Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Mate Time Stole: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

SAYA“Again.”The boy in front of me groaned, wiping the dirt from his palms as he pushed himself back to his feet.“You said that last time,” he complained.“And you made the same mistake last time,” I replied, folding my arms across my chest. “So yes, again.”A few of the others laughed, and the boy shot them an annoyed look before turning back toward the trail we had been following. I tried not to smile as he crouched down, this time paying closer attention to the broken grass and shallow marks pressed into the soil.The younger wolves were preparing for their first full tracking assessment, which meant most of them were either too nervous to think properly or too confident to think at all. The boy in front of me belonged to the second group.He had spotted the trail almost immediately but had lost it less than ten minutes later because he had been moving too quickly.“Slow down,” I told him. “You don't find a trail by rushing through it. Look at what’s around you.”He glanced back a

SAYAI followed the narrow trail, still annoyed enough with Kellan that I refused to look back. My wolf kept pulling me forward, and with every step, the strange certainty inside me grew stronger. I didn't know where the path would lead, but somehow, I wasn't worried about getting lost. The forest seemed to draw me deeper with every turn, and instead of feeling uncertain, I had the unsettling sense that I was following something I had been searching for long before I even knew what it was.At first, the trail looked ordinary. The ground was soft beneath my boots, covered with damp leaves and pine needles, while branches stretched overhead and filtered the afternoon light into shifting patches across the forest floor. The deeper I went, the quieter everything became. Even the sounds from the territory seemed to disappear behind me until all I could hear was the occasional rustle of leaves and the steady rhythm of my own footsteps.Then the trail curved around a large tree and I slowed

CASSIANI had never been afraid of the forest, not until Saya disappeared.Now every tree felt like it was hiding something from me, and every second I couldn't find her made it harder to breathe. I followed her scent deeper into the woods, refusing to think about how long she'd been alone or what I might find when I finally reached her.I felt it before Alaric called. My wolf had been restless all morning, pacing beneath my skin and refusing to settle no matter how hard I tried to ignore him. At first, I pushed it aside. He'd been like that ever since I walked away from Saya and left the Southern Territory, so I told myself it was nothing more than that.By evening, I'd almost convinced myself it was nothing. I was sitting with a book I hadn't read a single page of, trying to distract myself with the quiet, when the call came in. I answered almost immediately, as if some part of me already knew something was wrong.Alaric didn't bother with a greeting.“Saya is missing.”The words hi

SAYA I thought I was dead.There was no pain, no cold, no darkness, just warmth and the strange feeling of being somewhere I recognized but couldn't quite place. I opened my eyes slowly, expecting nothing, only to find the familiar ceiling of my bedroom above me. I stared at it, completely still, trying to understand how I'd gotten there.The last thing I remembered was sitting against a tree in the middle of the forest, too exhausted to keep walking and too lost to know which direction would take me home. I had been certain that if I closed my eyes, I wouldn't open them again, yet somehow, here I was, alive and lying in my own bed. I slowly pushed myself up, but the moment my shoulders left the mattress, pain shot through my body and I winced, barely managing to lift myself before sinking back against the pillows.“Saya!”Elara was beside me almost immediately, reaching for my arm as my mother hurried around the bed.“Easy, sweetheart,” my mother said, gently helping me settle back

CASSIANI left before they could see me. I stayed with Saya until I heard the search party approaching, then slipped back into the trees. Elara reached her first, followed by the others, and soon Saya was surrounded by people calling her name and making sure she was all right. I stayed in the shadows as Kellan carried her away, waiting until I was certain she was surrounded and safe, until there was no reason for me to remain. Only then did I turn and disappear into the forest.By the time I reached Alaric's quarters, the sun had disappeared completely. I kept to the shadows as I approached, making sure no one was around before slipping inside. I couldn't afford to be seen. As far as the territory knew, I was still gone.Alaric looked up from his desk when I stepped inside. His eyes moved over me slowly, taking in the dirt still clinging to my clothes and the exhaustion I hadn't bothered to hide. He didn't look surprised to see me. If anything, there was a quiet understanding in his