Fifteen minutesafter rushing into the gym, Right Side shoved out the doors. He was already shaking his head as he ran toward us, confirming the gym was empty. He pointed to the side, where the jogger’s path began, and set out at a run. Left Side and I were left staring after him, wasting time.
Maybe two minutes later, as I was about to shrug off my escort and make a run for it, my phone rang.
“No one is answering,” Seamus said without preamble. “Trainees can lose the privilege if they can’t keep off their phones, but Pete ought to have his on him. His mate is in her third trimester. He would never leave her without a means of contacting him.”
Pete. I remembered that name. He was the first enforcer to volunteer for the mission after Seamus.
Heart pounding, I crushed the phone to my ear. “What are our next steps?”
“I’m sending over more enforcers.” Seamus kept his tone calm, but it didn’t help. “They’ll check the surrounding area, see if they can track the others by scent. You stay with your escorts. We’ll be there soon.”
After ending the call, I ran a mental tally of my options, not liking most of them.
“He said stay with my escorts, not stay put.” I rolled the tension from my shoulders. “That means you and I are going hunting. I’m familiar with Sloane’s scent, and I have a good nose. Do you know any of the others well enough to track them?”
“Pete.” He didn’t hesitate or push back, and I liked that about him. “I can find him.”
“Excellent.” I dialed into my sense of smell and set out in the direction Right Side had gone. “Let’s get started then. We’ll leave a fresh trail, so backup should have no trouble locating us.”
I kicked myself for not getting my guards’ names earlier, but it was a momentary twinge of conscience. I could always ask Seamus later so I could give them proper thanks.
As much time as Sloane and I spent together, and given the fact she slept with me, even my clothes often smelled like her. Hers was one signature I would have no trouble identifying. With that in mind, I tuned out Left Side, allowing him to sink into his own hunting patterns, and narrowed my focus.
I didn’t have to go far before I caught the first whiff of her, and others.
From the grunt beside me, Left Side had noticed the confluence of scent patterns too.
Neither of us spoke, our quiet growing deeper as we progressed without spotting Right Side either.
Just as my pulse kicked up a notch, he called out, “I found them.”
Right Side must have keener than average ears if he heard approaching steps and trusted it to be us.
“On our way.” I broke into a run. “Sloane?”
“She’s here.” Right Side stood in a clearing off the side of the path. “We need to get her to Burdock.”
Stumbling over my own feet, I spotted her curled in a ball in the grass, unconscious and twitching.
The others appeared dazed, but none of them shared her symptoms. I couldn’t say if that had to do with their species versus hers or other factors. Right now, I didn’t care. All that mattered was getting my best friend help fast.
“I’m getting her out of here.” I rolled my shoulders. “I want her in the first vehicle that arrives.”
Right Side stepped forward, but Left Side cut him off with an outstretched arm. “I’ll go with her.”
He meant to help. I knew that. I should have been grateful for it.
But when he stepped toward Sloane, intending to lift her, I snarled at him.
Left Side froze on the spot, raised his hands to shoulder height, and let me gather her in my arms.
The strength I had before, when I thought I was a latent, wasn’t nothing. But I could have carried two of her in this moment. I had yet to unlock my dragon fully, but her power rose in me, summoned by fear and desperation. Bright flames licked along my skin in a sheen of fire that didn’t burn her or me.
A thrill zinged through me to finally have the means to make a difference, chased by fear that power in my hands would corrupt me as surely as it had Carmichael.
No.
I had no room for doubts. No time for dread. Sloane was my priority.
