I didn’t know how I knew, but the feeling set me off-kilter, and I was moving, running out of the door in an instant. I realized what that anchor was that had settled into me, a comforting weight of completion. It was my daughter. Ever since I’d rescued her and Bryce in White Bay, the anchor had dropped, an instant connection snapping into place between us. And now, that connection was pulled taut. She was in danger.
I tore across the pack compound, calling for them.
As soon as I skidded to the front door, I pounded on it, only to find that it opened beneath my fist. I stormed in.
“Bryce?” I shouted, already moving into every room. But the place was empty, still. Not even Jackson creaked about. “Cassie?”
I went upstairs, hunting through the two bedrooms, finding the guest room in a state of sheer chaos. Clothes were everywhere, and the wardrobes hung open. The bed was neatly made, and I saw that Cassie’s shoes had gone from by the door. I looked inside the wardrobe.
The pink duffel bag I’d packed for Bryce that day in the cottage to move her back out here was gone. Cassie’s green backpack was, too. Even the comics I knew she’d set up in here were gone, leaving only one behind.
There was a childish scrawl on a piece of paper, tucked into the rack where the comics had been stored.I’ll miss you, wolf man.
My stomach dropped.
Bryce was gone.
No.
No, that couldn’t be.
She couldn’t have left. Not without telling me, not without letting me see my daughter properly now that I know.
Yet that feeling in my gut grew. It felt worse than just the distress of leaving. It felt… it felt like fear.
Racing out of the house, I let myself tune into their scents, catching how strong it was on the drive. Bryce must have taken her brother’s car. Butwhere? Her cottage in White Bay was totaled. Did she not realize that, alone, it wasn’t salvageable to the point where she could just move back in? Her furniture had been destroyed, even if the foundations were only mildly damaged. I’d once thought about getting the pack out there torebuild, maybe use it as a getaway for her—only if she decided to stay in Honeycreek.
She’d left anyway.
Just as she had seven years ago.
My heart felt punctured, and I tried not to get distracted by it as I let myself find their scents. They disappeared into the woods, but I could see that she had driven out, towards town, likely cutting through the woodland road to the highway.
And what then?
When I found her back at White Bay, would she turn me away again?
She’d left to get away from me, but there was no way I could just let her go. Growling, I shifted and tore off into the woods, tracking my daughter and the omega I always should have been there for.
Deeper and deeper, I went. Bryce’s scent was strongest to me, but it was Cassie’s that I kept myself focused on, lunging over the forest floor and swallowing it up easily. In winter, the woods could be unforgiving, blanketed by thick snow, but the sun slanted through the tree canopy in the summer. No leaves crunched beneath my feet, allowing me a quieter approach. I wouldn’t scare Bryce, no, but that niggling dread only got stronger, and I couldn’t help but think that I had ignored the town’s problem of demon attacks.
Surging forward, I thundered through the trees, taking every shortcut I knew to the woodland road. When I hit it, I found tire marks, the black streaks on the asphalt veering off into the mossy floor.
And that was when I saw it.
Jackson’s car—smashed right into the trunk of a thick pine tree, with smoke coming from the hood. I saw two bodies inside, and my stomach dropped, but the closer to Cassie I was, the more I felt her heartbeat, an echo of mine. Her scent was strong enough that I knew she was okay. Maybe hurt, but okay. But the shadows surrounding the car…
Fear and fury burst through me, my need to protect my daughter and Bryce overtaking everything else. A gathering of ifrits—more than I had ever seen in any moment—were clawing at the car, sharp-tipped fingers swiping at the windows, the body of the car. Terrible, wet snarls came from them, and I stalked closer, noting the band of them. Curled horns extended from their heads, and terror settled in me at how near to Cassie’s side of the car they were as well. One pierce from those horns in the wrong place…
A twig snapped underfoot, and, as one, the ifrit turned. My muzzle pulled back, my canines bared. Slowly, they pulled back from the car, prowling towards me instead.Good, I think,come to me.If I were a human, I’d be grinning them down. There were too many of them—too many for one wolf alone. But I was the alpha of Honeycreek, the strongest wolf of the pack, and my need to protect what was mine only gave me that extra drive.
Out of the corner of my peripheral, I saw Bryce and Cassie huddling in the backseat of the car, watching me with wide eyes. I met Bryce’s gaze, and then my daughter’s, and then everything snapped. I tossed my head back and roared my rage into the trees.
Then I pounced.
Soaring through the air, I landed heavily onto one ifrit, sending it into another, both of them sprawling, but as soon as I lunged for another ifrit, jaws snapping, the ifrit was alreadyback on its feet. A ball of flame ignited in its palm—no. If it sent that flame into the trees, then it would be all over. Without hesitation, I reared forward to snap the hand off the ifrit, extinguishing the flame. The ifrit shrieked, shuddering into nothing as it dissolved.
Not dead but scared away.
