Chapter 35 Talon
An unusual sound echoing faintly in the distance jolted me awake.
My hearing was so advanced, so painfully sensitive, that I had to consciously tune out the constant noise around me just to sleep.
Even then, I could still pick up everything, from the string of curses pouring out of our neighbor’s mouth as he lost a round of his videogame to the soft ding of the elevator arriving on our floor.
If I focused, I could hear even farther: the wail of sirens, blaring car horns, the murmur of countless conversations, the relentless hum of a city that never slept, living loudly just beyond my walls.
In a city steeped in crime and depravity, blood-curdling screams were nothing out of the ordinary.
Falcon City thrived in chaos. Muggings, murders, and all manner of violence claimed victims daily, and it wasn’t uncommon to hear someone crying out in the night.
What set this scream apart, the one that had ripped me from sleep, was how close it had sounded. Too close. Possibly even on base.
My body shot upright in bed, heart pounding, sleep now a distant memory. I held my breath, straining my sensitive hearing, waiting for another scream to cut through the darkness, but none sounded. Maybe I had dreamt it.
I tried to fall asleep again, but couldn’t shake the eerie dread that rooted inside me when I heard that echo of a scream.
My wolf was restless, pacing back and forth, trying to convince me that something wasn’t right.
I cracked my knuckles attempting to maintain my control over The Beast. The ritual helped me to anchor myself and contain my wolf, who wanted out.
I tried straining my ears again, shifting through random noises and conversations, hunting for the source of the unnerving sound, but nothing stood out to me.
All was in place, despite the overwhelming instinct that it wasn’t.
Everyone else was asleep, and I heard their labored breathing through the walls. Killian snored particularly loudly, which used to keep me up all night, but after a decade of living together, the sound actually acted like white noise lulling me to sleep.
I suddenly realized that I could hear only the breaths of three people.
Why couldn’t I hear my pet? I abruptly threw back my blankets and hurried toward her room, dread tightening in my chest with every step.
The closer I got, the more my fears solidified into a terrifying reality. Opening her door confirmed it.
I couldn’t hear Rowan because she was not in her room, not even nearby. Her presence had vanished completely, leaving behind only a faint, stale scent that clung to the air.
Where the fuck was she?
A raw, primal howl tore from my throat as the divide between myself and my beast grew thin.
My wolf urged me to shift, but I needed to keep control, at least for the time being.
My roar had woken up my packmates, who ran into the living room on high alert.
Cade shoved past me, his eyes scanning Rowan’s empty room before a low growl rumbled from his chest.
“Where the hell is Rowan? What happened, Talon?” he questioned.
“I don’t know! I heard a noise; it sounded like a scream, and it woke me up.
It was far away but possibly still on base.
I couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards, so I came in here to check on her.
My wolf was pacing and knew something wasn’t right!
” I tried to explain quickly, already gathering her sheets and bringing them to my nose.
I was going to track her and wanted the freshest source of her scent.
“Shift now. We need to find her. She couldn’t have gotten far. We haven't been asleep long. Plus, she would need a keycard to move around the base,” Cade said as he pulled a shirt over his head and slipped his service weapon into the waistband of his fatigues, readying himself to go search for her.
Killian had grabbed his gun too, and it was slung across his bare, mangled chest. He looked feral, just as he always did before combat. He was wild, on edge, and barely restrained. But this time, there was something different. For the first time, I saw fear flicker across his face. He was worried.
We all were.
A thought suddenly dawned on him, and I watched him slip his hand into his pants pocket, rooting around in search of something. He checked the others before frantically signing to Cade.
“Killian thinks Rowan has his keycard,” Cade told us as he rubbed his temples in frustration.
“Fuck, Cade! She can get through almost any door she wants with that thing! She could be in Falcon City by now!” Ryker said.
“You think I don’t know that!? We need to move now! Talon, track her scent.”
I relinquished control to the beast, and the shift began. My limbs twisted and stretched, rearranging themselves with agonizing precision. Shifting was always painful and frequent transformations hadn’t dulled that; I had simply learned to endure it.
Fur erupted across my skin, my nose elongated into a snout, and where I had once stood, a wolf-like creature emerged. It threw its head back in a howl, then bolted without hesitation, chasing the scent of Rowan.
I couldn’t speak in my wolf form and could only communicate telekinetically with other shifters, so our pack developed a simple communication method during my shifts. They would ask me questions, and in response, a howl meant yes, a growl meant no.
“Do you smell anyone else? Was she alone?” Cade asked, not trusting his own senses, which already told him the truth he didn’t want to admit.
There was no other scent, and he didn’t need my advanced shifter nose to know that. Rowan had left alone, using Killian’s stolen keycard to escape in the night. It was deliberate.
I growled no in response.
“That brat is going to get the punishment of her life when we find her,” Cade said, eyes darkening with whatever deviant dark punishment had materialized in his mind.
“I call dibs on spanking her!” Ryker joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Let’s just find her first. Then we can all take turns making her beg for forgiveness over and over,” Cade said through clenched teeth, his control slipping.
He hated the helplessness that gripped us all the moment we realized Rowan was gone. Cade thrived on order—on having everything neatly in place and firmly under his thumb. But Rowan was proving far more difficult to bring to heel than he’d expected.
Her scent traveled through the hallway, stopping at the stairwell door.
I scratched at the bottom as Ryker swiped his card to let me through.
The moment we hit the stairwell, I heard the first scream—sharp, raw, and loud enough that the others vaguely heard it too.
We took off, flying down the stairs at a punishing pace.
It wasn’t Rowan’s voice though, but a man’s, and just as suddenly as it had started, it cut off.
I couldn’t pinpoint the exact direction it came from, so I stuck to Rowan’s scent, pushing forward. Maybe the scream had nothing to do with her disappearance… but deep down, I knew better. My gut feeling told me that the person who screamed, and whoever silenced him, was connected to Rowan.
We reached the bottom of the stairwell and stopped cold. Lying on the floor at the landing was Rowan’s book, Treasure Island. Cade reached for it slowly, his hand hesitant, swallowing hard with an emotion I couldn’t quite name. He looked at Killian, and something unspoken passed between them.
I made my way to the exterior door leading to the courtyard.
Her scent was strong on the handle and keycard reader.
She’d opened it. I scratched at the door, and Ryker pulled it open, but I froze the moment the air hit me.
Her scent wasn’t on the other side. She’d opened the door.
.. but she hadn’t stepped through it. Instead, her trail curved back, retreating into the stairwell and veering toward the basement access.
My pulse quickened. Why would Rowan turn back? What was down there? Was she trying to avoid someone or something. Soldiers outside, maybe? Whatever the reason, I scratched at the basement door frantically.
“Down there?” Cade asked, confused, “I thought she went through the door? Why would she go into the basement?”
I howled yes to confirm she had gone that way as Cade opened the door.
I sensed we were all worried about what would have sent her down here.
As we descended the basement steps, I made two chilling discoveries. In the crowded communal halls, scents blurred together, but down here, in the isolated basement, I could clearly make out two alpha scents, just as fresh as Rowan’s. She hadn’t come down alone.
The second discovery hit harder: the sharp, metallic tang of blood thick in the air. It was an overwhelming, sickening perfume that invaded all of my senses and made it hard to track Rowan. The scent was unmistakable and one that I had smelled often during brutal combat.
So much blood. Where am I? What happened? I’m scared. Help me.
I heard the words in my head. No one had spoken the words aloud; they originated in my mind. They weren’t my thoughts, though; they were Rowan’s. Relief filled me at knowing she was alive, followed by confusion.
I had heard her thoughts. Somehow, I could hear my mate in my head. She was close and needed our help.
We're coming, Rowan. Hold On. I mentally told her, trying to bring her comfort through our connection.
I could feel her raw emotions thrashing like a turbulent sea.
Confusion, sharp and blinding. Fear, cold and tightening.
Guilt, heavy and suffocating. They twisted through her like a riptide.
But how was this possible? How could I sense her feelings so vividly?
How could I hear her in my mind, her thoughts rooting within me?
That kind of bond... it only existed between shifters, and Rowan wasn’t one.