Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
And yet, I am deeply afraid that somehow we might miss her. She escaped my custody as if this place is as porous as a sieve. This, the fortress and home of the Regent pack was escaped from in minutes.
I remind myself that this is not a prison. It is not designed to keep those who do not want to be here in. I don’t know why she ran. She must have been absolutely furious with me. I must have neglected her so much she could not share a single thought with me that mattered. I came to her with an offer of chocolate ice cream, but by that time the damage had already been done.
I should have been courting her from the beginning. Taking her to dinner, ensuring I spent as much time with her as possible. But instead of any of that, I played the power game. I waited her out until her awoken hormones had her almost entirely out of control. And then I punished her. Confined her. And now she is gone, and there is something inside me telling me that no matter how I get her back, I won’t be getting the same person. Not completely. I changed her with my arrogance and negligence. I went to meetings instead of meeting her where she needed me, and I thought it was all okay because I was the alpha of the Regent pack and she was a little nobody. I thought she’d come to me, break for me, give me everything I wanted and I would never have to do more than breed her.
Now everything has fallen apart.
“Sir,” Fescue says, getting my attention. I did not hear him come in. I am too busy being locked in a reverie of the very particular misery that comes from missing the one I love.
I turn toward him for the update I know he must be here to give.
“We might have found a sign of her,” Fescue says. “A truck driver around sixty miles from here was found dead inside his cab. Reports say it looks like he was savaged, and partially consumed by a wolf.”
“Where do they get wolf from?”
“They have forensics, sir. And, naturally, our contacts follow wolf attacks, in case…”
“In case,” I say. From time to time, a shifter will turn feral. They will start to kill, and perhaps even eat human flesh. It’s frowned upon, because it can become a compulsion. In my pack, it is strictly forbidden.
“There’s a decent chance it was her,” Fescue says. “So I took the liberty of deploying trackers, sir. They are already on their way.”
I start walking. I am not going to be left out of or behind on this one. I want to be the one to find my mate. I want to be the one to save her from whatever troubles she has gotten herself into.
A dead man. Someone tried to hurt her.
“You think she ate a man?”
“Let’s not leap to conclusions,” Fescue says while nodding.
“But she only just learned to shift. A wolf who just learned to shift is not going to eat a man.”
“She could have been caught in a compromising situation. She might have felt cornered. She might have killed. And, upon having killed, she might have found herself ravenous. She has not eaten properly since she shifted.”
I look at Fescue gravely. “The official story will be that she has not killed, and she has certainly not eaten.”
“Yes. Of course,” he says. He pauses for a moment, and I feel the weight of something I do not want to hear about to emerge from him.
“Would now be a bad time to tell you that we’ve traced her father? His name is Raymond Love, and he is currently wanted in several dozen states for murder and cannibalism.”
“It would be a bad time. It would be a very, very bad time,” I say. “Did you find him?”
“Nobody has found him. Several packs have kill-on-sight orders for him. He has a reputation that is, well, fearsome, sir. There is a report on the desk that you might want to familiarize yourself with.”
“I’m going to go out with the team. I want to bring my mate back.”
I want to hunt Nicky, because I do not want to think about the file, or what is in it, or what it’s going to mean if she ate a truck driver. I want to take my wolf form and I want to bring her down and I want to claim her and bring her back here and… fuck if I don’t want to lock her up in my den and never let her go again.
“Of course, sir. The helicopter is on standby.”
“We should have known this earlier,” I say as I start to jog toward the helipad.
* * *
Nicky
When I leave the truck, the windows are tainted with sanguine essence and my stomach is no longer growling. I pad through the undergrowth, heading off into the forest. I will make my own way back to the city. Once I am in the city, I will find human clothes, take my human form, return to my pack home. I will have a shower.