“I’m so sorry, I must be getting blood on your seat.” I wiggled to put more of the blanket in between my scraped skin and the leather.
“Blankets wash, seats can be wiped down. Just make sure you’re okay. At least there aren’t any ticks around with the snow everywhere. Rest up now.” Without looking away from the gray, icy road, he patted around on the passenger seat for a bit until he wound a stack of random napkins. With a sheepish smile my direction, he handed them over. “See if you can get some of the blood off your face before you scare your friend’s cousin. Wouldn’t want them to call the police on me!”
“No, not at all,” I agreed whole-heartedly. I wiped at my exposed skin, watched the melted snow, dirt, and blood stain the napkins. Was my father bleeding, wherever he was? I could only hope the hospital intervened enough, was suspicious enough, that there wasn’t much anyone could do. Surely the sheriff was too busy getting stitches of his own to do much for the rest of the night.
Hell, if I was lucky, maybe the wolves had finished him off and someone who had followed us was the shooter.
No.
I’d never been one to get lucky.
My father, though. Mr. I’m Barely Able to Talk rising up like that and throwing a freaking trolley at the men. Who knew he was that strong? How had he managed that? Guess adrenaline was a hell of a drug. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Perhaps there was a chance that he had escaped, too. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d managed to duck trouble he’d bought down on his own head.
Once I got to Seyville and secured a way out, I could call someone I trusted, maybe even Dorothy, and see if she could do something, anything, to buy us all more time. But how could I make calls that can’t be traced? I didn’t have money to buy burner phones and I couldn’t ask to borrow someone else’s phone without a high chance of still getting caught. This is where watching survival shows and police dramas would have come in handy.
I thought of the skinny little wolf that made eye contact with me, those wild yellow eyes drilling into mine, and shuddered. I’m so freaking glad a wild animal hadn’t caught me. It was the last thing I needed in this nightmare.
Chapter Five
Branch, Nebraska
Wyatt
The helicopter had barely touched the ground in a small clearing edged by snow-dusted trees before I leaped out, senses strung tightly enough that the smallest trigger would send me into a blood frenzy.
If I had a dollar every time someone claimed to have found my missing mate, I could probably cover a night out with my pack and the hangover breakfast afterward. Ever since Isobel’s father packed her up and ran in the middle of the night after his wife got murdered by a rival pack member, dozens and dozens of people trying to buy my favor swore up and down that they had the lead that would get me what I wanted.
Before this, though, I’d only been disappointed.
It was dangerous to be separated from a mate for a long period of time, let alone years. The marks that showed up on our skin when we unexpectedly touched, skin to skin, was all it took for our parents to negotiate marriage when we both came of age, but everything went to hell the next night. The older I got, the more I felt the emptiness, the black hole in my soul she was supposed to fill, but I was able to control the darkness.
Now, I needed every ounce of it to save her.
Talin stood at the edge of the clearing, and when he saw me he strode toward me, stress and anger written all over his expressive face. Talin had always been a good ally, with a shy mate and three rambunctious cubs who were more often than not underfoot. Surely he hadn’t been hiding my mate from me, and I curled my hands into fists to regain control.
“What the hell is going on? Where is my mate?”
Talin’s hands shook as he rubbed them over his face. Good. He should be scared. “Alive, thanks to my three cubs. They’ve been shot.”
“What?”
“Follow me to where it happened. You’ll be able to get her scent. Cubs were playing in the woods—snuck out the window after Linna put them to bed. Saw a strange woman running terrified, smelled that she was a shifter. Threw themselves on the human who pulled a gun on her. Mangled him up pretty bad, but he got off three shots.”
My heart lurched to my throat. “Are they…” I couldn't finish the sentence.
“Two of them were shot, but bullets just grazed them, thankfully. Aleks was hit in the paw, Jase lost half an ear. Mara managed to escape unscathed. The sheriff… he's the one who was after your mate. He's the one who shot my children.” Talin’s hands were still shaking, but from anger. Not fear as I’d originally thought.
“Do you know where this sheriff is?” Visions of picking up where Talin’s cubs left off came to mind. Dark, bloody visions.
“Yes, we're monitoring Whitmore closely in the hospital. He's been bitten badly, but he has sent men after your mate, and activated authorities in all directions. We've got shifters following them now, shifters at the hospital ready to intervene once security is lax enough, shifters tracking where Menard was taken after your mate made a break for it. Seems like Whitmore has a habit of going after young women, and tried to use Menard’s latest legal woes to get your mate in a bad situation.” Talin glanced to where Nyria waited in the helicopter. “Your mate worked at a bar for a crotchety old woman we can’t get much out of—any chance you can send your female over to coax some information out of her?”
I wanted to tear the sheriff from limb to limb, but finding my mate was more important. There would be time for revenge later. “Take me to the crime site so that I can get my mate’s scent and find her before the humans do, and yes, Nyria and the shifters I brought with me will do everything they can to help you, too.”
***
In the dark night, surrounded by naked trees and fragile, ice-encased dead shrubbery, it was difficult to see much, but I instantly picked up the steady hum of the cars and the metallic scent of blood. Almost all shifter blood.
What made my body tense, though, was that with every step I took, the scent of my mate grew stronger and stronger until I knew I was standing right where she must have been for more than a brief second. At first it was a gentle tease, like wisps of clouds. Here, I breathed in deep and for the first time, I knew what she would smell like to me. When I met her, when we were both children, any instinctive protectiveness I’d felt was washed away by my instant dislike of her. Here, as an adult…
I’d imagined for years what she’d smell like. Taste like.
She smelled like soil. Peaches. Salt. Was that weird? I didn’t care. Every time I inhaled, there was another layer, another nuance I hadn’t noticed before. It was delicious. Intoxicating. Half of me was elated, the other furious that there wasn’t more I could breathe into me. I wanted all of her. Needed everything. My inner wolf clamored to be free, yearned to track, hunt, and claim.
Talin gently clearing his throat brought me back to Earth.
Remembering the fear, horror, and terror that had run through my blood as well as hers earlier this evening, impotent rage welled inside of me as I pictured the scene. My beautiful mate, terrified for her life, facing down an abusive human with a gun pointed at her, and I hadn't been there to help her.
It was enough to drive a shifter insane.
Blood, dark as the night, stained snow that had been violently disturbed. There were footprints leading to and from the area. One large set that had to belong to the sheriff heading in huge strides toward this spot, and then staggering unevenly back where he came from. One set of smaller prints ended at the creek but didn’t double back or continue forward. I peered downstream—nothing. But upstream, several rocks had been dislodged from the banks, leaving empty sockets carved in the snow packing the edge.