The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 230

Bianca complained the entire way down, of course. She kept having to stop to catch her breath or make Jessica clean the scuffs off her pink boots when she slipped on the stones. Marcus looked like he was resisting the urge to push her down into the ravine himself.

At the bottom of the ravine, while Marcus and the Gammas inspected the rogue’s body, I poked around for clues. I spotted some crushed leaves a few feet away and crouched to get a closer look.

“Look at this!” Bianca suddenly shouted, holding something up. “I found a clue.”

We turned to see her holding a scrap of fabric. Callum took it and sniffed it. “It’s got this rogue’s scent on it,” he said. “No one else’s. Probably just ripped during the fall.”

Bianca folded her arms and looked around more. Then, she gasped again and trotted off, pointing. “Footsteps!”

Curious, we followed her. My brows shot up when I saw what she was pointing at.

Rabbit tracks.

“The other rogue must have gone this way,” she said, peering into the bushes. “We should follow these tracks.”

Zane shot me an amused look. I just shook my head and kept looking around. Bianca waved Marcus over and showed him the tracks. From where I stood, I could hear him grunt, “You do realize those are rabbit tracks, right? Not wolf tracks?”

I didn’t bother looking to see her reaction, although I could hear her stammering something out in response. Just then, I spotted it—a patch of murky, slightly muddy dirt.

It hadn’t rained in weeks now.

I crouched down, brushing my fingers across the damp soil. When I pulled them back, they were slightly red and faintly tinged with the scent of copper. Blood. I frowned and looked around, then spotted something else. This time, it was a boot print in the dirt a few paces away. The same boot print we’d followed from the crime scene last night.

I stood to wave the others over, but found Bianca standing right behind me. Her eyes widened, and before I could speak, she whirled around and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey! I found something!”

The Gammas came jogging toward us with Marcus at the front. Bianca grinned and pulled aside the underbrush. “Look what I found!” she exclaimed. I stared at her with my hands on my hips, but she pretended not to notice me.

Bianca seemed pleased by that, as if he weren’t openly mocking her complete lack of survival skills. She tilted her chin high and strutted over to the center of the group.

Behind her, Zane mocked her walk, holding his nose up in the air and strutting, hips swaying. I could have sworn I saw Callum covering his mouth as if to hide a smirk. But it was gone in an instant, and I didn’t have time to dwell on it before we were off again.

We followed the trail for hours. Eventually, the sun began to set, and Bianca began to groan.

“Can we stop soon?” she asked, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. She swatted at a tree branch that brushed her shoulder and made a face. “I’m starving, and my feet hurt.”

Marcus stopped walking and turned to me, brows lifted in question. I could feel Bianca narrow her eyes at the side of my head in confusion. After a moment, I nodded, and Marcus made a circular motion with his index finger at the Gammas.

“We’ll make camp here!” he called out, then sneered at Bianca again. “Princess needs to rest her tired feet.”