Chapter 5. The Scent

At night in the Manowi kingdom, Victor couldn't find Brandon. He was worried about the Alpha. Victor did not smell any Alpha in their pack territory. Fearing an attack from outside that they didn't know about, Victor immediately asked the guards guarding his pack.

"Have you seen Brandon?" Victor asked the soldier standing guard in front of their pack's gate.

"Alpha is out, Beta. After Moon Goddes met him, Alpha left the castle on her command. Moon Goddes said that only tonight can Alpha find Rachel," one of the soldiers replied.

"Why tonight?" asked Victor.

"Moon Goddes said because it is the night of the full moon."

"But, the border guards say that Alpha is outside our territory, but they dare not chase him away," said the soldier guarding the group gate.

"Was there no information about the attack from the border guards?" Victor asked again.

The guard shook his head. "Nothing, Beta. Everything is safe."

Victor nodded his head, he knew what happened to Brandon was not a group problem, but a personal one. Obviously he didn't dare send a few guards to search for their Alpha's whereabouts.

"Do I have to look for Brandon's whereabouts? What if he gets hurt?" Victor's mind raced, he desperately wanted to find the whereabouts of his Alpha, but if he left then his pack would have no one to look after him. Finally he decided to wait for Brandon until tomorrow morning, if the Alpha had not returned then he would have to look for him.

Brandon arrived at a dark cave. But when he entered the cave, he was surprised to find a woman holding a baby while trying to calm the baby.

Brandon was shocked. He slowly began to look at the woman in front of him and saw the face he had been looking for. The woman he couldn't live without thinking about how to bring back, but now he had found her.

Brandon had managed to see the face of the woman he had been missing, or rather the face he had been hoping to see again.

"Rachel? Is that really you?" Brandon asked. The woman he saw was Rachel, the woman that many people were looking for.

Still unable to believe what he was seeing, Brandon approached Rachel who was limply sleeping with a baby in her arms. He could see that the baby was still bleeding, indicating that Rachel had just given birth.

Seeing the struggles of the woman in front of him instantly brought tears to Brandon's eyes, albeit only a few. The guilt he felt was so great that he had to be able to bring Rachel back to his group.

The baby who had been silent suddenly cried when he felt Brandon's presence, suddenly it made Rachel who was sleeping immediately wake up because she heard the sound of crying from her baby.

"What's wrong with you, My baby?" asked Rachel, who had not yet realized Brandon's presence behind her. However, instead of stopping the crying of the baby beside Rachel, the crying sound became louder, making the woman even more confused.

"Can I hold my baby, Rachel?" Brandon's voice made Rachel immediately turn her head with a surprised look, she did not expect that the man behind her had managed to find her.

"Why are you here? Get out of here and leave me and my baby alone!" Rachel's hysterical screams made Brandon immediately hug the woman in front of him to calm her down, but instead of calming her down, Brandon made Rachel even more hysterical.

"Calm down, I won't hurt you, Rachel. I apologize for the mistakes I've made." Brandon was still trying to keep Rachel calm.

"You're a bad person who only used me as a breeder! You were going to take my baby! Then you're going to kill me!" Rachel shouted.

"No! I won't take our baby and separate her from you, Rachel. I apologize for what I said a few months ago. I'm not going to kill you!" Brandon said. But his words meant nothing to Rachel. Rachel was still staring at Brandon with a disappointed look.

"You're evil! You made me suffer like this, Brandon! You're a cruel Alpha!" Rachel cursed.

"That's enough, Rachel! I may have broken your heart, but please come back to my pack, because you're in danger and I can't let my mate be in danger." Brandon planned to take Rachel back and claim her as his soulmate.

"To hell with all that! I'm not going back to that pack and all that stuff about you that I hate so much, Brandon! Get out of my life and leave us alone."

"Rachel, you are my mate. You'd better come with me and I'll fix all the wrongs I've done to you. We will live happily," Brandon said, still trying to persuade Rachel.

Sweet words might make other women think, but not Rachel, she still refused to be Brandon's partner.

"I refuse to be your soul mate. I don't want you to separate me from my own child. You are a heartless person, Brandon. Yes, you are a heartless creature who steals other people's happiness! You are also a murderer!"

"I'm sorry, Rachel...give me a chance. Ever since you left the palace, I realized how stupid I was. I realized that I loved you," Brandon said pleadingly.

"I've been missing you for nine months!" he continued.

"No! You're a liar!" said Rachel.

Rachel's rejection was something Brandon had to accept, but he didn't give up. He still had to persuade Rachel again.

"What else do I have to do to make you believe that I won't repeat the same mistake, Rachel? Tell me what I have to do?"

"I told you that I don't want to! Do you know what I said? You're heartless, you should understand what I'm saying!" Rachel was getting angry.

"But I've said everything, I've promised not to hurt you or even our baby. Please give me one chance to prove that you mean a lot to me, Rachel."

Rachel burst out laughing. "Do I really matter to you or to your pack? You really are very cunning, Brandon. You even managed to manipulate me so easily that I never wanted to come back to you!"

"Yes, I was stupid back then. But now I'm very aware of what I did. I'm sorry for hurting you, Sweety. So forgive me please!"

However, for Rachel, Brandon's mistake had gone too far and made her the most miserable woman in the world. Rachel was still afraid that Brandon would kill her.

Then, suddenly a man who entered the cave approached Brandon and Rachel who were arguing.

"Kennedy?" Rachel said the man's name quietly and with a surprised look on her face.

"Why are you here?" Brandon asked Kennedy harshly. He just remembered that this man was the Alpha for Pack Leinz, and he was also competing to find Rachel.

"I smell my soul mate here, and it's Rachel's scent." Kennedy replied.

Brandon was very surprised, "WHAT? What did you say?!"