Prey (Blackwater Pack Book 2)

by Hannah McBride

  She gulped in a deep breath. “We were going to walk over here together for dinner. I forgot my phone and went back in, but when I came back, she was gone. Her scarf and phone were in the snow next to the steps.”

  The whispers grew to full-fledged shouts now. Several girls let out whimpers, clutching at the nearest male for support. I felt Larkin and Katy each take one of my hands, and I squeezed them hard as more faculty came forward.

  I expected one of them to get control of the rapidly spiraling teenagers surrounding me, but it was Remy who held a hand and demanded silence with a simple, “Enough!”

  The timbre of his alpha voice sent a cascade of shivers down my spine as my wolf immediately recognized the command.

  Apparently I wasn’t the only one because the room fell eerily silent.

  A strange sense of pride washed over me as my wolf—okay, as both of us—watched everyone defer to Remy. Eyes that hadn’t dropped to the floor in submission were studying him like he would have the answer. Even the faculty seemed ready to do as he said.

  His dark eyes were bright and intense as he surveyed the room, his broad shoulders squared and ready for a fight.

  “Did anyone else see anything?” Remy demanded, turning slowly around the circle that had formed around him and the other alphas.

  Silence hung heavy in the air.

  Remy gave a curt nod, rubbing his jaw. “Okay, here’s what we’re doing,” he announced. “Dante, can you take your pack out there? See if Ryder can catch a scent or something to track?”

  “Yeah,” Dante agreed, jerking his head for Ryder and the four other male shifters in his pack to follow him. He paused in front of Tate, kissing her quickly before Ryder did the same.

  Dante stared hard at Tate. “Stay here where I know you’re safe.”

  “I can help,” Tate argued softly, catching his hand.

  “You can help by staying where we know you’ll be okay,” Ryder told her. His hand reached up, caressing her cheek for a second before he walked away with his pack.

  Silently fuming, Tate folded her arms over her chest and watched them all leave.

  “The rest of us are splitting up into groups and taking different directions. Ian,” Remy looked at the Dubonne alpha, “we’ll go with you to the north. Grant, take Silver Crest to the east. Mackenzie and Redwood go to the south, and Deep Creek go west.”

  As he finished giving directions, his gaze landed on me. I saw the sharp intake of breath as his eyes swept across me and knew whatever he said next was going to frustrate me.

  “All females are to stay inside the cafeteria,” he ordered.

  Katy’s jaw dropped along with several other girls, but most of the girls stayed quiet and docile.

  Just the way we were expected to be.

  I ground my teeth together, wanting to argue, but knowing by the set of his jaw that Remy wasn’t going to budge.

  The packs immediately broke apart, some running from the room to start the search.

  I let go of Katy and Larkin and stepped in front of Remy.

  His eyes flashed with warning, but I could see the worry tucked behind that. “Skye, please don’t fight me on—”

  I held up a hand, pressing my fingertips to his lips. “I’m not going to. Just … be safe, okay?”

  His eyes slid shut, some of the tension leaking from his taut muscles as I did what he wanted. “I will be.” He pressed his forehead to mine, his dark eyes warm and vibrant as he stared at me, our eyelashes almost touching. “Anything happens, shift and use the bond. I’ll be back here as soon as I can.”

  “Got it.” I lifted my mouth kissing him hard, and not at all ready when he tore his mouth from mine and led the rest of our pack out the doors.

  The cafeteria doors swung shut with a heavy, ominous thud that made my heart pound. The only sound I heard was Jane still crying behind me.

  Tate stepped up beside me, resting her head against my shoulder. “Sucks, doesn’t it? Being left behind, I mean.”

  “It really does,” I agreed quietly. My fingertips ghosted across my lips as my wolf pushed at me for attention. She hated feeling useless as much as I did.

  “It’s ridiculous, is what it is,” Katy seethed, her voice hushed. “Why do we have to sit here like good little girls while they go play the hero? We can help. There’s almost forty people standing here just waiting.”

  I did a quick headcount. With the female teachers included, we had thirty-five females in this room. Thirty-five compared to the nearly hundred male shifters that were now scouring the area for Kit.

  I knew what Remy was afraid of. Female shifters had been disappearing slowly, but steadily, over the last year. At first, no one seemed to really notice it, but when females were already scarce, it wasn’t long until packs took notice.

  It was another reason that Remy had pushed me to start self-defense training. Not only because I was attacked last year, but because females were under attack as a whole.

  But this was a school. There were gates and security guards. Plus, Kit had been waiting outside of her dorm on a campus that housed over a hundred people with heightened senses.

  And the women who had gone missing weren’t teenagers.

  “Does the school have security cameras?” I asked.

  Larkin shook her head, biting her lower lip. “No. It’s too much of a liability. Cameras can be hacked, and the last thing we need is some wanna be hacker in his parents’ basement seeing a bunch of kids turning into wolves.”

  “That would get the attention of the government,” Tate murmured, raking a hand through her dark hair.

  “Hey, Skye?”

  I turned to see Ainsley and the three younger girls from our pack standing behind me. All four looked nervous.

  “The natives are getting restless,” Ainsley said pointedly, glancing around the room where, sure enough, several females were now crying and a couple even cowering under tables.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Katy muttered with a sigh.

  “They’re scared,” Larkin chided her, nudging Katy with her shoulder.

  “They should be pissed off they’ve been relegated to pretty dolls on a shelf,” Katy snarked, rolling her eyes.

  Tate sighed. “Not everyone is like you, Katy. A lot of these girls have been coddled and treated like glass their whole lives.”

  “Yet another thing about the male-dominated shifter culture that needs addressing,” Katy added pointedly, her heart shaped mouth pursing.

  “Can we table the sexism in shifter culture debate until Kit’s been found?” I asked dryly. I looked at Ainsley. “Yeah, everyone seems on edge. We all are.”

  Ainsley arched a brow. “Maybe you should do something about that?”

  I blinked once. Twice. “Do something? Me?”

  With a huff, Ainsley gave me a look that reminded me of the girl who used to give me hell my first semester. Before everything had changed. Now we were cool.

  At least, I thought we were.

  “Remy’s the alpha here,” she said, like that explained everything. Her gray eyes widened expectantly, waiting for me to catch on.

  “Right,” I said slowly, still not following.

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean just for our pack on campus. Everyone here looks at him for leadership.”

  Yeah, I still wasn’t connecting the dots and my confusion must have been obvious.

  Tate touched my shoulder. “You’re his mate. You guys are bonded. That makes you the female alpha here.”

  Wait, what?

  “We look up to you, too,” Bethany, one of the younger girls, said to me, her big eyes wide. “Remy’s not here, so you’re in charge.”

  Whoa.

  Whoa.

  “That … What about the teachers?” I gestured to the group of older females, but one had broken away and was approaching us.

  Amanda gave me a thin smile, tugging her cardigan tighter around her body. She was the first person I had met at GPA. She had picked me up from the a
irport and calmed a lot of my fears. Plus she was one of my favorite teachers.

  “Tate’s right,” Amanda said. She pressed a hand to her chest. “Remy is our alpha, and right now, he’s our leader. Not just our pack, but the school. The teachers are here as instructors, but the campus alphas hold the most power.”

  “But we’re kids,” I said, still not sure why a group of adults would give authority to teenagers.

  “Remy, Dante, and Ian are eighteen,” Tate said. “Technically they’re adults.”

  “Granite Peak isn’t just about forming bonds between packs,” Amanda added. “It also gives alpha heirs a chance to prove they can handle the responsibilities of being a pack Alpha one day. Most of the teachers here are regular pack members. A few of the security guards are deltas and maybe a beta or two, but none are Alphas.”

  “And Remy is the most alpha of all the guys here,” Larkin chimed in with a warm smile. “It’s been that way since we first got here.”

  “Even the seniors followed him when we were freshman.” Katy rolled her eyes again, but there was affection in the act.

  “Blackwater is a highly respected pack, especially with the packs enrolled at Granite Peak,” Amanda told me. “And with you two bonded, it’s natural that everyone would look to you with him gone.”

  “So, what do I do?” I whispered fiercely, noting more and more sets of eyes settling on me.

  “Give them something to do,” Amanda encouraged. “Idle hands make idle minds.”

  Something to do?

  I was drawing a blank, panic starting to claw at me as I looked around the room and everyone seemed to be waiting for me.

  My eyes landed on the table where ten minutes ago we had been sitting and eating like nothing was wrong.

  “Dishes,” I blurted out suddenly.

  Katy cocked her head to the side. “What?”

  I cleared my throat, catching the attention of the nearby tables. “Hey, guys, let’s get the food and stuff cleared.”

  A girl with blond hair and a tiny button nose frowned as she got to her feet. She looked exactly like one of the dolls Katy mentioned. “You mean clean up?”

  I nodded quickly, maybe a little too enthusiastic. “Yes. Exactly. Clean up. We’re going to … clean.”

  Something about cleaning was cathartic. When shit got crazy in Long Mesa, I would spend hours scouring every surface with hot water and whatever rags I could find that were clean. Without actual cleaning supplies, I was usually just pushing and smearing dirt around, but it gave me something to do.

  “We have staff for that,” the girl reminded me, crossing her arms in front of her. She looked disgusted that I had even suggested she clean, which infuriated me.

  “Yeah, people who are currently outside in the freezing cold, searching for Kit,” I snapped, annoyed with her petulant tone and overall vibe. “So, we’re cleaning up.”

  Half the room got to their feet, looking around at each other and then at me.

  The other half looked annoyed, confused, and insulted by being asked to clean a freaking dish.

  My wolf snarled, not liking that we weren’t being obeyed.

  “Now,” I said with a sharp edge to my voice, arching a brow that dared them to defy me.

  I felt my wolf’s smugness as everyone started clearing tables of food. Amanda and two other teachers headed back to where the food was served and started breaking down the serving trays, instructing students on how to start washing in the industrial sinks.

  “Let’s try to keep some of that hot,” I called to them. “They might be hungry when they get back, depending on how long they’re out there.”

  Several nodded back at me while the rest kept working.

  “Damn,” Larkin said, coming up beside me with a grin.

  I turned and flashed her a nervous look. “Too much?”

  She waved a hand at the girls taking dishes to the back room to wash. “Definitely not.”

  “But dishes?” Katy groaned, but I could see the hint of a smile there.

  “Yes, dishes,” I replied, planting my hands on my hips. “There’s nothing wrong with helping out, and sometimes that includes cleaning shit.”

  She whistled at me as she gathered some of our plates. “You being bossy is kinda hot, girl. Keep it up, and Maren may have some competition when she gets back.”

  I swatted at her butt as she danced out of the way. Larkin followed her with a giggle. I gathered my own dishes and trailed after everyone in the kitchen.

  Moving seemed to help. There was less crying and more talking as people divvied up tasks. It was quickly obvious the girls who came from more affluent packs or families, especially when it came to washing and drying the dishes.

  It didn’t take us long to clean everything. I was standing in the center of a sparkling clean cafeteria, once again surrounded by females staring at me, and I was at a loss for what to do.

  It had been more than an hour. My wolf was anxious, and so was I.

  Judging from the amount of pacing and fidgeting in the room, we weren’t alone in our worry.

  I was about to just shift to see if I could get an update from Remy when the doors opened and half the boys came back in.

  Swallowing, I noticed none of the alphas were with them.

  No Remy.

  My heart slammed painfully against my chest, my pulse racing a sharp staccato that left me breathless and dizzy.

  Finally, thankfully, Rhodes strode into the room, flanked by several of the Blackwater guys. His eyes found Larkin first and then me. He gave me a terse nod, letting me know Remy was okay before I could even ask the question out loud.

  “Did you find Kit?” I asked, realizing I was still speaking for the group.

  Rhodes shook his head slowly, exhaling a long breath. He hadn’t finished before Larkin was at his side, sliding under his arm and wrapping her arms around his waist.

  “We lost her scent by the road near the eastern pass,” he said darkly. “She was probably moved to a truck. Ryder was pretty sure he smelled diesel fumes where her scent ended, but it’s a road used by a lot of loggers. Trucks run through the pass all day and night.”

  There was no way to track which truck she might be on.

  Shit.

  Several sobs started behind me, and I couldn’t blame any of them. Part of me wanted to cry for Kit, too.

  “Where’s Remy?” I asked softly.

  “On a conference call with his dad,” he explained to me before looking at the rest of the group. “We’re escorting you all back to your dorms. Some of your alphas have different orders, which your pack will explain. For now, let’s all head back.”

  “We left some of the food hot in case anyone was hungry,” Larkin told him.

  Rhodes kissed her brow. “Thanks. I’ll make sure the guys know, but we need to get you all settled first.”

  Packs started to break up with their escorts, but Rhodes kept us all in the cafeteria until it was empty of everyone but the Blackwater pack.

  “Remy wants all of our girls at the Blackwater cabin tonight, until we can make sure the threat is gone. We already have a guard rotation set up to make sure you’re all safe,” he said firmly.

  “We can help with that,” Katy said. ”We can take turns keeping watch, too.”

  Rhodes shook his head. “Not tonight, Kit-Kat.”

  Her jaw dropped, ready to fight.

  But Rhodes stepped up to her, his expression surprisingly gentle. “Please don’t fight him on this tonight, Katy. Just let us be the asshole men who keep the women folk safe for a night.”

  Even Katy couldn’t help but agree when he gave her that adorable, half-smile that he had perfected.

  “Fine,” she agreed reluctantly.

  “We’ll have a quick pack meeting when we get to the house. But let’s go,” Rhodes said, starting to walk backwards to the doors. “It’s gonna be a long night.”

  4

  Walking across the campus with a pack of guards felt strange. Even
stranger was when they didn’t simply let the girls run into the dorms to pack an overnight bag, but actually split into pairs to escort them.

  Several guys were in the females only dorm, but everyone was silent and somber. Walking through the halls was unnerving. People were darting in and out of rooms. Some were packing to stay with their alphas and others were bunking together. Nervous energy crackled in the air.

  I stayed close to Rhodes and Larkin since I didn’t have a room here anymore. Katy ducked into the room beside Larkin’s, while one of our packmates, Will, leaned against the hallway across from her open door. He gave me a small nod, but kept his eyes on Katy the whole time.

  I was proud of Katy for keeping her mouth shut when I knew this whole situation bothered her. She hated being treated like a helpless little girl. Hell, so did I, but I didn’t have to be in wolf form to sense Remy’s emotions were volatile right now.

  Everyone was on edge, and all I wanted was to go back to whatever normal we had.

  But first I wanted to hurry this along so I could see Remy was okay with my own eyes.

  “Can I help?” I asked Larkin, leaning against her open door frame and watching as she and Rhodes packed things into her overnight bag.

  Or, rather, Larkin put things in the bag, and Rhodes tried to stealthily remove them.

  “Rhodes!” she snapped, pulling her shirt back out of the drawer he had tried to tuck it into.

  “Baby girl, I’m trying to help you save time,” he pointed out with a devilish grin.

  “By putting away my pajamas?” she demanded incredulously.

  He gave her a shrug. “It’s not like you’ll be wearing them, so why pack them?”

  Larkin squeaked, her cheeks flushed crimson as she looked at me quickly before glaring at her boyfriend.

  “There will be an entire cabin full of shifters,” she hissed, her eyes darting around to make sure Will and Katy weren’t coming up behind me to hear her. “I’m not sleeping naked.”

  He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, a wicked gleam in his eye when he looked back at her. “Fine, you can wear one of my shirts then.”

  “I get cold,” she answered with a delicate sniff, lifting her chin as she reached for flannel bottoms.