15. Nico
NICO
I put my bagged lunch down on the table a little harder than necessary before sliding onto one of the picnic benches outside the packhouse.
It was bright and sunny, with a warm breeze stirring the leaves overhead. A cloud drifted across the sky that looked like a sleeping cat.
I hated it here.
I wanted to be back at home, sitting at my workstation in front of my thousand-dollar computer setup with access to all my servers and files. Instead, I was stuck out here for the next six hours.
It had started about a year ago, when Cooper found out that Tony and I sometimes went weeks without stepping outside the house.
Apparently, spending all our time working wasn't considered a valid excuse, even when most of that work consisted of things Cooper himself had assigned us. He'd ordered us not to go more than three days without getting some sunlight.
It was a stupid rule, but since our alpha had ordered it, we had to follow it.
Tony had found a loophole almost immediately. He did most of his work in the living room, where a large window overlooked the backyard. According to him, that counted as getting enough sunlight.
Naturally, being more senior meant Tony had dibs on the living room.
I set up my laptops and connected to the pack's server, hoping to get some work done while I waited. I hadn't even gotten very far when my phone chimed.
It was an alert I'd set up myself. I'd configured a geofence around the areas Isaac normally traveled, so I'd know if his truck crossed the boundary. Now it had just been triggered.
For a moment, I could only stare at the notification.
I'd already been worrying that I'd crossed a line by putting the tracker under Isaac's truck without his knowledge.
I'd considered removing it when I'd gone to the cabin that morning, but I'd wanted to warn him first. Somehow, that had seemed more important at the time.
It was still tracking him.
My stomach tightened as I watched the marker move away from the areas I'd marked. Isaac's truck was heading away from the packlands and farther from town.
"No."
I grabbed my phone and called him. My pulse climbing with every ring, before it finally went to voicemail.
I tried again, then sent him a quick text. There was no response. I called a third time and there was still nothing.
My attention kept returning to the tracker as the little marker continued moving farther and farther from town.
Maybe he'd taken a wrong turn. Maybe he'd stopped somewhere before heading to work. Maybe he'd decided to...
No.
Isaac knew where he was going. He wasn't careless, and he wouldn't simply disappear without telling anyone.
I called Logan, and he answered immediately. "Is Isaac with you?"
The worry in his voice told me everything I needed to know.
"No. I saw him at the cabin this morning, but I haven't been able to reach him since."
"He isn't here either. I've tried calling him, but he isn't answering." Logan's voice had gone tight, and I could hear the panic creeping in.
My stomach tightened further. Isaac was supposed to have been at the set by now, and he always answered his phone.
I glanced at the tracker again. The marker was still moving.
"Could he have gone running?" Logan asked. "He's been stressed lately. Maybe he went out to clear his head?"
"Maybe." I wanted to believe him. I really did.
It was the only explanation I could hold on to without admitting what my gut was already telling me.
"Something's wrong, isn't it?"
I closed my eyes briefly, forcing myself to keep my voice calm.
"I don't know yet. Stay at the set with Vic, okay? Don't go anywhere alone. I'll call you as soon as I know something."
Logan started to protest, but I ended the call before he could argue.
The marker had left the main road and was heading toward the mountains. I zoomed in, watching the map shift as the road grew smaller on the screen, surrounded by what looked like almost nothing.
Then the marker stopped. I stared at the screen, waiting for it to move again. It didn't.
Isaac's truck was somewhere it had no reason to be. It wasn't on the route to the set or anywhere near the packlands, town, or the cabin. It was parked on an empty stretch of road in the middle of nowhere.
I grabbed both laptops and shoved them into my bag. Whatever was happening, I wasn't going to figure it out sitting at a picnic table. I needed Tony.
I hurried toward the parking lot and spotted him getting out of his car. One look at my face was enough to make him straighten.
"Isaac's in trouble."
"What happened?" He started toward me, but I shook my head.
"I don't know. Just come with me. Please. I need your help."
Tony studied my face for a moment, then gave a short nod. "Let's go to Cooper."
We reached Cooper's office a few minutes later, my stomach twisting tighter with every step. The door was already open, and Cooper looked up as we entered. His attention shifted from Tony to me.
"What's wrong?"
I glanced at Tony, suddenly unable to make myself speak.
There was no way around it now. Whatever happened next, I couldn't keep hiding what I'd done.
I set my laptop down on Cooper's desk and opened the tracking dashboard.
"I think someone took Isaac."
Cooper's expression tightened, and I knew he was about to start asking questions. I swallowed hard and pushed through before he could.
"I put a tracker on his truck. I know I shouldn't have, but I set up a geofence around the areas he normally travels, and I got an alert when he left town. I tried calling him, but he didn't answer. Logan hasn't been able to reach him either."
I turned the laptop toward Cooper, trying to keep my hands from shaking as I pulled up the map.
"The truck kept moving toward the mountains. Now it's stopped." I pointed at the marker, which sat motionless on an isolated stretch of road. "That's where it is."
I couldn't bring myself to look at either of them. I focused on the map instead, trying to keep my breathing steady.
Then the photograph I'd shown Isaac that morning flashed through my mind. The same man who'd kept appearing in picture after picture around the set.
And that necklace. That gaudy gold necklace.
Cooper stared at the map for several seconds before his expression darkened. Then he looked at me. "How did this happen? Why wasn't I informed sooner?"
I flinched, opening my mouth before realizing I had no answer that wouldn't make things worse.
Tony stepped in. "We were going to update you as soon as we had something concrete. We didn't know the guy would get this desperate."
Cooper's gaze shifted to him, and Tony held it without backing down. I couldn't bring myself to look at either of them. Tony was covering for me, and somehow that only made the guilt twisting in my stomach even worse.
Cooper reached for his phone and made a call.
"Griffin, get the others ready. I want a team at the east gate, and bring anyone you trust to handle tracking and extraction. We don't know what we're walking into, so I want everyone prepared for anything."
Cooper ended the call and turned to Tony. "Gather everything we have on this. I want the location and the route to Isaac's truck. Meet me at the gate."
Tony nodded. "Understood."
"I can—"
Cooper looked directly at me, and the room seemed to change. I felt it immediately. A sudden pressure settling over my skin that made my wolf lower its head in submission.
Every instinct told me to obey, but I couldn't let that stop me. "I need to go."
My wolf stirred violently at the thought of staying behind while everyone else went looking for Isaac. There was no way I could sit still and wait while they searched for him.
Cooper's eyes narrowed, and his alpha presence pressed harder against my wolf.
"You stay here."
My wolf immediately recoiled, every instinct screaming at me to obey. I opened my mouth again, but Cooper's expression hardened.
"That wasn't a request."
Tony caught my arm and pulled me toward the door. I barely had time to grab my laptop. When I glanced back, Cooper had already turned away, his attention returning to the preparations for the rescue. He didn't look at me again.
Tony didn't say a word during the drive home. I sat rigidly in the passenger seat, my hands clenched in my lap as the road blurred past the window. My thoughts wouldn't slow down.
I knew I was in trouble. I'd ignored Tony's warning, gone behind his back, and put a tracker on Isaac's truck without his knowledge. Worse, I'd kept it there even after I'd had the opportunity to remove it.
None of that mattered right now. Isaac was still out there.
The moment we reached the house, Tony headed straight for his office. "Send me everything you have."
I followed him inside and quickly sent over the files he'd asked for, already trying to think of some way to convince him that I could be useful.
I knew the systems better than almost anyone else. I knew how the tracking worked, where to pull up the camera feeds, and which roads to check. There had to be something I could contribute.
"I can come with you."
Tony stopped what he was doing and turned to me. "You should have updated Cooper first. You know the protocol."
I swallowed. "I know."
"I told you to update him before you did anything."
"I was going to." Even as the words left my mouth, the explanation sounded pathetic.
Tony's frustration was obvious. He turned away and resumed gathering the equipment he needed, leaving me with nothing but the growing certainty that he was going to leave without me.
"Tony, please."
I followed him toward the door, knowing I was running out of time. I couldn't stay in this house while everyone else went looking for Isaac, not when every instinct in me was screaming that I needed to go to him.
I reached out and caught Tony's arm.
"Please. I can't stay behind." I swallowed hard. "He's my mate."
Tony went completely still. I could almost feel the weight of the words settling between us, impossible to take back now.
He studied my face for several seconds. Then he closed his eyes and cursed under his breath.
When he opened them again, the anger in his expression had given way to resignation.
"Fine. You can come. But you're staying in the back seat. And keep out of sight. No one needs to know you're there. Especially Cooper."
Tony grabbed the last piece of equipment and headed for the door.
Once we were back in the car, Tony called Cooper. He told him he was heading out and would send the coordinates of Isaac's truck so the others could go ahead while he caught up with them.
After ending the call, Tony entered the location into the navigation system and checked the route. I leaned forward between the seats to look at the screen. The estimated travel time immediately made my stomach drop.
"That's going to take too long." I reached for the screen and zoomed in. "I know a shortcut."