Chapter 152

Almara’s Pov

I finally catch a fish. I pop up from the water and wave my arms in the air. “Did you see that?” I call out frantically to Arthur and Grace who are sitting on the shore watching and cheering me on.

Well, technically I caught a fish before with Arthur’s help, but this one I got all by myself. Arthur lets out a howl of approval and I see Grace try to mimic him and I sound my own back. Arthur was right, we do rule this land.

I swim my way back over to them, water dripping off of me and chest panting. “I’m starving.” I say and toss the dead fish on to the pile with others.

“So are we.” Arthur says poking Graces belly. “Ready to make a fire and cook them?”

“Not quite.” I say. “Now it’s my turn to teach you something.” I pick up a fish and let it’s slimy tail tangle between my fingers. “Do you have a knife?” Arthur raises his eyebrow at me and instead of offering a knife he gives me his claw.

I show him how to properly clean the fish. First is to snap open the jaw and scoop out anything the fish might have been eating, next is to remove the unnecessary fat and scales.

I notice Grace has picked up her own smaller fish from the pile and is trying to follow along, though her nails aren’t quite long enough yet. I applaud her anyways and she seems to respond to the praise with a lit up face and a wiggling butt as if wagging her tail.

“She’s definitely the Alpha’s daughter.” Arthur says with a proud smile.

We gather some wood and get a fire going. It’s evening at this point with the sun just about to set. The entire sky is a burnt orange lapping into shades of hot pink and warm gold. We sit around the fire cooking the fish to perfection and eating to our belly’s content.

After a full piece of fish, Grace is out cold. She falls asleep on the grassy-sand terrain sucking her thumb, her rump in the air. Arthur and I decide to lay down next to her and watch as the stars become ever more apparent.

“You know, I’ve never been happier.” Arthur says. I pull my eyes away from the sky and look at the curve of his mouth, the sharp lines of his strong jaw, and realize that I haven’t either. “Now I know why Bess wanted me to have a child so badly.” He says.

I furrow my brow, not understanding. “I thought Bess wanted a grandchild to see the lineage carry on.” I say. Arthur shrugs his shoulders.

“Yeah, I think that’s part of it. The Alpha and public press part of it anyways. I think the real reason is because she wanted me to experience the same happiness that she did when my father was born.”

I turn onto my back and let that sink in. “That sounds like Bess.” I agree. We eventually fall asleep like that. No pillows, no blankets, no king-sized beds. Only the sandy terrain as our support, the warm fresh air as our cover, and each other for our peace.

I awake more refreshed than I have been in a long time. It feels as if my entire life I’ve never really known sleep until now. I wake with the sunrise and feel the energy of the day start to rise within me.

I open my eyes halfway and scoot closer to Arthur. I keep scotting until I realize I’m never going to bump into him. Panic steals my blissful morning and I sit up too fast, my vision blurs which only increases my anxiety.

“Over here.” I hear Arthur say and I’m able to catch my breath. “Are you okay?” He asks, concern spreading across his face.

“I didn’t know where you were.” Hot tears stringing my eyes. I know I’m overreacting, but it was as if as soon as I let my guard down something bad happened.

“I just went to mark my territory and get some breakfast.” Arthur says and using one hand to point his thumb back towards a tree and another hand to hold up the bundle of plantains.

“I’m not sure how I feel about those two statements in the same sentence.” I say, hoping some humor will still my beating heart.

“Where’s Grace?” Arthur asks dropping the fruit next to him and coming to stand on the other side of me, where he and Grace were sleeping.

“What?” I ask, though I don’t really want him to repeat the question.

“Grace.” He says with a rise of panic. “She was here when I got up. She was sleeping.” My heartrate sky rockets and I scurry to my feet. I spin around looking for here, but my eyes refuse to settle on anything for more than a second as I search frantically for any sign of her.

“Grace!” Arthur calls out, his face flush and his pulse beating wildly against the veins in his neck.

“How long ago did you leave?” I ask squeezing my eyes shot, trying to remain calm and rational.

“Twenty, thirty minutes ago.” Arthur says and then more panicked. “She was asleep!” I take deep breath.

“Okay, okay. Tell me exactly what happened.” I force my voice to remain steady.

“We were all asleep, and then I woke up. I kissed her and then you. I got up to go pee just over there.” Arthur says point to a tree still in in our sight, no more than a hundred feet away. “Then I went into the woods for twenty minutes to look for some fruit for when you both woke up.”

I nod trying to piece it together. “Maybe she woke up when you kissed her?” I ask.

“She was asleep.” Arthur repeats in a broken whisper.

“Okay, well then she couldn’t have gotten far.” I say and realize what it is that I’m saying. Grace must’ve crawled- which means she’s developing faster than we could have anticipated. I know pups are on an accelerated growth time-line, but maybe being in the wild has progressed those milestones even more.

“We split up, and we look for her.” Arthur says. I nod in agreement. “We meet back here in twenty minutes.”

“Okay.” I say and turn to leave.

“Hey, wait.” Arthur says spinning me around and suddenly the word ‘wait’ is my least favorite word ever invented. “Howl if you find her, or if you run into danger. I’ll do the same.”

“Okay.” I say once more. Arthur kisses me.

“We’re going to find our daughter.”

“I know.” I say, because we aren’t leaving this island until we do. As I begin my venture and hunt for Grace, I try to keep the gnawing thoughts of ridicule at bay. I knew something was bound to happen.

Nothing has happened. Lily says forcing my other thoughts to flee. “My daughter is missing. That’s something that happened.” I tell her.

Momentarily. Besides it’s an island, she couldn’t have gone far. Lily says and while I know she has a point, I can’t help thinking maybe it was the water that stopped her from getting far. I swallow the lump in my throat.

I might not only find Grace, but it be the worst that I expected.