“He thought he smelled smoke? But I swear, Alpha, Neal and I didn’t smell anything. The forest seemed normal.”
I clench my hands, anxiety bubbling up inside me. “Something’s wrong. He wouldn’t have left you guys.”
Jericho put off hunting because he knew the risks of going alone and everyone agreed we needed to stay inside for now. He wouldn’t have wandered off unless he had a reason to.
“Did something happen?”
She shakes her head. “No, we were fine.”
Forest turns to the others. “Everyone, shift and go look for Jericho and Neal, but stay within our territory! We can’t take any chances right now. Red, prepare the medic room, just in case.”
“Already on it,” he says, disappearing down the hall behind the hearth.
Bile rises in my throat. I’m not sure I can handle seeing Jericho hurt again. I nearly lost my shit the first time.
Rushing to the patio, I grip the railing and scream, “Jericho!” But the only returning sound is a few branches stirring in the wind. I turn to run down to the grass, but Grant throws an arm out to block me.
“You need to stay here,” he says.
“But—”
“You’re human and a liability! STAY!” His tone cuts right through me, twisting like a knife in my chest. How can he expect me to stay behind when Jericho is out there alone? I did that once already, and it nearly killed me!
Mom rushes down the steps toward me. “Come on, honey. Let them do their thing. We’ll stay with the little one.”
I can’t breathe as the shifters take off for the trees, going in three different directions. My legs threaten to buckle underneath me, and if it weren’t for the railing, I’d probably keel over. “Mom,” I manage to say.
She grabs my arm, steadying me. “Don’t panic. We don’t know that he’s hurt. He’s just missing.”
Together we walk to the patio, but I am too restless to sit. I pace until there’s practically a hole in the wood. Sage walks the perimeter of the yard, tail flicking at every sound. Every so often, he barks at a wolf somewhere off in the distance, and a faint howl answers.
“Come on, Jer,” I murmur. “Where are you?”
Time crawls at an agonizing pace. Eventually, Mom gets up to stand at the top step.
“What’s that?” she says, pointing.
It takes me a minute to see what she does. Thick gray smoke is billowing up from the ground, a few feet away from the van.
“FIRE!” I shout, looking around for a hose. Finding it on the side, I turn it on and run across the yard, screeching to a halt when I notice the smoke isn’t coming from the car at all. In fact, it doesn’t seem to be coming from anything.
I take a few steps closer just as flames erupt around the edges of the smoke, forming a frame. I stagger back, too bewildered to remember to spray it with water. The frame of fire begins to shift and grow, becoming wider and taller until it’s at least three inches taller than me. There is a vast emptiness in the center, where the van should be, but an image begins to form as the smoke clears.
Is that…trees?
Grant howls sharply, pauses, then howls again before running over to me. He stands between me and the fire, shifting to man and pushing me back.
“It’s a fire portal!” he yells. “Get back!”
Before either of us can move, however, someone steps through, and my jaw drops.
No fucking way. “Jericho?”
Smoke and fire dance around my vampire boyfriend, and as soon as he’s through, the hole begins to shrink and disappear.
I can’t take my eyes off him. “What the… Did you just—”
Jericho ignores me, falling to his knees in the grass. “He needs Red! His leg is broken, and his heart is beating too slow. Please, hurry!”
