Damien glares at me. We had this argument already. I lost.
“It won’t happen again.” Now that Angel’s safe, I’m thinking clearer. And my wolf is talking to me again.
“What’s the plan, Damien?” Frank asks, as if my promise is enough for him. I wish that were the case with Damien, who’s sideways glances at me never cease.
“Blade’s going to send his scouts out using the abandoned WSSO facility as a starting point and see what information they can gather. Hayden will head South and talk to Drake.”
“If that isn’t a sign of desperation, I don’t know what is,” Frank says. “Want company?”
“No. Having a guard along will only make my brother nervous.”
“And if he doesn’t want to share intel?” I ask, wondering if this is why I’ve been asked to attend this meeting. “Are you planning on lending me out to the white wolves, Damien? Give in to Drake’s attempts to recruit me?”
“Hayden and I discussed a temporary arrangement, but without knowing how Drake plans to use you, it’s not my first choice. I’d rather send you in to one of the WSSO’s other facilities, see what intel you can gather from the inside.”
“Just let me know when.”
“When I think you’re ready.”
The comment makes me sit straighter. From the looks on their faces, the others aren’t surprised. They share Damien’s uncertainty. Trust is hard to earn around here, especially after it’s been broken. But I’d do it all over again for Angel.
A howl, long and shrill, breaks the silence.
“East, towards the river,” Frank states before shifting. Tess opens the door, and one by one our wolves race out of the house.
There’s no sound of gun fire or other WSSO incursion. The sounds of children’s screams and someone yelling for help guide us to the exact location. The river.
My wolf pushes himself harder than usual, without any urging from me. The kids know not to go onto the river, but every few years, one daring teen ventures out on a challenge.
I weave through the kids running toward camp and spot Sadie Lynn running along the shore, pointing at the water. “Alex and Angel are caught in the current.”
My wolf leaps past her. Angel’s and Alex’s scent—the horrific bitterness of their fear—hit my wolf like a wall, causing him to falter when every second counts. When I shove my thoughts at him, ready to forcibly take control, he regains his footing and widens his stride, pushing himself beyond his limits.
The terrain whips by as we catch flashes of the water until their scents just… disappear. We slide to a halt on ice, feverishly scanning every inch of the water. They’re not here. They’re just… gone.
Terror shoots through. They could be trapped beneath the ice, clawing for air they can’t reach. Or snagged on submerged branches, pinned to the riverbed.
Damien’s wolf howls from the other river bank. He’s lost their scent, too.
Downstream, Hayden leaps onto a tree that’s hanging part-way into the river. He shifts and pulls a child from the edge of the water. “I have the kid, but I don’t see the female anywhere,” he shouts.
“She’s under the water,” I say as soon as I shift to human form. Just voicing the thought sickens me, but it’s the only thing that makes sense
“You don’t know that,” Damien yells over the sounds of water slapping against huge boulders in the middle of the river.
I do. Every instinct screams she’s trapped beneath the water. She’s alive. She has to be alive. Trapped, not dead. Trapped means we can still save her.
“Spread out, look for any color beneath the water, anything that doesn’t look right.”
“She should be in this section, near where Hayden found Alex,” Damien shouts.
Hayden passes the kid off to Sadie Lynn. “I’ll head downstream, in case she was swept south.”
Frank catches up to me and we spread out, twenty feet between us, searching for any sign of her along the shore or in the river. No flash of color, nothing that doesn’t belong.
What the fuck had she been wearing earlier? I watched her for nearly an hour and can’t recall a single detail of anything except her face, how she’d been laughing.
Now she’s drowning and I can’t fucking find her!
