Caitlyn, though, while a child in age was an adult where it mattered. “I have an important job for you,” I told her. “But first, I need to make certain of something. It will be painful. Are you game?”
Her response was instant. Trusting. “Of course, Alpha.”
I closed my eyes, then I tugged on the pack bond between us. Tugged...before clenching down hard with one fist.
“A...alpha.” Caitlyn’s response was a gasp, but I ignored it. Squeezing tighter, I let my mind fall down the connection between us. Pushing past the boundaries of personhood, I breeched the border only an Alpha could pass.
The pain—I knew from having this done to me by my own father—was excruciating. No wonder Caitlyn’s mind tried to skitter away from me for one split second.
But then she settled. As if we were in wolf form and I’d clenched my teeth down across her muzzle. She relaxed into my dominance, her mind opening beneath mine like a landscape viewed from a mountaintop.
From this vantage point, I could see everything. Caitlyn’s hopes and fears, dreams and insecurities unfurling beneath me. Her awe for her Alpha was borderline embarrassing. Her pain at my invasion was hard to stomach.
The complexity was beyond anything a fae could impersonate.
So I let go, soothing back over the rough edges I’d created in the process. Clearing my throat, I tried to think what I could say to make things right after such an intrusion.
All that came out was, “I need to know every single pack mate’s current whereabouts. You can start with the work schedule for the factory....”
I’d intended to relay further instructions, but Caitlyn interrupted me. Inappropriate but gutsy. And proof that I hadn’t caused any lasting harm.
Smiling, I let her talk.
“You don’t need to tell me how to do it, Alpha.”
“Okay. Report to me only if you notice inconsistencies. And if a werewolf named Athena shows up, let her in but stick to her like a burr.”
Because the more I thought about this non-alpha Athena the more I thought I should have agreed to her assistance. Whatever my father said, sometimes an Alpha could use a little help.
“I can do that, Alpha.” Caitlyn’s voice quivered, as if being entrusted with such authority was both heady and terrifying. As if that was worth the pain that came before it. Then, as the silence lengthened: “Is there anything else, Alpha?”
“Wolves don’t need to be coddled,” my father had told me. Still, what harm could it do to tell a pack mate the truth about herself?
So I did. Cleared my throat a second time then spat out words that felt awkward on my tongue. “I want you to know I notice your sacrifices. I’m proud of you, Caitlyn.”
Then, before our conversation could get any more soppy, I ended the call.
THE BUS LINE PASSED by nothing that screamed Kale at me. He’d always been such a good kid, though, that I had no idea where he might run if he’d decided to turn recalcitrant. Plus, if fae were involved, all bets were off.
Which meant I’d bulldoze my way through hunting Kale the same way I bulldozed through factory spreadsheets. Get out at each stop and sniff for his presence then speed like the dickens to make up for lost time.
Shifting in the backseat of Natalie’s car at the first location was suboptimal; inhaling scent from the pavement near the mall was even less effective. So many feet had passed by this point that I couldn’t be certain Kale’s weren’t among them. But I didn’t think he’d disembarked here.
Leaping back through the window I’d left open, I returned to humanity and continued to the next stop.
Here, the bus sign sat between a sex-toy store and a pawnshop. A neighborhood I really hoped Kale hadn’t chosen. Which, knowing tweens, made it twice as likely he’d hopped off at this point.
So I pulled into an alley and stashed the key on top of a tire. Despite Natalie’s laissez-faire attitude toward theft, I wasn’t about to leave her vehicle on the main drag with the window down. The alley definitely stunk enough to keep out thieves though. Crouching between the car and the wall, I could barely force myself to stop holding my nose long enough to shed clothes and shift into lupine form.
There, the stench materialized into...wolf. I blinked. It hadn’t smelled like that when I was human. But now I could make out the dark, oily aroma I associated with my father. A strong alpha had been here recently, trespassing on my land.
I growled. Even though I didn’t own this spot on human terms, it was most definitely part of Whelan territory. Everywhere within an hour’s drive was Whelan territory. The Guardian should have alerted me to the intrusion the moment a non-pack wolf set foot out of a car.
The fact that the Guardian hadn’t pinged me with that information lent weight to Rune’s hypothesis that fae might be involved in Kale’s disappearance. They were muddling our Guardian. Or our Guardian was too busy fighting them to do the usual job of pack protection.
Which meant my clan needed me. I hesitated, reining in my territorial nature and considering which thread to tug.
The obvious thread, I decided, was the one directly in front of me. It seemed like an unlikely coincidence that a powerful shifter had chosen to trespass at the same time non-Guardian fae impacted our clan and Kale went missing. I’d hunt down this wolf then I’d go from there.
To that end, I sniffed along the scent trail in one direction until I could tell it was growing colder. Turning around, I headed back the other way, past Natalie’s car and out onto the main street.
People here didn’t bat an eyelash at a wolf passing between them. They likely thought I was a dog even though I boasted no collar. But, if so, I was the kind of dog usually locked in a chain-link yard to keep intruders out of meth labs. It spoke to the toughness of the neighborhood’s human inhabitants that they didn’t see me coming and head to the other side of the street.
Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe they passed me by then called 911. That’s the only explanation I could give for the whoop that alerted me one second before a huge net came crashing down over my head.
Chapter 15
“Dogcatcher! Step aside!”
I swiveled, or tried to. The woven restraint held me in place, though. I could barely bend enough to see who was on the other end of the net.
What I saw when I finally finished the contortion made me snort out disbelief. The tattooed man hanging out the window of the minivan was rough and wild enough to fit into our current neighborhood. He was also a shifter, if my nose didn’t betray me...and my nose never betrayed me. There was no way he brought home a government paycheck. Dogcatcher, my ass.
It was almost as if he’d heard my silent rejoinder because my captor grinned, the smile making him appear oddly boyish. “Cool it, Fido,” he warned as I attempted to bite my way out of my trap.
I stopped gnawing, not because he told me to but because the net was plastic and unbiteable. There had to be another way of escaping, one that didn’t involve shifting in plain sight.
Above the tattooed guy’s head, I could just barely make out a woman Willa’s age at the wheel. Maybe she....
A horn beeped behind us, one long, drawn-out complaint. Then a cascade of agreement from other horns. The minivan was stopping traffic.
And it was stopping me from locating Kale. Which was when I remembered the obvious. I was Alpha. I should be able to slap down whoever I wanted.
So I snarled, attempting to imbue the vocalization with an alpha order. It should have worked too. Even here outside the heart of my territory, I was still a highly dominant wolf.
Only, my snarl had no impact. The not-really dogcatcher just laughed at me. “Nice try, Fido. Now tuck in your legs.”
His command had the bite mine lacked. My feet folded into my belly without my permission just as the tattooed shifter twisted the handle and scooped me all the way off the pavement. Then I, Alpha of the Whelan pack, was being driven down the street tangled in plastic netting that cut through my fur and into my skin.
I s
truggled both physically and mentally. Was it coincidence that two alpha commands in a row had fallen flat? Could my weakness be due to the fact I’d yet to jump through all of the Guardian-mandated hoops?
Unfortunately, my contortions weren’t getting me out of the net or closer to the truth. So I gave up. Relaxed both my brain and my muscles while biding my time.
“Good dog,” the not-really-dogcatcher praised me as the van turned down the same alley I’d parked in. The space was tight and my hip bumped up against bricks. Then, abruptly, I was on the ground only twenty feet away from Natalie’s car.
My captor had dropped me so he could get out of the van. Which meant I had perhaps ten seconds to disentangle myself from the net and dart to my pile of clothing in search of weapons. Or perhaps I’d be better off diving into Natalie’s car naked and high-tailing it away from there. Either way, the first item on my agenda was a shift. I’d just have to hope that no unwitting humans started down the alley while I shed my fur.
I was peeling the net away from my head with flexible fingers when shoes settled on either side of my knees and a female voice observed: “I told Ryder his sense of humor was an acquired taste.”
Her words almost sounded like an apology, and no wonder. Few female shifters were dominant, which made the dogcatcher’s chauffeur the weak link in this takedown.
So I tried again with my most deeply imbedded weapon. “Restrain Ryder,” I barked, flinging the net away from me and whirling into the gap where the woman had been one moment earlier.
Only...she was still there. Was standing her ground while shaking her head slowly, the faintest smile on her lips.
Momentum prevented me from stopping before our noses touched. Despite the contact, she didn’t recoil and I didn’t either. Still, when she spoke, I had to force my muscles not to jerk me out of the path of her words.
“Irony is underestimating me because I’m a woman,” she murmured.
Which is when I realized that the darkest dominance I’d smelled when first shifting in this alley hadn’t come from Ryder. It had emanated from her.
BEFORE I COULD TAKE offensive action, though, my phone rang. Some sort of fast and upbeat tune I was too old to understand. Caitlyn was calling.
I eyed the two shifters who’d literally scooped me off the street. “I don’t suppose you’d let me take that?”
“By all means.” The woman nodded. “Be my guest.”
The tattooed guy—Ryder—just stood there with his arms crossed and muscles bulging. The air was electric with alpha energy not my own.
And...I turned away from them. Cold air prickled against my back as I stalked twenty feet to my pile of clothes and retrieved my cell phone. I left the knives hidden, but shuffled my feet until I could feel the hilt of one.
If I needed a blade, I knew where to find it.
By this point, the phone had stopped ringing. But the moment I swiped it awake, another call came in. From a stranger. No fancy ringtone and no name on the display screen....
“As fascinating as it is to watch you check your messages,” the woman said from the other side of the alley, “perhaps we can discuss business. I’m Lupe and this is Ryder and we’re....”
I stopped listening. Because a text had come through from the same number as the second call, the one not from a pack mate. A text with an image that hit me like the punch I’d expected from Lupe and Ryder when I turned my back.
Kale. The photo was taken from a distance, my favorite kid surrounded by trees in a wooded area like yet unlike our pack hunting grounds. He appeared to be alone, but the bend of his spine wasn’t quite right.
And whoever had sent the image was close enough to be the cause of that crumpled posture.
“Who are you?” I typed. “How did you get this number?”
The phone rang. This time, I ignored the other shifters and accepted the call.
“This is Rune.” His voice was so quiet I could barely hear him. “Caitlyn gave me your number. I’ve found the child, but he smells like fae.”
Rune. Air rushed back into my lungs even as my brain started moving. “Where are you? I’ll come get him.”
I scooped up clothes and knives and tossed them into Natalie’s car, not bothering to pull on so much as a t-shirt. Swiped the key off the tire and turned it in the ignition.
Old Nellie refused to start.
Chapter 16
I’d forgotten Lupe and Ryder the moment I saw Kale’s picture. But now they stood on either side of the car’s open window.
“Rune,” Lupe said, her voice loud enough to be heard down the phone line. Did she realize she’d just overheard then spoken his true name?
“Lupe,” he answered, as if he knew her. “I’m glad you’re there. With Tara’s permission, we could use assistance.”
Which is the moment I put two and two together. Addressing Lupe and Ryder equally, I observed, “You’re Samhain Shifters.”
Ryder leaned in the window, invading my personal space. “Cute and clever. Do you have a boyfriend?”
A growl from the phone reminded me of my nakedness. Snatching my bundle of clothes, I shoved the car door through a wall of shifter. Then, ignoring Ryder’s cascade of cussing and Rune’s satisfied chuckle, I disembarked, pulled on clothes, then forced myself to meet Lupe’s eyes.
The gesture was a struggle given her extreme dominance, but I managed. Only once our gazes had locked did I ask: “You can drive me to...?”
“The park off State Street,” Rune inserted, naming a spot I was very familiar with since it was back in the direction of pack central. His voice turned melodic, like baritone wind chimes as he continued. “Thank you, Tara, for letting them be involved.”
It wasn’t as if I had much choice. Piling into a vehicle with two shifters stronger than me was uncomfortable. But waiting for another mode of transportation when Kale was in trouble would have been considerably worse.
So I did it. Took shotgun when Ryder insisted, then opened the window and leaned out into the wind while wishing for Rune’s persimmon instead of Lupe’s oily dominance. Only once the latter had faded from my nostrils and city streets were beginning to give way to forest did I turn back around to assess the shifters Rune worked with.
Ryder was the easier one to understand. He crouched behind me, one hand bracing himself against the rough carpet where back seats should have been while the other stroked a gleaming motorcycle strapped into the open space. I could almost imagine the deep growl of its motor, Ryder’s face splitting into a boyish grin as he drove far too fast.
Unfortunately, the tattooed shifter noticed my attention. “Just imagine me wrapping”—his eyebrows waggled—“my legs around the barrel and....”
“Ryder,” Rune interrupted through the phone, “Tara is concerned about Kale. Now is not the time for your unique brand of bonding.”
“Not all of us,” Ryder countered, “have a stick so far up our asses that we can’t get on a bike.”
The obvious affection between two men who couldn’t have been more different was heartening. But Rune was right. I had a hard time thinking about anything other than Kale at that moment.
So I turned back to my phone and asked, “Does he look hurt?”
The answering hum warmed me, but Rune’s words didn’t. “He looks...blank.”
I agreed. In the photo, there had obviously been something wrong with my buddy. “Okay then,” I started. But Lupe finally took an interest, speaking right over my words.
“I want you to stay as far back as possible. Best not to spook whoever is influencing the child.”
The child, not Kale. When Rune had used the term, his words had seemed endearing. From Lupe, they sounded...cold.
I flared my nostrils in annoyance, but Rune was the one who answered. “Is that what you want, Tara?”
“To use Kale as bait?” My tongue felt strangely lumpy. As if Lupe was pushing an alpha command into me without even needing words to do so. It tasted like I was chewing on a mouthful of
tar.
“If not,” Rune continued, “you should be aware that Lupe’s commands work across phone lines. Now might be a good time to end—”
“This call,” I finished for him at the same time I powered down my phone.
“GUTSY,” RYDER OBSERVED, his breath hot on my neck. It was all I could do not to turn and face the unseen danger.
“Stupid,” Lupe countered, reminding me that baiting her was far more perilous. “But,” she continued, “it doesn’t matter. We’re almost there.”
She was right. The sign for the park had just come into view through the windshield and I could now make out Rune’s vehicle, the only one in the lot. Still, it was something less tangible that had alerted me to his proximity. An odd throbbing in my throat....
My hand rose to cover the wound Rune had created, expecting blood to have burst through young scab tissue. But my fingers came away dry.
“If we skewer the fae,” Lupe continued, speaking to me this time, “your pack mate will be released. There are swords behind you. Take your pick.”
I unfastened my seat belt but didn’t go hunting for the swords she’d mentioned. I already had my own knives. Plus—“If the fae drag Kale into Faery before we stop them, he’ll be gone. First priority is getting him back.”
Lupe swung the minivan into the lot rather than answering, silence settling between us like an unwanted serving of a not-very-good dinner. And while she didn’t tell me what to do again, she didn’t have to. Without her permission, I found I couldn’t so much as wiggle my feet.
Ryder was the one who broke our impasse. “No fighting please, ladies. Unless you’re naked. I could film that and make big bucks.”
“For once,” Lupe growled, “try to take your job seriously.”
“Why,” Ryder countered, “when you have enough serious for twenty wolves?”
My body had frozen while Lupe focused on me, but Ryder’s teasing was enough to release her attention. And I took the opportunity. Opening the door before the van had stopped moving, I leapt out.
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