CEO'S ROGUE ALPHA
Chapter 130: LOST IN THE MOUNTAIN

Chapter 130: LOST IN THE MOUNTAIN

By the time I came into it, I was in the middle of a violent coughing fit, trembling from head to toe, and so cold he barely even felt it. Where.? I forced himself up as the coughing intensified and he gagged. Bile splattered onto the pure white in front of me that contrasted so sharply against my black clothes. They were coated in a white substance. As his coughing ceased, his brain began to function normally.

White, cold, covering my clothes and the ground... Snow. I was in the fucking snow. But that didn’t make sense ― there wasn’t an area where snow collected for at least fifty miles in any direction of Tabular Crystal mountains. The last thing I remembered was landing in the water and then the rocks hit as I blacked out.

I stood up and brushed the snow off of me the best he could with my chill-stiffened joints that seemed even harder to move than they ought to be. How long had he been out here? I raised my eyes to examine the surrounding area, and all at once, my stomach and heart dropped through the earth beneath me.

"Fuck! "I cursed out loud. I had nothing in my clothes. The phone was filled with water and the black screen told me it was dead. The icy expanse before me was completely unfamiliar, empty, and lacking any landmarks that may have allowed him to get his bearings. Dread, a feeling by now not familiar to me as I had grown accustomed to being the one inspiring it in others, knotted his stomach and left a lump in his throat.

I swallowed around the lump in my throat and winced at the dryness. Panic teased at the back of my mind, but I pushed it away and tried to focus. Was this a bad dream? I forced my heavy limbs to respond to me and turned to try, again, to get my bearings and get any track in the snow that would tell me if I was alone or if there was a sign of life around me.

I took a deep breath and gazed at the surroundings once more. There was a mountain in the left direction and woods in the right direction. The woods were the best choice. Plenty of shelters and ways to make shelter if there weren’t any. I decided on the woods as I took a couple of stiff steps in the forest’s direction, pushing through the heaviness in my muscles and the stiffness in my joints. I needed to move and get away from the snow.

When I arrived in the forest, I immediately regretted it. The temperature dropped further beneath the canopy, but there was little to be done for now. I kept on moving until I found somewhere safe to hole up and try to warm myself up.

I kept on walking and when I looked back I couldn’t see the entrance to the forest, hence I knew that I had covered miles and miles. I kept at it for an hour and when the view opened up, I smiled in pain as the old shattered cabin came into view.

It looked like it had taken a hell of a beating, but the walls looked sturdy enough and it didn’t seem to be occupied. The door creaked open the moment I touched it, and I winced at the sound and the implication that it no longer latched.

I knew that internal injuries were a bad thing and hence I pushed the pain at the back of my mind. I examined the cabin and in the corner, he saw a pile of firewood. It looked old, probably half-rotted, but I couldn’t find it in my brain to care. It would work for a fire so that I could warm my human body.

I hurriedly leaned down and worked to make a fire. It took a while to get a spark, but thankfully that spark ignited a stray twig immediately, allowing me to set fire to the rest of the wood in the fireplace.

I stripped off my boots and jacket as the fire grew, sat on the warming floor in front of the fireplace, and tried hard not to think of the pain. An hour later my limbs were no longer stiff with cold, only with pain. I lifted myself and crossed the now-lit room to identify where the bathroom was and which offshoot room was the kitchen.

Retrieving his boots and jacket after looking around for a moment, I took a bucket I found under the sink and made my way back outside. Shoveling the snow into the bucket with my bare hands until it was packed full and realized that my fingers were numb again.

I walked back to the house and stared at the old sink with disgust, thinking, what if the pipes were frozen? I chose to find a pot in the old cabinet so that I could boil the snow and get the water for drinking and a bath.

Once the water boiled, I dumped a small amount into a bowl I had found and swished it around for a moment to remove all the dust from the interior of the bowl before I poured the dirty water into the sink. After the bowl was clean, I made do with the hot water, as I drank it and sipped down my throat, welcoming the heat it evoked.

I lay by the fire and smiled in relief when the pain finally began to subside, my eyes cracking open and seeing the wall and nothing else. The pain wasn’t gone, not even close, but it was manageable. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Early the next day, I felt much better, went out and came back with a wild bird, fried it over the fire, and had my first meal. I finally got the strength to move around and two days of walking ― three days total, after I opted to stay in his makeshift shelter for a day to wait out a snowstorm ―to stay away and recuperate. My beast felt alive and all the strength in my body had returned. All the bones and internal injuries had healed.

I opened my senses and then listened in to check if there was a water source nearby. Finally, I smiled with relief as I felt the slow flow of water in the mountains. I wondered if Kyeiko was alive as I left the cabin and headed for the mountains. It was night when I arrived by the waterfall, shifted, and got into the water.

Opening my tracking senses under the water, I realized that I was in the city of Nikko in Tochigo. I swam up and got to the town. Once I got to a convenience store, I managed to convince the old lady to allow me to make a call. I dialed the number for Elder Zaya and she picked up on the first ring.

"Bering, is that you?" She whispered.

"Yes, we were attacked. Did you find Kyeiko?" I rasped and heard Haida’s sobs at the back.

"He is hurt. No idea if he will wake up. We are at Tochigo," Elder Zaya informed me.

"I am in a small town called Nikko. I need money to buy a phone," I informed her.

"I am sending it to this number. Is it safe?" She responded.

"Yes. I will call you in an hour when I get settled. "

"Be careful or else Haida is going to die from crying, "Elder Zaya laughed.

"Do you know how they found us? Someone seems to be leaking information. I doubt this has anything to do with Lobo Aria," I pointed out.

’ "I suspect either Zineb Aria or Fridolf Due. I will explain further when we meet," Elder Zaya said.

I disconnected the call and then turned to the lady and smiled. " My godmother is sending money to this phone, is that okay ?."

The lady agreed, and in an hour; I had a new phone and a sim card. I got a change of clothes and a hot meal before settling into a hotel by the lake. The air by the lake made me nostalgic as I missed Alaska and Haida.

I dialed Elder Zaya’s number and the person who answered was Haida.

"Why the hell are you this careless?" She scolded me.

"Wipe those tears. I am not dead yet," I retorted.

"Are you hurt? "She asked.

"No," I responded.

"You are not a good liar, "She chuckled. "Let us mate when you come back"

"Why? So that you can have the Serpent beast at your mercy?" I jested.

I heard her curse at me and then she muttered, "So that I can be connected to your mind, Bering. If you get hurt, I can locate you easily. It’s been five days since you went missing and I have been out of my mind with worry."

"Am fine," I retorted.

"You are a fucking bastard Bering," and she disconnected the call.

I chuckled to myself and whispered, "I miss you too Haida. I miss you more than I am willing to accept. "