“Take a small team. Follow the lead. Don’t go charging in blind,” had been Cooper’s parting words when I spoke to him in his office.
That last part echoed in my head. Blind. That was exactly what this felt like. I exited the main pack house and headed across the yard toward the garage where the trucks were parked.
The late morning air carried the smell of pine and sun-warmed earth. A couple of pack members were sparring in the field nearby, the thud of bodies hitting the mat carrying across the open space. Normal life.
Meanwhile, we were chasing shadows. Gino was already leaning against his truck when I reached the gravel lot. He straightened when he saw me coming.
“How did it go?” he asked.
“Cooper approved the run,” I said. “We’re checking the location Mason gave us.”
Gino’s eyebrows lifted slightly, but he didn’t question it. That was one thing I appreciated about him. When things got serious, he locked in.
“I’ll grab Marco and Tyler,” he said, referring to two other trackers on our team.
“Good,” I said.
Within minutes, the three of them were gathered by the trucks. The tracker unit wasn’t large, but we had the best noses and instincts in the pack.
Which meant if something was wrong out there, they’d feel it before I did. Right now, when it came to Mason, my instincts were tangled up in too many emotions to trust completely.
That was why I was relying on my other team members. Their heads were clear, and they’d catch anything I might miss. Mason appeared a moment later.
He was wearing jeans and a dark shirt under a lightweight jacket. The clean lines of the clothes made his lean build stand out, and the wind tugged lightly at his dark hair as he walked toward us. For a split second, my wolf stirred with quiet approval.
I shoved the reaction down before it could turn into anything else.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
A round of nods answered me.
“Gino,” I said, tossing him the keys to the second truck. “You take Marco and Tyler. Stay behind us.”
“You got it.”
Mason slid into the passenger seat of my truck while the others piled into Gino’s. Gravel crunched under the tires as both engines rumbled to life. I pulled out first.
The road leading away from packlands curved through thick forest before connecting to the highway.
Inside the truck, silence settled almost immediately. I kept both hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, but my mind wasn’t anywhere near the asphalt.
It had been earlier that morning when Nico called. The memory pushed its way forward whether I wanted it to or not.
“Everything okay?” I asked when I answered.
“Yeah, I guess,” Nico said, sounding hesitant. “It’s probably nothing.”
That alone had put me on alert.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure if I should mention it,” he said. “I caught Mason near the basement stairs the other day.”
“Near the basement?”
“It looked like he was trying to get down there,” Nico explained. “He said he got turned around and was looking for the laundry. Could’ve been the truth. The house is confusing if you’re new.”
My jaw had tightened.
