outside reaction. Her face and eyes completely void as she took in those around her. After she had righted herself she made no move. Simply stood still as the stared at her.

Richard was the one who finally broke the moment, "Maybe we should go somewhere?"

With his words Kaiden remembered they were all still standing amongst the bodies of the dead rogues. He also reminded himself that his mate had been running for hours and was probably starved and exhausted from her travels.

"Of course, you're right. We'll go back to the house."

Looking to Richard he continued after a nod from the warrior, "Austin is my Beta and Blair is my third in command both will make sure everyone knows not to touch her."

Kaiden didn't especially want the unknown wolf around his mate but he couldn't ignore that he was the one that had gotten her out of the tree and was the only one who held any answers about her. For now, he knew he had to keep the man around, if only to guarantee that his mate would not run from him. The thought nearly broke his heart.

He almost waited for some response from her, some indication that she had heard or acknowledged him, before remembering that according to Richard she would never give him one, so instead he simply turned heading back through the woods to his father's mansion. He heard Blair and Austin fall in behind. And held his breath until he heard a set of heavier footfalls falling and then finally the softest sound of his mate's light steps trailing behind him towards his house. It took almost an hour to walk back to the house. Normally they would have shifted and run back however his mate gave no indication of shifting anytime soon.

Richard said he had never seen her shift. Perhaps her age had been calculated wrong. Normally male wolves have their first shift sometime around their sixteenth birthday. Females however shifted later, some not until after their twentieth birthdays. Many only shifted once they found their mates. No one knew for sure why there exists such age differences, but with that in mind it could mean she just hadn't had her first shift yet. If that was the case the trait should be triggered now that she had found him. The mate pull would bring her wolf forward.

The trek was silent. Kaiden spoke only through the mind link to his lieutenants and the patrols as they ran searches across the territory. They were all surprised when two of Kaiden's best trackers found three dead rogues a few miles from where they had found the others. It seemed Richard had been telling the truth. Although the fact that nearly twenty rogues had been traipsing through his territory did nothing to quell his anger, and finally having an outlet he let it out on a number of his men for the audacity of the situation.

Eventually the party reached Alpha Sergio's house, it was nearly a half past three so naturally his mother, father, brothers and sister were still asleep and unaware at the massive events taking place around them. Entering the silent house Kaiden marched the party to the kitchen. Slightly bewildered to turn and find his mate standing in his kitchen. Gesturing at the kitchen table. He raised a surprised eyebrow when Aislinn actually pulled out a chair and took a seat her knapsack softly falling to the floor by her feet as she pulled out her pencils and sketch book.

Richard merely shrugged his shoulders at the look.

"Okay I'll get some food together. Blair." He called out to his third to help in the kitchen as he began pulling out bacon, eggs, sausage, ham, pancake mix, and toast.

As the two began to quietly cook. Richard took the chair beside Aislinn, though he moved it obviously away so he was sitting with as much room between them as possible. Clayton merely stood leaning against the granite counter staring at the ex-head warrior with a look of distaste clear on his face, while Austin nosily pulled out a chair across from where she was drawing. Aislinn never raised her head. Didn't stiffen or react to any of the movements of the men around her, however there was something so intense about her presence they all understood what Richard said when he didn't believe that she saw nothing. It felt instead like she saw everything.