The Lost Wolf's Destiny (The Pack)

by Karen Whiddon

  When she emerged from the bathroom about fifteen minutes later, Lucas had returned. The tantalizing smell of hamburgers and French fries made her mouth water.

  He glanced up, took in her freshly scrubbed face and wet hair, and nodded, his bland expression revealing nothing. “Dig in.”

  She dropped into the chair opposite him and did as ordered. The first bite of the thick hamburger almost made her hum with pleasure. “This couldn’t have been fast food,” she said, once she’d swallowed. After her shower, change of clothes and now an excellent meal, she felt better than she should. She felt she ought to be suffering until she had Hailey back. “It tastes too good.”

  “It’s a local place, right around the corner,” he told her. “Called Stripers. I used to eat there as a boy. They’re known in these parts for their burgers.”

  This, she could believe. Giving up all attempts at eating with decorum, she tucked into her meal with gusto.

  They ate in companionable—or at least it felt like it to her—silence, both so fixated on the explosion of beef and mushroom and cheese and onion, they couldn’t talk.

  Only when she’d finished the burger and was down to two thick French fries, did she take a breath. “I needed that,” she told him, smiling. “Thanks.”

  He nodded, shifting in his chair as though her appreciation made him uncomfortable. “Better to go in well fed so our strength is fortified,” he said. “After this, I’m going to go trade the motorcycle in for a pickup truck. Though I hate to let the bike go, it isn’t practical for a rescue. I need something that can accommodate all three of us.”

  Gratified—and a bit stunned—that he would do something like this for a total stranger, she only nodded.

  After they’d eaten, he left, promising to return as soon as possible. “I’m going to head to a used car lot in the next town over.”

  Once he’d gone, she paced, missing Hailey and worrying about her. She wished she had something to occupy herself—no, she wished she could call the police and, accompanied by sirens and uniformed officers with badges and guns, march into Sanctuary and reclaim her daughter.

  Since she couldn’t, she had no choice but to wait.

  Roughly ninety minutes later, the rumble of an engine outside the room announced Lucas’s return. She peered out through the curtains, taking care not to be seen in case it was someone else.

  When Lucas climbed out of the large white pickup, she breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to open the door.

  “Check it out,” he said, sounding pleased. “I traded the bike in for this. It’s a Ford F-250, and it’s got four-wheel drive and a V-8 engine. It’s perfect for everything we need.”

  “It looks great,” she said. “And thank you.”

  He nodded, appearing to understand that she spoke from the heart. There weren’t enough words to express how much she appreciated his help.

  Since they still had a few hours until sunset, he clicked on the TV. The evening news was just beginning and they both watched in silence.

  Lucas got up and turned it off when the news was over. “At least no mention was made of you, Hailey, or even Jacob and Sanctuary.”

  “That’s good, right?” she asked.

  “So far, yes. Though this news isn’t local, it’s national,” he said. “Plus I really think Jacob’s going to keep this as quiet as possible. At least until he needs to do damage control.”

  She considered this carefully. “Then maybe I should go to the media first. If I beat him to it—”

  “He’ll already have a cover story,” Lucas said as he grimaced. “I’m sorry, but I’ve already given you some examples. It won’t be good.”

  Reluctantly, she let that particular spark of hope die, aware that he was probably right.

  “I’m thinking Jacob won’t expect us to go on the offensive,” she said, glancing at him for confirmation.

  “Probably not.” Hands behind his head, he stretched, drawing her gaze to the way his T-shirt fit snugly over his muscular chest. Her mouth went dry. The instant she realized what she was doing, she spun away, red-faced and inexplicably furious.

  How could she be so shallow that she could admire and even lust after a man when her daughter was missing? What was wrong with her?

  Something must have shown in her expression. Lucas uncoiled himself from the chair. “My turn for a shower,” he said. He disappeared inside the bathroom, closing the door behind him with a click.

  Once he was gone, she took several deep breaths. To her relief, a bit of the tension coiled inside her eased. She felt as if she had herself completely under control by the time he emerged from the bathroom.

  Though a moment ago she’d convinced herself that he made too big of a deal about her nakedness, when he appeared in the bathroom door wearing only a pair of low slung jeans, she felt dizzy. To her relief, he shrugged into a button-down shirt. She couldn’t seem to drag her eyes away as she watched him fasten every single button.

  “Do you want to play cards?” he asked, dropping a brand-new deck onto the table. “I found these in one of the dresser drawers.”

  “Sure, why not?”

  They amused themselves by playing poker. Focusing on her hand, Blythe managed not to stare too long at the fine hairs on his muscular arm, or marvel at the elegant fingers that seemed out of place on such a large hand.

  Finally, the sun set.

  “Let’s go,” she said, after she’d peered out the window for the fifth time.

  “Give it a few more minutes,” he replied. “We need full darkness.”

  Ignoring him, she opened the door. “Come on. If I have to wait here another minute, I’ll go crazy. If you need it to be darker, then you can drive slowly.”

  Shooting her a quick look, he got up. Evidently, his nerves weren’t as on edge as hers. Though they’d discussed various scenarios, they didn’t have a concrete plan. She figured they’d simply wing it, play it by ear.

  Leaving the room, they hopped in the truck and rode back to the compound. The huge gates were closed. There were no signs of activity as they circled around, nothing to indicate Jacob was in any way concerned that Blythe might return and demand her daughter.

  No doubt if he even considered this possibility, it would give him great amusement. She curled her hands into fists, leashing her simmering fury. If she could have gotten hold of Jacob Gideon at that moment, she’d have torn him to pieces.

  When Lucas came to a stop in the same location he had before, she climbed out as soon as he killed the engine.

  “Help me hide the truck,” he said.

  After she assisted dragging several large pieces of brush around the vehicle, she glanced at the flat empty fields. “Human or wolf?” she asked. “I’m thinking we’d be safer as wolves.”

  “But what about your daughter? How can we get her out if we’re in our wolf forms?”

  “She knows me as wolf,” she said, grinning at the memory. “I can carry her on my back. That’s how we accustom young Shifters to what they are.”

  He considered for a moment. She couldn’t read the expression on his chiseled features. “Wolf it is,” he finally said. “It’ll be easier to make an escape that way.”

  * * *

  Something about the way he held himself—aloof, almost uncertain—told her that perhaps he wasn’t quite used to shifting with others. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised, after all that he’d told her. He hadn’t had the traditional bonding experience that being part of the Pack comprised. But still, he was a man now. Who among their kind would choose to be alone when they had other options?

  Apparently Lucas Kenyon.

  “You’ll get used to it,” she told him, throwing the words over her shoulder as she turned away to remove her clothing.

  “Catch.” He’d tossed her a backpack. Waiting until she’d caught it, he smiled before stripping off his own clothes.

  Though she knew she should have looked away, she couldn’t. She tried not to stare, honest to hounds she tried
to not even look, but she’d never seen a man so beautiful and so perfectly made. His muscular shoulders and chest gave way to a flat, chiseled stomach and...more.

  Feeling the rush of heat, she swallowed hard. This was ridiculous. They’d come to rescue Hailey. Nothing more. Snarling at herself under her breath, she yanked off her clothing as fast as she could and dropped to all fours to initiate the change.

  Beside her, she sensed him doing the same. As her bones changed and lengthened, she tried to blot from her mind the image of Lucas naked. Once fully wolf, she knew it would no longer matter.

  When she opened her eyes again as wolf, she put her nose to the ground and sniffed. When human, sight was the primary sense she used. As wolf, sight came a distant second or third after scent and sound. Her nose was a thousand times more sensitive, as were her ears. In fact, the world was a much richer place when she walked it in her wolf form.

  A large black wolf stood next to her. Lucas. They touched noses, getting each other’s scent, and then they were off. Loping across the desert, with the wind and the moonlight to guide them.

  When they reached the perimeter of Sanctuary, they slowed in unison. Lucas whined, pawing the ground to communicate his unease. This she understood, for tonight the house had an eerie feel, almost as though it was alive and could sense them.

  As wolf, she trusted such instincts.

  Glancing at Lucas, she saw he, too, had stopped. As he stared at the structure with his snout raised to scent the wind, she saw how beautiful he was as wolf. Masculine. Dark to her light.

  Then she noticed the raised fur on his back. Her own hackles went up in response. Danger.

  Keeping low to the ground, he moved first. She followed. No matter what the risk, she had to find Hailey and get her out. But how would they get inside? Though she hadn’t been able to explore during her brief stay, she’d bet the place was kept locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

  Lucas ran to a ground-level window and tapped it sideways with his nose. It moved only a fraction of an inch, but this gave him enough room to use his entire snout and even his paws.

  When he’d created an opening large enough for them to fit inside, he glanced back at her. Then, moving quickly, he slipped inside.

  She didn’t even hesitate before following.

  Once she went through the opening, she stumbled and fell a foot or so onto what felt like a metal slab. The smell of soap or detergent and bleach hit her sensitive nose hard enough to make her sneeze.

  As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized why the window had been left unlocked. They were in what obviously was the laundry room, which reminded her of something she’d expect to find in a hotel.

  Industrial-size washers and dryers lined one wall. The metal slab underneath the window was a commercial ironing press, which she imagined would generate a lot of heat. Thus the need to open the window.

  Lucas waited near the closed doorway, head cocked as he listened for any hint they might have been discovered. Then he reached up, took the doorknob in his mouth and turned it, backing toward her and pulling the door open.

  Successful, he slipped out into the hall, Blythe right behind him.

  They saw no one, and in fact all the doors were closed. Every now and then she caught a whiff of something—a woman’s faded perfume, the smell of cooked meat, which made her mouth water—but nothing she recognized as her daughter’s scent. Or even Jacob Gideon’s, for that matter.

  Strange. They continued on. Lucas dropped back and let her lead, reminding her that he wasn’t familiar with Hailey’s scent. Only she could track her daughter that way.

  Yet she wasn’t having any luck.

  She was thorough, pausing at each closed door, putting her nose to the small opening below it and breathing in.

  They swept the entire first floor, glad of the darkness, without finding even the smallest trace of her little girl. The stairs beckoned, and these were dimly lit with small lights set into a recessed panel below each step.

  Her sense of unease growing, she bounded up the staircase. If she remembered right, her old room was this way. Though she doubted they’d have brought Hailey back there, especially with a broken window, she had to check.

  But first, she inspected each and every door along the hall. Though she had no way to communicate with him, she couldn’t help but wonder if Lucas noticed the same thing she had. The house seemed completely empty of people, at least judging from the lack of human smells.

  She didn’t understand this. Surely they hadn’t evacuated. This had to be some sort of a trap.

  Backing away, she touched her nose to Lucas’s flank to communicate her unease. He growled low in his throat, pushing past her toward the last set of doors at the end of the hall.

  She recognized the place from before. Double doors made of dark wood. No mere knob here, but an elaborate pewter handle that she thought might be easier for a wolf to open. Whether intentional or not, she didn’t know or care. This was Jacob Gideon’s room.

  Lucas snarled again and, as the scent tickled her nose, she realized there was a very real possibility he might even be inside.

  * * *

  Though fully wolf, various human memories flooded Lucas as he stood in front of the imposing double doors. The heavily polished mahogany represented a thousand horrors from his adolescence. Most of all, they were a blatant symbol of all he had lost. Lilly’s absence—even now—had made a permanent hole in his heart.

  Beside him, Blythe matched his growl with one of her own. He glanced at her, noting the way the fur on her back had risen, exactly like his own.

  Forcing himself to move forward, he bumped one of the doors with his shoulder. It remained solid and unmoving, which meant they had no way to get inside. Even if he stood on his hind legs and reached the handle and managed to turn it, there was no chance he could pull such a heavy door open.

  But still he had to try. Maybe if Blythe would help him...

  Nudging her with his muzzle, he jumped at the door, trying to communicate without words what he needed her to do.

  She followed him over as though she understood. Side by side, they stood on their hind legs and closed their mouths over the long, curled, pewter handle.

  Working as though they’d practiced for this moment, they moved it down, simultaneously walking backward on their hind legs.

  The door opened.

  And as it did, an alarm began to shriek Klaxon tones.

  Blythe froze. Growling at her, Lucas continued to pull. Now that the door was open, he needed to take a quick look inside to make sure Hailey wasn’t the prize Jacob considered valuable enough to protect with an alarm.

  The room was empty, as he’d thought. Nudging her, he turned and took off with her right at his side.

  Moving as one, they ran swiftly through the halls, expecting to be confronted at any moment. Miraculously, weirdly, they made it downstairs and to the laundry room without encountering another soul. Despite the awful sound of the alarm, so loud it tore at his supersensitive eardrums, no one emerged from any of the other rooms.

  Sanctuary resembled a ghost town. Abandoned and lifeless.

  Maybe the place really had been emptied. Still, they couldn’t take any chances. Leaping up onto the commercial ironing platform, they went out through the same window by which they’d entered.

  As they ran across the land, Lucas kept glancing back over his shoulder, expecting searchlights or gunshots. But nothing happened—no lights came on inside Sanctuary, no voices called out at them to stop and most important, no one shot at them.

  Once they reached the place where they’d left their clothes, they stopped and stood, panting. Side by side, both wolves eyed the silent house, snouts lifted to scent the air for anything that might indicate there would be a pursuit.

  Instead, they smelled nothing. Saw nothing, heard nothing. It was as if Sanctuary had been empty for years.

  Except it hadn’t been.

  Finally, Blythe whined. Moving away, she
turned her back to him, lowering herself to the ground to begin to shape-shift back to human.

  Lucas took one last look at the distant compound and then did the same.

  The instant the change was complete, Blythe pushed herself up and stalked over to snatch up her clothing. She dressed hurriedly, her jerky movements revealing both anger and fear.

  Lucas’s problem was a bit more...earthy. Despite his massive arousal, he managed to walk to his clothes and get dressed, as well.

  After he was fully clothed, he went to the truck and began pulling away the brush. Blythe stood slender and straight, clearly in the grips of strong emotions as she eyed Jacob’s massive house. Her entire body appeared to vibrate.

  Lucas saw her pain, her grief at losing her daughter. It was plain in the tears she didn’t even seem to know she was crying, and in the harsh set of her feminine jaw.

  Lucas watched her for a moment, uncertain how she’d want him to react. He couldn’t blame her. After all, they’d found absolutely nothing—no hint of where her little girl had been taken. Hailey might as well have vanished into thin air.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, well aware she was not.

  “I’m fine,” she snarled, sounding anything but. “We didn’t get to search every room.”

  “I know, but the alarm—”

  “No one came when it went off,” she interrupted him. “And the place does appear empty. I think we should go back in, right now as humans, and tear the place apart until we find Hailey.”

  He actually considered the idea. “And if she’s not there?”

  “Then we search for any scrap of information that might tell us where they’ve taken her.”

  “I don’t think—” He didn’t finish whatever he’d been about to say. Instead, he turned around. “We can try. Only I want you to promise me one thing.”

  Though her belligerent expression told him she wasn’t in the mood to make promises she couldn’t keep, she jerked her head in a nod. “Come on.”

  When she started forward, he grabbed her. “Stay behind me,” he ordered. “Just in case.”