“Everything okay?” Smolder asked.
Sighing, I said, “I gotta go.”
Disappointment tamped down the thrill of feeling his body pressed against mine, the taste of him lingering on my lips.
He gave a little shrug and stepped back. “Sure,” he said.
“Sorry about that,” I said, turning to walk away through the crowded club.
Behind me, I heard him say, “No problem. See ya.”
I spun in place. I could walk away this easily? No begging? Usually they couldn’t ask for my number fast enough, afterward. I mentally scanned back five minutes. Yeah, he’d been hard in my hand. Yeah, his breath had come fast, and his pupils had been dilated with lust. He’d wanted me as much as I’d wanted him. And then, No problem. See ya?
Even now, he gave me a quick smile, almost business-like. Then he pulled his phone from his pocket and the screen lit up. He stared at whatever message he’d gotten, and frowned.
My phone buzzed again.
Eveline: The alpha and your mom are flipping the fuck out. I don’t know what’s going on but they’re really worried about you. Your dad is crying and breaking shit.
Fuck, what was going on? I texted back, On my way.
Chapter Two
The drive home was a blur. The scents of sweat, sex, and cheap booze clung to my skin, even with the windows open. That was nothing new. It was the same as every night I came home from Magic.
The cool night air washed over me, whipping my hair as my beat-up orange Nova whisked around the mountain curves. The little hairs on my bare arms stood on end as gooseflesh spread across my skin.
Part of me was pissed that I had to leave the club. But what was worse—what I couldn’t shake—was him. Smolder. I hadn’t even gotten his real name, and all I had in my head was this ridiculous nickname. His tan skin was kissed by the sun, and those hard abs were a gift from some kind of sex god. Those dark, lust-filled eyes drew me in, offering both a challenge and a promise. It was the same offer his hips made as they ground against me. Hot sex. All night.
It was obvious that I’d affected him. I knew that he wanted me, just as he was meant to. So why the fuck did he let me walk away?
Worse, why did I care?
When I arrived at the compound, I realized that I couldn’t remember any details from the drive home. It was as if I just showed up here. There could have been clowns dancing in the middle of the street or aliens or some shit going on. Or just a quiet night with raccoons and trees.
The little car shook as it idled in front of the massive wall. Trees dotted the surrounding landscape, their shadows eerie in the moonlight. Beyond the wall was much the same as out here—minimal lighting because the wolf shifters didn’t need assistance to see in the dark. My little cottage had a path of solar-powered lights because I needed that help.
I looked around for whoever was on watch. If I was any later getting back, it wasn’t my fault. I had come as soon as they’d summoned me.
I drummed my fingers on the dash, debating whether or not I should just climb the damned gate.
Before I could open the door, a hulking shadow approached. Finally. Benjamin scanned through the twelve-foot metal bars with squinted eyes and a hard face.
I waved a hand through the open window. As soon as he recognized me, Benjamin opened the gates to the compound at a snail’s pace. Clearly he hadn’t gotten the memo that David wanted me home quickly.
I drove inside and didn’t look back.
Cottages and cabins were scattered across the hundred-acre compound, too dark to see at midnight. I passed the driveway to the cottage my sister and I shared and headed straight for the alpha’s estate.
Whatever the hell was going on, it was serious. Mom and David didn’t care what I did, how late I was out. They only cared about their precious Wren. My heart sank and I threw my car into park. I closed my eyes, pictured my sister, and tried what Wren did when she wanted to See something. Slow deep breaths. Clearing my mind, I tried focusing on the image of her in my head. Long blond hair, like pure sunlight. Green eyes like a spring meadow. Focus on—
A cold finger pressed into the side of my cheek.
I peeked through my eyelashes.
Smack in the center of a mop of brown curls, Eveline’s wide blue eyes met my gaze.
“We have to get you inside,” she said. “Come on.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I know. I’m coming.”
“It’s really bad,” she said. “Everyone’s coming over. A big announcement, and they’re totally flipping that you were out.”
I nodded. “Maybe my mom’s pregnant.”
Eveline’s eyes grew wider, like she was one of those fuzzy little bush babies. It was a good look for her, and went along with the freckles on her nose and the whole cute, innocent thing she had going on.
I pulled out my keys and climbed out of my car.
“It didn’t seem like happy news,” she said.
“Would a pregnancy for the alpha’s mate be happy news?” I asked, narrowing my eyes and playing into the ridiculous story.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Yes?”
I started up the sidewalk to the big brick house with Eveline at my side.
Cars were parked all along the street. Everyone wasn’t coming—they were already here.
Eveline reached out and straightened one of my tank top straps. “Is that a bite mark on your neck?” she asked, shaking her head. “I take it you were having fun. Sorry I called you back.”
“Better to come back early than get in trouble,” I said, squeezing her wrist. Taking another look at the big brick house, I gave a shiver of apprehension. Whatever shit was going down, it was bad.
I could feel the weight of my mother’s gaze before I spotted her. The front door swung open when I was two steps away.
With thick blond hair and bright blue eyes stood a beautiful woman in a flowy black dress. We were the same height with her barefoot and me in five-inch heels. She was everything I wasn’t, and she was my mother.
“Thank the Goddess.” Mom grabbed my wrist and pulled me in.
Eveline followed and shut the door.
Standing against the walls of the expansive living room were all of the soldiers, David’s most trusted, most agile, and the fiercest of the pack. They were dressed like it was day instead of the middle of the night. Whatever was going on, it was serious, more serious than David throwing things.
Conversation cut short and all eyes turned to me.
“What’s going on?” I asked my mom.
Their focus shifted to the side of the room, the doorway to the kitchen. Everyone in the room went still and quiet. Before he entered, I knew who it was. The only man in the pack who commanded so much attention and respect was David, the alpha, and my mother’s mate.
I was the only one in the room, or hell, the only one on the whole damned compound, other than my mom, who wasn’t a wolf shifter. Still, my adoptive father’s presence had that same effect on me, and I stopped talking and looked over to the alpha.
He walked over to my mother and put his hand on her hip. Then he turned to look at me. “Sparrow,” he said. His was a voice of authority, one that was used to being obeyed, one that demanded it. He could say sit, and the whole pack would fall to their haunches like trained poodles.
He was handsome, with salt and pepper hair and strong, Anglo-Saxon features. Paired with my mother, it was like looking at every stock photo of the perfect Barbie and Ken couple that everyone else wished they were.
“Seriously,” I said, “what’s going on?”
“It’s Wren,” Mom said.
My sick stomach knotted a thousand times over, punched itself, and knotted again.
“We received a call from Chad Curtis,” she said.
That was the guy the pack had hired to protect Wren. If he called…I didn’t know what that meant. Something went wrong. I wanted to shake my mother’s shoulders and scream. Spit it out. Tell me! I sucked in a deep breath,
held it in my lungs, and waited.
“Sparrow, your sister is missing.”
“What? How can she be missing?” I asked on my exhale. My brain buzzed, and I spoke my thoughts aloud. “It doesn’t make any sense. That security firm is supposed to be able to handle this kind of thing. They’re supposed to be competent enough to drive a girl a few hours away without issue. How could they lose her? She wouldn’t walk away from her security guards. She’d stay put while they delivered her. This is Wren we’re talking about.”
By the time the last words escaped my lips I realized I was yelling. I hadn’t meant to.
“Calm down,” David said.
Funny, given he was the one who’d been crying and throwing things before I’d arrived.
I wanted to say fuck off. I wanted to ask why the hell he wasn’t yelling, too. This was his daughter we were talking about. Why was he standing here looking at me instead of shifting his big wolf ass into said big bad wolf and racing out there to find her? Instead of asking him anything, I ignored him.
“What’s their story?” I asked. “What’s their excuse?”
“It was a quick call,” my mother said. “There wasn’t time to ask—”
“You should be pissed as hell,” I said. “We should all be out there, right now, looking for—”
“Can you See her?” Mom asked, taking my hands in hers.
There was cautious hope in her eyes. A sparkle in the sea of deep, blue uncertainty. She didn’t think I could do it. Why would she? She knew my track record. My visions were at best sporadic tidbits with indecipherable meaning.
But now I understood. Now I knew why everyone was here dressed like it was the middle of the afternoon even though it was the middle of the night. They were ready to go look for Wren after I inevitably failed. The oracle who couldn’t See.
There hadn’t been an oracle born in the family since my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. Each generation was born as witches, with their own specialized abilities. But none had the sight. Not since Great-great-grandma Ruth back in the early nineteen-hundreds. Then not again until Wren and me.
I closed my eyes and reached out, latching on to the image of my little sister. If I could picture her I could See her, or at least that was how it was supposed to go. That’s how it worked for Wren.
I imagined her blond hair, her green eyes, and her easy smile.
All I could See was black.
I opened my eyes and watched the hopeful light fade from my mother’s face.
“Nothing?” she asked.
“I’m sorry.” I’m sorry I’m not Wren.
It was my fault that she was gone. Anything that happened to her while she was away, it was on me. It was my vision two weeks ago that had said she was in danger, that she needed to be sent away. It was the clearest, most vivid premonition I’d ever had. I was the reason she’d left the compound, why she was taken into the care of the Curtis Corporation, why she was missing. Whereas Wren had shared a vision that I was meant to stay put. Her vision said I was safest on the compound until I’d found a mate.
Since the chances of me taking one of these wolves as a forever fuckbuddy were zero to none, it was a life sentence Wren had given me. Stay on the compound for fucking ever.
My mother let my hands go, turned, and walked into the kitchen. The silence in the living room pressed in on me from all sides. The only sound was the great big clock, ticking away in the hall. Too aware of the watchful presence of the pack surrounding me, I blinked rapidly, trying not to cry.
A soft palm touched my bare shoulder—Eveline.
“It’s okay, Sparrow,” David said loudly. “We will find her.”
He truly believed his will would be enough. This time I hoped that he was right.
“I’ll do whatever I can to—”
“You’ll remain here,” he said. “I’ve called in a few favors and it’s all set.”
“What’s set? What are you talking about?” I stared at him, like if I looked hard enough, he’d suddenly start making sense.
His voice was authoritative, his black eyebrows furrowed. “Your protection.”
“Protection? What exactly is that supposed to mean?” I didn’t need protection. I wasn’t in any danger. I needed space, freedom, and I needed to help my sister. What weren’t they telling me?
He slipped his hand from his pocket and peered down at the phone in his palm.
“It appears that your guards have already arrived.”
“Guards?” My mouth was gaping. I snapped it shut.
One of the shifters standing by the wall cleared his throat and moved from foot to foot. Had everyone but me known this was happening, or were they as surprised as I was?
“Wren said I was safe here. She Saw it,” I said. “David, this doesn’t make any sense.”
David didn’t reply. Instead he turned and spoke to a man with spiky blond hair—Jeffrey, his second-in-command. “Organize a search party for Wren. Start where she went missing and fan out in circles.”
Where she went missing. He said start where she went missing. They did know more than I’d been told.
Jeffrey nodded and gestured everyone else out of the room. David also walked out the door. I took a step to follow, but Eveline grabbed my wrist.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
“You okay?” Her concern was genuine, as it always was. Eveline was my only friend in this place with Wren gone. She didn’t get me, no one but Wren did. But she cared, and I cared about her, too. No way would she ever want to go somewhere like Magic, but she always listened to my stories about it, and she’d more than once sought my advice for her own heartaches. Sure, my advice was usually along the lines of “a shot of tequila and a new boyfriend solve everything,” but we were close, and I was grateful.
“I’m fine,” I answered, though fine didn’t really begin to describe the truth of what I was feeling. My sister was missing, and it was my fault. We’d find her, I had no doubt about that, but in the meantime, now my parents intended to shackle me to some hulking dickbags who would—what? Make sure I didn’t go searching for my sister?
David sauntered back inside, a troop of five soldiers at his heels. They lined up along the wall near me. I was completely prepared to hate every single one of them, resent their profession as much as their existence. But I had this feeling—a feeling that made my skin come to life, a feeling I’d had not long ago at the club.
I looked up and saw Smolder standing at the far end of the lineup. The guy from Magic. He was…working for David now? What the hell? We were twenty feet apart and it was like his hands were all over my skin, touching, caressing. I could still taste the tequila on his lips.
His eyes were molten, dark and scorching. I realized I’d been holding my breath, and I forced myself to look away. How the hell was I supposed to focus with him around? All I could think about was his touch…and then his lack of concern when I’d had to call an early end to our shenanigans.
Maybe he just wasn’t that into me. The thought bugged me more than I’d like to admit.
I realized David was staring at me. “Sparrow?”
“Hmm, yeah?”
“This is Logan Masters, a grizzly shifter,” David said, pointing to another guy.
Logan was tall, with buzzed black hair and pointed features. He was lean compared to the grizzlies I’d met, though not overly so. He was decent looking, but not my type. Well, I had lots of types, and he wasn’t one of them. He wore black cargo pants, a black t-shirt, and military-style boots. This guy was a soldier through and through, from his stiff stance to the neat creases of his ironed boxers. I couldn’t see his boxers, but if I could, they’d be ironed. He just had that look. His dark hazel eyes seemed to peer through me like he was a soulless statue.
“He spent four years with the Marines before moving into private security. Lucky for us, he happened to be in the right place at the right time. We were in need of one more guard than I’d already located.
Logan Masters is more than qualified.”
Logan offered me a curt nod, proving that he was more than a statue. The thought of having him hanging around raised my hackles, but apparently my opinion wasn’t important right now.
David took a step to the right and continued talking. “This is Zak Bryant.”
Zak was a different story. His white button-down shirt was untucked over dark-washed jeans. He leaned against the wall casually, and I couldn’t help but wonder how he’d gotten this job. He’d slicked his auburn hair back from his face, and it ended in little curls behind his ears and kissed his collar. His green eyes lit playfully as he looked me over, and a mischievous smile danced on his lips. The scruff on his face was as burnt orange as his hair, and I yearned to scrape my fingers across the rough stubble of his strong jaw. Yep, this one was different. This one could be fun.
“Mountain lion shifter. Six years of experience in protective services and security management. Mr. Bryant comes to us highly recommended by Mr. Garth.”
Mr. Garth. Bigwig alpha of the Pine Hills Pack. Any recommendation for anything from Mr. Garth went a long way with David.
“Why leave the Pine Hills Pack?” I asked.
“Mr. Garth retired,” Zak said. His voice did something incredible to my insides. He sounded smoky and sexy, like a rock star at the end of a set.
Made sense. I nodded.
David took a step to the right. This time, I did, too.
The man before me was a giant, towering over the rest. This was what a grizzly shifter was supposed to look like. His wide shoulders bunched within his white t-shirt, stretching the thin fabric to its limit. His biceps were as thick as my head. Maybe I could insist that this one had to work shirtless.
“Everett Robinson,” David said. “Grizzly shifter.”
Called it.
He wore his hair short, though not buzzed. His face was clean-shaven, and his brown eyes were hard like Logan’s.
“Let me guess,” I said. “Soldier.”
“Navy,” David said.
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