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There’s nothing here. And the motel had a nearly full house last night according to the clerk, so he couldn’t tell us much, didn’t remember two males traveling together who would’ve checked out this morning.
Since there’s not much to go on, we decide to head back. We’re in Linc’s SUV. Jase is in the passenger seat; Joel and me are in the back.
Linc speaks up. “Know you’re sick of hearin’ it, know Ty hasn’t figured out about boundaries yet because he’s new to the pack, but brother: gotta say I agree with him. If you take care of business, your head’ll clear. You’re off your game.”
I flex my jaw muscles and stare out the window.
“Rye?” he pushes. “Maybe you didn’t smell anybody. Maybe your senses are even more off than we think.”
“Turn the music up,” is my answer.
I catch sight of his judgmental gaze in the rearview mirror. It should infuriate me to have my senses questioned, but the fact of the matter is, I’m questioning them, too.
The stereo is cranking out AC/DC’s Shoot to Thrill when Joel calls out, “Turn it down, man,” and as the song halts, Joel answers his ringing phone.
The energy in Linc’s SUV shifts and I watch Joel’s body lock tight.
“Fuck. Fuck! There in five. Cat been called? Right. Is Cicely okay? Call Mase and Ty. Yeah? Okay.” He’s looking at me as he ends the call. I’m beside him and yet I couldn’t hear the person on the phone, which is alarming.
“It was Peter,” Joel says, “He was on security cameras with Gus. Unknown wolf shifters turned up at the four corners and Gus ran to check it out but didn’t get there fast enough. Cicely got knocked unconscious when she tried to intervene.”
“With what? What happened?” I demand.
“Pete watched two unknown shifters approach the four corners as wolves. One ran into Riley’s Erica. She was getting out of her van, heading for Cicely’s door when he shifted to man and…” Joel looks me in the eyes and finishes with, “Cicely ran out. One hit her, knocking her out. Camera shows the other took off with your woman.”
Took off with her…
Took her?
I blink.
As it penetrates, my blood turns cold. Then it shifts and my blood pumps so hard and hot in my ears, my head might explode.
“Riley,” Jase says from the front seat. “Hold it together, brother.”
My throat is a desert. My chest burns.
Someone lays a hand on my forearm, and I hear, “Gonna be all right, bud.”
I left her in a van at the four corners. Someone took her. Someone probably related to Grey’s mate who was trying to kill Tyson, who poisoned several of our alphas. Because I left her in a fuckin’ van in a dark parking lot. Because my head’s been out of it.
He took my… my…
My vision blurs as rage seeps into my veins, shunting to my extremities. Soaking my skin from the inside out. This vehicle isn’t moving fast enough. My lungs are filling with water, like I’m drowning, like I’m back in the river searching for her, holding my breath until I can’t hold it anymore, coming to the surface to gasp for air as my vision blackens around the edges. Swimming. The memory of my muscles aching floods, exerting until they burned trying to find her, desperate to get to her, unable to see her, unable to –
“Riley.” Joel says. “We’re almost there.”
“Stop the car,” I clip, expecting my voice to be garbled, expecting water to force itself out of my lungs.
I can’t compute. I can’t.
Lincoln pulls over and before his Bronco comes to a complete stop, I’m ripping my seatbelt off, shredding my clothes as I yank them off and shifting as soon as I’ve got the door open.
I’m wolf.
Nose to the ground.
Paws pounding the pavement.
Finding her.
I’ll fuckin’ find her. And I’ll rip that wolf apart. That wolf that dared touch my mate.
I immediately sense her scent on the breeze, wafting through the air. Nothing else penetrates, not the car slowly following behind me, not the two wolves now flanking me as I run at full speed, knowing exactly where I’m going, what I’m doing, and why.
I smell her. I smell him. And she’s in distress.
***
“That didn’t take long. Give me the female your pack took, and I’ll give you yours,” one of the assholes I smelled the night before sneers, a gun pointed at me. “Take one step closer, and you’re done.”
I shift to human form.
I don’t know how much time it took to find her, but it didn’t feel like long. I had a single-minded focus, details of how I got here already hazy, but I know I found her within minutes of getting out of the Bronco by running through the thick brush not far from Mase’s place.
My eyes dart around the dark space and I see her behind him, bound and gagged, eyes filled with fear. Copper hair messy. Blood? A small cut on her toe.
