Hawke
Tracking Maddie wouldn’t be hard—security cam footage confirmed she’d stashed her luggage in the car not long after I’d left the cabin, then hit the road on foot about ten minutes later, heading toward town.
And tracking people down? Hell, my wolf was practicallymadefor that shit.
Problem was—after everything I’d put her through tonight—Maddie damn sure didn’t need to see me wolf out. Girl probably had no idea supernaturals even existed, despite the fact that she lived in the same city where the royal vampire family ruled the roost and—last I’d heard—spent most of their nights battling for dominance in an endless circle-jerk with the city’s various demonic crime syndicates. Every last one of those fanged and furred fuckers—and yeah, I counted myself among them—came with a whole mess of darkness and violence humans were much better off not knowing about.
Especially sweet, innocent humans like Maddie.
But as much as I’d love to sidestep an existential crisis over the whole monsters-are-real revelation, I couldn’t. Time was the enemy in an exposure scenario like this. Maddie didn’t have the proper winter gear, and at this altitude, with a below-zero wind chill, even twenty minutes out in the elements could lead to severe hypothermia—and that wasn’t even taking into account her medical situation.
I was fucking clueless.
I must be a real bastard for her to risk freezing to death just to get away from me…
Fresh guilt gnawed at my chest, but that burn was no less than I deserved.
Without another thought, I stripped out of my clothes and headed back out, shifting the instant my feet hit the snow.
The familiar pain tore through my body as I changed from man to wolf and finally set off, following her footprints and her sweet, warm scent.
Usually when I shifted, I let the wolf take over completely, his animalistic thoughts and instincts taking charge while I checked out of my human mind, grateful for the break. But tonight, I needed both.
The wolf could track her, but it was the man who’d have to bring her back. Who’d have to try not to scare the fuck out of her. Who’d have to make her understand that the world was filled with more nightmares than she’d ever imagined.
And, as hard as it was to admit, it was the man who’d have to fucking apologize for treating her like shit—and hope like hell she could find it in her heart to forgive me.
I loped down the dark road, careful not to lose her trail. The wind was a real menace now, whipping through my fur and making it hard to see. Hard to fucking concentrate.
There wasn’t a single vehicle on the road, the night so dark and stormy I felt like I was trapped inside a snow globe. Every time the snow let up for one lousy second, someone picked up the world and gave it another good, hard shake, blinding me once again.
Fifteen minutes on, andfuck, still no sign of her. Just the footprints that were quickly filling with fresh snow. Even her scent was beginning to fade.
I followed the half-buried trail down the main road until the footprints forked onto a service road that led into Rocky Mountain National Park.
If I could’ve cursed into the wind just then, I fucking would have. Instead, all I could do was howl.
My heart slammed inside my chest, desperation making the wolf as antsy as it made the man. Bad news.Realfucking bad. The snow was deeper here than on the main road, and a mile or two in, she’d end up in the back country.
Or worse.
Eight thousand feet up, there were plenty of places to fall off the edge of the earth, never to be heard from again.
Come on, Cupcake. Where the fuck are you?
I plodded through the snow, scanning ahead for a flash of color against the blinding white backdrop—that ridiculous bubblegum coat, the green scarf, a lock of flame-red hair,anything…
I was about to bolt back home and call therealsearch-and-rescue, call in every last favor I had just to get a chopper up here and some boots on the ground. But that plan was already a no-go; the phones were still down, and my sat-phone had crapped out months ago.
Nope. This was on me. Ihadto fucking find her—no room for failure on this one.
I continued on, following her trail through the thick blanket of snow. No one else had been through here, and the footprints were relatively fresh, which meant she couldn’t have gotten too far…
The wind shifted, carrying the scent of something sweet and familiar to my senses. Vanilla. Fucking vanilla and nutmeg and the first shred of hope I’d felt in an hour.
I charged ahead, and there, like a fucking miracle, I saw it. Something bright pink and puffy shuffling through the trees about thirty yards ahead.
I broke into a run. Poor girl was dragging ass, barely lifting her feet, every step a challenge. Then, finally, she stopped. Just stopped and looked up at the sky like she was five seconds from giving up.
