Running in a Pack

by A M Burns

  He sat down and crossed his legs under the table. “There isn’t much to tell.” Except that Ivan had kissed him in front of more than half of the school and now everyone knew they were together. “Adrian wasn’t there today and the meatloaf at lunch looked gross. I just grabbed some chips, but they’re still in my bag.”

  “Are you feeling okay? You’re not getting sick or anything, are you?” his mom asked. She even went so far as to put her hand on his forehead to check him for a fever.

  He brushed away her concerns. “Yep. I’m fine. Just worried about Adrian.”

  “Well, Ivan knows him a lot better than you do, so if Ivan isn’t worried, then you shouldn’t be either.” His dad’s way of trying to help definitely wasn’t going to work in this situation.

  Finn shook his head and picked up the playing piece he’d sat down in front of without even looking at it. “That would make things easy, but Ivan is worried. As soon as he dropped me off, he headed over there to make Adrian talk to him.” He pulled out his phone and checked it just to make sure the volume was on instead of silent mode like he had to keep it at school. He wanted to know the instant Ivan had any news for him. Normally during family time phones weren’t allowed, but since his parents didn’t say anything about him checking it, Finn was pretty sure they’d make an exception just this once if Ivan did happen to call or text him.

  Less than ten minutes later, while Finn was trying to figure out how his father was cheating without anyone noticing and also how he could call his dad out on what he was doing, a truck pulled up outside with a low rumble.

  “Oh, your sister must be home,” his mom said as she got up from the table.

  Finn was going to ask who Shelby knew that had a truck, but he realized it would be a stupid question since everyone in Woodland Park seemed to have a truck or SUV except for his mom. But he did know Shelby didn’t bang on the door like whoever had just arrived.

  “Who the hell?” his dad said and stood as well.

  Finn followed after them, but he was the first to the door since they stopped in front of the big window to stare out of it. When he opened the door he expected to see Shelby, or at least one of her new and highly popular friends, but instead he got Ivan with his face red and his hands shaking as he put them over Finn’s shoulders. “I need your help. Adrian’s missing.”

  Finn didn’t need to hear anything else. He grabbed his boots then sat down on the stairs to pull them on. All he cared about was that Adrian needed help, and finally they had something to do to make things better for him. He didn’t need to know more, but Ivan wasn’t done talking.

  “I went over to his house, and his parents said he’d been in his room since yesterday and asked them to leave him alone, so they did. They don’t know when he would have left or how he got out without them knowing. They’ve called the police.” Ivan paced in front of him as Finn finished tying his boots.

  “I’m going out to help Ivan look for Adrian,” he told his parents. If they tried to stop him from leaving, he wasn’t sure what he would have done, but he had to go out there. Looking up at Ivan, Finn could see the fear on his face, so he knew this was serious.

  His mom nodded. “Of course. We’ll come too. As soon as Shelby gets home, we’ll join you.”

  “Thanks. Call me, and I’ll let you know where we are.” He took Ivan’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  Ivan opened the front door and almost ran right into Channing and Shelby, who glared at Finn. “Your boyfriend parks like a jerk! Channing hardly had any space for his bike.” She huffed past him, but Finn didn’t care about what her boyfriend had to endure to be able to park his motorcycle.

  “Shelby, seriously, whatever.” Finn pushed past Channing. “I can’t deal with this right now.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “You think that your boyfriend is so freaking important. Everyone’s talking about you two kissing today. Way to ruin my life.”

  Ivan tried to pull him along, but Finn wasn’t able to push back on his anger. Not when they needed to go find Adrian and no one knew how long he’d been out there for. Anything could have happened to him, and Shelby was just wasting their time with her nonsense. “And your boyfriend is the reason mine is missing!” he yelled at her.

  Ivan grabbed the front of his shirt, getting his attention. “Deal with them later. Right now we need to go rescue Adrian. Okay?”

  Finn nodded. Ivan was right. He followed him out of the house without another word. He could deal with whatever else later. Right then they needed to go help Adrian. But everyone followed them out, and he had no idea why they were all standing there as he got into Ivan’s truck. “What?” he asked his parents.

  His mom cocked her head to the side. “I thought you were dating Ivan.”

  Had he let anything besides that slip? Damn. He had. Crap. “Later. Okay?”

  But his mom shook her head. “No. Not later. The short version. Right now. Then we’ll get into my car and follow you out to go help you look for him.”

  Ivan leaned around Finn to look out the passenger window. “The three of us are together. That’s the quickest explanation.” He started up his truck as Finn put on his seat belt.

  “Where are we going? Where do we even start to go looking for him?” Finn asked him as Ivan headed out of his neighborhood.

  Ivan glanced over at him and tightened his hands on the wheel. “The center. It’s not safe for me to shift and try and follow a trail. People will react badly. That that I really care, but my folks would have to deal with the other local packs and that might be really bad. I hate dealing with politics.”

  Finn quickly texted his parents to let them all know to meet them there. Ivan was shaking, so Finn reached over and put his hand on Ivan’s thigh. “He’ll be okay. He’s probably just under a tree drawing right now.”

  Ivan forced a smile, but Finn wasn’t fooled.

  “Look, I had a vision earlier, when we were saying goodbye in the driveway. It was the three of us, grown up. Five, maybe ten years, I don’t know. I was grilling, you were wolfing, and Adrian was painting. That means he’s going to be okay, right?”

  “You’re the seer.” Ivan shrugged as they slowed down for a stop light. “How often are your visions wrong?”

  The question hit Finn hard. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a ton of them, and never one that complex.” He crossed his arms and frowned, wishing he’d kept his vision to himself. If they didn’t find Adrian, he wondered if Ivan would ever believe in his visions again. Both of their special magics were proving useless. He wanted to change the subject. “Why are we going to the center? Do you think he went somewhere near there?”

  Ivan pursed his lips while Finn held on to the handle attached to the ceiling above him as they rocked over the uneven dirt road. “It’s just a theory I have, but we’ll need my parents to agree to it. And it might not work anyway. But at this point I’m willing to try anything as long as it brings Adrian back to us.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Using Singer.”

  Finn’s gaze went wide as he shot his attention to Ivan. “You want to use a wolf to track him? Do they even work that way? I mean I know she becomes human once a month, but how much does she really understand? ”

  Ivan shrugged as he turned them into the center’s parking lot and parked close to the entrance. As soon as the truck was turned off he was out of the seat with Finn close behind him as they ran through the park toward the office. “I want to use her to find her omega. How she was with him when he was upset has me thinking this might have some kind of a chance, because I’m out of ideas. We’re his only friends, and he’s not at the usual places he would go. With him not answering his phone, I don’t have a better option than to trust her. I don’t know how long it will take the police to try and track his cell phone… if he even took it with him. Dad might be able to track him while human, or I could do it after dark, but I don’t want to wait until after dark.”

  Finn didn’t know if it
would work either. He had even less faith in Singer than Ivan did, but they had to find Adrian. That meant using every resource they could, even Singer. She wasn’t a mean wolf—not to him or any other person as far as he’d seen—but there was something about her that reminded him that she was a werewolf and as wild as they came. The cubs and the wolf-dogs he could sometimes forget about being wolves, even though that was a dangerous thing to do, but just looking at Singer, or Midnight for that matter, reminded him that she had thousands of years of evolution behind her and none of it had to do with being domesticated by humans, or even becoming human once a month.

  She didn’t need to be around them—not like the dogs did. She knew she’d be fine out there in the wild on her own. She chose who she let get close to her, and she had chosen Adrian especially. That was the big difference. Finn had to believe in that bond between them.

  16

  Finn breathed a sigh of relief that the discussion with Ivan’s folks had been short, and they quickly agreed to see if Singer could track and find Adrian. They’d made sure to remind both Finn and Ivan that a wolf’s nose wasn’t as sensitive as a bloodhound’s. But they didn’t have a bloodhound, and Singer’s affection toward Adrian might help push her to find him. Ivan’s dad wasn’t sure he’d be able to track Adrian if the trail was more than a couple hours old. Singer was their best hope.

  By the time Finn’s folks arrived—along with Shelby and Channing—they had a large dog crate loaded in the back of the truck, and Ivan’s dad had headed to get Singer. Even with Ivan telling him to stay as calm as possible to make it easier to work with Singer, Finn had problems finding it in himself to not pace.

  While they waited, Finn’s mother walked over and snagged his arm in one hand and Ivan’s in the other. “You two have a bit of explaining to do.”

  Finn rolled his eyes. “Can’t this wait until Adrian is safe?”

  She shook her head. “It’s going to take Steven a couple of minutes to get Singer up here, longer if she’s being difficult. Talk to me while we wait.”

  Ivan’s broad shoulders dropped. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

  “Finn told me yesterday that you were his boyfriend. Now today he says that Adrian is. Then out of the blue Ivan says the three of you are together. What does that mean?”

  “It means exactly what you think it does, Mom,” Finn said, managing to keep his voice level. “But it’s complicated. Adrian’s with us, but he’s not interested in much beyond being really close friends. We’ll hug and kiss, but that’s it. But we are still together. All three of us. It’s just that Adrian’s ace. Ivan and I are interested in more than just close friends.” He felt odd telling his mother all this even if they did have a nice, close relationship.

  “Ace?” his mother asked. “Okay, that’s a new term for me.”

  “It’s short for asexual,” Shelby said from behind her. “That explains a lot.” She stared at Channing. “So do you and Esteban also pick on other minority kids?”

  Channing stared at his feet. “Mother’s always told us that we’re better than everyone else. Esteban believes it hook, line, and sinker. It’s just easier for me to go along with it. Playing along keeps the arguments down. It’s one of the big reasons I can’t wait to go to college and get away from them.” He looked at Shelby with a caring look on his face. It caused Finn’s stomach to feel like lead. “Your family is what I wish my family was. I even like Finn but can’t let on about it. I wish I was as good as Adrian with art. And the wolves are so cool.”

  The gate into the main compound opened and Ivan’s dad appeared with Singer walking calmly at his side on a thick leather leash. “Time to go. Hey, Lisa, Pete—thanks for coming. It might take all of us to find Adrian.”

  Ivan moved quickly to the back of the truck and swung open the crate’s door.

  “We’re glad to help,” Finn’s mom replied. “I can only hope if it was Finn or Shelby, you guys and the Smiths would be there for us.”

  “Definitely.” Ivan’s mom came out of the house, shoving some of the walkie-talkies they used around the center into a backpack. “Our boys are close, and we’ve got to stick together too.”

  “Then let’s get moving.” Ivan’s dad closed the crate, then the tailgate. “I bet Tom and Molly are frantic right now. I called Tom on the way up here from the pen. He’ll have one of Adrian’s shirts for us so Singer can be reminded of his scent.” He fixed Finn and Ivan with a soft, compassionate look. “You two just keep it in mind that this might not work. We’re going to try it, but wolves don’t make good rescue dogs.”

  Ivan gave him a grim nod. “We know, Dad. We just want to try.”

  “And we’re going to.” His dad headed toward the cab of the truck. “Pete, if you want to, follow us. We’re going to start at the Smith’s place. It’s the last place we’re sure that Adrian was. Boys, figure out who you’re riding with.”

  Finn glanced at his folks.

  “Stay with Ivan.” His mother squeezed his arm. “We’ll all sit down and talk so we can understand everything later. Besides, the backseat is a bit crowded with Shelby and Channing.”

  “Thanks.” Finn gave her a brief hug. It made his life a lot easier with folks who really loved him and made an effort to accept everything in his and Shelby’s lives.

  They hastily loaded into the two vehicles and drove back toward Woodland Park.

  The Smiths met them in the driveway. Compared to their appearance the couple of times Finn had seen them before, he thought they looked horrible. There were also two police cars parked at the curb, and the police officers were conferring with each other as Finn and Ivan, along with their families, approached.

  “Molly.” Ivan’s mom gave Adrian’s mother a warm hug. “We’re going to do everything we can to find him.”

  Adrian’s mother’s voice shook as she hugged Ivan’s mother back. “Karen, thanks for coming. When Ivan headed out, I just knew that you and Steven would be along shortly. Ivan said something about having Adrian’s favorite wolf try and find him.”

  “That right.” She gestured for her husband to get Singer out of the truck. “It’s a long shot, but Singer is extremely fond of Adrian too.”

  “It isn’t going to interfere if we bring in a search and rescue dog, is it?” The larger of the two police officers came over to them as Singer jumped out of the truck.

  “Most likely not, Frank,” Mrs. Dubovasky said. “When are you expecting the department’s canine unit to arrive?”

  Frank shrugged. “Not sure, Karen. Right now we’ve got a missing hiker on Pikes Peak. That call came in right before the Smiths’ call. If our unit wasn’t already deployed, we’d have referred the Peak call to the Springs.”

  “Then let’s give Singer a chance,” Ivan’s dad said as he brought the wolf up to them. “Molly, what have you got of Adrian’s?”

  Mrs. Smith held out a shirt. Finn was sure it was the shirt Adrian had been wearing at the potluck. His chest tightened, and almost as if Ivan sensed his distress, Ivan took his hand.

  “He’s going to be okay.”

  “I hope so.” He had to hold on to the vision of the three of them and tell himself that nothing was going to happen to Adrian. If something did, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

  Letting go of Finn’s hand, Ivan took the shirt from Mrs. Smith and held it down for the wolf. “Singer, Adrian’s missing. Can you find him?”

  She took a long sniff of the shirt, then raised her head. She let out a long sad howl.

  Finn’s heart froze as the last note lingered. He shuddered and hoped it wasn’t Singer trying to tell them all that something terrible had happened to Adrian. Ivan hadn’t said if he understood the meanings of the wolf’s howls, it was something Finn wanted to know...after they rescued Adrian.

  Singer flared her nostrils and looked about. She shook violently, then walked to the edge of her leash, pulling toward the edge of the forest where it connected with the Smiths’ backyard.

  “This w
ay,” Mr. Dubovasky said and let Singer take the lead as they left the yard, heading west toward the point where the sun was rapidly dipping to the horizon.

  Finn kept Ivan in sight to his right and Mr. Smith to his left. They’d spread out as Singer led them deeper into the Pike National Forest. They constantly shouted for Adrian as they moved along. Every third person had a walkie-talkie in case someone on either end of the line found something so they could radio out to the others. The forest kept changing density. One moment it was thick enough to make travel difficult; the next moment it would open up into a wide clearing. The evening shadows grew long as they walked, and every so often Singer would howl. They were far enough from the house that Finn didn’t doubt they would run out of light before they got back. His stomach growled, so he took another drink from the water bottle Mrs. Dubovasky had given him. It was getting low.

  Ivan shouted for Adrian again. Other than the sounds of their footsteps, the forest around them remained silent.

  “Adrian!” Finn shouted after he’d waited a couple of minutes after Ivan’s call. His heart raced each time it was his turn to shout. He hoped his was the call Adrian would answer. He desperately wanted Adrian to know how much he meant to Finn and Ivan.

  There was no answer to his shout, and as Mr. Smith’s voice rang out, a heaviness bore down on Finn. They just had to find Adrian. He wouldn’t believe that anything bad has happened to him. He had to be all right.

  The walkie-talkie in Ivan’s grasp squawked, and Finn strained to hear what was being said. “Everyone who doesn’t have a flashlight, let me know.” It was Ivan’s mother. She seemed to have appointed herself group organizer, making sure all the searchers had everything they needed.

  “I’ve got one, Mom,” Ivan replied. “I’ve got one for Finn too.”

  “Okay” came her reply. “You two stop for a couple of minutes while I get everyone else equipped. I don’t want you guys wandering off. We need to stay in our line.”