Chapter Two
Kye
I rubbed my face, tired as fuck at… well, the world. I was exhausted. I was pretty sure I shouldn’t be this sick of the whole universe at twenty-four.
I was browsing some missing people Facebook groups, scrolling through familiar names of other family members who had been searching for at least as long as I had.
“Hey, sorry I’m late!” my best friend, Henry said breezily, kissed my cheek, and sat down across from me.
“It’s fine,” I murmured.
And it was fine, really. I had nothing else to do today other than having coffee with him while he was on his lunch break—my back straightened as I saw a post about a young girl having gone missing from the same area my sister had two years ago.
“Kye? Kynan? Are you even listening to me?” Henry snapped, tugging my phone out of my hand before I had time to react.
“What? Sorry, I mean—”
“Isn’t this enough already?” he asked, his tone exasperated as he looked at the screen before putting the phone on the table out of my reach. “All you do at home every night is scroll the internet for clues. When is it going to be enough?”
“I’m—”
“You’ve spent all your money, sold everything you own to find her, Kye. For two years. When is it going to be enough? When will you accept that she’s gone?” I could see the tears in his eyes, and it was the only reason I didn’t punch him.
He could see my jaw tick, though, could see how angry he’d made me and lifted his hands. Then he wiped his eyes.
“I never knew her, but….” He sighed.
“No, you never did.”
The grief I’d been dealing with on and off for two years tried to smother me, but I pushed it away. Until I knew for sure that she wasn’t alive anymore, I would keep my feelings in check. If there was proof of her being gone, then I’d grieve. But not. Yet.
“Look, all I’m saying—”
“Don’t.” I was hanging by a thread, and if he wanted to have this lunch hour with me, he needed to shut the hell up.
“Fine.” He took a deep breath, then smiled sunnily at the server who came to us with his drink and sandwich. I’d had mine already, waiting for him, but the server put another latte in front of me as well.
“Thanks,” I told her, and him.
I took a sip and sighed.
“How was the interview?” Henry asked after he’d eaten about half of his sandwich.
I shrugged. “Okay. I’m gonna say fifty/fifty chance they call me back.”
It was hard to get a job when you hadn’t finished your degree and had a two-year gap in employment history.
“They ask why this time?” He all but read my thoughts.
“Nope.” I rubbed a hand over my face and pushed some of my hair behind my ear. “They either don’t care or they do, and make an issue out of it. The reason never matters.”
“Hun, if you had a whole degree—”
“It wouldn’t matter much. Not in this economy. And not in a city anyway. Agricultural science isn’t exactly sexy when all you have around you are cafés and stores.” I sighed again. “I wish I didn’t have to drag you into this.”
“No, what I told you last year still stands, Kye: my spare room is yours for as long as you need it. Besides, my apartment hasn’t been this spotless ever before.” He smiled at me warmly, and I almost let go of my bitterness.
A fter Henry went back to work—he was a junior architect at a prestigious firm and made a lot of money already—I went back to his apartment.
There was nothing to clean, so I grabbed my laptop and curled up on the couch.
Two years and some change ago, my sister Carys ran away. It was because of our stepmom, really. She was a wicked witch if I ever met one.
Our dad had divorced our mom when Carys was three and I was eight, because she was constantly cheating on him and basically ruined our reputation in our tiny Texas town. Because of her public intoxication and resisting arrest charges, Dad managed to get custody of us pretty easily. Not that she wanted us anyway.
Carys was too young to understand and the little I did, I felt glad she was gone. She hadn’t been much of a mom anyway. Life without her after we moved to Tennessee to be closer to Dad’s family was nice. We had grandparents, cousins, everything.
I guess Dad dated some, but he never brought anyone home to meet us until I was fifteen. Theresa was nice at first, but then she got pregnant the next year and it was as if Carys and I were the necessary evil after that.Our baby sister, Eira, was a nice enough baby. It was a shame her mom was such a bitch, though.
When it was time for college, I managed to get into Texas A&M, which almost meant I was going backwards, geographically. Dad had a good career, so he’d saved enough money for both Carys and me to go to college with very little debt. After I moved to Texas, Carys started to act out more. Do all stupid teenage stuff, rebelling against Theresa, mostly. Dad was disappointed, but he could tell how much she missed me.
I didn’t really hear much from what she was up to, until she went missing.
The kicker was that she went missing while Dad, Theresa, and Eira were at Theresa’s sister’s place for some anniversary weekend thing. Carys didn’t want to go, so they left her home, and when they got back, they realized she was gone.
None of us could get a hold of her. It was as if she vanished into thin air. Then, about two weeks later, she sent me a message from a random number, saying that she was fine and was with her new boyfriend.
It wasn’t much, but it was something. I sent a message back saying to contact me once a week or else. She did send short messages for a few weeks, and then those stopped, too.
My phone buzzed on the coffee table, so I reached for it.
It was an unknown number, but I’d gone from rarely answering my phone even when it was people I knew–messages were so much better–to answering every call, just in case.
“Hello?”
“Kye. It’s me, Carys.”
A fterwards, I couldn’t remember the first few minutes of that call. My faculties returned around the time she told me to give her a second.
“No, don’t go!” I yelled, tears still streaming down my face as my heart tried to do a jig in my chest.
“I won’t, I’m right here, I need to talk to—hey dude? Alpha? What’s your name?”I heard someone’s voice, a low murmur in the background. “Okay, Brodie? Where are we, exactly?”
“What the fuck is going on, Carys?” I asked, my brain whirring at an unsettling speed, while also feeling like I was kind of dizzy.
“I’m in Pennsylvania, in a town called Luxton, it seems. I’ll tell you everything as soon as you get here.” I was on my feet before she could say anything more. “You’ll come, right?” she asked in a hesitant voice that broke my heart again.
“Of course I will.” I was already moving to the guest room to pack all my shit. “You’ll be at this number?”
“Brodie? Will I be at this number?” she asked the guy at the other end. “Yeah, I will. And I’m not going anywhere, either. He promised.”
“Who is he?”
“He’s the nephew of the guy who was… anyway. I’ll text you the address? You can get here whenever. We won’t go anywhere. I need to give him his phone back, we need to call the Sheriff to come now. Brodie kind of killed his uncle for me.”
I stopped in my tracks, took a deep breath, and said, “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I love you.”
Tears immediately rushed out of my eyes and I choked out, “I love you too, sis.”
I still had my POS sedan. It was likely the second most expensive thing I owned, right after my laptop. My phone was a cheap refurbished one and was definitely worth less than the car at this point, if only barely.
It would be fine for the six or so hours it would take me to get from Dayton to Luxton. I hoped.
I called Henry when I was done with packing.
“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately, knowing I wouldn’t call him at work otherwise.
“Henry, it’s Carys. She just called me.”
“What?” His tone was so shocked and loud enough that I heard him apologize to someone and then a door closed. “What do you mean she called you?”
“She’s somewhere in Pennsylvania. In Allegheny National Forest, in some little town. I’m gonna drive there right now—”
“Wait, wait, wait, Kye. Are you sure it was her?”
I frowned as I carried my bags to the door. “What do you mean? She’s my sister, of course I’m sure.”
“But it’s been two years, right? What if it’s a scam?”
“Honestly? At this point, I don’t fucking care, Hen. I really don’t. I’m gonna drive there and see what’s what.”
Something in my tone must’ve told him I wasn’t going to be swayed, so he sighed. “Okay. Go to my bedroom.”
“What?”
“Do as you’re told, Kye.”
“Okay…?” I walked into his room that was pretty tidy and definitely luxurious.
“Now, open the middle drawer of my dresser and reach into the very back. There’s a box there.”
Frowning, I did as I was told and fished out a flat jewelry box, the kind someone might buy a bracelet in, except a bit wider.
“Now what?”
“Open it and take all the cash there is.”
I popped the lid and gasped. There had to be at least fifteen hundred dollars in there. “Hen, I can’t—”
“Stop it. Just stop , Kye. You need money and I know you don’t have any. If you have enough for gas to get to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, I’m shocked. Besides, whatever’s been keeping her from contacting you before now can’t be really that good, right? So, take the money. It’ll help you and her a little bit.”
I stared at the cash, torn and upset. “I… Fuck! ”
“Take it. And if I don’t see you again, Kye. I love you. You’re important to me. You’re the realest friend I’ve had, and I’ll miss you.”
I took a deep breath, gathered the money, let the air out noisily. “Okay. Okay. Thank you. And I love you too and I….” I couldn’t tell him I’d pay him back or that I would see him again without potentially making a liar out of myself, so I didn’t say those things. Instead, I said “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“Thank you.”
“Hey Hen? You’re important to me, too.”
“Yeah.” He inhaled, the sound a bit stuttery as he gathered himself. “I got to go.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I ended the call, put the box back to where I’d found it, and left his room feeling like I could maybe manage this trip. First things first, I needed to get my car from the underground garage. I just hoped it would start okay.
I navigated through Ohio, stopping only to go use a bathroom and give myself and the sedan a rest. There were a million questions in my brain, floating around, distracting me enough that I couldn’t get overwhelmed with emotion again.
I didn’t call Dad. Not yet. Not until I’d made sure with Carys it was fine to call him, and that wasn’t a conversation I was looking forward to. There were things that had been said and done between me, Dad, and Theresa after Carys went missing that I didn’t want to rehash in my mind or on the phone.
At my second stop, I found a small grocery store in a town along Highway 80. I was at least in Pennsylvania by then, and the car was still working. I got myself some drinks and a sandwich, then walked toward the register through the tiny cosmetics section.
It wasn’t even that, really, more like random things on the shelves that were makeup or haircare related, I suppose. But what made me stop were the nail polishes. I glanced at my hands, wondering when was the last time I had polish on. Over two years, for sure. It had been our thing. Carys had loved nail polish since I first bought her a small kit for her birthday when she was ten.
I added black and purple bottles into my basket, then grabbed nail polish remover and some cotton pads. Whether she was into it anymore or not, at least I could use the black myself.
At the candy aisle, I picked up some of her favorites, too. I couldn’t help myself. Reese’s and Skittles had always been her go-to candy.
I felt somehow better, as if I’d done something for her, when I got to the car. Hell, I felt like I’d done more with those simple purchases than I had in the last two years of contacting people and scouring the internet every day.
The rest of the way to Luxton was easy enough. I drove through a lot of woods and small towns scattered along the roads. By the time I landed in Luxton, I got my phone out and called Carys.
“Kye?” she asked in a tone that was so fucking glad I was calling it made me tear up again.
“Hey, so I’m in Luxton, and I need directions. The map app I have doesn’t seem to recognize the address.”
“Oh, okay, let me give this to Brodie.”
“Brodie McRae speaking,” that deep voice I’d heard in the background said.
“Hey, I’m Kynan Rossi, Carys’ brother. I’m in Luxton and I need to figure out how to get to the address she sent me?”
“Oh, that. Yeah, so it’s a bit tricky if you don’t know it.” He proceeded to explain to me how not to accidentally drive past the right crossroad and then what to look for. Including some battered Private Property sign. “There’s no streetlights, so you really need to keep an eye on that turn.”
“Okay. I’ll try my best. Thank you.”
“See you soon.”
I ended the call, wondering where the hell I was going that was so remote.
As I drove the last bit, I tried to remember anything at all I’d heard Carys say earlier. She’d called him Alpha, so it was safe to say he was a wolf, then. But if he was the Alpha, was this his land? And who was his uncle who had been the one holding Carys captive? At least that’s what I thought the situation had been.
Even driving carefully, I almost missed that turn. Driving deeper and deeper into the woods in the dark was kind of unnerving. The Private Property sign made it better and worse at the same time, which managed to almost amuse me. By the time the large house popped up in a clearing, I was sure I was lost somehow, even though Brodie had said it was a straight shot from the turn.
The house had to have anywhere from five to ten bedrooms. It was hard to tell with the darkness, but it loomed big and imposing opposite from a barn that had—crime scene tape across the doors? What the hell? Oh, right, manslaughter or murder. But the wolfy kind, so who even knew. There were very different laws for different species in different situations.
I parked next to a rental car, which was curious. As I got out, I tried to see more of my surroundings, but there really wasn’t much light coming from anywhere other than a porch light and one bare bulb that hung from a hook by the barn doors.
I left all my stuff in the car, smoothed down my T-shirt and pulled my denim jacket on. Some stupid part of my brain contemplated whether these jeans and boots were good enough to meet my sister for the first time in two years.
As I walked up the porch steps, they creaked loudly. Then a tall, backlit figure opened the door and stared at me.
“Brodie?” I hazarded a guess.
“Kynan?”
“Yeah, uh, call me Kye.”
There was a weird impasse, as if he was measuring me somehow, but couldn’t decide something. Then he stepped back.
“Come on in.”
“Thanks.” I took the few steps inside, and then suddenly my sister’s form pushed past Brodie and into my arms, and everything was right in my world again.
We collapsed to the floor right there, and Brodie closed the door behind us.
I don’t know how long it took for us to gather ourselves. We sobbed, clutching each other, for what felt like hours.
At one point, Brodie thrust some paper towels between us and then wandered off again. We kind of snickered at that, then wiped our faces and blew our noses. Then I really looked at Carys and tried not to react to her beaten up state.
“I know,” she whispered, giving me a weak smile. Then she took my appearance in more closely, and smiled. “You grew out your hair again.”
We both had black hair. Hers had always been to her shoulder blades and I’d worn mine longer as a kid. But then teen age hit and it wasn’t cool for boys to have long hair so I cut it short.
“Yeah,” I replied quietly. I couldn’t say I’d grown it out to feel closer to her, because it didn’t really make sense.
“I’ll be fine,” she said suddenly, wiping her cheeks again, this time with more determination. “We’ll be fine.”
“So, what exactly happened here? I mean today?” The rest could wait. I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear what she’d been through since she went missing quite yet.
“Let’s go sit somewhere,” she said and got to her feet, then held out a hand.
When I took it, I saw bruises on her arm and did my best not to let her take much of my weight. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know any of the potential injuries she had underneath her clothes.
“You guys want coffee?” Brodie asked when we stepped into what was a kind of disgusting family room.
“Yeah, actually. Let me go make some,” Carys said quickly.
“You don’t need to—”
“No, I do,” she cut him off. “I’ll be right back.”
Meanwhile, I went to sit on one of the three couches. They had blankets over them, so I felt comfortable enough to sit down.
Brodie sat across from me and looked at me with his pale wolf eyes.
He was handsome as fuck. He was tall and tattooed up to his jawline. His hair was short on the sides and had that longer bit on top that I could see he ran his fingers through a lot, or at least had today.
“So, you’re an Alpha?” I asked, just to fill the silence.
He grunted. “I am now. Wasn’t this morning.”
I could feel my eyebrows trying to crawl into my hairline. “How’d that come to be?”
“Let’s wait for Carys. She can fill in whatever she wants.” His tone wasn’t unfriendly per se, more to a point. His phone rang before Carys could come back, and his lips curled into a quick smile before he answered it. “Hey, sweetness. No, I’m fine. She’s fine too. The sheriff was the new guy, he said it seemed pretty straightforward. Yeah. They’re coming tomorrow to do something about the remnants of the meth lab. Yeah.”
My eyebrows never really had a chance to lower.
Carys came in, carrying three mugs of coffee and a bottle of creamer under her arm. “This is all we had,” she explained as she distributed the mugs. She held up the creamer, and I put some into mine, but Brodie declined.
“Okay so, where were we?” I prompted once we were all settled, Carys right next to me, and Brodie had ended his call.
“So, I grew up in this house from age seven onwards. Rusty was my mom’s brother. My older sister Bella grew up here too. Our mom died of an overdose when I was ten and Bella sixteen. I don’t know if it started before that, probably, but Rusty….” Brodie’s jaw clenched as he tried to get the words out.
“I think we can use context clues here,” Carys said dryly, gesturing at herself.
Brodie snorted softly. “My sister ran away before she even turned seventeen and I didn’t hear from her in fifteen years.” He blew into his mug, then sighed. “Our cousins are still part of the pack here. Rusty was the Alpha,” he clarified for my sake.
Ah. Brodie hadn’t been the Alpha this morning, but was one now. It all made sense suddenly.
“I’ve seen them, your cousins, through the window,” Carys said quietly. “They haven’t been in the house while I’ve been there, but….”
“They couldn’t do much because of the whole Alpha command thing,” Brodie explained in a softer, apologetic tone. “But they did call Bella when they heard other people mention there was someone young here.”
I cleared my throat. “How long have you been here, exactly?” I asked, not sure if I wanted the answer.
“About seven months? That’s when….” She grimaced and looked down, then lifted her gaze to stare at me with an expression filled with defiance and fear, as if she was trying to keep up a front but wasn’t sure how I was doing to take it. “When my latest pimp sold me to Rusty for some meth.”
I felt nauseous and struggled to keep my mug from wobbling in my suddenly shaky hands.
“I’m glad I killed him,” Brodie rumbled, his eyes shining red for a brief moment.
“Me too.” I put the mug on the crappy, unsteady coffee table.
Carys snorted. “Me fucking three.”