by Sophie Stern
“We should just do it,” I shrug.
“I think that would be best,” Maxwell looks tired, but both my father and I know that he’s right. If we don’t go, we’re going to have a mutiny on our hands because the wolves are going to panic and they’re going to take off. They’re going to flee to different places and then the rumors will begin that the Greystone Pack can’t take care of its own.
Well, we can.
We can, and we will.
“All right,” I tell my dad. “At dusk, we run.”
LILY AGREES TO STAY with Heather while Gaston, Maxwell, my dad, and I take the shifters for a run. I leave one man behind to guard the girls. Lily knows, but I still haven’t admitted this to Heather. Would she feel uncomfortable if she knew I was having someone watching her? Would it make her feel bad?
I push the thought aside as we all leave the school. For runs like this, we change in the school locker rooms and shift into our wolf forms before coming outside. It’s easier this way since it means our clothes are safely left indoors. If we’re outside when it starts to rain, we don’t have to worry about clothing becoming damaged.
My father leads the way, and we start to run. We make it through the first mile smoothly and without incident. Being beneath the full moon feels wonderful. I love running in my wolf form because it makes me feel like everything is right with the world.
It makes me feel free.
The wind blows against my face and all I can focus on is how wonderful I feel running with my pack. We run through fields and over hills. We don’t always follow the same paths when we run, and tonight is no exception. My father leads us over a stream and then into the woods, but we never slow down. We just keep moving.
While we’re in the woods, we can still feel the moon shining down on us, offering us hope, offering us the reminder that no matter what happens with us in life, things are going to be okay. Things are going to be fine. Everything is going to be absolutely wonderful.
And then we leap over a fallen tree.
We splash through a tiny pond.
We jump over rocks and scurry through a tunnel.
We keep moving until we emerge on the other side of the woods.
Then Maxwell takes over. He leads us to a waterfall where there’s a swimming hole. The wolves don’t need to be pushed or prodded. Instead, they leap right into the water, ready to splash and play. It’s a wonderful feeling being free like this, and I’m suddenly filled with the urge to bring Heather here sometime.
My dreams have become stronger since we’ve been so close.
So have my headaches.
I won’t complain to her, but being this close and not mating her has been taking its toll on me. I’m not sleeping well because every dream is filled with visions of her. I dream of her touch. I dream of her skin. I dream of her scent. I dream of us coming together.
Before I met her, my mating dreams consisted of normal, ordinary dreams. Some of them were sexy, sure, but I could never see the woman in my dreams clearly. I couldn’t see her face, anyway. I never knew who the mystery girl was, but I know now.
Now every time I dream, I see her face, and I wonder what I can do to make the dreams stop.
My father looks over at me. He and Maxwell are sitting primly, watching the pack swim. I’m a short distance from them, but I’m also watching. I’m not participating in the reindeer games today because I’m much too preoccupied with everything that’s been going on in my life.
Wanting someone like Heather is a horrible idea.
Surely there must be a way to break the mating claim if she doesn’t want me.
Right?
I mean, besides, she’s a human, so it’s not like she’d want to spend her entire life mated to a pack. Unfortunately, being a wolf shifter isn’t quite like movies tend to represent. I can’t bite her and turn her into a wolf like me. Shifters are born, not made, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.
For any of us.
After a while, my father howls, letting the wolves know that it’s time to return to the school. We’ve been running for hours, and we’re tired, and it’s time to go back. Everyone has stuff to do tomorrow, so none of us should be out too late. Once everyone is present and accounted for, we run back through the woods.
This time, we take a more direct approach that goes by a fallen tree house and the abandoned fort. My father and Maxwell are up ahead, followed by several of the male high schoolers. I’m bringing up the rear near Erin, Megan, and a few of the other teenagers. There are plenty of adult shifters, too, though. It’s a big group tonight.
A tree brushes against me in the dark, and I get chills. Something about the forest just sees uncomfortable tonight. We move over little creeks and through the underbrush, and then we finally arrive back home. By the time we get there, I’m worn out and tired, but happily exhausted. My father turns to the group and starts counting, carefully making sure that everyone is present, but a look of frustration covers his face and I see him counting again.
That’s when I turn around and look at the group of wolves sitting carefully.
He’s right, we’re one short.
Erin was with us at the swimming hole, but there’s no denying the fact that right now, she’s suddenly gone.
Fuck.
Chapter Fifteen
Heather
“Shit,” Lily says, running to the window when she hears the howls. “Something’s wrong.”
We can’t see the pack from the smaller castle, but she looks at me and nods.
“We’ve got to go,” she tells me. “We need to see what happened.”
Together, we take off out of the apartment. My not-so-secret bodyguard emerges from the shadows and follows after us, but both Lily and I ignore him and essentially pretend he’s not there. We rush down the hall, down the stairs, and out into the darkness. My body guard catches up and looks at me, but I shake my head at him.
“I’m not running away,” I tell him. “I need to see Flynn. Can you help me get there?”
He looks slightly uncomfortable with the fact that I’ve basically called him out, but he nods and takes the lead. He shows me quickly through the forest. Lily is already ahead of us as we move. By the time we reach the group, she’s by Maxwell’s side, and my body guard pauses at the edge of the group. Flynn sees us and his eyes narrow, but he comes over and I rush to him. I hug him, and he seems surprised by this.
“You’re okay,” I breathe out. He’s naked and muddy and sweaty, but he’s here and he’s fine. A woman comes out of the main castle and starts handing out sweats to everyone who needs clothes. Apparently, what happened was bad enough that nobody else wants to wander off alone.
“I’m fine,” he says, but he’s shaken.
“What happened?”
“Erin’s gone. Someone took her.”
Fuck.
My chest suddenly feels tight, and I can’t help but feel like this was all my fault. I sit down on the ground, suddenly, and Flynn is beside me.
“What are we going to do?” I whisper.
“You’re going to go back to the bedroom,” he tells me. “The adults are going to go search the woods. We should be able to pick up his scent.” Flynn looks at my body guard and nods. “You come with me,” he says. “Heather can be trusted to go back to the room.”
“I have to do something,” I say. “What can I do?”
“Nothing,” he shrugs sadly, and my heart hurts even more. “There’s nothing that can be done.”
I can’t believe that’s true, though. I can’t believe that after all of this, that’s all there is. I can’t believe that Erin has been stolen away because of my books, but then something hits me.
“The shifters,” I say. “The other shifters. Maybe there’s something about them that’s distinctive,” I tell him. “Maybe there’s a reason they were taken. If we can figure out a pattern or something, then maybe we can figure out where this guy is taking Erin.”
Flynn says nothing for a moment, and then he
nods.
“Lily!”
Lily breaks away from Gaston and they both walk over.
“I want you to go back to my room with Heather. Make a list of characteristics of the shifters who have gone missing,” he says. “Try to figure out if they appear in any of Heather’s books. You know her stories as well as she does, I’m guessing, so try to see if anything stands out. If they’re represented in any books, then maybe we’ll get a clue as to where they’re being held or why they’re being taken.” He shakes his head. “Who knows? Maybe this is all the work of a deranged fan.”
He turns and walks away, and Gaston turns to me.
“You two go straight back to the little castle,” he says. “No wandering off.”
“Got it,” I say.
When we get back to the room, I grab a notebook and look at Lily.
“Okay, what can you tell me about the first guy who went missing? Frank, right?”
“Yeah,” she nods. She sits down and Maple and Syrup both hop on her lap. It makes me happy that they like her so much: that they trust her. “Older guy. He had a scar on his right cheek from when he got in a fight with a bear one time.”
We both stare at each other, blinking.
“The Werewolf’s Mystery Child!” We both say at the same time.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. In that book, wolves go missing during the hunt for a lost child. The baby was lost in the forest and the wolf pack tries to find the child so they can save it. Four different wolves go missing. The first was an old werewolf who had a huge scar on his face.
“Angela was the second girl, I say. Was she snarky and fun and a bit of a partier?”
“Yes.”
“And Leah was older,” I say. “Kind of a motherly figure?”
“Yeah, she was constantly baking.”
“Chocolate chip cookies with frosting on top?”
“Exactly that.”
“Fuck.”
I’d identified the wolves as potential characters in my books already, but never like this. I’d never been able to connect them all to a single story the way that we’re doing now, and it gives me chills as I realize that something isn’t quite right with the way tonight has played out.
“There’s a problem with this theory, though,” Lily points out. “Erin shouldn’t have been victim number four.”
“No, she shouldn’t have,” I agree. In the book, the shifters who are kidnapped are taken because they’re secretly villains. The person taking them is someone who wants to save the missing kid, but who stumbles upon a secret plot in the wolf pack. He captures the wolves – four of them – and hides them in the forest in a tower that’s long been abandoned and forgotten.
The fourth victim wasn’t a high school female, though.
It was the pack leader’s son.
Flynn.
“He’s in danger,” I whisper.
“Erin wasn’t the one who was supposed to be targeted tonight,” Lily agrees. “And Flynn is out there right now looking for her.”
“If the guy behind this is trying to catch Flynn, then he’s not planning on keeping Erin.”
“He’s using her as bait.”
“Fuck.”
“We need to get to Maxwell and Gerald,” she says. “They stayed behind. They’ll know what to do.”
“Let’s go.”
We take off running toward the main castle. Gerald and Maxwell are sitting pensively in Gerald’s office, and they look up when we enter.
“Ladies, I believe you’re supposed to be in your chambers for the night,” Maxwell says, but I shake my head.
“Something’s wrong,” I tell them. “We figured out the pattern.”
Quickly, we explain our theory. Someone read my books and is trying to replicate one of the stories. He’s capturing the wolves and is hiding them away in a tower in the woods.
“Runestone Tower,” the two men say together.
“Where’s that?” I ask.
“It’s in the darkness of the forest,” Gerald says. “Nobody goes there anymore.”
“Well, this guy is after Flynn, and that’s where he’s going to take him.”
“We’ll go at once,” Gerald says.
“You have to take me with you,” I say.
Both of the men laugh.
“There’s no chance of us taking a human out there with us,” Maxwell says. “And I don’t say this to be offensive, love, but you’ll slow us down.”
“Not if this guy is some sort of fan. If he’s replicating my books, then I’d venture a guess that he wants me alive.”
Gerald looks at me curiously for a minute, and then he speaks.
“Flynn came into some new information. Did he tell you?”
“No.”
“Someone was reaching out to different packs to find out which ones had academies on-site. He actually met with a few of the clans to try to acquire information in person.”
Suddenly, my body feels hot and cold at the same time.
In the book, the kidnapper isn’t a villain. He’s a hero. He doesn’t actually kill the wolves. He just takes them away to a weird sort of shifter prison where they’ll live out their days in peace, but unable to hurt people.
Something tells me the real-life “hero” isn’t quite as humane.
Besides, what kind of person sees himself as a hero but captures wolves?
“You know who it is,” I say.
“We know what he looks like.”
“Tell me.”
Both men and Lily watch me carefully as Gerald speaks, giving me a description that makes my blood run cold.
“Tall man with a wolf tattoo. Shaggy hair. Dresses to blend in.”
“The tattoo,” I say, swallowing hard. “Is it on the inside of his right wrist?”
The men exchange glances before Maxwell nods.
“It’s my stalker,” I whisper. It’s the guy who is the reason I use a pen name and why I’m so private. It’s the guy who tried to get to me once before and I have a restraining order against.
It’s Blake Gregory.
“We have to get to him now,” I say. “We have to save Flynn.”
“You need to stay here,” Maxwell says again, but this time, I stand up, march over to the desk, and slam my hands on top of it.
“Flynn is my fucking mate,” I tell them. “Now take me to him.”
I was an idiot for being scared before. I was stupid for wanting to wait until I was sure that things were going to be perfect between us. I was dumb for thinking that I could somehow outrun love. Now I know better. Now I realize that life is short and that whatever’s going to happen between Flynn and me needs to happen now.
I want him more than I’ve wanted anyone else before, and whether or not the idea of destiny and true mates is real, I know what my heart wants.
And what it wants is Flynn.
Maxwell and Gerald exchange glances once more. Seriously, do these guys always communicate silently? Do they ever actually discuss things using their voices? They turn back to me and nod more emphatically this time.
“That’s what I was hoping to hear,” Gerald says.
“We’ll leave at once,” Maxwell says. Then he turns to Lily. “When the others come back, tell them where we’ve gone,” he says.
“Should I leave now?”
“No, but you need to blow the horn of howling.”
She gulps.
“Are you certain?”
“Blow it.”
“What’s the horn of howling?” I whisper.
“When you blow the horn, no matter what kind of battle the wolves are in, they will return to the castle. It means there’s an emergency more important than anything else.”
I think of my mate and how he might be in trouble. I think of the missing wolves, and I realize that the time for patience or waiting for things to work themselves out is over. I turn back to her and nod.
“Blow it.”
Chapter Sixteen
&nb
sp; Flynn
We’re running through the forest trying to catch her scent, but something is wrong. I can feel it. Erin’s scent should pick up soon. We’re retracing our steps, but I can’t help but feel like we’re missing something.
Why was Erin chosen tonight?
She’s 18 years old and a senior in high school. She’s not a child, but she’s not quite an adult, either. She’s still a student, and all of the other people who were abducted were either teachers or just affiliated with the school. They didn’t actually attend classes.
So why Erin?
Why tonight?
We run and start splitting up. Wolves go in different directions as they try to scent her and figure out where her smell stopped. If we can find the end of Erin’s scent trail, we may be able to pick up something else.
Something familiar.
Soon I find myself drawn back to the space where I ran against a tree. Or maybe I brushed against another wolf. Something felt strange at that moment, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I breathe in the surrounding area, and then it hits me. There’s a smell here. It’s something unfamiliar, but slightly dangerous.
It’s almost a sickly-sweet sort of scent, and then I realize what it is.
Anger.
Hatred.
Lust.
I realize that I didn’t brush against a tree when I was coming through here. I brushed against him. The abductor. Something had snagged on me, and at the time, I was running so fast that it didn’t matter. What if the captor had tried to grab me instead of Erin?
What if tonight’s abduction was a big misunderstanding?
I hear the horn of howling, suddenly, and I turn to run back to the castle. That horn has never been sounded before as long as I’ve been alive, so it must mean something terribly important. I have a feeling that Heather figured something out. Why else would they be calling us all back?
As I turn to leave, though, I realize that I’m too late. The smell comes again, overwhelming me this time, just as someone drops from the trees and slides a thin needle through my fur and into my skin. I’m worn out, and I’m simply not fast enough to counteract the movement.