AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The key isn’t in the door. Silas probably took it. I doubt Carter would have. He loses his keys so often we stopped giving him a set after we changed the locks the last time. He’s never alone so it’s never been an issue.
I open the door and step out into the yard.
It’s dark out with no illumination at the back of the house. The front is always well lit from the street, but it doesn’t reach back this far. The woods look like a void beyond the low fence that blocks them off from the yard. Even with shifter vision, I can’t see very far.
What I can see seems to confirm that my pack brothers are still out somewhere in their shifted forms. I take a few steps toward the fence until my vision adjusts and confirms my suspicions.
Two piles of clothes. Silas’ are neatly stacked on the fence. Carter’s have been thrown off and dropped on the grass haphazardly a few feet away from the fence.
They’re still out running somewhere.
It’s not like either of them to stay out for this long. I go over and pick through Silas’ pockets until I find the keys. I consider taking their clothes inside too, and I end up moving Carter’s to the fence instead. It’s inching closer to daybreak now. They might not get home before it’s light out. I’d better leave them some dignity. Our neighbors are nosy enough. We don’t need to give them something else to talk about.
I head back to the house and lock the door behind me once I’m inside.
Going upstairs, I check on Rachel before I lay down on top of the bed beside her.
Sleeping is the last thing I feel like doing, but if Carter and Silas are in serious trouble, I’ll dream about it and that might give me a starting point for finding them. If they’re fine, they’ll wake me to get back inside. I’m fine with either, so I close my eyes and wait for sleep to claim me.
Chapter Sixteen
Carter
Silasisactuallyhavingfun for once. I’m kind of shocked, I’ll admit. I didn’t think he knew how. I mean, I suspected Rachel could coax a more playful side out of him, but I never thought I’d see it.
It seems like the kind of thing he’ll scowl at me for bringing up later, when he’s back to one of his usual moods.
I guess I should enjoy it while I can.
His wolf leads mine on a merry chase through the woods that lead into Wolf Creek. We avoid the area around the murder cabin, thankfully, but he does manage to find a partially hidden creek that I didn’t know about. He stops running at the other side of it, after I misjudge the jump and thoroughly soak myself in the icy-cold water.
After a couple of seriously unsuccessful attempts to bolt up the high bank, I decide it’s going to be easier in my human form. By the time I’ve shifted, I see Silas has done the same.
He shakes his head as he offers a hand to help pull me up the steep incline and out of the freezing cold edge of the creek.
“How the hell did you manage to fall in?” he asks, amusement in his tone.
I grab his hand with both of mine and let him pull me out of the water, my teeth chattering just a little as my feet clamber on the slippery grass. Silas uses his other arm to lift me higher, basically throwing me over his shoulder before getting to his feet and carrying me away from the river.
He puts me down on dry ground, and I wrap my arms around my middle as I look around.
“I don’t recognize this place,” I tell him, my voice shaking a little. “Where are we?”
I’m probably going to feel cold for the rest of the night now. Even after I warm back up. The water was like an ice-bath. My breath exited my body when I hit the surface and it took longer than I would have liked to return.
He shrugs, his gaze moving upward. The moon is full tonight. Maybe that’s why he seems so easy about being out here. It’s natural for wolf shifters to be in their shifted forms on a full moon.
“Should we head back?” I ask, wondering how much time has passed since we left the house.
“I guess we could,” he tells me.
He doesn’t want to. I don’t need to read his mind to tell.
He just found out his dad has been in Wolf Creek this whole time, while he was raised by an aunt who didn’t really understand him or his weird abilities. I’d want to run until my legs stopped working if I discovered something that big, too. If he wants to keep running, I’ll keep him company.
I doubt I’m the one he wants to talk to when he runs out of steam, but our mate isn’t here.
He’ll have to make do with me, the annoying kid brother of our small pack.
