One

691200 seconds.

11520 minutes.

192 hours.

8 days.

That was how long she had been missing. Her chest constricted agonizingly at the single thought that haunted her mind at every given second. Once again, it was enough to plunge her heart to it’s bottomless depths and forced the breath out of her lungs, leaving her bare and empty. 

Instantly, she froze on her tracks and amidst the silent echoes of the strange tropical forest, reality sank in deeper and harder. Her feet swayed as exhaustion hit her bones and had her leaning back on the nearest tree. The large canopy of trees stood at an intimidating height, spanning through acres of land and fresh from the rain with evergreen grasses and plants. 

Fluttering her eyes shut, she tuned in her senses to the silent whisper of breeze dancing through the greens. The lush carpet of grasses swayed to the current and the birds sang their chorus to everything. Something about the life emitting from the forest reached out to her heart and calmed it’s wild erratic beats. It held some kind of peace and perhaps, if her whole world wasn’t rupturing into two, she would have considered going for a run. Just like Mum and her used to.

Her heart clenched.

8 days. She do been gone for over a week and it didn’t matter where she searched or how much she called out her name into each forest they rummaged, she was nowhere to be found. Fear, amidst a multitude of other raging emotions, had planted itself at the centre of her every thought since she had disappeared. It was difficult to breathe - to think straight at the very least, especially not with the way those dark thoughts had a way of crawling into her head. Thoughts that made her wonder if she got fed up with the pack and left, or maybe she was taken by a rival pack. Or perhaps, if she was…dead. 

“Catori…are you crying?” 

The awfully familiar female voice softened on getting closer.

Her eyes shot open and straight into Kasa’s concerned baby blue ones. She quickly brushed her wild blonde her aside, like she did almost every minute, and walked cautiously closer to her with a frown. 

“What? No, I’m not-” The words died in her mouth the second her fingers reached up to the tears sliding down hee cheeks. 

"Oh, wow. I was crying? How embarrassing."

Kasa sighed, her wide eyes holding a hint of pity. The same look everyone seemed to be giving me these days. Like she was helpless. Like she was weak.

“Torii, you know you can talk to me about this, right? You don’t have to carry this on your own. It’s...”

“I’m fine.”

She rolled her eyes and leaned off the tree with a faint glare on her face. 

“There’s nothing to talk about. My mum is missing and finding her is the only therapy I need right now.” 

Not your pity.

Catori said.

Kasa’s frown only deepened. 

“Few seconds ago, you were crying. That doesn’t look ‘fine’ to me. You are hurting, Torii. It might not be much but I think you need a friend now more than ever.”

Kasa said, making her feel numb, she never was the friend type, growing up to be a great alpha was all she could think of.

For some reason, those words annoyed her more than they should. Maybe because, as always, Kasa Hemming was on with her unsolicited advice. Since they were younger, it never mattered how much any of them ever listened to her younger words of wisdom or how much she was regularly pushed her away, she was always there for her. Always. 

“Kasa…” 

Catori groaned.

 “We have been over this. I’m fine and I’ll only get better when this mission is accomplished. So honestly, the least you can do is help me find her. Talking wouldn’t get the work done.” 

She stared at her briefly, like she was trying to peer through the walls of her heart. But she knew that they will find nothing. Those tears were the closest thing anyone had come to seeing her breakdown and as far as she was concerned, it would be the last too.

“I’m just looking out for you,” she said and before she could object, she pulled her into an endearing hug. “No matter what, I will be here to help. Even if we have to go to the ends of the earth, we will find her.”

A weak smile tugged at the corners of my lips, these was the closest genuine smile she had ever had in a while. 

Her words filled her with a certain reassurance that warmed her heart to bits.

“Thank you. I’ll remember this."

 She whispered and hugged her tighter.

“Um, so I hate to interrupt this ridiculously sweet moment…” 

A new voice trailed off awkwardly and that was all the cue they needed to break up their hug.

Kurt, Kasa’s twin brother, stood uncomfortably by the side and stared at them weirdly, which was only typical of him. 

While Kasa might be more in tune with her sensitive side, her brother seemed to be repelled by anything that has him getting in touch with his ‘touchy-feely’ side. 

In his words, all that cheesiness could make him throw up.

“What’s up? Any new clues?” 

She turned to stare at him rapidly.

His previous expression gave way to a crestfallen one as he ran a hand through his blondie curls. That was all the answer she needed.

“No clues yet. We have searched through every cave and possible hideout in this territory, there was nothing. There’s no trace of her scent here either.” 

He said, avoiding her eyes.

Her heart sinked as she heard those words she had come to hate and that same suffocating feeling that weakened her bones earlier now returned. 

“Then, we will keep searching,” 

She stated and tried to hide the pain in her voice.

 “We will head West from here and if we find nothing…we will head South.”