Cillian left, closing the door behind him and leaving Jasper alone with his thoughts.
Tapping his pencil against the desk, he mulled everything over, trying to get a grasp on his thoughts and emotions, still reeling from the revelations that had just slammed into him like a truck.
He was in love with Nikki. It should have been obvious long before now, but sometimes you needed someone to slap some sense into you. And she had done just that. She’d been right. He’d been acting no better than his father.
Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair, staring down at his desk, trying to figure out what he was going to do. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he needed to talk to Nikki before it was too late.
After a long moment, his thoughts still swirling, he shoved himself away from his desk and hurried out of the pack house, heading back home.
***
He realized something was wrong the second the house came into view.
There was nothing out of the ordinary from the front. It was more of an odd sense than anything tangible, but he could tell that there was something off. Over the years, he’d learned to trust his instincts, and this was no exception. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and his eyes narrowed.
He slowed, coming to a stop, eyes sweeping around the perimeter, checking for any sign of intruders. When he rounded the house and saw the back door, he came to a halt, the world around him seeming to go quiet.
The back door was cracked open.
He couldn’t force himself to move at first, his eyes locked on that sight, as if willing it to change. Because while an open door might mean nothing, he had a sinking feeling that wasn’t the case here.
It could just be Nikki, he told himself.She could have stepped out for some reason, and that’s why she left the door open. Or maybe she came back in and forgot to close the door.
But that didn’t sound like Nikki at all. She may be stubborn and have a fierce streak, but she was cautious. She would never do something as stupid as leave the door open.
He moved slowly, ears pricked for any sign of an intruder or deceit. When he heard nothing, he moved a bit faster, still praying that he was overreacting and this would be something he and Nikki could laugh over when it was finished.
He wanted to call out her name, but held off. If there was someone inside, he didn’t want to tip them off that he was home, that he was creeping inside the house at that very moment. Taking a moment to listen, he pricked his ears, hunting for any sounds inside. Nothing. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
He nudged the door open. It was silent inside. Nikki’s scent was stale, and it was mixed with the stench of three or four other shifters.
His heart sank when he caught the smells, but he held fast. He crept into the kitchen, still moving quietly and slowly in case it was an ambush. When he had satisfied himself that there was no sign someone was going to attack him from the shadows, he hurried his pace.
“Nikki!” he called, stepping into the living room. “Nikki, are you here?”
The house remained silent. He waited, hoping against hope that he would hear the creak of a floorboard or the sound of the shower, and that was why she wasn’t answering. But he was greeted by nothing.
“Nikki, if you’re here, then you need to tell me!”
Still nothing. The only sounds in the house were his breathing and his footsteps as he moved through the rooms.
He made his way up to her room. The door was wide open. She never left it open. He stepped inside, searching for any sign she had been here recently.
The first thing he noticed was the suitcase, open and empty on the bed. Had she left? Was that what had happened? If that were the case, her suitcase would be gone, not here and vacant. A cold breeze brushed his face, and he saw the open window.
He sprinted around the house, searching in every corner, every nook he could think of, calling Nikki’s name the entire time. After some time and searching each room multiple times, he slowed to a stop in the living room, finally accepting what he had been refusing to admit since he walked in: Nikki was gone.
His mind spun. She might have been furious with him, but she hadn’t gone of her own accord; she would have taken the suitcase if she had. Also, there was no note, and nothing explained the open door, the open window, and the scents of the other shifters.
He caught another whiff of a shifter’s scent. A jolt of pure fury lanced through him as one of the scents brought him back to the mountain, when Vincent had been dragging her away.
He froze, his body stiffening with rage at that smell. Vincent had been here. He had broken into their home, and now Nikki was missing. He knew what it meant. There was only one explanation, one that he had known was the truth since the beginning but had hoped against hope he was wrong about.
Nikki had been kidnapped. Lucas had her.
Without giving himself time to think, he jerked out his phone.
“Change of plans,” Jasper said when Camden answered, gripping the phone so tight that he was in danger of breaking it at any moment. “We’re attacking the hideout now.”
