She never leaves her balcony unlocked.
Something stirs in my chest as my heart rate picks up, my gaze rabidly scanning the room for any sign of my Dove.
Her nest is gone.
The mattress is there, but the bedding—the pillows, the blankets, the damn bunny stuffy I got her for Christmas—it’s all gone.
Did she leave without me?
I dismiss the thought just as quickly as it had entered my mind. No. She wouldn’t do that.Andshe has no way to do it.
Something else must have happened. She was getting ready for a dinner…I assumed it was with Pack Robinson—the group of boring-ass alphas she’d recently been stringing along.
But…what if it wasn’t?
Something on her vanity mirror catches my eye, and I turn, my eyes homing in on the small sticky note.
Small, scrawled writing on the note reads, “Caramel drizzle.”
The feeling in my chest crushes me tighter as I stare at the words. It can’t be a shopping list. She doesn’t do any sort of shopping. And I know the note wasn’t there earlier because when I was on the balcony before, I was using this same mirror to spy at her expression before she saw me.
Which means…she must have left it for me.
Panicked, I look under her bed, beneath the loose floorboard where she keeps her savings hidden. It’s still there. Which means…she didn’t cut and run.
Whatever’s happened, wherever she’s gone, she didn’t go willingly.
Fuck.
I feel like I’m about to tear out of my own skin by the time I get back to my apartment. I push the door open with enough force that it slams against the wall, and all I can do is let out aguttural growl as I slam my motorcycle helmet on the ground.
“Woah, what the fuck, man?” Ethan runs into the room, looking around for the source of my rage. His black hair is sticking up in multiple places and his glasses are askew, telling me I must’ve woken him up. Normally I’d be a good roommate and apologize. “What happened? Where is she?”
“She wasn’t there.” The words choke out of me, my chest feeling like it’s going to burst open at any moment. Why the fuck am I so hot?
“Do you…know where she went?” He frowns, looking at me assessingly.
I can only shake my head, grabbing the damn sticky note out of my pocket and handing it to him before taking the wad of cash I nabbed from under her bed and tossing it on the coffee table.
His nose twitches as he takes it, his eyes flicking over the words. “You brought me her shopping list?”
“No,” I shake my head fervently, “it was…’member the first conversation I told you ’bout? She said ‘er fav’rite cocktail was Sex on the Beach—”
“And you called her out for not actually having had the drink?” He tilts his head, his nostrils flaring again. “Fuck—Teddy, did you spray this with something?”
“Focus, knot-’ead!” I snap, grabbing back the post-it note I’m now feeling oddly possessive over. “We need to find ‘er!”
The tightness in my chest constricts further, and then…a scent finds me.
Like Wren, but so muchmore. Crisp apple, warm cinnamon, some kind of spice…why does it smell different than it did earlier?
Ethan stares at me, slack-jawed, like he’s seeing me for the first time. “Holy shit. Did you…did you justbarkat me?”
Chapter 4
Wren
Iwake up on a bare mattress.
