Father and son left as Calder and I paid the bill for our coffee, neither of us speaking. It wasn’t until we got into the car and were heading back toward the compound that Calder said a word.
“Did you buy any of that bullshit?” he asked.
“No. They’re up to something.”
“Any ideas what that might be?”
I stared out the window as we drove out of the city, buildings and neighborhoods thinning out. “I do.”
“Chloe,” Calder muttered, his voice low. “Dammit, this has something to do with her, doesn’t it?”
I nodded, twisting my head back toward him. “Did you see the way Brayden acted when his father brought her up?”
“Yeah,” he affirmed. Calder’s tone was dark and angry. “I didn’t like it.”
“Neither did I.”
My right hand ached. When I glanced down, I realized I’d balled it into a tight fist. So tight that my knuckles were white and cracking from the tension.
“We need to find her and figure out what the hell is going on,” Calder stated.
“I’ll handle it,” I told him, forcing my hand open and flexing my fingers. “You need to be here to keep an eye on the Kirkpatricks.”
I wondered what in the hell the she-wolf had gotten herself into. Whatever it was, I would discover the answer. Then I would help her straighten it out, whether she wanted me to or not.
Chapter Five
Chloe
Iflopped downon my back in the middle of the field, shifting into my human form. My breath was still coming hard from my run, my lungs pumping as I fought to suck in air.
The sun was warm, beating down on my naked flesh. I tilted my head back and drank it in, relishing in the way the gentle heat loosened my muscles. It was early May and the temperatures in Oklahoma were perfect, still cool in the mornings and evenings but warm during midday.
I’d been in Prater a week and was still no closer to finding the answers I was looking for. In fact, I’d barely seen any of the other pack members. As soon as I arrived, Darrell had whisked me out to a rustic little cabin a few miles outside of town. Away from most of the pack.
I wasn’t sure if it was because he wanted to keep me away from everyone or if he thought I needed the privacy. Considering the suspicion I sensed from the few pack members I’d seen, I thought it was the first.
Though I didn’t see many of the wolves in the MacArthur pack, I could still tell that there was something going on. It was obvious in the way the shifters carried themselves. The hushed tones of their voices when they spoke. The way their eyes darted quickly when I caught them watching me in town. The fact that none of them would utter more than two words to me at a time.
Darrell had been conveniently busy over the last few days and every wolf I came across would scurry away as fast as possible when they saw me coming. At this rate I’d never find out what happened to my parents.
I groaned in disgust at my defeatist attitude. I could hear my grandmother’s voice now, telling me that I never would find what I wanted if I didn’t get my head out of my ass and quit focusing on the problems rather than the solutions.
As I lay naked in the grass, staring at the sky, the wind shifted. A scent drifted in the air, one I knew well. At first I thought I was dreaming. It had been three long weeks since I saw Lachlan, but I swore I could smell him at night as I drifted off to sleep.
And I dreamed about him. Lush, sexy dreams where he would touch me in all the ways I needed him to. More than that, he would smile at me.Loveme.
The dreams were as heartbreaking as always because I knew it would never happen. He’d lost his mate nearly two years ago. In the haze of his grief, he would never know that he was supposed to be mine.
I hadn’t even realized it until around the time Ricki had gotten pregnant. She and I had been training and it was the first time she managed to knock me on my ass. I’d fallen and cut my arm badly enough that it wasn’t healing right away. Lachlan had insisted on inspecting the wound and cleaning it with his saliva, which was common among shifters. Our saliva held healing properties, similar to a vampire’s though not as strong.
As his tongue swept along my skin, I’d felt the stirring inside me. Not desire. Something deeper. It was as if my soul recognized him and sang.
It was both the most intense and worst moment of my life.
I now understood what shifters meant when they talked about the call their bodies had for their mate. The yearning.
Yet I could do nothing about it.
