Shortish chapter again... blame the cold.

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"Have they found him yet?" I pester Junmyeon for the nth time.

"Not yet." He rubs my back soothingly. "I'm sure it won't be long before they do." He looks at me, concern shining in his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," I lie. Truth is, I can't rest, knowing that my beloved mate is in danger. The negative thoughts resurface. It's all your fault. Why didn't you take better care of him? You have no right to be worried. I close my eyes. Please go away.

I feel Junmyeon tuck my head into his chest. "You can cry if you want," he whispers softly.

"Won't Yixing be mad that you're this close with me?" I murmur. I know I would be irked if Baekhyun was like this with someone else.

"He won't mind. I'm sure."

You're selfish. The voice taunts. Go ahead, cry like the undeserving coward you are. You don't deserve your pack, they're always taking care of you. Cry, weep, sob, and they'll always be there. But they'll leave you at one point. Everyone does.

I shake my head as I cough uncontrollably into Junmyeon's chest. He pats my back slowly. "Here, have some water." He reaches into the little bag he carries and pulls out a small water bottle. He unscrews it and hands it to me. "Drink."

I accept the bottle, sputtering a little before being able to down some of the water. "Thanks."

Please find him.

Yixing's POV

"Hold on." Beta stops us. "I smell him, but it's faint."

I wrinkle my nose as the stench of something metallic and smoky wafts my way, masking everything else. Ew. "Melted silver," I breath, then sniff the air again, "and something else. It's not pure silver."

"We must be close!" Kyungsoo sprints ahead, his mate right on his tail.

I better follow. I morph and dash after them. Behind me, I feel the remainder of our search party trail behind.

Because I'm to concentrated on trying to decipher the mystery smell, I trip over a root and roll into the dirt. My tail falls into the earth and instantly shoots back up due to pain. Ow, ow, ow!

I groan and twist my neck to examine my injury just as Gamma and his mate run up to me.

I snarl at the knot of shimmering gray that seemed to stick itself to the tip of my tail, sending fire down my spine. Silver!

Sehun sniffs at the silver. "How are we meant to get it out?"

Gamma shakes his head. "Did you land in this?" He gestures to a tiny puddle of liquid silver beside me.

I grimace. "How did that get there?"

Gamma whacks his mate with his tail. "Go tell the others that we've got a lead. Quickly!"

Sehun dashes off, tail streaming behind him.

"Gamma?" I wave my tail frantically. "Help me?"

"Right, right." Gamma grabs my tail with his. "Keep still." I stop flailing around. He examines my tail and looks at me. "Aren't you suppose to be the medic? Tell me what to do."

I kick the air. "Right. Well, there's this special type of leaf that you can use as a glove. You know the strange smelling flowers around here? The ones that smell vaguely of honey and coconut?"

Gamma nods.

"Get a few of their leaves. They shouldn't be too far away." I watch him trot away.

I close my eyes, trying to ward off the pain. 'Junmyeon? I think we've found something.'

Chanyeol's POV

"They said they may have found him."

The mere words send me to my feet, illness forgotten. "Where are they?"

"Woah, woah, woah. Not so fast. Sit back down." Junmyeon drags me back onto the leaf litter. "Who said that you were going? You need to rest."

"No! I need to see him. I'm his mate!" I cough again. Ugh.

"Sit down, you're still sick."

"It's the mate bond. I'm not going to stop being sick until we find him!"

"Alpha..."

"Exactly! I'm your Alpha. You take orders from me. Not the other way around." I sound harsher than I meant to be. "I'm sorry. That was a bit much."

"No, it's fine. Let's go. You have a point." He helps me up. "Come on." He gives me a smile. "Here, lean on me."

I take his offer and we slowly make our way in the direction we saw them leave in, me occasionally stopping to cough.

Yep. You're pathetic.

And for once, I ignore the stupid voice in my head. I have more important things to focus on right now. I'll deal with you later.

Yixing's POV

As Gamma treats my tail, I sniff suspiciously at the shining puddle of silver. "What even is this?" I mutter to myself.

Gamma grunts as he extracts the wad of metal. "There you go." He wraps the thing in some leaves, digs a hole, and buries it into the dirt. "Gone for good." He flattens out the disturbed earth. "Does it still hurt?"

I twitch my ear. "Yeah." I pause. "What do you think will happen if I try to shift back?"

Gamma snorts. "Nothing good. Stay in wolf form until we get back or until you see Junmyeon again." He waves his tail. "I suppose I'll have to stay as a wolf as well, if I want to understand you." He straightens up as he sees his mate return, along with Beta and Kyungsoo. "Sehunnie!" He runs to greet him and quickly intertwines his tail with his mate.

"Ahem. Not here," I intervene. The two quickly unlace their tails, but still stand side to side. "So this," I gesture to the silver. "This is not natural. We need to find more."

"Here!" Kyungsoo calls from a few yards away. We all come running over.

"And here!" Sehun yells, dashing ahead.

We follow the trail of silver, with Gamma digging a hole and burying each as we go, mindful to use the leaves.

I swivel my head, trying to spot the now familiar drop of gray, as I stumble and trip, banging my muzzle on a patch of leaf. Not again.

"Yixing! Are you trying to break every bone in your body?" Gamma runs up to me and helps me up.

"No. But that leaf seemed too hard. It shouldn't have hurt that much." I raise a shaky paw and bat at the leaves, wiping them away. A big piece of stone greets me.

"Um, there are no trees here." Gamma gestures upward. "We're standing in a clearing."

"You think someone was trying to cover something up?"

"Maybe." Gamma shakes his head. "Hey you three!" he hollers, "Get back here! We may have found something!"

The thrum of twelve paws on the forest floor shakes the vicinity as our companions come thundering back.

"What did we miss?" Kyungsoo pants.

"Here." Gamma crinkles the leaves, then looks up. "There are no trees here."

"Maybe they could have blown here." Sehun twitches his ear.

"No way. We haven't had a good amount of wind in ages. Start uncovering this area."

"I'll walk around a bit. Maybe I'll find something else." I begin to pace back and forth.

"Uh oh. Guys?" Kyungsoo calls out.

"What?" Gamma turns around.

"I have good news and bad news. What do you want first?"

- § -

Dun dun dun!

Haha, but it's not much of a cliffhanger if you can guess the what it is, is it?

I'm pretty sure it's obvious what happened.

So yeah, I've pretty much recovered from being ill. But I'm still coughing like a madman, er madwoman.

Yay.

I'm proud for being able to update for you all. Sorry for the really short chapter.

But...

THANK YOU, YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE FOR 100 FOLLOWERS! *\(^o^)/*

...and as a token of my appreciation, I leave both of the new updates on cliffhangers. How very kind of me. (Note the sarcasm.)

:)

Byee! Until Tuesday!

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