But Carter was miles past calm and approaching a total meltdown. While his omega had been more than happy to desert him earlier, he seemed ready to come out now.
“Maybe you can go through the story again, slower this time,” Turner said in an emotionless tone that Carter recognized so well. It was the one cops were taught to use at crime scenes when they were dealing with rattled victims.
It occurred to him then that’s what he was—a victim. His soul mate had been kidnapped and he was losing his mind. His inner omega was screaming at him to go after her, to save the woman he loved. But the small rational part of him knew that running off in a blind rush was the absolute worst thing to do.
He took a deep breath, trying to compromise with his omega, telling him that they needed to do this right if they were ever going to find Hadley. It took a minute, but when his omega finally acquiesced, he told Turner and his pack mates everything one more time, from the moment he’d heard the knock at the office door to the confrontation with Strickland and his extensive effort to overcome the skinwalker venom. Then he wrapped up with his stumbling attempt to catch up with Strickland and Hadley in the street outside her office and the way that sicko had dragged off his soul mate.
It took a few moments to realize everyone was staring at him with smiles on their faces, which didn’t fit the moment.
“Soul mates, huh?” Hale said. “Not that any of us are surprised, but it’s still good to hear you say it out loud.”
It was Carter’s turn to stare as he realized he’d accidentally confessed his feelings.
“Yes, Hadley’s my soul mate,” he said in exasperation. “But is now really the time to talk about the subject? I’m trying to stop Strickland from killing her!”
Hale held up his hands placatingly. “You’re frigging terrified, I get it. But we’re going to get her back. I promise.”
Carter’s omega was about to snarl something about not making promises you couldn’t keep when Mike reached out to squeeze his shoulder, calming him.
“Let’s focus on rescuing Hadley and stopping Strickland, okay?” Mike said, giving his pack mates a pointed look. “Then we can celebrate Carter finding The One for him.”
Trey nodded. “Sounds like a plan. But how are we going to do it? Unless I’m missing something, Strickland didn’t say anything to suggest where he’s taken Hadley.”
“No, he didn’t,” Mike agreed. “But we know what he plans to do with her. Throw in everything that Kamden knows about skinwalkers and the stuff Turner knows about Strickland, we should be able to come up with a list of places that might be suitable for the feeding frenzy. There can’t be many places they can do something like that.”
“He’s not wrong,” Kamden confirmed. “The frenzy is violent, bloody, loud, and lasts for hours. They’re not going to do it anywhere where people can hear them or where their victims might be able to get away. The whole thing is a controlled hunt to encourage the feeding instinct in the spawn. It can take place anywhere—a basement or an underground tunnel that’s been blocked off so there aren’t any hiding places or even a deep pit dug in the ground. Anyplace that’ll slow the prey down long enough for the spawn to catch them and drag them back.”
Carter’s gut clenched at the images Kamden’s words had put into his head, not wanting to think of Hadley being put through that.
“It may not seem like much, but it gets us started,” Mike said. “I think we can rule out any populated areas. Too much chance of someone overhearing and disrupting the ritual.”
“Wooded areas are probably out too,” Carter added, forcing his mind to focus on solving this puzzle of where the hell Strickland had taken Hadley, instead of freaking out about her. “It sounds like it would be harder to keep control of the people they plan on hunting.”
Kamden nodded. “Agreed. Even before the frenzy, they’d have needed an isolated location. Some place where no one would see them bringing in the people they’ve been kidnapping.”
“So, we’re likely looking at private property somewhere outside of the city,” Trey said. “Or a commercial building that’s been abandoned.”
“That narrows down the list of possibilities a little, but it still leaves us looking for a proverbial needle in a haystack,” Carter said.
Mike looked at Turner. “You’ve been chasing this skinwalker for almost a decade. Where does he normally go when he wants to skinwalk? Does he have a pattern or a comfort zone?”
The marshal thought a moment before answering. “He likes old places. Several of the murders I connected to him were at abandoned historical sites.”
“That makes sense,” Kamden said softly. “Older skinwalkers like to surround themselves with old things. It reminds them of the good old days, I guess.”
“So, old places, isolated locations, and something that can be rigged up for the hunt,” Carter murmured, desperately hoping they were right about this stuff. “We get all these parameters to Gage and hope he and the rest of the Pack can start running some computer search algorithms. I’m still worried we’ll be left with a list that’s too long, though. Especially since we only have a couple hours to do it.”
His pack mates looked like they were thinking the same thing, but before any of them could say anything, Kat and Karissa walked out of Hadley’s office.
“I might be able to help with that,” Kat said, holding up a glass jar. It was the one Hadley kept on her desk filled with Hershey Kisses. There wasn’t any chocolate in the jar at the moment, though. Only a twisted-up paper clip. “I found several strands of Hadley’s hair to make a Find Me charm. If we get in the general area where we think she is, I can confirm she’s there.”
Kat had once used the same charm to locate a missing teenager halfway across the county. Shouldn’t she be able to do the same with Hadley? “Can’t you just track her with that?”
She gave him a rueful smile. “If I were using blood, yes, because blood is inextricably linked to a person and that connection can last for decades. Which is what makes it so good for tracking charms. While the strands of hair I’m using remember being connected to Hadley, the link isn’t as strong, so they don’t work as well.”
Carter’s omega howled in despair at the position he was trapped in. They had no way of knowing if any of this was going to work. Strickland could kill Hadley before Carter got a chance to save her.
“This is going to work,” Mike assured him. “Gage and the rest of the Pack are going to come up with a list of possibilities and then Kat’s going to narrow them down using the charm. We’re going to find Hadley in time.”
