“Okay, so what are some other ideas?” I ask. I’ve never been much of a leader, never taking things too seriously but for my girl I’ll be anything she needs.
“If we can’t track her magically, maybe we can find a way to do it like humans would,” Jax suggests.
And while it’s a good suggestion, no one follows it up with an idea. We live among humans and spend most of our lives acting like them, but we are used to solving our problems magically.
We all slowly sit down around the room, lost in thought. I’m still tapped into their emotions, so I feel the shift as soon as they react to it. Jay, Nic and Jer all suck in a breath and gasp. It’s quickly lost under their layers of horror but I felt the overwhelming sense of calm.
“What is it? What do you feel!” Jax demands desperately.
“Aly went from scared and determined, to suspicious, then unnaturally calm and unfeeling,” Nic confesses.
“I think she was drugged,” Jeremy grits out.
I feel my rage growing again but I’m determined to work through this, so she’s not stuck there any longer than necessary.
“Why are they drugging her now? It’s been thirty-six hours,” Jax asks.
“No idea, but it just means we need to get to her that much sooner. She’s vulnerable,” Jay answers.
None of us like the idea of Aly at the hands of these monsters without all her faculties. She was in trouble even at one hundred percent.
A soft whine comes from the kitchen, and we all stiffen. What was that?
Jax recovers the fastest. “Bailey!”
We all run into the kitchen to see Aly’s pet sitting there in distress. I can’t believe we forgot about him.
“What kind of mates forget about their girl’s pet,” I say, disgusted by us.
“We’ve been distracted,” Jax defends but I know he feels just as terrible as me.
“What if something had happened?” Jay whispers.
I reach down and pet Bailey. He comes to me for comfort easily. I can feel concern and distress coming from him as I try to console him.
Nic moves into the other room to fill his bowl with food and Jay grabs something from the fridge. When I look up I see him tearing a piece of lunch meat into tiny pieces for him.
“He deserves a treat,” Jay defends.
We are all doting on him, to make up for our mistake but also because he’s a link to Aly. A part of the girl we are all dying to feel a connection to.
When we move back into the living room, he follows us. He sticks right by my legs, bringing me the comfort like he knows I need it.
“Okay, so we need to find a human way to track her. Obviously none of us know what that is but let’s start researching,” Nic says but his voice breaks at the end.
We all split up to grab computers and do our work but quickly we all find our way back to the living room. None of us want to be alone right now.
I’m googling everything I can think of but it seems like without getting the police involved, there’s nothing. And we can’t involve them, her parents took her and there’s a lot more in play than just an abduction.
There’s a hard pounding at our door that makes all of us jump up. Each of us prepare for a fight, who else would be pounding on our door like that?
“Who do you think it is?” Jay asks.
None of us have an answer. I think we all went to the worst case scenario and it’s hunters here for us, but they wouldn’t knock, so who else would it be?
Nic gives me a nod and I slowly move to the door. We don’t have a peephole so I can’t check who’s out there. I slowly ease the door open, all of us prepared for anything, except who it really is.
Anna busts into the room, stomping right past me and ignoring the scowls on our faces. We all try to relax, not wanting her to know how on edge we are.
