I grab another chair and chuck it harder. “I would love to have her standing in front of me, bitching about afuckinghole in the wall!” I roar.
Ghost materializes in the kitchen, Kendrick at his back. “Any news?”
I shake my head, swallowing against the knot forming in my throat. I reach out in the bond again, plucking the thread tying me to her. It’s quiet. She’s deliberately shut me out, just like I did to her once before.
What I wouldn’t give to go back.
All those times I pushed her away. Fucking wasting time. The silence in my head is too fucking loud.
Ghost’s voice is infuriatingly calm. “No one’s seen her since the diner.” His gaze shifts to Kendrick, who absently lifts one ofthe chairs to sit in beside Orion, before noticing its splintered leg and drops it back to the floor.
“Tell me again what happened at the diner.” Andrea texted to say Mona was speaking privately with Kendrick. Between that and all her nightmares, I chalked all her strange tension up to stress. Now I’m not so sure.
Kendrick shakes his head. “We spoke. Briefly. I…” he trails off.
My voice drops to a demonic growl. “Cut the cryptic bullshit, Máni.” My forearm ripples with fur, my wolf stretching his power, sharpening my vision. He doesn’t care that we don’t stand a chance against the ancient wolf. Neither do I.
Kendrick’s brows lift curtly. He probably doesn’t hear people talk back often. I don’t fucking care.
“She was with Andrea. No one noticed when they left.”
“You didn’t?” I snarl. “You didn’t happen to notice when your long-lost fucking daughter left the building after this heart-to-heart?”
“Silas,” Orion starts, but Kendrick holds up his hand to silence him.
“No, Silas is right. I was trying to give her space. She was upset. I—” His head jerks sideways, eyes drifting off as he thinks through their conversation. “I told her I’d like to have dinner with her. And you all. Bring Lily over. She was upset before that, I’d just told her about her mother. But then… then I mentioned dinner, and she clammed up.”
“Maybe she didn’t want to fucking eat with you,” I mutter as I pace the kitchen, wearing a path in the old wooden floor.
Orion sighs, “Not helpful, Silas.” Diplomatic as always, my patient pack mate internalizes all his shit, which makes the rest of us look like assholes. Usually I appreciate it—god knows someone needs to balance out me and my brother. But rightnow, watching him stand there all fucking reasonable, I want to grab those ears and rip his head clean off his shoulders.
I turn to him and stab my finger into his chest. “Hey, remember that time I didn’t come home for dinner and you all just fucking assumed I was off being a degenerate for five years?”
Orion’s expression falls. “Silas, I’m not saying Mona just took off, she wouldn’t do that. I’m just saying… we need to hear what Kendrick has to say, so we can put the pieces together.”
The door bangs open as Grayson charges in, bringing a wave of tension with him.
I turn back to Kendrick, “So, she clammed up. Then what?”
Kendrick rubs the back of his neck. “Then nothing. I could tell she wanted to be alone. She seemed receptive to the idea of spending some time together, but when I suggested tonight specifically, she froze. Her scent changed… I assumed at the time she was just overwhelmed. But now I’m wondering if there was more to it than that.”
Grayson cuts in, voice tight. “I just saw Doc. Turns out Mona and Andrea stopped at the hospital before heading to the diner. When Doc heard they were missing, he checked a room he’d caught Mona sneaking out of earlier. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but now...” He pauses, jaw tightening. “There’s medicine missing. Healing accelerants, calming herbs. That kind of thing.”
Andrea and Mona disappear for the entire day all the time, but Mona never misses dinner. But I became suspicious hours before anyone was concerned about her absence. Something felt wrong in the bond, in my gut. Each time I reached for her through it, she seemed to slip further away.
I started looking for her hours ago. Mona can’t hide her scent. And yet, she was nowhere. It’s now almost midnight, and the last time someone saw or spoke to her was over twelve hours ago.
Orion turns to Kendrick and asks cautiously, “Was she injured when you saw her?”
Kendrick shakes his head, but Grayson answers, “Doc said she seemed and smelled perfectly fine. No injuries, he’d have noticed. But she was sneaking around the room and behaving… oddly.”
Kendrick nods. “Yes, oddly. I’d agree with that.”
Ghost crosses his arms over his chest as he fixes his gaze on me. “Did you check the cabin?”
“Yes, of course,” I snap.
“I don’t mean for her. I mean, for clues. Are any of her things missing?”
