“You have to get her back!” John yelled. “Sarah ran away!”
Chapter Seventeen
Still wearing pajamas, she stumbled out of their room and down the hallway to Anthea’s room…only to find a note on the door saying “Need some privacy. Be back tomorrow.”
When she ran to the cave of the clan leader, Bryant, he threw open the door yawning and grumbling. Bryant was Anthea’s older brother, and he was every bit as grouchy as Anthea. “I’m sure she’ll be back in the morning,” he growled.
“You don’t know that! There are men who are after her!” Dakota cried, panicked. “You have to help me search for her!”
At that, he drew himself up and let out a snarl. “I don’t have to help you do anything. You don’t give me orders. You wolves think you own the place. Get out, now.”
“What?” Dakota felt panic squeezing her throat. “I’m not giving you orders, I’m begging for your help!”
“Oh, and now I’m a liar?” He reached to the side of the door, grabbed a set of keys off a key rack, and threw them at her. “You and the cubs. Get out. I’m being a nice guy and letting you drive my truck, and you’d better bring it out tomorrow. That offer lasts for the next sixty seconds.” And he slammed the door in her face.
Had the whole world gone mad? How could he think that Sarah was all right?
Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Sarah needs you.She grabbed the keys, rounded up all the cubs, and drove over to the Fenris Pack grounds, trying not to let them see how worried she was.
“Miles will help us find her,” she assured the cubs. They were surprisingly calm, considering the circumstances. She knew they thought of their big sister as invincible. She wasn’t as confident. She knew Sarah was tough and scrappy, and sneaky, but Sarah also weighed about eighty pounds soaking wet. Scrappy would only get her so far, especially if she was up against more men sent by her grandfather’s pack.
As they headed down the drive that led to the pack property, Dakota reached out with her mind and tried to feel for Miles, but she couldn’t sense him anywhere. Did that mean he wasn’t home, or was their connection broken? She couldn’t bear to think that was the case.
Quickly, she parked in front of Miles’s cabin. Baldwin and Naomi ran over as she climbed out.
“You came,” Naomi cried, looking relieved. “I’m so glad you’re here. Maybe you can talk him down.”
“Talk who down? I came because Sarah ran away, and the bears won’t help me, and…”
The cubs had all scrambled out of the truck by then, and they crowded around Naomi, hugging her.
“I missed you!” Naomi said.
“We missed you too! Her cooking is terrible,” John announced.
“It’s very bad,” Mary agreed. Then she looked up at Dakota and shrugged. “Sorry.”
“We have more important things to worry about than my lack of skill in the kitchen,” Dakota said, exasperated.
“No we don’t,” John said indignantly. “We might starve.”
“Or break a tooth,” Sailor added, yawning.
By then, Anders and Jefferson and half a dozen other pack members were hurrying towards them. Baldwin scowled at her, and Dakota stared at him in shock. Baldwin was the most mild-mannered shifter she’d ever met; she’d never seen him mad before. And now he was mad at her? Could this night get any worse?
“Miles turned wolf after you left, and he can’t turn back,” Baldwin said grimly. “He’s trapped inside himself. When anyone tries to talk to him, even me, he lunges and snarls and drives us back.”
“Oh no.” She felt a tidal wave of fear overwhelming her. “I had no idea. Nobody told me. Why didn’t someone come get me?”
Baldwin made an impatient gesture at her; she’d never seen him so stressed. “Sarah ran away from the bear’s territory,” he told Anders.
“Fucking A,” Anders swore. “We need this like a hole in the head right now. And you…” He glared at Dakota. At that, Naomi stamped her foot.
“You guys!” Naomi said indignantly. “It’s not her fault. She didn’t even know. And she didn’t make him go feral. You both said it was a long time coming. I heard you.”
“She ran off when he needed her!” Baldwin growled.
“He drove her off!” the normally meek Naomi growled right back.
