Forced Plus-Size Mate (Silver Meadows Wolves #6)

Chapter 24 - Body

I hate lying to Amanda, but I consider it to be an absolute necessity. I expected her to be more upbeat after visiting with the others, but maybe I’m asking for too much.

It’s going to take time… and it’s not over yet. I don’t know how to tell her to prepare for more violence. All I can hope to do is keep it away from her.

When we snuggle up on the couch together, my heart soars. It’s the closest she’s gotten to me in days, and I’m comforted by her warmth.

Maybe soon, she’ll be able to talk to me about everything that’s going on in her mind. Then we can help each other through this, instead of struggling in silence.

Her presence is so relaxing, I drift off to sleep almost immediately. Both my body and my mind are tired after days of stress. And tonight’s meeting, then lying to Amanda, were probably the most grueling things I’ve ever done.

Looking into Amanda’s eyes and flat-out lying was as hard as getting dragged half-dead through the snow.

I sleep deeply, and when I wake, I feel well-rested and refreshed. I have so much optimism for the day ahead, I’m considering telling Amanda everything.

I need to trust her, and her strength. Then we can fight this together, as a team.

When she isn’t by my side in the bed, I feel a faint moment of loss, but I’m not worried. But I get up to look for her, and immediately, I feel the house is too silent.

I should be able to hear her heartbeat, her breathing. But there’s just nothing.

An icy splinter pierces through my chest, sending fear racing through my guts. I can still catch her scent, very faintly, and run to the bedroom.

I look around the empty space, hurrying around as I search for the source of the scent. I find one of her sweaters on the floor under the bed, and I pick it up and hold it to my face, breathing deeply.

It does nothing to comfort me, and I hurl the sweater away, jogging through the house to the main bathroom. I don’t even have to open the door to know that she isn’t in there, but I do, anyway.

The vacant space seems to laugh at me and my failing hopes. There’s not even any sign it has been recently used. I’d feel much more hopeful if it was clouded with steam and beaded with water. Then I’d know she was recently here.

Maybe she just went out for breakfast.

I race to the kitchen, trying to hope even as my heart sinks. Every instinct I have is telling me that she’s gone, but I try to rationalize it, telling myself not to panic.

I can’t just make assumptions based on my emotions. That’s a dangerous thing to do, and I need to look at the evidence before I start freaking out.

My own good sense doesn’t stick, though, and I hurtle into the kitchen, checking around for a note. I pause by the kettle. It’s ice-cold, so I know no one made coffee or tea recently.

My phone! Maybe there’s a message.

I return to the living room, not enjoying the wicked irony that I’ve come back to where I started with nothing to show for it. There are no new messages from anyone, and I stand there staring stupidly at my screen for a few seconds.

My mind races over possibilities so fast, it trips and falls, making all sorts of scenarios tumble together. The one I fear the most—that Decker has come and taken the witches—is by far the worst, so I have to address that one first.

Always go to the worst-case scenario. Every minute we waste could be the one that takes her life.

The ice that pierced my chest is now bleeding into my veins. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, even when Jethro was torturing me.

I take a deep breath and hold it, willing my fear away. Even though I manage to settle my breathing, my heart still beats wildly and sweat trickles down my sides. I open my phone again and call Bae.

“Morning,” he mumbles sleepily. “What’s up?”

“Amanda’s gone.”

“What?”

“Gone, not here, vanished. She’s not in the house at all.”

“It’s okay. Maybe she just went out.”

“No, that’s not it. Has there been any word from the scouts?”

“Not a whisper. Why?”

“I’m worried Decker pack came and took them.”

“That would be almost impossible. They’d have to sneak into town and move around freely to kidnap them all. I don’t see how they could manage it.”

“I’m going to make a few calls,” I say. “Can you organize some help to look for them?”

“No problem. On it right now. Meet at Shelley’s?”

“Sounds good to me.”

We hang up, and I immediately call Lucy. It rings out, and I almost hurl my phone across the room.

Instead, I shift and wander around the house. I can detect Amanda’s scent a little more easily in this shape, but it’s still very thin. I track it through the front door and down the driveway, but that’s where it stops.

I look down the road, growling deep in my throat. My heart feels like it’s being shredded with every beat.

If Decker didn’t take them… then she left me. She actually left me.

Again.

I run back inside and get dressed. When I grab my phone, there’s a message from Bae.

Looks like there’s not a single witch in town. New Hope hasn’t seen them, either.

Have you managed to reach Lucy? I type back.

No, it rang out.

“Fuck!” I grumble, grabbing my keys and running for my truck. I should be heading straight to Shelley’s, but both instinct and good sense are telling me to go to Lucy’s house.

If anyone knows, she does.

A chill suddenly twists in my guts as I realize she might be gone, too. I could pull up to Peter’s house to find him in the same state as me. The thought fans the flames of my anxiety into a blooming cloud of full-on terror.

Calm down.

Not fucking likely.

I roar through Silver Meadows, parking awkwardly across Lucy’s driveway and ruining the lawn. I don’t even notice the destruction as I run for the front door and hammer on it.

“Hey, hey!” Peter calls. “I’m coming, stop killing the door!”

I bounce on my feet impatiently while I wait. Peter opens up, looking like he was yanked out of a very deep sleep.

“Is Lucy here?” I demand.

“Yeah, of course she is. What are you talking about?”

“Are you sure?” I almost shout, shoving him out of the way. Peter gives me a look of alarm and follows me down the hallway.

“Lucy!” I yell, following her scent. I burst into the living room to see her sitting on the couch, rocking baby Isla. When she looks up at me, her eyes look dark. Haunted by deep secrets.

“Where is she?” I demand.

Lucy just shakes her head.

“Who?” Peter asks, standing behind me. He scratches his head lightly and blinks, still trying to wake himself up.

“I can’t, Body—” Lucy begins.

“No!” I roar, thick with despair. “You have to tell me what you know. If we don’t get some kind of clue, we’ll attack Decker pack. Last night, we got intel that they intended to murder all the witches. I’ll tear Decker apart limb from limb if he’s hurt her.”

Lucy’s eyes widen, and she hugs Isla closer to her chest. “I didn’t know this!” she cries.

“You were asleep when I got home,” Peter says to her. “I didn’t want to wake you. I was planning to discuss it with you today.”

“Lucy, where is she?” I plead.

She shakes her head, her mouth twisting. “The witches left!” she cries, the words bursting out of her as if against her will. “They decided the only way to keep all of you safe from the war between packs was to go back to the canyon.”

“They… left?” I can’t absorb the words, and my heart won’t believe them. “She left me?”

Again?

“She did it for you, Body,” Lucy says urgently. “I didn’t agree, but she said it was the only way to restore peace. The other witches agreed with her, too, and they all decided to go back. I don’t know how they’re going to live up there with no powers, though.”

“No powers?” I echo, dumbfounded. “What do you mean, no powers?”

“Over the last couple of days, all the witches have lost their power, except for me. They think it’s because of the violence. Because innocent lives are being lost because they selfishly want to stay.”

“Selfish?” I can barely follow what Lucy is saying, I’m so distraught.

“Yeah,” she says. “They thought staying and trying to match up was only going to cause more bloodshed. So, they decided to leave to save the packs.”

“If Decker came after us for this, then it was only a matter of time before they found another excuse,” Peter says. “I know dirtbags like that inside and out. They throw their rage behind an idea to justify their violence, but it’s the rage that drives them, not the idea.”

“Where would they be?” I mutter. Suddenly, it dawns on me. “The camping ground! That’s it, isn’t it, Lucy? They’re meeting there with the bus?”

She nods, turning away from me. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she admits miserably. “I promised Amanda I'd keep her secret, but this just feels wrong.”

“That’s because it is,” I snap. I pull out my phone and text Bae, then tear off my clothes and shift, loping away down the street. It’s still early, and I can get away with running through suburbia a little as it’s not far to the forest.

When I get to the trees, the wild soul of my wolf takes over, and my paws fly across the soil, barely touching the ground. I feel part of everything—the trees, the sky, even the ground itself.

I’m in harmony with the mountain, more than I ever have been before.

A great howl rises in my chest, but I snap my jaws closed, not letting it spiral from my throat. If Decker’s scouts are around, the last thing I want to do is tell them where I am.

I reach the campground in record time, and Bae is just pulling up when I get there. I bound right past him, diving on Amanda’s scent and following it around the parking area. I can smell all the other witches, too, and the rusty, flaking paint of the old minibus.

Bae shifts and barks, and a couple of other wolves emerge from the forest. With a short huff, I gesture for them to follow and put my nose to the ground.

The old van is easy to track. I can smell the grease around the engine fittings and the cheap paint. We trot some distance out of town, but I barely notice. All my attention is on the scent and the road ahead.

Suddenly, burnt rubber cuts through the greasy smell. There are dark tire marks stretching across the road, and I follow them into a side road.

As I turn into the forest to follow the narrow track, I smell something else.

Blood.

I break into a hard run, following the tire tracks and the scent of carnage up ahead. My fear turns swiftly into rage. I know that if Amanda’s hurt, I will unleash a kind of hell on Decker that will make him wish he was never born.

And if she’s dead… then I might as well be, too. I will take as many of Decker’s wolves down with me when I go.

We find the bus crashed into an embankment. The smell of blood is strong, but I can’t smell Amanda. I rush up to the van, shifting as I go up the steps. I’m shocked to see the witches still in their seats… but all of them are horribly injured and unconscious.

I go up the laneway, checking to see if they are still alive. None of them respond to being shaken or spoken to, but so far, no one is dead.

“Whoa,” Bae mutters after shifting back to human himself, coming into the bus behind me. “This is serious. Kent, run back to town and get help.”

One of the other wolves barks in response and turns back towards town, running as fast as his paws will carry him. I’m desperately looking for someone, anyone, who can tell me what happened to Amanda.

Up the back of the van, I find Nell on the floor.

“Nell,” I murmur, turning her onto her back. She has a massive, dark bruise down one side of her face, and it looks like her arm is broken. She moans as I try to look at it.

“Body?” she whispers.

I lean down, grabbing her good hand. “Yes, Nell, it’s me. What happened? Where’s Amanda?”

“Wolves from Decker pack…” she breathes. “And Kelta. Came at us. So many… took Amanda.”

“They what?” I yell, but Nell has slipped into unconsciousness again.

“Took her where?” I ask hopelessly, but it’s no good. Nell isn’t going to wake up.

Maybe not ever.

The idea pains me, even more so when I look around and realize the girls are so injured, they could all die.

Without their powers, they’re completely defenseless.

Decker wouldn’t have left them if he thought they’d live.

“What is it?” Bae asks, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Decker pack took her,” I say. “We should be able to track them.”

I shove him out of the way and run down the aisle, leaping down the steps and turning in a circle with my nose to the wind.

“Hey, don’t go running off,” Bae warns. “Wait for backup—”

“No can do,” I growl, shifting and bolting into the forest.

By the time the rest of the pack gets here, she could be dead. I have to get to her now!