Finding Adelaide

Chapter One

Cains POV

Seven years earlier

She smelled like roses and honey. Which perfectly matched her honey blonde hair that fell in waves down her back. A golden sea begging me to run my fingers through her waves. Her light blue eyes always shone with happiness and freedom, cheeks always tinged a shade of pink. I knew from the moment I met her as a child that I loved her. But she never felt the same about me.

“Adelaide,” Her brother Corbin called out to his older sister sitting out in the field. I watched in awe as she looked over her shoulder at him, the sun light warming her hair. She was sitting in a field of small delicate overgrown daisies, if I could I would have taken a picture to remember exactly how she looked in this moment.

“Mom wants you inside.” Corbin, my best friend, called out to her. Unlike Adelaide, Corbin’s hair was black unruly curls.

Adelaide huffed and shut her book, standing up. My breath caught in my throat as I looked at Adelaide, the Earth may revolved around the sun but my world revolved around her.

As Adelaide walked past us she ruffled her little brothers hair, smiling at me as she passed. Corbin rolled his eyes and smacked my shoulder.

“Dude, she’s like a hundred years older than you.” He reminded me. I made sure she safely entered their house and the door shut behind her before I answered him.

“More like seven years.” I scowled. It didn’t matter if she was seventeen and I was only ten, I loved her with every fiber of my being. I’ve never felt a moment I haven’t loved her.

Corbin scoffed, “Well, you’re gonna be really mad when she turns eighteen and finds her true mate tomorrow night.” With that he pushed me back a few steps and ran away. I chuckled and ran after him.

“Bet you can’t catch me!” Corbin called running into the tree line.

Of course I can catch him. Corbin was the only son of our packs Beta. But I was the first son of the Alpha. I was designed to be the best.

“Goodnight, Cain.” My mother said quietly as she left my bedroom. I stirred in the bed, unable to keep still. In a few hours Adelaide would be eighteen. What if she found her mate and it wasn’t me? Would I be able to accept that?

A growl rumbled up my chest. I knew I stood no chance but the thought of having to let her go burned a hole inside me. I found myself hoping she wouldn’t find them, hoping that if her mate wasn’t me she would never find her mate. If she had no one maybe she would finally notice me.

I felt under my pillow for the small box I hid there. I saved up my allowance to get her a present, although it wasn’t much. I pulled the box out and opened it. In the box laid a small bracelet with a little wolf charm. I imagined that once my wolf comes to me I would be like the charm.

I closed my eyes and imagined a perfect world, I was Adelaide’s age and she could see tomorrow night under the full moon that I was her mate.

I stood outside of the Betas residence, I was an hour late. It took awhile to convince my mom to let me go. I rang the doorbell one more time. I heard shouting on the other side of the door before Corbin opened the door. I could see his parents behind him shouting, tears streaming down his mothers face.

“What’s going on?” I asked Corbin, he looked over his shoulder at his parents and stepped outside shutting the door behind him.

“Um,” Corbin looked around worriedly, “It’s about Ade.” My heart leapt in my chest and I took a step closer to him and he took a step back.

“What to you mean? What’s wrong with Adelaide?” I questioned, eyes wide and panic rising in my throat.

“She’s gone, Cain. She left late last night and we don’t know where she went.”

One week ago

I quietly walked out of Corbin’s room into the dark hallway. I knew exactly try which boards creaked in the hall and how to avoid them without getting caught. I’ve done this easily a hundred times.

I made my way to the third door on the right and slowly crept in. There was never anyone in this room, it hasn’t been touched in years.

Adelaide’s room. It was left exactly the way she left it. I breathed deeply in, although faint, her honey rose scent was embedded into the walls. This was all I had left of her.

I gently ran my fingers across her baby pink bedsheets, her being that last person to have made the bed.

It’s been almost seven years since she left. There was multiple theories as to what happened but nothing was for certain. Some say she found her mate and ran off with him or that she was kidnapped in the middle of the night. There was no sense of fowl play and a bag was missing with a few of her clothes, indicating she left on her own terms.

Almost every chance I could get I convinced Corbin to let me sleep over at his house and I always snuck into her room, to just feel some kind of connection to her.

I spent years begging my father to let me left this pack to go search for her, but he stood strong in preventing me.

“If she wanted to return, Cain, she would have.” Is what he told me every time. But I knew better than that. Something happened and no one knows or wants to admit what happened. One way or another I will get the answers I need.

“Son,” My father, Hadeon, said patting me on my back. I stood a few inches taller than him so I had to look slightly down at him. Today is the day he steps down from his Alpha role and I step up. I’ve waited for this moment for seven years, no one to tell me what I can and cannot do. I’ve trained tirelessly for years to prove I could step up earlier than he did.

“It’s time.” My father said stepping out onto the stage, I followed close behind him. I could honestly care less about the formalities of taking over his role. I knew as soon as I became Alpha, I was searching for Adelaide.

I looked out into the crowd of pack members, my eyes falling on Corbin. When I stepped up, so would he. We were raised together to work together. Our parents time was over, now it is our turn.

“It comes with great joy for me to hand this title over to Cain,” my father began his speech, “I have no doubts he is more than capable of filling my shoes and strengthening this pack even more.”

The crowd began to clap and father raised a hand to silence them, “So there are no worries as I resign from this role. Cain?” My father reached out his hand and I grabbed his forearm and he grabbed mine. He closed his eyes and I felt at the power rushed into me, soaring through my veins.

The Alpha role and power is passed down through generations, an energy that it to be maintained through each Alpha. My muscles contracted and relaxed, my father let go of my arm and I released his. A smile on both of our faces.

“May the Goddess bless you and your pack.” My father said bowing his head to me, a sign of submission.

“May the Goddess bless you.” The crowd sounded back bowing their heads.

“You may all go now.” I stated, I watched as the crowd left. Corbin came up to my side, a stupid grin on his face.

“Todays the day, huh? Anyone fancy you?” He asked turning me to survey the crowd. I pushed off his hands.

“Of course not.” I said plainly. Corbin sighed.

“Ade… Ade isn’t coming back, Cain.”

“She’s not. I’m going to bring her back.” With that I turned and walked off the stage, Corbin two steps behind me.

“We don’t even know where she is!” He reasoned. I knew it hurt him and his family to not know where she was, but I couldn’t just accept the fact she was gone.

“That’s why as first order of behind Alpha I’m going to find her.”