Series: Lee Savino
Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
I speed up to a run.
When I get to Maisy’s house, the door is cracked open. I ring the bell and knock, calling her name. Maybe she just got busy with work stuff and lost track of time.
I call her again and hear her phone ringing…inside the house.
Oh, fate. I don’t like this.
She’s not here. As soon as I accept that, I can pay attention to what my bear is screaming at me.
There’s a strong scent by the door. A hunting dog can sniff out a trail by following the cloud of skin cells and scent molecules a person leaves behind. A shifter’s nose is even more sensitive.
It’s a gift and a curse. And right now, it’s torture because I can smell what Maisy was feeling when the strange men confronted her on her doorstep.
Terror. Sharp and acidic, burning my nose along with the strong smell of stale cigarettes. She was here not long ago, along with at least two strange men. I trace the scent to the mailbox, where it disappears. She must’ve been put in a vehicle of some kind and driven away. The trail ends there. Maisy’s sweet scent snuffed out by the smell of diesel and axle grease.
She’s gone.
My bear roars.
Stop, I tell him, and he replies with a stream of words: Mate Danger Kill Strangers Protect Mate.
Later, I promise him. Right now, I need to think.
I call Daisy. We quickly figure out Maisy isn’t with her, and no one has seen her since she left work.
“Meet me at your house.” I try not to sound panicked.
I shoot a text to the group chat containing all my brothers.
911. Maisy’s gone. Someone’s taken her.
Chapter Six
Matthias
Minutes later, my brothers assemble at Daisy’s. The triplets are even here, looking more serious than I’ve seen them.
Everest paces around in bear form, snuffling at the ground and pavement.
Axel, our car and motorcycle expert, squats by Maisy and Daisy’s mailbox. It’s white and decorated with hand-painted yellow daisies. On the pavement in front of it are fresh tire marks.
“They put her in a van,” Axel says. “And drove that way.” He starts jogging, following the tracks.
“And no one saw?” I ask.
“Go door knocking,” Teddy orders The Threes in his special ops command tone. “Find anyone who saw anything.”
The triplets salute and scatter.
Daisy and Darius emerge from the house.
“Her phone is still in her bedroom.” Daisy hands it to me. She looks pale and shaken.
I scroll through Maisy’s phone and see that there are no more calls from the unknown number. It looks like she kept it blocked.
Canyon dashes up to us. He’s sweating like he sprinted up the whole mountain, but he’s not breathing hard. “Old Man Luther saw a white van hanging around here two hours ago,” he reports. “And Jasmine Wilkins was at the playground with her son. She told me about a ‘creeper van’ driving past real fast.”
“They’re off the mountain then.” I sound wooden because it takes all my effort to hold back my bear, who is tearing to the surface.
“I’ve got Black Wolf online,” Teddy says, holding up his phone. “They’re expanding surveillance to Route Seven and the highway all the way to Santa Fe.”
“It’s too late. This happened at least an hour ago, maybe more.” I resist the urge to lift my face to the sky and give a full bear roar. “Who took her? And where? And why?”
Daisy’s legs buckle under her. Darius and Teddy are right there to catch her and ease her down.
“I can’t do this,” she whispers, dazedly. All her spryness is gone, and she looks like she’s shrunken.
I crouch, checking her vitals as I’ve done for years–since before I went to med school. Daisy’s been my number one patient for a long time–since she adopted Maisy and came to me and begged for help staying healthy, so she could raise her granddaughter.
She’s okay, she’s just in shock.
“She’s alone. She might be hurt. Who would do this?” She turns wet eyes to me.
I see so much of Maisy in her.
“I don’t know,” I growl, no longer interested in hiding my ferocious side. “But I’ll find them. And I’ll make them pay.”
I stand but stay close to Daisy in case she faints.
“Wren’s at Mission Control,” Canyon says. I thought it was cute that they called their large TV gaming set-up at Paloma’s home movie theater “Mission Control,” but now it fits. “She’s contacted Kylie. They’re both digging into the dark web, trying to see if anyone posted a job about Bad Bear Mountain.”
Kylie is a wolf shifter billionaire and genius hacker. Wren is Paloma’s younger sister.
“Do you think we’re the target?” Darius asks in a low voice. “Or Maisy?”
I rub the back of my neck. “They took her. But there’s no way to know until we find her.”
“Kylie will look into Maisy’s background, too,” Teddy said.