Becca didn’t react. She couldn’t even process the words. That didn’t seem to be a problem for Officer Tonya, though.
“Abductions, Carl? And when in the hell were you going to tell me about it?”
“I just found out yesterday!” he snapped. Then he frowned. “Er, two days ago.”
“You could have?—”
“It was just the wolves east of here. Even Bryn thought it might be coincidence. You know there are always a few who shift and never come back. I honestly thought the wolf was being paranoid. You know how he loves conspiracy theories.”
Becca abruptly found her voice. “And what do you think now?”
Carl grimaced. “I think we need to find those other three bastards. They had a net. They weren’t some yahoos out on a drunken hunting party. They were coordinated and they had a net.”
Alan’s voice was low with horror. “They wanted to capture Justin. Why?”
“Bryn thinks they’re being studied.”
“Studied?” Becca gasped. “Like rats in a cage? Like why you can shift into a bear and we can’t?”
“Yes.”
“And you think they’ve taken Theo?”
He didn’t answer, but when he met her gaze, fear was in his eyes.
Which is when Becca lost what little was left in her stomach.
CHAPTER 8
There wasn’t anything he could do to help Becca. Carl sat in the living room listening to the woman losing not only her lunch, but her dignity, too. No one threw up with class. It was a violent physical reaction to the horror she’d been through in the last forty-eight hours. And there was nothing he could do to ease her pain.
So he sat there listening, his guts twisting as he scrambled for a way to make it better. There wasn’t anything except all the things he’d already planned. Mobilize the clan, the police, and all his resources to find Theo. Contact the other alphas and find out if Bryn’s pack was the only one noticing a problem or if there was more to the story. And do that all without unduly alarming his own people or accidentally revealing themselves to a dangerous someone who might just start the very thing he feared: scientific study by a militant faction of baddies.
In other words, it was his normal day as an alpha. The only difference here was that Becca was ten feet away being emotional and physically torn apart by his world.
He looked at Tonya. Her gaze was on the bathroom, too, but her expression wasn’t sympathetic. He could almost hear her brain shifting Becca from “Possible Threat” to “Too Weak to Survive.” As a cop, Tonya couldn’t afford to babysit the weak. She was too busy defending them from motorcycle psychos with nets. And true to form, she turned away from the bathroom and flicked on her smartphone. A moment later she was showing him a digital map of the area.
“Here’s what I’ve got in place,” she said as she rattled off people who were all part of the Gladwin clan safety net and their locations. “It’s everyone and I can’t think of anything more to do.”
“I can,” he said, as he grabbed his tablet. He stared at the electronic device, knowing just how to access the information he needed. But his heart and mind weren’t there. He was in the bathroom wishing he had the right to comfort Becca. The need was a physical ache right behind his breastbone.
“Fuck the right,” he grumbled to himself. He didn’t need permission. He needed the tools to ease her pain, and in that he was sorely lacking. He just didn’t know what to say. So he left the nurturing to his fully human brother, Alan, and became the Maximus the clan needed.
“Here’s who we need to contact and what we’re going to get from them,” he said as he pulled up a map of Michigan that marked all the shifter clans and their territories.
He started outlining his plan. It took ten minutes for Tonya to get the full scope and another two before she was out the door implementing his thoughts. Add in another twenty to get a snarling Mark on the phone and to set his nearly feral best friend on his job. Next came calling all the shifter alphas nearby and waking them at dawn to probe into sensitive areas about how they manage their young. And once that was done, he had to ask for their help. Not the easiest task, especially since diplomacy wasn’t a typical grizzly strength.
And he did it all while keeping half an eye on Becca, constantly searching her for clues about her thoughts and feelings.
The hours ground away. Phone call after logistical meeting after Internet call. It was all needed and tedious in the extreme. Especially since every response was in the negative. No, they hadn’t lost any young that they’d admit, though a few teens were not currently in sight. No, they hadn’t seen Theo, but would do their best to contain the youth safely if they did. And no, they would not support any grizzly incursion on their territory without proper assurances, etc., etc.
It was the assurances that took the bulk of his time.
That and keeping himself aloof as Becca seemed to shrink into herself, growing more panicked with every passing moment. She was about to break, and everyone knew it. Alan had been alternately feeding her and encouraging her to rest. The doctor had visited and given her a sleeping aid, which she didn’t take. Even Tonya had let her speak to the Kalamazoo police as they detailed what they were doing to locate Theo without anyone mentioning shape-shifting.
And now it was nearly three. His body was an allover ache from his injuries and his stomach alternated between ravenously hungry and queasy from the lingering sedatives of those damn darts. The last reports had come in negative for Theo and even Justin had woken with no news. All the kid remembered was walking home as a bear and then waking up in his bedroom as a man. Which left them doing nothing more than sitting around waiting for more reports and praying for good news.
Which is when Becca finally broke.
