On the Edge (Adirondack Pack Book 3)

by K. C. Stewart

  “We can easily find out, Mira,” Tyson told her. “If you look inside, you will either find a wolf or not.”

  “What?” she asked horrified. “I don’t want to…”

  “He’s right,” Owen said. “It might give you piece of mind if you look for your wolf. Then you’ll know and be able to move forward, no matter how it turns out.”

  Mira shook her head. “No.”

  “It’s just like meditating. Just quiet your mind and take a look around.” Tyson was trying to help but Mira had stopped listening.

  She pushed off of him and stood. “Can we just drop this? I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “Rabbit,” he pleaded. “We can help.”

  She laughed. “I don’t want help right now. I want things to go back to the way they were. I want to be ignorant again. I’m not like you Sadie, there are some things I just don’t want to know. Excuse me.” Mira stepped over Owen’s legs and over to the door. He was about to get up but Sadie shook her head. She was right. Going after her right now would just piss her off. Mira needed some time to cool down.

  The door opened and he waited for it to slam closed but it never came. Owen turned around and saw Mira standing in the doorway, hand still on the doorknob, facing someone. She blocked the person but Owen was already getting to his feet. They smelled like blood and fear.

  “Holy shit,” Mira said. “Lee?”

  Chapter Ten

  “What happened, Lee?” Owen asked, his hands on her shoulders shaking her from her daze. She had been standing on Sadie’s porch for a few minutes unable to get herself to knock. Then the door opened taking away her chance to leave.

  “Bring her in,” Sadie said from somewhere inside.

  Owen guided her in by her shoulders. The door closed behind her. Why was Owen here? This was Sadie’s house, was it not? Lee couldn’t get her head on straight. All she could think of was the two dead wolves and where Vince was.

  “Is that her blood?” Sadie asked.

  Owen was running his hands over her looking for a source of the blood but he wouldn’t find it. The blood was Vince’s and some dead Canidae members. She had walked from the attack site to Sadie’s house. It wasn’t far. She had started out confident but quickly ended up in a shocked daze as she thought about Vince and where he was at right now, what he had gone through, was going through and if he was even alive.

  She had to stop once the tears had blurred her vision. Lee fell to her knees letting her head bow to the earth and sobbed. It was all her fault. If she would have just been honest with him from the start, he wouldn’t have felt the need to come to her last night and get jumped in the process.

  “It’s not mine,” she said and stilled Owen’s fussing.

  His hands framed her face and turned her head so she was looking right at him. He looked so caring. So unlike what she had come to know in the last few months. She had to bite her lip to keep it from doing something embarrassing, like quiver.

  “Lee, what happened?”

  “Vince was attacked last night.”

  Owen’s eyes went wide and then hardened. “Is he ok?”

  She twitched her shoulders up and down in an attempt at a shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t know where he is.”

  “How do you know this?” Tyson asked from beside Owen. She looked up at him and then to Sadie and Mira behind them.

  “I followed the trail from his house. He killed two of them but there were more. Four, I think. But then there were some humans too.” She wasn’t explaining it right. Everyone was watching her, waiting for her to go on but the words weren’t coming easily. “I don’t know what went down other than his knife was left sticking out of the head of a wolf in the woods and he is gone.”

  She started to shake. The realization of Vince’s predicament really hitting her now. He was gone, possibly dead, probably dead. She was well and truly alone now.

  No more Valek. No more Vince. Just Lee.

  This time, she hadn’t just hurt someone she cared for, she got them killed.

  Owen pulled her into his chest. He hugged her and rocked her like she had seen him do to so many other wolves when they needed the comfort. She knew it meant nothing. One of his pack members needed something; it was his job to provide it.

  “Tyson, can you call the house and get some people over here so we can start to figure out where Vince is? Rabbit, can you get Lee something to drink?”

  Owen murmured words of comfort but Lee wasn’t really hearing them. No point in holding on to false sympathy. Lee pushed him away when Mira handed her a glass of water. She couldn’t look at the woman but muttered a “thank you” under her breath.

  Owen didn’t leave her side. He directed the others around but stayed with Lee. Was he scared she would run off or fall apart? At one point she would have laughed in his face for thinking either of those but she was different now. She wasn’t strong; all her strength had left with her friends.

  “Miles just arrived,” Tyson said coming in the front door. “He’s going to follow Lee’s path.”

  “Good. Have him check in when he gets there. I’ll be out a little later. Vince is our priority right now. Finding him comes first.”

  Owen's commanding voice filled her. She looked at him and for the first time in a very long time she didn’t see someone who was once a friend or a lover but she saw her Alpha. He switched into the part so seamlessly. Confidence and command strengthening his jaw, straightening his shoulders. This may be her fault but Owen would set it right.

  “I want in,” Lee injected. “I want to help.”

  Owen gave her a soft look. A pitying look. “Why don’t we get you to the pack house where you can rest up? Let us take it from here,” he said soothingly but she wasn’t having any of it.

  “No, I want to find him.” She needed to find him. To know…

  “Why?” he asked. “Why are you so adamant about this? I can’t say I’ve ever seen you speak to him in anything more than passing. Was he a friend of yours?”

  Lee wasn’t going to explain it to him. It was just one more reason for them to hate her. She had lied for years to Vince but that’s exactly why she needed to do this. “You have no reason to trust me, Owen. None of you do. I get that. I accept that. But please, just trust me in this.” Lee grabbed hold of one of his hands in both of hers.

  He didn’t say anything. Her old friend looked sad as he watched her. Owen nodded. He squeezed her hands and agreed. “Ok Lee. Bring our boy home.”

  *****

  At least he wasn’t dead.

  It was the only thought that kept Vince from going crazy.

  The cameras watching and recording his every move prevented him from shifting and getting the hell home. Vince laid on his side, anesthesia still wearing off. Many patches of his fur had been shaved off and the uncovered skin chilled on the concrete floor.

  He was under heavy surveillance after surgery. It could have been worse, could have been much worse. Vince had landed himself in a Pine Grove Ranch, a wolf sanctuary. They saved his life by coming when they did and in any other scenario, he would be much more grateful for their care. They worried over him, which was kind but all he wanted was to go home. By now Owen should know he was missing. If Lee hadn’t gone over to his house to bitch at him for making her wait, then Cobie would have noticed something was wrong after school.

  He really hoped the kid hadn’t followed his path into the trail. Cobie didn’t need those kinds of nightmares.

  Vince knew they would search for him but finding him was another matter entirely. They would think Canidae took him. He wasn’t sure how much they would look into other routes. At the moment he was stuck. Once he recovered enough, there was talk about introducing him to one of the packs at the sanctuary. Maybe then he could shift and leave. The lands where they roamed were large but nothing like the pack lands he was used to. Still, there had to be a blind spot somewhere that he could get free.

  “Hey, Geronimo. How you doing buddy?”<
br />
  Beth, the woman who had found him had taken a liking to him. She stopped by all the time to check on him. She had been the one to name him Geronimo.

  “I brought you some water. It’s not much, I know, but you’ll probably throw it all up in a few minutes anyway. You need to take it easy the next few days as you heal.”

  The trap in the bottom of the door opened and a bowl was pushed in. He got up, his legs shaking in strain as he moved. Beth encouraged him as he went and smiled through the wire of the cage when he drank. She was right; he did expel everything almost immediately.

  Too tired to walk back the few feet to the pallet they made him for a bed, Vince settled where he was by the water bowl. She was right, he needed to heal. The faster he did, the easier it would be to get home.

  Chapter Eleven

  “It’s been three weeks, Miles,” Lee stressed quietly as she put his sandwich in front of him.

  “I know,” he said sounding slightly annoyed. “But we are doing all we can.”

  “We are missing something.”

  He stopped the sandwich’s progression to his mouth. “No shit.”

  Lee stepped back from the counter. She rubbed a headache between her eyes with her fingers. Three weeks with only dead ends and false leads. Canidae was slippery. They knew they were being hunted. Plus, none of them could figure out the human’s scent and why they were there in the middle of a bloodbath. Had they been the ones to take him?

  Lee left Miles to his lunch and went in the kitchen. Zach was stirring a pot of chili he was experimenting with. It was Chuck’s recipe but Zach had a golden touch when it came to food. He had some untapped potential in him. Once he realized it, they would all gain ten pounds.

  She slipped past him into Chuck’s office. Her boss was currently on the floor covering for Sadie so she would have privacy for a moment or two. Lee fell into his squeaky green chair. Her legs were exhausted. She had been pushing herself full throttle every day and night. The only sleep she got was an hour or two each night when her body threatened to quit on her. She had taken more hours at the Wick to cover Sadie who was dealing with an unstable Tyson. Owen was convinced there was someone in the pack who was with Canidae. It was bringing back all kinds of nightmares for Tyson about Jenny. Owen was hunting which meant Lee was also covering for him at the Veterinary office. Luckily the clinic she worked at had refused to let her in the door so long as she wasn’t sleeping. When she had two, eight to ten-hour rests in a row then she was allowed to work. Lee assumed Owen had something to do with that.

  Besides the lack of sleep and exhausting all new leads on Vince, Lee had been having more and more blackouts as a wolf. Her guard was down. Her control next to nothing. The wolf was taking advantage of her lessening defenses and take over. She, the wolf, wasn’t happy with Lee. She thought Lee was weak. Out of the two of them, the stronger would prevail. With every day that passed, she was beginning to think her wolf was right. It was stronger. When she stopped fighting…

  Someone pounded on the door. “Lee!”

  She sighed. Break was over. “What!” she yelled back.

  Miles opened the door with a grin. It was devilish and delighted. “Come on. Owen caught a Canidae.”

  *****

  Vince stared at the small group of people that passed. Beth led them on, talking about the wolves that could be seen and the packs as a whole. He sat near the fence, visible to everyone that came by. One day he might see someone who knew him, someone who was looking for him.

  Then again, it had been three weeks. His optimism for a rescue was turning more into impatience.

  “Here is our newest wolf, Geronimo,” Beth said as they stopped outside of his cage. “We found him a few weeks ago outside of Andora.” He was with two other female wolves and now their alpha. Being that the pack was so small there weren’t any dominance issues to deal with regularly. Their enclosure was about eight acres so they had a nice bit of land to run on. It wasn’t home, though. It wasn’t his pack. For now, he’d play the part but it was temporary.

  People took pictures and a few talked to him through the cage. He looked over each of them hoping to see a familiar face. One face in particular would make him especially happy. He wondered just how mad Lee was when he didn’t show that night. Was she worried for him now? If Lee was as much Glilee as he knew her to be, then she would not stop in this quest to find him. She might break and regroup, but she wouldn’t quit.

  Vince just hoped she could think outside the box enough to come looking for him outside of Canidae.

  He didn’t know anyone in this group and he didn’t have much faith in the next one in a few hours either. Still, he would sit there by the fence and wait. But if it took too much longer he’d say fuck it to the cameras and get himself out of there.

  *****

  Robert Nox sat at the metal table with his arms chained and his feet bolted to the floor. Owen wasn’t saying anything to him. He just sat there staring at the traitor. This was one of his own, one he protected and would lay his life down for, and he was killing people. He had promised Miles that he wouldn’t do anything without him present. The man was an enforcer so Owen was apt to listen to him. But he wasn’t going to let this little shit sit here alone. No, he’d keep him company.

  Because he was nice like that.

  “Alpha…a-are you going to s-say s-something?” Robert asked in a small stutter.

  He was sitting in the only other chair in the room, leaning back with his arms crossed over his broad chest. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Letting him stew was more fun.

  “Alpha?” The man looked around wildly. “P-please, you have to let me explain!”

  Owen dropped the hold he had on the man’s eyes and looked away. He didn’t much care for what Robert had to say. Three weeks ago Vince had been taken from them. He knew the man was still alive, he could feel his strength through the pack bonds returning. Owen was even lending him some of his own when he could. The bond was unstable which meant he wasn’t close by. Vince had been close to death but someone was aiding him in his survival. The questions were who and why.

  The door clicked open.

  “Owen, thank you for keeping Robert here company. I‘m sorry it took so long. I had to finish my lunch first.” Miles dropped a few files on the table beside where Owen sat. He knew what was contained there, pictures, descriptions, links of Canidae. This wasn’t Miles’ first rodeo.

  “No problem. I’ll be right outside listening in.” Owen stood up and looked once more at Robert. The man’s eyes dropped immediately. Fucking coward. “Have fun,” he told Miles and left.

  Not surprisingly, he found Lee waiting at the door. She glared at Robert through the window. Lee was looking ragged. She barely slept and was constantly pursuing any kind of thread on Vince’s whereabouts. He had wondered about their relationship before Vince had been taken. He knew Vince was attracted to her but Lee always seemed cold to the man. Of course, he knew her so he knew there was a reason behind the act. Lee wasn’t cold to anyone without purpose. She would much rather bitch you out than ignore you.

  Now he was wondering if he had missed something. Had they been seeing each other? Was there more to this attraction than he had known?

  “Lee,” he greeted her.

  Her eyes flicked toward him and right back to the glass. She now spoke to him but only about Vince and what they were doing to bring him home. When he tried to bring up their issues she would respond with “It’s not important right now.”

  But it was. It was very important to him.

  “Do you think he knows anything?” she asked tightly.

  “I don’t know. Miles wanted to handle him so I didn’t ask Robert anything. I just made him agitated while we waited.”

  Miles slammed some pictures down on the table for Robert to look at. When he wasn’t looking hard enough, Miles pushed his head down into the prints for an up close and personal experience.

  “If this doesn’t pan out, I don�
�t know where to go from here,” Lee admitted still watching Miles.

  “We’ll figure it out.”

  She turned to Owen and looked at him. Her eyes were determined but even that was beginning to crack. Doubt was seeping in and staining her confidence.

  “Will we? He could be dead or being tortured right now. They could be trying to turn his mind.” Lee pursed her lips together to hold in all the fears she didn’t want to vocalize.

  “He’s alive, healing,” he assured her.

  Lee turned back to Miles and Robert. The man was screaming that he didn’t know where Vince was. Owen could hear the truth to those words. By the way Lee’s shoulders fell, she could hear it too.

  He moved closer and put a hand on her shoulder. At one point she would have turned into him and let him hold her up for a while, but not this time. Lee shrugged off his hand and took a step away.

  “Tell me if he gets anything useful out of him.” She then turned and left.

  Owen sighed. He hated how he couldn’t reach her.

  “I swear he was alive when we left.” Robert stammered out. Owen’s eyes narrowed as he watched him. Finally, they were getting somewhere. “There were people coming and two of the group were already dead. We didn’t stick around.” Robert explained with wide eyes as Miles looked uninterested from his chair, one foot hidden from view.

  “Who were the people?”

  “I don’t know! Please…please!” he begged in a soprano tone.

  Miles relented and sat up straighter. Owen cracked a smile. Put your foot on a man’s balls and he was bound to talk.

  “Were they shifters?”

  He shook his head. “No. Human.”

  “Then why run?” Miles asked, which was exactly what Owen wanted to know.

  “T-this was our first time. Only Fiona had been on the hunt with Canidae before and she was dead. We were scared. Jesus, please. I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t my idea to go after him.”

  Miles smiled, cold, deadly. “Of course it wasn’t. You are a lemming. You do not lead, you follow. It’s why you are weak and why you are sitting here and not anyone else.”