Chapter 9 Drake POV Waiting anxiously for Mrs Clarke to believe in me and our mate bond, a stupid shewolf trying to gain my attention behind her. She is so focused on me, she falls over her own feet throwing a serving tray full of sparkling wine all over Mrs Clarke. My reflex nor those of Jacob could catch all the glasses in time and Mrs Clarke ended up annoyed and rather damp. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindηovel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. I don't have time for this. "You stupid girl!" Mrs Clarke bellows, the she wold pales, as Jacob chases her off with a growl. Mrs Clarke removes her pinafore, hanging it up a long a wall of hooks grabbing a clean one. As she swings it around, something drops from a pocket. I'm instantly alert because I can smell my mate, she has touched this item, I reach down quickly and grab it, seeing that it's a letter. Holding it to my nose, filling my sense of her before handing over the letter. Seeing the note, she unfolds the paper and begins to read. A gasp breaks out of her, tears flood her eyes and nothing can stop them running down her face. I take the note from her shaking hands and read for myself. Horrified at the words before me, feeling my mates pain in the words and comprehending the life she has lived so far. I can't allow this, I have to stop her, I have to find her. My Lorna. Such a beautiful name, yet there is no time to appreciate the sound of it rolling across my tongue. X is howling in my head, this is why he's been so restless and forlorn, he could feel the resolution in her mind. The letter doesn't tell me where or how. "No!! I need to find her, where is she?" I'm at the point of shaking Mrs Clarke to get the answers we need to act. "WHERE. IS. SHE!!!" I bellow, not caring what attention I am attracting. "She was hiding, like she does at these events. She should be in the old cellar, follow me" She dashes to the back stairs and opens a door I didn't even realise was there. She switches a light on bringing a soft glow to a dusty, mouldy cave filled with old relics and damaged furniture. "Lorna!!" Mrs Clarke whisper shouts. "I can smell her but her scent is different, there's more to it...." she is clearly pondering why. ...... her wolf, that's what I can smell, she has her wolf. Goddess forgive me, I had no idea it was her birthday" I pale, realising how young my mate is. Will she even want such a grisly old man? "FIND HER, ASK HER" Xavier growls in my mind. Right. Find her first, save her from herself first. Then we can show her how good being my mate will be. "Where would she go?" I ask. Desperate for a clue, for a reason to hope. "I don't know" Mrs Clarke says more to herself than to us. She is pacing in the small space, trying to focus, to think, to wrap her head around what's happening. Over and over she says it. Growing inpatient I try and find her scent in the cellar, maybe more clues can be found from where she hid. Finally, pulling open a door I find a make shift den, with tatty rags and her scent beautifully encased. It soothes my breaking heart. How could my mate have be forced to take rest like this, to hide like this, to want to......die. Suddenly after running through multiple places and discounting them, Mrs Clarke has an answer. "The only place I can think of is where I found her after last years mating hunt. If she's continuing on with what should have happened then, that's where she'll be" she says so softly and with a such a broken spirit. "Where?" I implore. "The gorge...... sorry, there's a crescent shaped gorge in the north west of the pack territory, the other side belongs to our neighbouring pack, the moon dancers. The drop is massive and straight into a fast moving river beneath. Not even you could survive such a fall, that must be how she plans on doing it" her voice getting quieter at the end I almost miss her reasoning. Jacob and I waste no time, storming out of the pack house, we instantly shift, given the size of the pack lands, I fear it may take us too long to get there. I power every ounce of my being into my stride. Xavier, being light on foot, races us to our belove'ed. Dancing along the wind, my beta hot on my heels but struggling to keep up. Xavier tells me he is following her scent, at last! We have found her. She has walked this path before us. Touched the trees. Scented the earth where she treds. "Faster!" I cry in my mind, encouraging Xavier on. Over and over until the passing forest is just a blur. The power of the moon aiding me in my pursuit. Thank the goddess. The moon is getting higher in the sky, time passing too quickly, I fear we will be too late if we don't arrive before midnight. At last the steep gradient lets off, and we come to a clearing. I scour the area, desperation over comes me and I drop to my knees, my wolf retreating in my mind, too grief stricken to do anything more. A howl escapes me as I cry tears for the love I have lost, for her soul now returned to the moon goddess. Ashamed of myself and my wolf for not protecting her, for not making it in time. Sobbing on the grass where her scent still resides. "Oh Lorna, my beautiful Lorna, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I failed you" Title: Mystic Herb Powers: Unveiling Pharmaceutical Conspiracies In "After Awakening, Falling for My Sis-in-Law" by CrushReel, widowed Peach finds herself entangled in a dangerous web of gangsters pushing her into marriage to settle debts. Enter Johnny, her brother-in-law, who unexpectedly unlocks ancient mystic herb powers, embarking on a perilous journey to expose sinister pharmaceutical conspiracies. 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