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I supposed Rab had said, with some urgency, “now”.
I mounted Rabbit’s lupine back awkwardly. I’d only ridden Xander like this before, and Xander was a much bigger wolf. Rabbit, I was afraid, would give out under my weight.
He didn’t, thankfully. Before I had time to address the other awkwardness—straddling the back of wolf I’d only just met—he took off like a shot toward the ranch house, leaving me with no choice but to twine my fingers in his mane and hold on for dear life.
My heart was racing, torn between hope and fear. The babies must be inside. I could imagine no other possibility.
But if they were, why hadn’t Xander brought them to me? Why hadn’t he come out to get me himself?
Something must have gone wrong.
Rabbit deposited me on the front porch. As soon as I dismounted, my feet were moving through the front door, left ajar. Across the entry way. Down the hall, where the sound of a woman sobbing mingled with Xander and Denny’s shouts, and…
My heart stopped as I picked a fourth sound out from all the others.
Rylan.
Those were the cries of my son.
I broke into a sprint. I knew that sound better than the sound of my own voice, better than the path between my bedroom at Nana Jordan’s and the bathroom in the dark. I burst into a room that looked like it was being renovated into a nursery, ready to hold my boys in my arms again.
“You wanna get answers, or do you wanna feel like a big fuckin’ man?”
“I want my son back, you fuck. Let me at her!”
I found Xander and Denny snarling at each other, teeth bared, foreheads a mere inch away from a mutual headbutt. A blonde woman was on the floor behind Denny, sobbing, her face buried in her hands. My brain barely registered their argument or her presence at all.
Rylan was there, in Xander’s arms.
“Rylan!” I rushed to Xander and took Rylan from him. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
I clutched Rylan to my chest, heart so swollen it could burst. My nose pressed to the top of his head as I breathed in, basking in the comfort of his soft, soapy baby smell. He was dressed in a cheap blue onesie. Its fabric was scratchy and stiff beneath my palm as I rubbed his back, like it’d been put on him straight off the hanger without being washed. He quieted as I closed my eyes, rocking and cooing to him.
It was the most natural and easy thing in the world. Holding my child. Soothing his cries. Letting his heart beat against my own.
I opened my eyes to find Xander staring at me. His shoulders were tense. A vein twitched in his neck, throbbing visibly with his own heartbeat. He was angry, clearly, and Denny didn’t look too happy, either.
Something was wrong.
“Let’s all calm down,” I suggested, keeping my voice low. “You’re upsetting Rylan.” I shifted him to my hip and scanned the nursery. “Where’s Ryder? Bring him here and we can figure out the rest.”
“I—I can’t, Cheeks.” Xander shook his head. The veil of anger in his eyes lifted, revealing deep ravines of pain. “He’s not here.”
He may as well have shot me in the heart.
The next hour was a blur to me. I was awake, I was breathing, but I simply wasn’t there. I existed somewhere between my body and slightly to the left. Sounds, sights, their meanings… they all smeared together for me, distant and disconnected. Xander shouted at the woman on the floor some more. Dennis shouted at Xander in return. The woman, who wasn’t Melony, cried and cried and cried. Once, she got up and desperately tried to take Rylan from me before Denny and Xander pulled her away. I snapped back to reality for just long enough to shield him with my body and bare my teeth at her, like I was every bit as much of a wolf as Xander or Dennis.
At some point, Rabbit and Beauty entered, pulling Xander back as he launched into another tirade—half at the woman, half at Denny. At another point, someone must have helped me out of the nursery and into a chair.
I was shell-shocked, I realized. The elation of having Rylan in my arms again was met with the horror that our sons had been separated. That we had no idea where Ryder was, where he might be, when we might see him again.
If we might see him again.
This ranch had been our only lead. Now, it felt exhausted. No Melony. No Quincy. No Samuel or Lizbeth. And only one of our sons.
Rylan was all that kept me grounded. He nuzzled against my chest sweetly, fussing a little with hunger, but didn’t cry again. I kept my focus on him, tugging my shirt aside and putting him to my breast. Xander had been right—the four-hour flight here was more than enough to ensure that the glass of champagne I’d had was out of my system. We’d had enough time. Rylan latched quickly, and my chest began to tingle with warmth as he fed.
“Felicity?”
