Finding My Destiny

Chapter 22 - Tyler's POV

A week after we had returned from our "vacation" and Taylor was still not acting herself, and while she had told us she would spill when we returned home she had barely spoken a word to anyone and spent most of her time either in the sun room or her bedroom. I've asked a few time has have the others but she always responded with "soon" or "not now" so we dropped the subject.

I was finishing a response to an email from Autumn Moon when two recent emails caught my attention, one from Crescent Moon and the other from the Alaskan Pack; the Iraluq. I opened theirs first and read through the short email which basically stated that Robin would be heading home within the week and her stay with them over the summer taught them both many things other than the cultural differences. They were very positive about our new ways to create alliances within the packs and were grateful we chose them as a first option. When the Battle at Blue Rock happened other packs had also come to the realization that other than a few surrounding packs that should probably be allied with packs in other regions so we used the idea that non shifters use when they ship kids to other countries for a school year or the summer and switched it around and adapted it to the packs. While we didn't receive any wolves Robin had interest in going to Alaska and with a few back and forth emails due to time zone differences off she went for the summer.

I snapped out of the memory of watching her drive off to the airport and on a plane to Washington state to take a shipping boat the rest of the way to Alaska and sent a quick response before opening the email from Crescent Moon. I read it and then read it again before looking at the time stamp it was sent before sending a short response and leaving the room. I headed to Charlie's office and closed the door behind me. "We have a slight problem."

Over the next hour and having Taylor, Sebastian, and Sky come to Charley's office we had come to a plan that had a 50-50 chance of working if everything went correctly. We left the house and went in different directions to alert the patrol. We communicated through the link as we ran the patrol border and we were finally heading back to the house when a howl went up just east of where I was. I sprinted in that direction and as I came up on the patrol unit who sent up the howl one of them who had already shifted back came up to me.

"We almost missed her but we got her cornered just past those trees over there." He pointed in the direction and I nodded my thanks before going to shift back and change before I headed over to where he directed. Sky had arrived just as I was walking back and stepped in next to me as we went to see if this wolf was our missing cousin or not.

As we rounded the trees there she stood with her ears pinned and taking a defensive stance with her back against a large boulder. The remaining patrol unit stood in front and at her sides preventing her from leaving but far enough that they stayed outside of biting range. She finally took notice of us and froze before shaking it off and directing her anger at us. Sky growled low in warning at her threat and she took a less defensive stance and unpinned her ears but continued to stare us down daring us to get closer.

We were in this stand off trying to figure out exactly how to get her to calm down when Taylor came bursting in unexpectedly. Chaos ensued after that when a patrol let his guard down at Taylor's entrance and Lena took it as a chance to escape as she barreled into him knocking him off balance before sprinting towards our nearest border with the rest giving chase. I shredded my clothes as I shifted only concerned with Lena as we followed her through the trees passing our border and leaving our territory and the patrol behind as we ran south.

"We can't keep following her. We can't risk chasing her south and getting too far away from our own pack and too close to Black Moon, even with the circumstances they'll see this as a threat given how hostile they've been these last few months." Sky warned.

He was right, Black Moon has made multiple threats of what will happen if we get too close to their borders and they've even gone as far as threatening a war. I stopped in my tracks and watched as Lena's silver coat disappeared from view.

————

Days went by without so much as a whisper of Lena. Before long those days turned into weeks and suddenly two months had gone by and still nothing about Lena.

Robin seamlessly rejoined the pack and joined the ongoing search for her friend while Sky was busy contacting other packs and making an effort to make sure other packs knew that Lena wasn't the wolf that Dylan made her out to be. Mike has been giving weekly updates but they're always the same; still no trace of Lena.

It was nearing the end of the year and while we were too far south for snow it was still cold enough for morning frost and the visibility of our breath. We were seated at the table some of us with laptops others just staring into our lukewarm coffee when Taylor suddenly sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"What's up?" Lexi asked putting down her phone.

"I figured I'd tell you now since it'll be a little hard to keep it from you for much longer. Charley already knows and he's been bugging me to finally tell you." she responded.

Everyone else at the table stopped whatever it was they were doing and looked up expectantly.

"Well spill. What're you hiding?" Bryan was the first to ask.

She sighed and sat up a little straighter. "I'm pregnant."

There was a pause as if time stood still before chaos erupted around the table. The few pack members that were still in the house came into the kitchen to see what was going on and got swept into the frenzy by Lexi who yelled something about a baby shower before running out of the room. After several minutes we got it to die down and figured we'd make a formal announcement when Taylor was ready to share with the entire pack.

The announcement left us on a high as we made plans for their own house away from the main one and a possible baby shower with a few outside attendees. Lexi was all over the place after Taylor had put her charge of the nursery for the new house and everyone else who already knew were keeping it a secret. Taylor decided that once she was in her second trimester she would make the announcement to the rest of the pack,"like a pack wide Christmas present" she had said.

It was a couple days later while we were all in the living room sharing our down time when a singular faint word went through the link "help".

We paused and shared looks confirming we all heard it.

"Lena." Sky said and we all nodded.

We came to the agreement that Lexi would stay here with Taylor while Charley would fill in my position. Sky, Sebastian, Bryan and I would head south to Black Moon which was the only logical pack that would take Lena.

We headed out immediately and would camp on the outskirts of their border until dawn. From there we would ask for a meeting and hopefully catch a whiff of her scent to track her down. If all went according to plan we could have her back home in two days.