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“I don’t have any powers,” Ruby protested. A lie. But he didn’t argue. Just shrugged again like none of this really mattered to him. Because it didn’t. It shouldn’t. Rafe had saved his sorry life during the last fight to determine who would be the next Alpha, and for that he apparently owed his brother an infinite amount of small and annoying favors. Favors to express his gratitude and ease his guilt.
“And Lena doesn’t know how to use hers,” Ruby insisted.
“If they have her, they must be banking on her figuring it out. And soon,” Theo said.
“Let’s get this meeting going.” A man’s voice called over the din of the crowd.
“What meeting?” Theo whispered.
“When I told my boss, Macy, about Lena, she insisted we tell Tom and things kind of escalated from there,” Ruby explained as though Theo knew who any of these people were. He’d lived outside of Maple Hollow for a year now, and though he did odd jobs for some of the folks in town, he didn’t make it a habit to linger. Or learn anyone’s name.
“More of a search party than a meeting, wouldn’t you say, Tom?” an older man with bushy brows chimed in.
“Thanks for clarifying that, Sal.” The first man, Tom, did not seem particularly thankful to be corrected, but he went on. “Lena Bellerose is missing and we’re going to find her.”
“You got the whole town involved?” Theo hissed, leaning forward.
“I told you, things escalated!” Ruby hissed back.
“Maybe this is a good thing. The more people looking the better. And if she’s not with the Highlanders then maybe one of these nice humans will find her,” Fee said, waving at a few men over by the bar.
Theo bit back a jealous growl.
“Ruby, why don’t you come up here, sweetheart, and tell everyone what’s going on,” Tom said, making space for her by the bar. She jostled her way through the crowd, with Rafe glued to her side.
“I haven’t seen Lena since yesterday morning,” Ruby told everyone. “Wherever she is, she didn’t take her phone, and as many of you know, my sister has … health issues, so I’m obviously very worried about her.”
“We’ll find her, Ruby!”
“Thanks, Gil,” she said with a sniffle.
“Alright, Macy has a sign-up sheet here,” Tom said, waving around a clipboard. “We’re going to pair up, and every team will be assigned a search area.”
“We have to sign up,” Fee whispered, leaning into Theo’s side.
“We do?”
She turned to look at him, her eyes wide. “Of course we do! Lena is out there somewhere. We need to help.”
Theo sighed. “Where do you think she really is?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to think she just ran off for a little adventure of her own. The poor woman was cooped up in that house for months.”
Theo’s skin prickled just thinking about being trapped like that.
“And what if the Highlanders have her?”
“Then I think you’re right. We have to be smart. Careful. But helping with this search could be a good starting place.”
“Let’s be orderly about this,” Tom was saying as he was swamped by a crowd of flannel-clad townsfolk.
“Come on!” Phoebe tugged Theo by the hand over to the bar. “We don’t want to get stuck with a lame search area.”
Seriously, how did he get himself into this?
“And who do we have here?” Sal asked, looking Theo up and down suspiciously.
“My brother. Theo,” Rafe said, and Sal’s bushy brows rose.
