Nicholas.

　　I walked up the stairs to the front door, and rang the doorbell. Only minutes later, the door opened, and on the other side, an old woman eyed me, her eyes displaying hints of curiosity and caution.

　　“Good evening madam,” I greeted her, trying to put on a friendly face. “I had been the one to call you only thirty minutes ago.”

　　“You must be Nicholas,” she queried, and as I nodded, she opened the door even wider, and ushered me in with a now-kinder smile on her face, and I went in. The penthouse was even bigger on the inside, with high ceilings and intricate décor all around.

　　“Come with me,” the woman called out, and I followed her as she shuffled to what looked like the living room area. There, she gestured to a chair and I sat. She seemed to take her time with everything, and being that she was the caretaker of the house in question, I had to play along with her, no matter how fast I wanted to really be. The commands of my Alpha still weighed down on me, and I needed to fulfill them with utmost haste.

　　Soon, she brought in a tray that had a teapot and two teacups. She dropped them in the small coffee table with a glass surface, and set about pouring the tea, and waving me off when I tried to help her. After handing me my very own cup of pleasantly scented tea, I watched her sit down with hers in hand, and take a sip of her tea, then two, then three sips.

　　It was only after she had done that, that she turned to me, and I saw her face turn from an amiable and gentil old woman to business-like.

　　Thirty minutes passed before I finally concluded the deal with the old woman, and was on my way out of the penthouse.

　　Only hours before, Alpha Damon had reached out to me, ordering me to secure a place for his mate to stay. He had made it seem like urgent business, and I treated it as such.

　　That was why I had come to this penthouse, and met the old woman, who was the caretaker of the penthouse in question, and ensured that the instructions given to me regarding the care of Alpha Damon’s mate were passed on to the woman.

　　Now that that was over and done with, I needed to find the girl in question.

　　I had been given her last known location, which was south of the forest.

　　There, I would begin my search, and hopefully, this would not take too long. I looked up at the sky, noting grimly how dark clouds covered every inch of sunlight, and the scent of oncoming rain was in the air. I needed to be quick, before I lost track of her, or worse.

　　With my knowledge of shortcuts through the forest, I moved swiftly, ensuring that I would reach the south of the forest in record time. By the time I had gotten some ways away, I began to get a whiff of a scent, one that Alpha Damon had described to me when he gave his orders to find his mate.

　　It was faint, but there. I turned around, sniffing through the trees again to find where the scent was stronger. Once I got a hint of a stronger scent, I moved again. This process repeated itself more than three times, and by the time I had a more concrete idea of where she was, the rain had already begun to drizzle. I grit my teeth as the droplets of rain fell on my head, and the scent of petrichor emanated in the entire forest.

　　I kept moving, watching and sniffing for any sign of her. The rain increased slowly, and the tiny droplets had begun to increase in size, turning the state of my clothes from damp to drenched. I kept going, focusing on where her scent was strongest. My boots squelched as I kept moving past tree trunks and dodging low-hanging branches.

　　My attention was suddenly caught when I heard a gasp and a choking sound not unlike I cough.

　　That was her, I thought, rushing over to where I had heard the sound. Less than two minutes later, I saw the girl I knew to be the Alpha’s mate leaning against a tree, huddling for shelter as the rain had drenched her clothes. She looked to be shivering. The tree did not look stable either, as it kept shaking against the force of the wind that blew around us.

　　I called out to her, “Hey!”

　　I had raised my voice due to the increase in ambient sound around us, the rain muffling all other sounds. She seemed not to hear me the first time, and I continued moving closer to her, and I called out to her once more, my voice louder.

　　“Hey!”

　　This time she heard, and turned to me with widened eyes. She looked frightened and tired.

　　I was only a few feet from her now, when I said to her, “Follow me. I can take you to a shelter.” She shook her head at me, clearly wary of strangers in general. As a result of this, I saw that she only huddled more into the tree, and her eyes watched me with poorly-concealed anxiousness.

　　I was about to speak once more, when something happened all of a sudden. I heard her yelp, and with alarm, I noted how the tree she was leaning on had given in to the force of the wind, and was now tilting dangerously, about to fall on her.

　　I had no time to think. I quickly took the remaining steps to her and grabbed her arm, pushing her out of the way. The tree came crashing down on me then, as I had stood where she was previously. I fell onto the ground on my back, the air being knocked out of my lungs.

　　Faintly, I could hear her scream, and my head lolled a bit as I recovered from the brief result of my fall, my arms coming up to push the uprooted tree away from me. Despite the fact that I felt no pain, it was an uncomfortable position to be at. After pushing the tree trunk away, I laid back down, my head and entire body wet and caked with mud now.

　　From the corner of my eye I saw Alpha Damon’s mate run towards me, and her footsteps made splashing sounds as she stepped in puddles caused by the rain.

　　She knelt at my side, and I heard her sniffling.

　　“I am so sorry,” she cried out, her voice wobbly and whimpering. “This is all my fault.”

　　…

　　Carlisle>

　　I was once more in the forest, having nowhere to go and no idea how to go about finding shelter once more. I simply kept walking with no specific directions in mind. The forest was almost silent as I walked, with only birdsong accompanying me as I continued taking one step after another.

　　I dared not think about Damon now, nor of anything regarding what had taken place in the past few hours. I wanted to block it all out, and figure myself out in the best way that I could.

　　I stopped only a few times to catch my breath, and during those times, I would lean on a tree, trying my best to take in deep and even breaths and exhale slowly. I just barely noticed how much time had passed, even though I could see the sun rise higher into the sky. My stomach was continuously growling, and despite my valiant efforts to ignore it, I could not help but groan at times, rubbing my middle with despair.

　　“I know, I know,” I muttered right after I heard – and felt – my stomach grumble once more.

　　This was definitely my lowest point, I thought morosely, sighing deeply and still taking one step after the other. I told myself that once I came out of the forest, regardless of what was on the other end, I would look for food and shelter first.

　　As time passed, I decided to also pick a few berries I knew were not poisonous along the way, and munched on them.

　　They were not very filling, but the way I scarfed them down helped only a little bit in keeping my appetite at bay. I would get something more substantial whenever I ended up leaving this large forest.

　　My hopes of reaching the other side of the forest and finding shelter before sundown was dashed, when I heard a rumbling – ominous and loud – in the sky. Thunder, I deduced, feeling dread wash over me.

　　I gasped and stopped walking, looking up at the now-dark clouds rolling across the sky, and muttered a grim, “Oh no…”

　　This was a bad situation. A really, no good, very bad situation for me right now.

　　I began to walk faster, intent on either leaving the forest or finding shelter somewhere as fast as possible. But by the time I felt the tiny drops on rain on my body, I had found neither shelter nor the end of the forest, and I mumbled curse word after curse word emphatically, trying my best to walk even faster and whipping my head around me to find anywhere that I could stay and shelter myself mostly from the oncoming rain.

　　I found a passable place under a tree which had a large canopy enough to help me stay mostly dry. By that time, the slow drizzling of the rain had intensified to a storm. I leaned into the tree, gasping as I felt some of the tree’s branches give way and splashing water on me.

　　I coughed and choked, trying to catch my breath as it seemed that the tree leaves were not strong enough to hold the heavy drops of rain. Soon, I was drenched to the maximum, and I found the wind blowing about the forest to make matters even worse.

　　That was why I did not notice the strange young man approaching me from the side.

　　I heard his voice as he shouted at me, and I turned to him with alarm. How long had he been there? I watched him move even nearer to me, as the rain intensified. I held on to the tree trunk that swayed dangerously, and did not let go even when he had beckoned to me to follow him to shelter. I shook my head when he had asked me that, and only thought to protect myself.

　　But he was the one that turned out to be my protector, because only moments later, I felt the snap of the tree trunk that I held to myself. I screamed as I saw how it tilted in my direction. I was frozen and unable to move.

　　I felt his hand grab my arm and tug me away, pushing me to the side where I ended up taking shelter behind another tree in a crouch, and I watched him taking the blunt force of the tree crashing down upon his body.

　　I could not help but scream again. The poor man began to roll the tree trunk away from his body, and I ran to him, keeling by his side. Tears were in my eyes, and I felt extremely guilty, because I knew I had been the one to cause his accident. He was only trying to help me.

　　“I am so sorry,” I cried to him, feeling very apologetic. “This is all my fault.”

　　I covered my face with my hands, trying not to sob. First Damon, now this. It seemed to me that my life was a tragi-comedy in a really bad way. I sniffled a bit, feeling my shivers come out with full force. The rain had petered off into drizzles once more, signifying the end of the current rainstorm.

　　I looked up from my hands when I felt a hand gently touch my elbow. The stranger was now sitting up, looking caked in mud and dirt from top to bottom. He was looking at me, with vast amounts of concern and fear written on his face.

　　Before I could speak again, he said to me, “We should get going now. It is not really safe out here.”

　　With that he made to get up, and I quickly rushed to stand, reaching out a hand to him. He stared at my hand for a long moment and that made me feel embarrassed. Was he going to push it away? I was only trying to show my gratitude for his saving me.

　　He finally took the hand, hoisting himself up. With some effort, I held on as he managed to stand. He then let my hand go so quickly, and began patting himself down, to remove some of the mud on his body. The rain had already washed off some of the mud on me, except on my legs. I waited until he was done with dusting himself off before I asked, “Where are we going then?”

　　He looked at me, his eyes only meeting mine a moment before he looked away. “Somewhere safe for you,” he replied.

　　Meanwhile, I was confused by his actions towards me. Why was he not looking me in the eyes? Was he afraid of me or something?

　　He took a few steps in a direction, and I watched him, stock still. After a while, he stopped, turning to me and asking, “Shall we?”

　　I found myself nodding, crossing my arms to hold myself and trying not to shiver terribly. I walked towards him and he looked relieved. I did not bother questioning it, only focused now on getting to shelter.

　　We continued walking, and I don’t know how many turns he took, but soon, I found myself staring at his back as he led me to the edge of the forest.

　　I exited the forest right behind him and began walking down a small trail, and did not bother looking back.

　　Regardless of my safety, wherever we would be going would probably have food and a warm bed, which I sorely needed right about now.

　　“By the way,” I called out, and he paused for a moment, turning his head in my direction, but not looking at me. “What’s your name?” I asked my savior.

　　After a beat, he replied, “My name is Nicholas, miss.”

　　I nodded at his answer, storing the information in my head. “Well, Nicholas, my name is Carlisle. Nice to meet you.”

　　He only nodded in reply, and turned back on the path, moving once more. I sighed in exasperation, but did not comment.

　　We continued walking, and I had begun to feel weary at it all. The sun was already setting, the sky clear in its orange and red hues staining the blue sky, now free of dark clouds. The breeze and my body heat had contributed in making my clothes that were previously drenched from top to bottom, to now become only damp.

　　The clothes were still uncomfortable to me, however, and I longed to take a shower, or preferably, a long hot soak in a bathtub with bubbly body wash.