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“Anything?” I asked gently, my voice quiet so it didn’t startle her.
“Not really,” Nyx sighed. “She’s unconscious, dehydrated, weak, definitely a wolf but even that scent is faint. She’s been through hell.”
“Poor girl,” I said. Tears burned at my eyes for all her pain.
“No one lets Vanya out of our sights,” Nyx growled. “If this is how he treats women, he doesn’t fucking get her.”
“There’s something in her pocket,” Callum said, reaching into the small pocket on her dress and pulling out a folded-up picture. “It’s her.”
“Let me see,” I said, snatching it before he had a chance to move. It was the girl, wearing the same dress. She was locked in some sort of shed with dirt floors. She was cowering near a wall, squinting at the bright flash of the camera. Her wrists were bound in rope and her body dirty. But it was the fear clear on her face that truly got to me. What the fuck happened to her… and why?
The moment I finished inspecting it, I was off, rushing to the computers and waving the photo in Antonio’s face. “Tell me you can find out who she is from this photo?!”
“Of course I can,” he said confidently, taking the image and heading for his computer. He put the picture in the scanner and a moment later it was on his screen. He worked for a few minutes before an entire array of missing persons posts and articles popped up. “She’s from New York.”
“What?” I asked, shocked. “How did she get here?”
“Who knows. That means we might have been looking way too close to find out where he was from,” he admitted. “Her name is Ava Malone. She’s twenty-four and has been missing… Oh gods. For four years, Vanya.”
“This is terrible,” I said heavily as I sat down, my chest aching for the pain this poor girl endured for all those years. Was his pack just as terrible as he was or was he telling the truth the first time we met and he was a lone wolf. A sadistic, murderous lone wolf, but still working alone.
“She’s getting fluids, but I need a cot in here. She needs someone around the clock,” Nyx said as he came out, Callum and Leven right behind him. Everyone was somber at that.
“She’s going to be so scared,” I said quietly. “Antonio found her though.”
They turned their attention to him as he told them everything he’d just explained to me about who she was.
“Is there a number to call?” Callum asked but I cut him off.
“No!” It was so loud they all started, looking over at me with wide eyes. “You don’t know who did that to her. What if that person is who you call and you hand her right back to them?”
Callum’s face fell. “Fuck.”
“Not every alpha is as good as you, Callum,” I said gently. “Let her heal here safely then she can tell us who she wants to see.”
“All right,” he relented with a sigh. “I just don’t like where this is going. We thought he was escalating before, but this… is different.”
“He has to have a place nearby,” I said. “Or his pack is. There’s no way he just has her waiting in his car somewhere and he was just here, he couldn’t have moved her that quickly otherwise.”
“I’ve checked every security feed I can in the territory,” Antonio said. “I haven’t found anything.”
“He’s smart, he knows where the cameras are. He’d check it out and blend into crowds until he scouted an area,” I countered.
“How do you know so much about trackers?”
“I don’t. I just know how these packs work,” I said evenly. “And to get someone like him, you have to think like him. What are his biggest threats right now? Cameras and getting too close.”
“He’s not afraid to get close. He scaled our walls and put blades under our car door handles,” Leven deadpanned.
“Look, I’m just guessing,” I ground out, my voice rising with each word. Nyx walked around and pulled me into a hug, holding me tight against his body.
“Baby, he’s not going to get you,” he whispered in my ear. I didn’t speak. I couldn’t if I wanted to, emotions were choking at me from fear to worry to sadness for this woman and any others he might have hurt. “I promise that we’ll keep you close, okay? No matter what he tries, you’ve got a whole pack behind you. You’re not alone anymore and neither is she.”
I just wished I believed him. Because right now I knew it was only a matter of time before he struck. Would I be strong enough to survive like she did?
ChapterNineteen
Vanya
