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Kodiak got into his old car, a 1960s Kingswood, parked in front of the clubhouse. While his car was old, with its faded blue stripe painted down the middle, he’d lovingly restored it, and it was reliable.
The car’s engine roared as he pumped the gas, put it in reverse, and skidded out of the clubhouse through the open gate.
The perimeter of their land was marked with a high wire-mesh fence, with five angled strands of barbed wire. The fence enclosed the front of the land that the wolf shifters had claimed as theirs. They didn’t need any humans snooping around while they changed forms. And the pack liked their privacy.
The clubhouse conveniently stood adjacent to the bushland reserve, which extended to the park before stretching into urban territory. The shifters had enough space to roam when needed, and if they had the desire to hunt, then it only required a few hours’ trip into the country. There, plenty of space and bush lay undisturbed, so they could allow their wolf sides to roam free.
Of course, he loved to go to into the wilds of the Blue Mountains, deep into the bush where people didn’t go.
The thought of running free, of the bush and the mountains, usually calmed him. But not, it seemed, right then.
Kodiak slowed at the end of the short driveway before turning left and pressing down hard on the accelerator. The tires skidded for a moment before the car lurched forward. He gripped the steering wheel, taking a deep breath to settle himself. The last thing he needed was to get in an accident before another vampire found Tamaska.
He made it to the edge of the park, where they’d shared a late lunch only a few hours ago. After pulling the car into a parking bay, he left the engine running, opened the door, and got out. And inhaled deeply.
Tamaska’s scent somehow still lingered on the air.
It shouldn’t because it wasn’t fresh. She’d left long before in the taxi. This was her aroma from earlier. And he could taste it.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on it, letting the scent of her flow through him as he tried to pick up the direction she’d gone. Her feminine muskiness flowed into his blood, down into his bones, and breathed her through him. Memories of their lovemaking resurfaced, and his body tightened with need.
It would be so much easier if he didn’t give a fuck about her, if he didn’t want her.
But he did, and those things had a way of complicating things, muddying paths. Of pulling him in directions he didn’t want to think about, let alone go down.
Shit, he needed to stay on his mission, keep things compartmentalized.
That was the way to do it. Set emotions and needs aside.
Hand on the top of the old Kingswood, he turned his head as he continued to breathe her in, his wolf following the trail of her scent on the breeze, too.
He peered toward the tree line. He shivered as he recalled the stare Tamaska had given him. It chilled him to his core.
When Kodiak picked the direction where her scent seemed strongest, he got back into the car and put his hands on the wheel.
Thing was, he picked the direction the cab had gone, not her destination. The aroma of her seemed to cling to the air here because this was where they’d spent time, where…
His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel as he tightened his hold.
He tried to maintain his resolve. First, he had to find her. And that would take some deductive thinking. Where would Tamaska go?
Instinct said home, but that was knee-jerk instinct. She wouldn’t run straight home. She might be scared, might think she hated him right now, might want to hide, but that wasn’t her. She didn’t run and hide. She fought.
Except maybe she wanted to run from him.
With a slow, steady breath, he forced himself to calm. One thing at a time. Right now he needed to find her and keep her safe. He needed to convince her she needed him to stay alive.
After that? After the Blood Opal was out of the hands of the vampires and destroyed, then he could move on to the next thing. Like convince her that he wasn’t some kind of monster just because he could change into a wolf.
Once he’d done that, he could try to change Olcan’s mind about allowing a relationship between a shifter and a human woman. Or make that challenge for leadership.
No, the challenge would happen at some point, but he’d rather it didn’t happen at the same time as his appeal for a change of rules. That would look like he challenged over her, and then—
Once thing at a time.
He didn’t need to follow her scent any more to know where she’d gone.
The damned nightclub.
