I should’ve insisted she stay with me.I should’ve driven her.I should’ve made sure she got home, but she wanted lunch with the girls.She was smiling when she left.Happy, relaxed, safe, and because I’m a fucking idiot, I let myself believe she was.
By the time I pull into the clearing in front of my cabin, I’m half out of my mind.I kill the engine and jump out of the truck so fast that I almost leave the door hanging open.
“Vivian!”I shout, already running for the porch.
The front door slams open beneath my hand as I storm inside, scenting the air so hard that my lungs burn.
Her scent is here.Sweet and soft and wrapped around everything in my house.It fills the kitchen, clings to the blankets in the living room, lingers in the hallway, but it’s old.Faint.Not fresh or current.
She’s not here.
A growl tears out of me.
“Vivian!”I call out anyway, needing to be sure.
Nothing.The cabin is empty.The silence hits me like a punch to the gut.
My bear loses his mind.Find her!he bellows.Find our mate!
I whirl and head back outside, pulling my phone from my pocket.My hands are shaking with rage when I hit Knox first.
He answers on the second ring.“Logan?”
“She’s gone.”
“What happened?”he asks immediately.
“I went to get her from lunch.The girls said she left to come home.She’s not here.”
A low curse comes through the phone.
“I’m calling the others,” he says.“Start tracking.”
“I will.”I’m already moving toward the edge of the yard, my eyes on the ground, my senses stretching wide.“Logan.”Knox’s voice hardens.“You find her, you call us.Do you hear me?”
My jaw flexes because we both know what he’s really saying: Don’t kill anyone before backup arrives.
Too late for that,my bear growls.If someone took her, they’re dead.
“I hear you,” I snap, ending the call and heading back to town.
I park outside the café and take a deep breath, then another, and another.Finally, I pick up Vivian’s scent.
I take off, following it down the road.It’s lighter than usual here, touched by the air and sunlight, but I know it instantly.My entire body locks onto it, every instinct narrowing until there’s nothing else.I follow it down the road.
Toward the woods.
No.
No, no, no.
She wouldn’t go into the woods alone unless something drove her there.
My chest turns cold as I run.Branches slap against my arms as I tear through the trees.My boots crush leaves and twigs beneath me, but I barely hear it over the blood pounding in my ears.
Her scent gets stronger.Then other scents creep in.Male.Human.One of them is sour with sweat and fear.The other?—
My lip curls back from my teeth.I know right away they’re from the cult.
