Stop! I commanded, but it was too late.
Seth didn’t even try to move or to fight back as Vivian’s jaws clamped on to the back of his neck and she tossed him like a doll toward the dead fire ring.
I raced forward, but Layla got there first, her dark eyes wide and wild as she put herself between her injured boyfriend and her best friend. Viv growled at her, snapping in her direction, but didn’t move to attack Seth again. Her initial rage was already wearing off, being replaced by a bone deep fear that I could scent even from twenty yards away.
Others were gathering now, shifting to communicate with Seth and find out what was happening.
Viv, I called to her, pulling her attention from Seth and Layla and the growing crowd at their backs.
Vivian! I called again when she fought my demand.
She turned, her muscled legs trembling beneath her fur.
We’re going after her, I promised. Right now. I need to know if you can get your head straight. I can’t have you with us if you’re a loose cannon.
Who took her? she demanded, her tongue slipping out between her bared teeth. Ridges forming on her snout at the force of her snarl. Where is she?
I shook my head, acid pooling in my gut. We don’t know. But we know where she was last. Jared is getting a group together. We’re going after her. We will get her back.
You can’t stop me from coming, she snapped at me.
I can, I corrected her, hating myself for it but knowing that if she didn’t at least try to calm down she’d be more of a liability than a help. She was always a firecracker, but right now she was a fucking nuclear bomb ready to explode. Don’t make me.
Her snarls quieted and within another moment, she cracked, dissolving into agonizing whines that struck my own heart like blades. My throat burned as I closed the distance between us and put my snout to her neck, just being there for her for a second.
She’s okay, right? Her voice slipped weakly into my mind. She’ll be okay?
If she weren’t, you would sense it. The severing of the bond wouldn’t go unnoticed, Viv. She’s alive. And as long as she’s alive, we can bring her home.
I’m going to kill them, she admitted to me. Anyone who touched her. Anyone who hurt her. I will end them.
I know, I told her, imagining if it was one of my mates who were taken. The things I would do to the people responsible. I couldn’t begrudge her that. And we’re going to help you.
I sensed Clay approaching us as Layla shifted to help Seth inside, sending a glance our way as tears streamed freely down her cheeks. I’m sorry, she mouthed to me, and I gave a tiny nod of acknowledgement. She was staying behind, I gathered, and I would’ve made her even if she hadn’t made the call herself.
Layla was smart. Lithe. Sly. But she wasn’t even close to being the strongest of us. She was better off here.
Clay fixed Vivian with a hard cold stare as she drew away from our canine embrace. Whoever is responsible for this will pay for their sins in blood, he promised, aching internally as the cabin door closed behind Layla and one of his best friends. He lifted his head in a long howl, calling to Jared to let him know we were leaving and he’d better move his ass if they didn’t want to wind up miles behind us.
Jared’s returning howl told us he was already on his way back over from the other side of camp, and Clay turned tail and made for the tree line to the east, Viv and me on his heels.
12
Clay, Jared, Vivian, and I led the charge toward where the attack took place. It took a lot of willpower to keep my strides on par with those of the rest of the shifters accompanying us. Much like I felt Clay’s urge to sprint ahead and scout for danger, the same desire twisted in my gut, tried to push my legs faster. But we needed to stay together. We were a group of twelve, which should be more than enough if we came upon the group of eight attackers along the way, but if we split up our odds would drastically decrease.
Almost there, Clay spoke in my thoughts. Be ready.
I sent the information out to the others through the alpha bond, and their returning growls of ready, let’s fucking do this shit, and bring it on, sent shivers racing down my canine spine.
Vivian was the only one who remained silent, her brown eyes fixed ahead. I picked up Destiny’s scent on the early morning breeze only a second before she did. I always thought Clay was the fastest of the pack besides me, but Vivian sprang forward like she’d been catapulted, churning up dirt and pollen in her wake as she sped on.
Clay and I shared a look before speeding to catch up with her. There was no use telling her to wait, she wouldn’t listen, and I wasn’t prepared to hold my will over her. Not now.
The rest of the pack hustled to gain on us as the tree line broke ahead, showing the cleared space of the backroad we usually took from Portland. It was paved about three quarters of the way, but then turned to a dirt road too bumpy for most to want to drive on. It made transporting goods to the edge of our territory easier, and also provided us a safe place to park the Jeep.
My nose wrinkled as I picked up the scent my guys and I had caught on Seth. It had been faint on him, but here, it was ripe, permeating the air and clinging to the earth. The very distinct smell of foreign wolves on our turf. Nearly as strong as the odor of spoiled meat.
A growl reverberated behind my breastbone as we launched onto the road a second behind Viv.
Her nose pressed to the earth as soon as we were clear of the trees, searching for her mate. The area was void of life, and I couldn’t help feeling deflated even though I knew this would likely be the case. I’d half hoped they’d leave an emissary behind to negotiate terms, but even that hope had now been dashed.
The Jeep lay on its side in the middle of the road. The rear window smashed and its contents spread over the dirt. An entire fucking cow and enough bacon for at least a month sat spoiling under the still-rising sun. The red butcher paper torn and shredded. Chunks of ground beef and hunks of steak sprinkled all around like morbid confetti.
They hadn’t taken it. By the look of it, they hadn’t even eaten any of it, either. But their intent to destroy it was unquestionable, leading credence to my growing worry that the fire at Sal’s butcher shop was no accident after all.
A couple of the pack shifted to help Jared right the Jeep as I ordered the others to spread out and find their exit trail. We needed to keep tracking them. They had a solid hour head start at this point and we were going to need to cover a lot of ground really fucking fast if we had any hope of catching up to them.
A pang shot through my gut at all the risk that could lead to, but I did my best to silence that part of me. If their trail led to another pack’s territory, we would decide what to do when the time came. We couldn’t cross into it without risking being slaughtered for trespassing. And I wouldn’t send an emissary in, and there was no way Jared and Clay would let me enter alone. Though I could make them if I had to…
Just like I would have to force Vivian to back down if we did follow the trail to another pack’s borders.
Fuck.
Let’s just hope they haven’t gotten that far yet and we can still head them off.
I followed my nose to the east, sticking close to Vivian as the pack spread out, but remained close enough to one another that no one would be blindsided by an attack.
This way, Viv hissed in my mind and I left the trail that had been going cold beneath my nose to follow hers, sending out a message to the others to come with us and leave the Jeep for now. Though I could feel that it pained Jared to leave her half busted in the middle of a road. Pained him and made him even more furious than he already was. That thing was his baby.
Hell, it was mine, too. Clay and Jared taught me how to drive in that car.
Jared? I called back, making sure he was following as Clay caught up, but I didn’t sense him near.
Coming.
Hurry the fuck up, Clay shot back at him as we raced to the east, pausing every few miles to make sure we still had the tra
il right. Doubling back twice when we almost lost it.
Where the fuck are they taking her? Viv cried in my mind as the miles vanished beneath our feet and I was beginning to think we wouldn’t be able to catch up before we lost the trail. The other issue being that we were getting way too far away from our own territory.
I don’t know, Viv.
It wasn’t safe to be in no-man’s-land this long, and I was feeling the distance between myself and the others back at camp like a black void growing in my chest.
I needed to be there. To make sure no one else was hurt. No one else taken.
We couldn’t keep going east forever.
Viv, seeming to sense my trail of thought growled through the pack bond, I am not turning back, Allie. Don’t you dare make me.
I said nothing as we neared civilization, the sounds of tires on a freeway rushing in my ears. The trail led straight to it, and we slowed as we approached the edge of the forest, crouching low so as not to be seen.
You think they crossed it? Jared asked, and I’d just been considering the same, but it didn’t make sense. Even in the dark hours of the morning there would still be traffic on this road. Not a lot maybe, but some. They wouldn’t risk being seen. Unless…
A snarl ripped from Vivian’s lips as she darted out from the cover of the forest and right into oncoming traffic. My heart squeezed in my chest, and the blood in my veins ran cold as she weaved through both directions of traffic, using her strong hind legs to sail over a car at the last second. A flurry of honking bombarded my senses, and I bared my teeth, calling back an order to stay there as I chased after her.
The southbound traffic was at a complete standstill because of the three car pileup Vivian had caused, and it was easy enough to launch myself over the two lanes of slow-moving traffic going northbound to get to the other side.
Someone screamed at the sight of me, and I cursed, hoping I was too fast for them to get much of an eyeful. Rule number fucking one—do not be seen by humans. And I just broke it.
I flew headlong into the trees at the other side of the road, snarling Vivian’s name in my mind as I picked up her trail and followed her back into the shadows.
Her frantic thoughts reached me a second later, and I tried to rein in my fury at her carelessness as I slowed to a walk and strode to her.
It’s gone, her panicked voice skated through my thoughts. It’s gone. The trail is gone. What the… No! NO!
She pressed her nose to the earth, to the surrounding trees, searching for any trace of her mate’s scent. I guessed she was also using the bond to try to sense the distance, or at the very least the direction they went, but her frantic thoughts told me what she couldn’t. She couldn’t feel Destiny anywhere.
Allie! Allie, help me! Help me find it. I have to find it!
Viv…
Don’t just stand there, it has to be here. We just lost it.
She rushed to the right and then the left, scraping her paws furiously over bushes and digging beneath a log to try to find any traces. She wouldn’t find any though. It was exactly as I’d feared and in another minute, once she’d calmed down, she’d understand it, too.
Vivian, their trail went cold at the roadside.
No. No it didn’t! It’s here, we just have to…
She lifted her head, her wide eyes meeting mine as heavy breaths ballooned and compressed through her strong ribcage.
It has to be…
I shook my head.
No, Viv. Their trail died at the roadside because they—
Don’t say it!
I didn’t want it to be true any more than she did, but there wasn’t even a lick of their scent anywhere on this side of the road and that could only mean one thing.
They knew we’d track them, Viv. They ran to the highway and they got into a car, or several cars and they—
Shut up!
We won’t stop looking, I promised her, my heart splintering apart at the look in her eyes. At the tremble in her legs. We’ll have search parties out day and night. We still might pick up her scent, or the scent of the foreign pack someone outside our territory. We can still find her.
Like we’ve found Luke? She barked, her hackles rising and tail going erect. Like we found Trey and fucking Todd?
Her words stung like a slap to my soul, but I took it standing. I deserved it.
We can—
Save it, Allie. I’m going to go back to where the trail started and see if there were any other routes.
I nodded, jerking my chin back toward the highway still buzzing with honking and now, the sound of sirens approaching in the distance. But we go around.
She at least had the decency to look guilty at that, and took off to the north, where I remembered there being a wildlife crossing tunnel beneath the highway that we may be able to sneak through if we were stealthy.
No trail here. They took a car. We’re going the long way round, I shot back across the road to my guys. Meet us at the exit.
Careful, came Jared’s reply.
Heading there now, came Clay’s, and I raced to follow Vivian back up the highway to go back and do this all over again. I had a horrible sinking feeling that it would only lead to the exact same result.
It was another four hours before Vivian relented, realizing that the only trail was the one leading to the highway, and that it did, in fact, die there. With no trace left to follow.
The pack members who joined us were winded, hell, we all were, and we took it slow on the way back to camp. We wandered in a long arc around the third ring, triple checking to make sure there was no trace of the foreign scent anywhere.
We’d already come to the conclusion that the group responsible for the disappearances of Luke, Trey, and Todd was the same as the one who took Destiny and likely also burned down Sal’s and cut the power to the quarry. There should have been some trace of them, but it’d rained twice since then. Whatever might’ve been there had likely washed away by now.
I had to wonder if they were using the rain to their advantage. Striking when they knew it would erase their trail.
So many random pieces of fractured thoughts and ideas churned in my mind that I almost missed it. A scent I recognized. Faint. But I was almost certain of it.
I slowed and Clay slowed with me as I went to investigate the scent, giving the green light for the others to continue. We had been breaking off from the main formation often to investigate potential scents, so it wasn’t a big draw of attention, and I was grateful because if I were right…
Clay had to have scented it, too, because he trailed me silently as we traced it up toward Glenwood, a town just inside of our third ring.
Find something? Jared’s voice slipped down the line of our bond, and I could already sense him breaking off from the others to join us.
Stay with the pack, I told him, not wanting to leave them too thin. It’s not their trail. It’s something else. Just checking it out real quick.
Clay grunted unhappily beside me as we sped up, both of us on edge as we followed the thread of his sister’s scent up a hill and peered over it, breathless as we took in what lay beneath.
About 100 yards away, through the sparse trees, lay a quiet depot with a bus idling near the exit. A few passengers disembarked, while a few others stepped on, headed to new destinations. We waited until the bus left and saw the shopkeep flip a sign in a small window near the entrance. I couldn’t make out what it said, but judging by the time, it was likely some form of ‘back after lunch.’
The straggly young man got into a beat up Camry and sped away, blasting rap music a moment later, leaving the place utterly desolate save for some warring chipmunks near the trash bin and a swarm of bees congregating around a mess of yellow flowers poking through the cement at the base of a phone booth.
It’s her, right? I asked even though I was almost certain already. I just needed him to confirm it.
Yes.
I had about a thousand things I wanted to say. Questions I w
anted to ask. But I didn’t. There could be a perfectly good reason why Sam’s scent could be lingering out here. She went for regular runs. Even I came out this far some days when I really wanted to stretch my legs. But why risk getting this close to a bus depot. Sniffing the air, I could tell her scent was stronger here than it should’ve been.
Not enough that most of the pack would have even picked up on it. But between Clay’s nose and mine, there was no doubt. Even from a distance, I knew she’d been here.
Her scent had been on the wind, but not on the ground, which meant that she didn’t come to the bus depot the way we did. She likely came from the other direction, which would make sense since that was closer to camp. But for her scent to be lingering this strongly just on the air, it meant that she’d either spent a great deal of time here recently, or she came here a lot.
We should get back, Clay grumbled, and I risked a look in his direction, taking in the set of his jaw. The worry in his cold stare.
Yeah, I replied, able to stave off my curiosity with a promise to bring this up again as soon as we were alone. As soon as our thoughts weren’t at risk of being heard by other shifters. It was generally easy to keep what we liked to ourselves, but sending thoughts as telepathic speech to only a single shifter instead of all those nearby was an art form I hadn’t quite perfected yet.
Clay nipped at my heels when I didn’t move, stuck in my own thoughts like a stick in the mud.
Move, Allie, he nudged, and I yipped, taking off at breakneck speed back to our search party while a new worry took root in my bones.
13
“What’s taking so long?” Vivian demanded, pacing the length of the living room in the main cabin. “If they aren’t ready to go soon, then I’ll just go myself.”
She seemed like she might shift back at any second, but after the long search and taking her anger out on a few trees at the edge of camp, I had to trust that she wouldn’t. At least she would be able to hold off to get herself back outside if she did. Not that I was all that worried about broken lamps or furniture right now, but I didn’t need any more shit on my plate than was already piled there.
Shifted Scars: A Wolves of Forest Grove Novel Page 11