You Rejected A Silver Wolf
Boots and Rivers

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Boots and Rivers.

Jaden's POV

Beta Ralph returned from the palm reader's shop holding up a card. He stopped in front of me and showed it to me.

"It says I won't live long."

I dragged it from him and ripped it apart. "Don't say that! Why believe in this nonsense? What did the palm reader say about the missing boy?" "He had met her, the palm reader, and asked if he was to find his mate soon." Ralph grinned.

A look of disappointment was etched on my face. "Not about his future as a warrior?"

"Apparently, his mate was more important to him than that." Ralph smirked. "She said he saw her though, but they argued."

"That's weird." I frowned. Ralph and I were standing in the middle of the Boots and Rivers Market, where many wolves passed by us.

How'd he have found his mate seconds after being told he'd see her? And he disappeared too? Could it be he was with the girl? "What if he left with the girl?" I spoke my thoughts out loud.

"I asked that too, but the reader said he accused her of being a killer and to stay away, then left. The girl had left with her sisters too."

That was suspicious. He rejected his mate at first glance? How dare he? The girl was a killer? Was she a Red Moon warrior? And sisters? "Where's that palm reader?" I needed to ask her clearly. Ralph pointed at an old small shop, and I strolled my way there. "She also said my time of death isn't near, though." Ralph kept speaking of that. I clenched my fists but ignored him. Merely breathing beside the door, the lady said to come in. We obeyed.

She had small glasses on her much smaller eyes. Possibly past a hundred but was a warrior in her prime, hence her good health. "You said you met a boy who rejected his mate?"

"Was she his mate?" Her small eyes became smaller.

I glanced at Ralph, who came forward. "You told me he saw her but never added that they argued."

"I didn't. I stopped at he met her but never added argued or accused her of anything..."

"Neither did we speak of you saying 'accused.' Tell us!" I peered my eyes into hers. She was hiding something.

"Why don't you want to tell us? Were you threatened?" Ralph asked, pulling me away from the lady so I wouldn't scare her.

He was having that look when he was being weird - or psychic. Did he read that she felt fear? I calmed down. "Ma'am, the boy is missing now."

"It has nothing to do with me. Ask others around if they saw him; I am sure I wasn't the only store he visited..."

"Can you tell us what the girl looked like? And her sisters? Did they have swords like Red Moon warriors?" Ralph interrupted her.

She gulped down saliva. "Red Moon warriors would be stones if they ever walked into this market."

I guess that's a no, and with the pain she spoke with, she was a victim of Red Moon's nonchalance.

"Ma'am, if it's not Red Moon, then who?"

"I can't tell you; they don't want you to know them." She looked away, fondling a letter she had on her table.

Ralph noticed it and mind-linked to me. "That wasn't in her hands when I earlier visited her; someone must have met her after I left."

She met my gaze and put the letter into her drawer. "Leave, please; I don't want trouble. The boy was ungrateful and made the girl cry." "What were the exact words he said?"

"That she's a killer and not worthy of him." She scoffed. "He wasn't worthy of her. I haven't heard of him helping anyone before." Helping anyone? Did the girl and her sisters hold people? Could other sellers in the market identify her?

Ralph wanted to keep engaging the lady, but I pulled him out of her shop. She wasn't going to talk, and I wasn't in the mood to cajole her. "Whoever sent that letter, the palm reader knows that person. And that person was quite fast to leave without us seeing them." "That person also knew we'd look for her." I added.

Ralph nodded. "Then this attack was planned?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. But..." I trailed off, my head snapping to the opposite direction, towards the river beside the market.

I saw something run past. It was vague but quick; it was a wolf. "Ralph, someone is there. Come!"

I ran as I spoke. He followed after me. I halted when I got to the river, a weird-looking body of water. Boots swam inside of it, and it was dirty.

My hands itched when I ran my hands through the surface. "Is this why the river is said to be cursed?" I asked Ralph.

"It's said to have the blood and boots of many slaves that tried revolting against Red Moon. A market was built for it and called Boots and River."

I turned to Ralph with a done look. Why tell me the pathetic history of the river? I only wondered why it itched.

Blood and boots didn't make it itch. "It itches. We can't swim through." I looked up. "But that wolf had swum through. How?"

"A myth is that the river will only let you swim through if you are innocent. Maybe the wolf is innocent...."

"Let's go!" I shut him from his mythical history and dived into the river. Whoever that person was, they had to answer to me.

Ralph groaned, soaking himself in the river. "It burns!"

"I know. But if you don't find your brother-in-law, your home will burn hotter when your mate finds out."

That was enough to shut him up. I turned to see him sulking. I smiled. We got to the other side; my skin felt like it had met with silver. What exactly had been dumped into the water?

"I'd go!" I dragged Ralph to his feet and handed him my clothes as I prepared to shift.

"Yeah, go get them." He sighed, rubbing his face with my shirt. I rolled my eyes.

I quickly shifted and tried to follow the trail of the wolf. It had been fast, but I presumed it slowed down because I was catching a scent.

A scent that kept drawing me towards it so much that my wolf increased its speed without me telling it to.

"That wolf will be shredded to pieces when I find it." I seethed, making claw marks on the earth as I ran. I felt intense emotion; was it anger?

I stopped, seeing a cliff ahead. The gap to the other side was huge, and no wolf would make it. Where had the wolf gone to?

Then I heard the breaking of twigs as something zoomed past me. Then past me again, and sudden laughter.

It went away like it came, and I was rooted to the spot. The wolf hadn't known, but I saw its figure rush into an underground passage.

One I'd check later. My wolf felt weakness by the sensation because when the wolf had laughed, I felt something weird.

Something one felt when they found their mate.