I ran through the night, fueled by an energy I had never known. I ran through Maine and into New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts as the sun was coming up, and finally came to rest in a field between two towns I’d never heard of. I should have been exhausted, but I wasn’t. I was invigorated.

It had been a long time since I’d been on my own, and it reminded me of my days after I’d left Mrs. Brown’s. At the orphanage, so many of the boys had looked up to me. I was the alpha of alphas there. I’d always just been a natural leader, and I was “strange” in a way that caused them to all look up to me for answers and advice. I kept order and made sure none of the smaller omegas ever had any problems. God only knows what happened to the place after my departure.

Now, staring at the sunset, I felt more like that boy I’d been back then, and less like the man I’d become – tortured, without love, and despite my confident demeanor, lost.

The snow was thinner than it was back in Maine. The storms were always worse up there, and winters were unforgiving. A little change of scenery never hurt anybody, and not being surrounded by so many happy couples was giving me a bit of peace to think about myself.

Casper could be anywhere. He could be a town over for all I knew. I had nowhere to even begin to look for him. Jet, Mikey’s mate, was a private investigator, and I’d thought many times about going to him for help, but I had absolutely nothing to go on, and neither would he.

Casper was an orphan, like me, and had left without a trace or clue. What was I supposed to tell him?

“Oh, Jet, there’s this omega named Casper…and he smells like blueberries. Can you find him for me?”

Yeah. That would go over well.

I rested a while, and kept running, staying on the fringes of towns so as not to be spotted by the humans. All it would take was one zealous hunter with a rifle to really mess up my day. I found some railroad tracks and followed them a while, staying out of sight when the trains would pass. I didn’t know what it was that brought me back there, but for some reason, I had to see it.

Mrs. Brown’s Orphanage stood in front of me, dilapidated and rundown. Mold and fungus covered the walls and the front steps were completely destroyed. It looked like the place had been closed for years. The bus was still there, parked in the side lot, but it was rusted and covered in ice and snow. I grimaced as I circled the old building, debating whether or not I wanted to go inside.

It was a day of reminiscing for me as I prowled the grounds of my old home. Memories of old came flooding back to me. Through a window, I saw the main hall, lined with lockers where I had first seen Casper. I saw the windows of the classrooms and the dormitories, and the tall arched glass of the dining hall. But none of that was what I really wanted to see.

Slowly, I rounded the corner of the main building and stepped into the gardens. The shrubs were covered in snow, but as I looked across the cold landscape to the gazebo, I saw prints. They weren’t super fresh, but someone had obviously been there in the last couple of days. A fox. Someone like me? Some child, older now, visiting his old stomping grounds?

I followed them as they weaved a path through the gardens toward the gazebo, and just as I was about to reach it, something impossible happened.

I smelled it again – Casper’s scent.

I shifted instantly and shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Casper! Casper where are you!” My voice rang out and echoed across the frozen wasteland that had once been my home, but there was no response. Somewhere in the distance a crow called. “Casper! It’s Red!”

I don’t know what I expected. Why would he still be here? But then again, I hadn’t ever expected to smell his scent again, and there it was, fresh in my nose, giving me the same feeling it had the last time I’d smelled it.

My heart was racing, and my naked human form, which should have been frozen against the winter’s cold, was pulsing with heat.

“Casper!” I called out again. But it was no use. He wasn’t there.

I shifted back to fox form and leapt onto the gazebo. The scent was stronger there. I sniffed, searching the air for the trail, trying to discover where he had gone. The sweet blueberry aroma twisted off in several directions.

He had wandered around the garden a bit, circled around the back of his old dorm and returned to the gazebo. And then, he’d gone off into the woods behind the orphanage. It was where he’d come in and it was where he’d gone out.

None of it made any sense. How in the world was it possible that after all this time, Casper, my fated mate, had come back to Mrs. Brown’s Orphanage within the same couple of days that I had? And if I’d only come sooner!

My heart broke and screamed out with joy at the same time. I could have found him here, but now I had the second best thing – I had his scent and his trail, and I was going to find him, and when I did, I would never let him leave me again.