It didn’t hurt. Not really. She knew it would if she was alone, and it had deeply when Maddox hadn’t been mated to her. She was just grateful that they had each other.
They listened to the Silvers grieve for another hour before she fed them the cookies Willow had made. The couple had suffered enough. They didn’t need to be forced to eat Ellie’s baking as well.
By the time they left, Ellie was emotionally exhausted, and Maddox looked as though he needed a nap as well. And not even the fun, sweaty nap they’d discussed before the Silvers had arrived seemed like a good idea.
Maddox stood and pulled her into his arms, crushed her to his body. “Thank you for being there, Ellie mine. I love you so fucking much. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Tears stung her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, inhaling his scent of wolf, forest, and home. The act centered her wolf, and she sighed, knowing that this was her forever.
Cheesy as it sounded, but her wolf knew the score.
“I love you too. Now let’s get some protein in us and then get ready for Charlotte to get home.”
Maddox kissed her softly then pulled back, an odd look on his face.
Her wolf went on alert. “What is it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Something’s wrong.”
Logan, Lexi’s brother and Cailin’s mate, slammed open the door, his hazel eyes bright, the gold rim glowing as his wolf rose to the surface.
“It’s Charlotte. She’s missing.”
Ellie blinked as the world faded around her, her wolf howling in agony.
Her daughter.
Her Charlotte.
Gone.
Chapter Three
Caym couldn’t be back. Could he?
They’d sent the demon to hell in the arms of his brothers. Caym had screamed, begged, and pleaded, but it hadn’t been enough. The relief in seeing the portal to hell open and drag him back to hell had filled Maddox like no other.
Had they been wrong?
That was the thought running in a circle within Maddox’s mind as he tried to listen to whatever Logan was telling them.
Charlotte. Gone.
How the hell could that happen? The war was supposed to be over. Their children were supposed to be safe. The den should have been a safe haven, not a place where things could go terribly wrong and a little girl who had been through so much already was in the middle of something Maddox had no idea about.
His wolf nudged at him, bringing him out of his thoughts and into the situation at hand. “What happened? Exactly.” He growled out each word, his control barely leashed. Ellie gripped his hand, her own wolf dancing on the same edge as his.
Logan ran a hand through his hair, his body radiating tension. “Come with me to the den center, and I’ll explain. We’re forming a search party.”
Maddox looked at Ellie and nodded before following Logan out the door. “Explain, wolf. I’m barely reining it in as it is.”
Logan didn’t even pause his steps, merely looked over his shoulder and nodded. If anyone were to harm Cailin or their unborn child, the man would understand. Maddox just didn’t need to deal with dominance games at the moment.
He needed his daughter.
“The kids were all outside playing in the park. Charlotte, Gina, Mark, and Parker were playing by the trees. You know how close they’ve all gotten since North and Lexi mated.”
Maddox nodded. The kids, though not blood-related in any way, had become family fast. Parker was only a couple years older than Charlotte, but they had grown close quickly. Between those two and Kade’s adopted children, Mark and Gina, the four of them were a unit.
“The other three turned away to look at something, and when they turned back, Charlotte wasn’t there anymore. They thought she was just playing hide and seek or had gone off on one of her quiet walks, but they couldn’t find her. Then they came up to Cailin and told her that Charlotte disappeared. As soon as we heard that, we went into action, and I came to you. I would have called, but I didn’t want you to have to hear that over the phone without a wolf there to fight in case your own wolf demanded it.” Logan narrowed his eyes as if checking to see if Maddox was ready to break out of his skin and go wolf but didn’t move to push at Maddox.
Maddox growled low, but the sound ripped from Ellie’s throat tore through him. An aching, agonizing, lost moan that made his wolf shake. Helplessness threatened to fill him, but he pushed it back, wanting to take action before delving into self-pity.
“Why weren’t any adults watching her?” his mate asked, tears in her voice. Maddox lifted a lip in a snarl but kept quiet. “I wouldn’t have…I wouldn’t have let her out of my sight if I had known she’d be in danger.”
Maddox’s wolf pushed at him, a desperate need to calm their mate and find their young filling him. It wasn’t her fault that they’d let Charlotte out of their sight. No, he was the one who had lived in this den his whole life. He was the one who had been complacent because one of their dangers was gone.
Just because one of them was gone didn’t mean the rest were. They had to hide from the humans, keep their existence secret. There were other Packs across the country, the globe that could take advantage of a seemingly weak den. Even within a Pack there were those who would create dissension and uproot peace.
Life as a wolf was dangerous.
He fingered the scar on his cheek. He, above all others, knew the outcome of letting one’s guard down.
He tugged at her arm, pulling her into his side even as they made their way to the den center. He would have stopped and hugged her tightly, but they needed to be where Charlotte was last seen more than they needed to comfort each other.
That would come after they found their daughter.
And damn it, they would find their daughter.
“We were, Ellie,” Logan finally answered. “I promise. It’s just…” Logan stopped and sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
Maddox didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. While it would be easy to blame those around him for what was going on, he couldn’t. No, that rested on his own shoulders. He’d been so deep in his head, worried about what was going on in his dreams, dealing with his own loss, his own lost connection, that he’d let his barriers down. He’d let his daughter out of his sight because he thought they were safe.
He should have known they’d never be safe.
Not really.
By the time they made it to where the pups had been playing, Maddox’s wolf was ready to climb out of his skin. Packmembers in both wolf and human from covered the area, just as on edge as he was. No, scratch that, there was no way they could be. He and Ellie were the ones ready to break. But they couldn’t. Not until they had Charlotte in their arms.
Kade came out of the tree line, his eyes gold, his body radiating the same tension Maddox felt. Only now, his brother held the power of the Alpha as well. Later, Maddox would be able to revel in that power, sink into the feeling that his wolf would be taken care of by their Alpha. Right then, though, he couldn’t think of anything beyond finding Charlotte.
Kade squeezed Maddox’s shoulder. “We’ll find her, Mad. I promise. We have her scent, and you’re her family. We’ll find her. She can’t have gone far.”
“So you think she wandered off? Not taken?” Ellie asked, her voice breaking. Goddess, she was trying so hard to be strong. But she’d been strong for far too long while living with the Centrals. She shouldn’t have to deal with this on top of that.
No one should.
“She wouldn’t have run away, Ellie, you’ve got to believe that.” Hell, he had to believe that. What if they’d done something wrong? What if they hadn’t made their home good enough for their little girl? She’d been through so much as a child and yet maybe their love, their support, their everything weren’t enough.
Maybe he wasn’t enough.
“What are we doing? We need to follow any scent trail we can find in depth.” Maddox pulled off his shirt, ready to
shift. His nose would work better as a wolf rather than being in his human form.
Kade nodded and talked while he undressed as well. “We’re going now. I contacted the Talons to keep them on alert.”
During the end of the war, the Talon Pack had come to their aid. It spoke of great trust that Kade would tell them that a child was missing, letting others know that their defenses could possibly be breached. But in case this was something greater than a child lost in the woods, they needed all the help they could get.
“Then let’s get on it.” Maddox took a deep breath and centered within himself, trying to find that one cord that would lead him to Charlotte. It was harder with family. He knew that. His powers connected him so well with each and every person he called his own, but the closer he was to them, the harder it became to pinpoint them.
When it had been Adam in pain because he’d lost his mate, the agony had been so overwhelming that Maddox had never been able to shut him off completely.
Charlotte, however, wasn’t feeling any pain, any true fear.
Maddox wasn’t sure what he felt about that.
Kade gripped his shoulder and shook his head. “I can feel her but not where. You know it doesn’t always work like that. Not when they’re born outside the Pack and brought in.”
Maddox nodded. Just because he and his brothers had a connection to the moon goddess that gave them special abilities didn’t mean those abilities always worked out like they should. In a perfect world, he’d follow a flowing bond to his daughter and take her home, only to make sure she never left his sight until she was thirty.
Or a hundred.
No, in a perfect world, Charlotte wouldn’t be missing in the first place.
Ellie ran a hand down his back, soothing his wolf when he would have normally retreated within himself, not knowing what to do with all the emotions raging through him. Before he’d had her, he’d been the quiet one, the one in the corner, unable to join the fray because of the overextension of his powers.
Now he had Ellie, and he could breathe again.
He just needed Charlotte as well.
“We’ll find her,” Ellie whispered, her voice hollow. Goddess, he hadn’t heard that tone from her in years, and he’d be damned if he’d let it happen again. Not when they’d worked so hard to become strong together.
Maddox turned and cupped her face, needing her gaze, her wolf, her everything. “Yes. Yes, we will. She’s probably just asleep under a tree or something.”
Ellie tried to smile up at him, but it was too much for either of them. He kissed her softly then pulled back so he could kneel.
“Stay in your human form, Ellie mine. Just in case you need your arms right away.” Just in case someone needed to lift their daughter and carry her home quickly.
Not that he’d tell her exactly why that would be important. Not when she had the same dangerous and bloody scenarios in her head as well.
“Find our baby,” Ellie thought to him.
“I will. We will.”
Maddox gave her one last look then let his wolf rise to the surface. His bones broke and reformed, the tendons popping before knitting themselves back together in their new arrangement. Each shift hurt like hell once they reached majority, but the sweet release once he was four-pawed was always worth it.
He was a wolf.
He was a man.
He was a Redwood.
Now he needed to be a father.
As a wolf, his vision was clearer, crisper. He wasn’t color blind as some in the wild were and, in essence, had the best of both worlds. That was what the moon goddess had intended for her hunters all those years ago when she’d created the first werewolf by blending two souls in one body.
Maddox shook off the last of the change then leaned into Ellie’s body, the tension in her muscles even more evident as he took in all of her. The spicy dessert scent was richer than usual, that tang of fear not easily masked by their mating bond.
She rubbed his nose once more then pulled back, her shoulders stiff. Maddox huffed, ready to go. Kade stood beside him, also on all fours. Logan had also shifted. Others around them stood in human and wolf form, ready for someone to make the first move in this smaller search party.
Enough of this.
Maddox sprinted toward the trees, Ellie on his tail. He leapt over a fallen log then stopped, waiting for Ellie to join him.
Ellie vaulted over the log and narrowed her eyes. “Go, Maddox. Follow her scent. I’m right behind you, and Logan is right behind me. I’m not alone in case that’s what you’re wondering. Go.”
He gave her an awkward nod—it wasn’t easy in wolf form—then took off again, following what he hoped was Charlotte’s scent. It had faded in the short time since Logan had gone to find them and also mixed with each of the searchers. Even though he could break apart each scent and find what he wanted, the web they wove was also a tangled mess of Pack and home.
The heightened senses of a wolf were more often than not a burden, not a gift.
The birds, rabbits, and other prey scattered around him. They knew a predator was in their midst, bent on a goal that would leave blood in its wake if needed. The trees stood tall around him, reaching toward the heavens and everything in between as if in prayer—a prayer before the altar of nature that surrounded them. The scents of forest, Pack, and loss surrounded him as he broke through the wards. Pinpricks of sensation assaulted his body, the magic of his den snapping over him like a rubber band.
He left the wards behind him, Ellie right on his tail, Logan on hers.
Charlotte had left the den.
On her own.
Why the hell had she done that? It made no sense. The other half of his soul, his wolf—now so close to the surface that if he didn’t hold back all would be lost—raged.
He inhaled again.
There.
That gingerbread scent that spoke of childhood and hope. He’d found her. Only twenty feet away. At the most.
But she wasn’t alone.
No…
And what surrounded her…no…that shouldn’t be there.
Not now.
Not again.
Chapter Four
Ellie came to a halt behind her mate, her chest heaving from exertion. She’d run as fast as humanly possible for longer than she should have, but she hadn’t been able to stop. Not when more was at stake than a cramp in her side. Though she might be a wolf, that didn’t mean she could push herself past her limits and not feel it. It didn’t matter. She’d do that for her child. She’d do more for her child.
She’d do everything for her child.
Maddox stood in front of her, his wolf body shaking. Before she could ask why her mate had stopped so abruptly, she froze, every worst-case scenario a mother could imagine slamming into her brain like a five-ton semi.
That scent.
That goddamn scent.
The Centrals.
The fucking Centrals had her baby.
Her wolf raged, claws erupting from her fingertips as she fought for control. She was one of the most controlled wolves in the Pack, and yet right then, she had to use all her power not to shift and kill what should have already been dead. Her whole life had been one show of strength and lack of control after another, and she had the scars to prove it.
The scents she smelled had to be wrong. Caym had killed the Centrals for more power in a last-ditch effort to defeat the Redwoods. The cruel and callous act had been in vain as the demon had been sent to hell anyway, but the Centrals had died nonetheless. There shouldn’t have been any left. Her Pack had scoured the area and the abandoned den for survivors and come up short. They’d even buried the dead in a place of peace and solace. Though it had hurt to lay to rest those who had done them harm, she wouldn’t have had it any other way. Her Pack was strong because of what others would find weak, too caring.
That was why she was a Redwood.
That and because she loved Maddox.
Long before the final batt
le with Caym on the field of blood and sorrow, right when she’d finally broken from the Centrals and became a Redwood, the other Centrals had, to all intents and purposes, died on their own. They’d become tainted by the demon and the black soul he harbored within himself. Hector, her father, and Corbin, her brother, had blood-bonded with the demon, damning their Pack to a death unlike any other.
The wolves had rotted from the inside out. That sickly sweet scent that marked them as Centrals at the time had been so potent it still haunted her dreams like the deaths of Maddox’s parents haunted his own.
But this scent…this scent was different.
That was what brought her up short, made her wolf wonder why they were standing there and not fighting for blood while, at the same time, holding the human back so they could remember why that scent was so important.
The scent filling her nostrils and coating her tongue was reminiscent of what she’d been before…before her mother had been killed. Before her twin and cousin had been sacrificed in front of her so Caym could walk among them.
It wasn’t tainted…
But…but how was that possible?
“Maddox,” she breathed.
Her mate leaned against her leg, his heavy weight a solidifying presence there, anchoring her to the present rather than pushing her into a past colored by heartache.
Maddox shifted into his human form, the process faster than usual for him. Damn it. She knew he was using too much of his strength to shift so quickly after a hard run, but without his scent tracking as a wolf, they might not have found Charlotte’s scent.
He pulled on the clothes she’d brought for him and the others in the bag on her back and sniffed around, his gaze intense. From the way he frowned, she knew he had no idea what to do next. Just like her. They were behind boulders, hidden from view and upwind from whatever scent they could sense. That didn’t mean they were completely safe, but they were at least in a position where they could fight and find a way out if possible. Right then though, she wanted to find her daughter so they could leave. She didn’t want to know why the Centrals were there. She just wanted her baby.
Loving the Omega Page 3
