“Hey,” Alisha says, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Do you mind if we come up to your house for a shower—whoa! Is everything okay?”
“No,” I answer, opening the door and pushing past her. “Guys, I need help.”
“What is it?” Rex asks, hurrying over.
“Sara’s gone.”
“Taken?” he snaps.
“I don’t know. There’s no sign of a struggle, but…”
“But what?” Rex asks.
“I don’t know if I should panic,” I mutter. “She did tell me last night that she’s always wanted to leave here and go to a human city. I just—I don’t know what to think right now.”
“Finding her is priority one,” Brad says. “We need to know she’s safe. If she wants to leave you, that’s something you guys can figure out later, but right now, we just have to know where she is.”
“And if Jackson has one more crime to own up to,” Rex adds.
“We’ll stay here,” Scarlett says. “We’ll keep an eye on the rest of the pack, too.”
“Everyone will be out for a while, I think,” Luke says. “The party went on pretty late, and everyone was drunk as hell. There’s still a bunch of people passed out in the park.”
“That can only help our situation,” Rex says. “The fewer people moving around, the easier it will be to track her. Any sign of Jackson?”
“No,” I answer.
Rex scowls. “That’s all I need to know about the situation,” he mutters. “Come on, guys, let’s go.”
It only takes a few minutes for the guys to throw on their clothes, and we all hurry back to the house, starting outside at the open window.
“You’re right,” Rex says. “It looks pristine. If someone got dragged out of here, they did it cleanly.”
“No footprints, though,” Brad says. “If she just took off, it’s not like she’d think to sweep them away.”
“True,” Luke says. “Not much scent, either.”
“I know,” I say, raising my head to test the wind. “That was bothering me, too.”
“Okay,” Rex says. “We’ll split up. I’ll go southwest with Luke. Brad, you take Dan and go north. Shawn, you go west, and we’ll howl to keep track of each other until we find a trace we can follow. Agreed?”
Nodding, we follow Rex roughly northwest to the edge of town. We’re almost ready to split up when a twig snaps somewhere behind us, and I spin around to see Jackson coming through the trees.
“Good morning, fellas,” he says. “You’re up early.”
“Yeah,” I reply, trying not to glare at him. “Just scouting, you know. Getting it in early before the day heats up.”
“I hear that,” he says, grinning. “Scouting for anything in particular?”
I take a slow step forward, ready to grab the old man by the throat and shake him until his neck breaks. When Rex puts a hand on my shoulder, it takes extreme effort to hold myself back.
“Just ordinary scouting,” Rex says in an easy tone. “Checking out your boundaries, natural resources, that kind of thing.”
“Understandable,” Jackson says, walking up to us with a casual, easy stride. “You guys are in charge here, after all.”
If he kidnapped her, would he really be standing in front of us like this right now? Is he that stupid—or maybe just insane?
“What are you doing up so early?” I ask. “Didn’t you stay at the party until late?”
