Noah’s fingers were already flying across his phone, typing out messages faster than I could follow. “Car is ready. Frank is printing some signs and will meet team two and Cole at their location within the hour.”
“Good.” I pushed back from the desk and stood, needing to move. Sitting still was making me crazy. “At least we have a plan. Even if that plan is basically just throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
“Barely.”
I turned back to the map, staring at the highway that cut through the mountains and wondering where the hell Mary thought she was going. She was smart. I’d always known that, even when I’d underestimated just how dangerous her particular brand of smart could be. She’d played all of us for months before we’d caught on to her lies. She’d convinced half the pack that she was carrying my child. She’d manipulated Cole into her bed. She’d worked with her father to orchestrate attacks that had threatened my mate and my children.
If she’d planned this escape, she’d have planned what came after. Mary didn’t do anything without a backup plan.
“Where would she go?” Noah asked, echoing my thoughts in that annoying way he had of reading my mind.
“Somewhere she has connections. Somewhere she feels safe. Somewhere she thinks we won’t look or won’t be able to reach her.” I grabbed the list Noah had compiled earlier, scanning the names and trying to find something we’d missed. “Elizabeth Young. School friend. Christian Roth. Family friend of Alderic. Margaret Vance. Former council member’s wife. David Holloway. Business partner of Alderic’s from before he was arrested.”
Noah shook his head. “I dug into all of them yesterday. Every single person on that list has stayed far away from the Thornes since Alderic was arrested. They looked fucking allergic to being associated with a family in disgrace. Nobody wants to touch that mess. Elizabeth Young moved to the other side of pack territory just so people would stop asking her about her friendship with Mary. Christian Roth publicly denounced Alderic at a council meeting. Margaret Vance pretends she never even knew them.”
That’s what I’d figured. In a pack this tight, reputation was everything. The Thornes had fallen hard and fast, and anyone who’d been close to them had scrambled to distance themselves the moment Alderic was sentenced. Nobody wanted to be associated with treason. Nobody wanted to risk their own standing by helping the family that had nearly destroyed the pack.
“No one from Ravenshollow would help her,” I said flatly. It wasn’t a question. I knew my pack. I knew how they thought,how they operated, how seriously they took loyalty and betrayal. Mary had burned every bridge she’d ever had the moment her lies came to light.
“No chance in hell,” Noah agreed.
“What about connections to other packs? Anyone outside Ravenshollow who might be willing to take in a disgraced Thorne and her kidnapped baby?”
Noah scrolled through his phone, pulling up the research he’d done the night before. “The only thing I was able to find was a trip the Thornes made about ten years ago to visit some relatives in Moonfang. Distant family on Alderic’s father’s side. Third cousins or something. They stayed for a week, attended some pack gathering, and then came home. From what I could tell based on Alderic’s phone records and some digging, they didn’t keep in touch afterward. Christmas cards maybe. Nothing substantial. We never recovered Mary’s phone so this is all we have to go on.”
I hummed, considering the information. Ten years was a long time. A lot could change in a decade. But family was family, even when that family was distant and barely remembered. Some wolves felt obligated to help blood relatives no matter what they’d done. Some wolves believed that pack loyalty extended to anyone who shared your DNA.
“That’s something, though,” I said slowly. “It’s thin, but it’s something. If Mary was desperate enough, she might reach out to family she barely knows. Might hope that blood connection would be enough to earn her some protection.”
“It’s worth checking out,” Noah agreed.
I moved to my computer and started typing, composing two separate emails in my head before my fingers even hit the keys. The first went to Ryder Thorne, Moonfang’s alpha and a distant relative of the very family I was hunting. I chose my words carefully, explaining the situation without revealing too much. Mary Thorne had escaped custody. She’d taken an infant with her. We had reason to believe she might be heading toward Moonfang territory. Any information or assistance would be appreciated.
The second email went to Jackson Bennett, alpha of Shadowcrest. Similar message, similar careful phrasing. I didn’t know Jackson well, had only met him a handful of times at inter-pack gatherings, but he had a reputation for being fair and cooperative. If Mary passed through his territory, he’d let me know.
I hit send on both and pushed back from the desk, feeling marginally better now that we had something resembling a plan.
“It’s done. Now we wait.”
Noah nodded and fell into step beside me as I walked out of the office. We were still in my wing of the pack building, the private section where I kept my office away from the main council chambers and public areas. The hallway stretched ahead of us as we discussed what other options we had if the emails didn’t pan out. Expanding the search radius to include human towns along the highway. Checking security footage from any businesses near the point where Mary’s scent had disappeared. Putting out a wider alert to allied packs further north. Hiring a private investigator if we had to, someone who could track humans the way our wolves tracked scents.
“We should also consider the possibility that she’s not going to another pack at all,” Noah said as we walked. “She might be heading somewhere completely off the grid. Somewhere she can disappear with Thomas and never be found.”
“I’ve thought about that.” The idea made my stomach turn. “But Mary’s not the type to rough it in the wilderness. She’s never been self-sufficient. She’s always had money, resources, people to take care of her. Surviving alone with an infant in the middle of nowhere isn’t her style.”
“People change when they’re desperate.”
“Not that much. Mary needs comfort. Needs luxury. Needs people to manipulate and control. She won’t last a week in some cabin in the woods with nothing but a baby and her own paranoia for company.”
“So we focus on the packs.”
“We focus on the packs,” I confirmed. “And we hope Cole finds something before he runs himself to death looking.”
We reached the door that separated my private wing from the rest of the building and I pushed it open without looking, still focused on the conversation and the dozen different scenarios playing out in my head.
Which is why I almost crashed directly into the woman standing on the other side.
