As soon as I’d logged into Shelly’s computer and pulled up the surveillance program, the history file was empty. It seemed that whoever grabbed him knew about them and deleted the local files. I knew there would be another copy saved on the security company’s cloud, but a quick call to them ended with the strongly worded suggestion that we not bother them again until the police obtained a warrant.
“Do we report him missing?”
I looked over at Otto who was watching Clark try to jimmy the lock on the door so we could secure the building.
Clark sighed. “I don’t know. If we’re right about him being grabbed, we may not have enough time to convince the police before the situation goes south. I think we should wait a day or so until we’re sure we need help.”
“You said something about back up,” I interjected. “What was that about?”
“You know who it is,” Clark said quietly. “There aren’t many beings I would trust with a situation like this.”
“Blood Valley?” I guessed. “Jackson is not going to like that.”
Clark made a noise that was almost a snicker. “Coruscations, too,” Clark confirmed. “They’re the best trackers I could think of.” He sighed and shook his head. “And bad blood or no, if we find him, we’re going to need a plan.”
“Is this a fight club thing?”
Otto probably meant it as a joke, but neither Clark nor I laughed.
“No,” Clark said simply. “Just bad memories from the past. Blood Valley is a wolf shifter pack that has worked with the law enforcement division of the Council of Packs for a long time. They have one member who is a tactical planning genius, but he and Jackie don’t get along. The Coruscations are werewolves with military experience as trackers. If anyone can find the scent, it’ll be them.”
Otto was shaking his head. “I still don’t get it. Mitchel isn’t a shifter, is he?”
“He’s not,” Clark confirmed, “but I think we’re going to need their help, so I called in a favor.” He hesitated, weighing his words carefully. “Back before we were mated, before we moved to Colorado and adopted Dexter, they were part of a team that rescued Jackson and me from a kidnapping and forced fighting ring.”
“I see.” It was clear from his tone that Otto definitely didn’t see but wasn’t going to dwell on it. “When will they be here?”
“They already are.” Clark gave a triumphant huff as the door finally clicked closed and stayed shut. “Jackie let me know a few minutes ago.”
My eyebrows crept up. “All the way from Pennsylvania that fast?”
“They caught a charter flight.”
It took me a minute to catch his meaning and then I laughed. A dragon. They had caught a ride with one of the dragon shifters. Even being a shifter myself, aspects of our culture could still catch me by surprise.
Back at the condo, tense would have been understating the atmosphere. And even though I’d never met any of them, I had no problem guessing the identities of the visitors.
Jackson sat stiffly on the same loveseat he’d occupied when we left.
A pair of stunningly attractive and identical men with broad shoulders and dark hair shot through with silver at the temples sat on the sofa, occasionally murmuring to each other as they scrolled through their phones. They couldn’t be anyone but the twin Alphas from the Coruscation werewolf pack.
At the kitchen table, an attractive man in his late forties lounged in one chair, angling a tablet computer toward the young woman he was talking with despite her eyes obviously not focusing. It had to be Colby DiCastro Borrero. Even the slight crow’s feet couldn’t dull the bright blue eyes that were perfectly offset by his tanned skin. The young woman couldn’t have been more than twenty and even without seeing her eyes, the honey gold curls that matched her dad’s immediately gave her away as Leia, the Blood Valley pack’s princess.
As soon as the door closed behind us, the twins rose and crossed to greet Clark warmly. After exchanging greetings and crossing to press a kiss to his husband’s cheek, Clark up-nodded Colby to return his silent greeting before introducing Otto and me around.
With the pleasantries out of the way, Clark joined Jackie on the loveseat, Otto and I took chairs at the table. Before we could begin to discuss the situation, Jackie cleared his throat and nodded toward the television which was on but frozen.
“What the fuck?” I growled at the picture paused on the screen.
The banner beneath the image announced the news was replaying a story recorded that morning and the image was Shelly’s mother. The bitch was holding an oversized picture that showed Shelly bruised and blindfolded, holding a newspaper in front of him. When we were all facing the television, Jackson tapped a button on the remote.
Mrs. Fraser bawled for the cameras, begging unnamed kidnappers to release her son, insisting that she didn’t have the money to pay a ransom. None of it made sense.
When the camera cut to a detective from the Morgantown police department, I saw Colby tapping away on his tablet, taking notes. When the newscast moved on to the local traffic report, Jackson again muted the television and the room fell silent until one of the twins spoke.
“When was he reported missing?”
“Unless it happened in the last hour, he hasn’t been,” Clark said quietly. “We were discussing it an hour ago and decided to wait until after you arrived.” He turned to me. “Has anyone tried to contact you?”
