Chapter 4 Knox
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Knox
“What’s the update?” I asked, leaning back in my chair with my phone on speaker between me and Noah on the desk.
The office felt too quiet. Too still. I’d been up half the night going over maps and contingency plans, and the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. But I couldn’t rest with Mary out there, Thomas missing, and Cole losing his goddamn mind trying to find his son.
Static crackled for a second before James, leader of team two, answered. “We followed her trail upstate, Alpha. She went through the woods for about twelve miles, moving fast. Faster than I would’ve expected for someone carrying an infant.”
“She’s desperate,” I said. “Desperate people move quick.”
“Yeah, well, she moved quick until she hit the highway. Then her scent just vanishes completely. Nothing. It’s gone.”
Fuck.
“So she got into a car,” Noah grunted, turning to look at the map we’d spread across my desk earlier that morning. His finger traced the highway route heading north, following the twists and turns through the mountains. “What are the closest packs if they follow the highway?”
I leaned over the map, already knowing the answer because I’d memorized it hours ago while staring at the ceiling and trying not to wake my pregnant mate.
“Shadowcrest is the closest, about five hours from us if you’re driving the speed limit.
Then Moonfang at approximately eight hours, maybe nine depending on traffic and how many times you stop. ”
Silence fell over the call. Five hours was a lot of ground to cover, and that was assuming she’d gone north at all.
If Mary had gotten into a car last night, she could be anywhere by now.
She could’ve blown past both packs and kept going toward the Canadian border.
She could’ve turned off at any of the dozen exits between here and there.
She could’ve doubled back and headed south while we wasted time looking in the wrong direction.
We had nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing.
“I have to go.” Cole’s voice came through the speaker for the first time, rough and exhausted in a way that made my chest tight. He’d been running all night. I could hear it in every word, in the rasp of his breathing, in the way his voice cracked slightly at the edges.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to think through the exhaustion clouding my own brain. Part of me wanted to tell Cole to come home. To rest. To let the teams handle this while he recovered and got his head on straight. Running himself into the ground wasn’t going to help Thomas.
But I knew if it were my kid out there, nothing in this world would stop me from searching.
If someone had taken Rowan or Thea, I would’ve burned down every pack territory between here and the coast. I would’ve torn apart anyone who got in my way.
I would’ve kept going until I found them or died trying.
Cole deserved the same chance.
“Cole, meet with team two and wait by the highway,” I said, making a decision. “I’ll send a car to pick your asses up and drive you to Shadowcrest. No need for you to tire yourselves out for nothing by running there when you could be resting and conserving energy for when it actually matters.”
“Knox...”
“I’ll inform their alpha about the situation before you arrive so you’re not walking into hostile territory without warning.
You can rest there, sniff around, ask questions, and then move on to Moonfang.
Same routine. I’ll have Frank print up some pictures of Mary and send them with you.
Leave copies at both packs in case anyone sees her.
We can put up some signs along the highway too, make sure every wolf between here and the border knows what she looks like. ”
Cole was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was thick with gratitude. “Thank you. I don’t... thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We haven’t found them.” I straightened up in my chair, rolling my shoulders to work out some of the tension that had settled there overnight. “Team one and three, return to the pack. Get some rest. I’ll need you fresh if we have to expand the search.”
A chorus of affirmatives came through the speaker before the call ended, leaving the office in silence again.
Noah’s fingers were already flying across his phone, typing out messages faster than I could follow. “Car is ready. Frank is printing some signs and will meet team two and Cole at their location within the hour.”
“Good.” I pushed back from the desk and stood, needing to move. Sitting still was making me crazy. “At least we have a plan. Even if that plan is basically just throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
“Barely.”
I turned back to the map, staring at the highway that cut through the mountains and wondering where the hell Mary thought she was going.
She was smart. I’d always known that, even when I’d underestimated just how dangerous her particular brand of smart could be.
She’d played all of us for months before we’d caught on to her lies.
She’d convinced half the pack that she was carrying my child.
She’d manipulated Cole into her bed. She’d worked with her father to orchestrate attacks that had threatened my mate and my children.
If she’d planned this escape, she’d have planned what came after. Mary didn’t do anything without a backup plan.
“Where would she go?” Noah asked, echoing my thoughts in that annoying way he had of reading my mind.
“Somewhere she has connections. Somewhere she feels safe. Somewhere she thinks we won’t look or won’t be able to reach her.
” I grabbed the list Noah had compiled earlier, scanning the names and trying to find something we’d missed.
“Elizabeth Young. School friend. Christian Roth. Family friend of Alderic. Margaret Vance. Former council member’s wife.
David Holloway. Business partner of Alderic’s from before he was arrested. ”
Noah shook his head. “I dug into all of them yesterday. Every single person on that list has stayed far away from the Thornes since Alderic was arrested. They looked fucking allergic to being associated with a family in disgrace. Nobody wants to touch that mess. Elizabeth Young moved to the other side of pack territory just so people would stop asking her about her friendship with Mary. Christian Roth publicly denounced Alderic at a council meeting. Margaret Vance pretends she never even knew them.”
That’s what I’d figured. In a pack this tight, reputation was everything.
The Thornes had fallen hard and fast, and anyone who’d been close to them had scrambled to distance themselves the moment Alderic was sentenced.
Nobody wanted to be associated with treason.
Nobody wanted to risk their own standing by helping the family that had nearly destroyed the pack.
“No one from Ravenshollow would help her,” I said flatly. It wasn’t a question. I knew my pack. I knew how they thought, how they operated, how seriously they took loyalty and betrayal. Mary had burned every bridge she’d ever had the moment her lies came to light.
“No chance in hell,” Noah agreed.
“What about connections to other packs? Anyone outside Ravenshollow who might be willing to take in a disgraced Thorne and her kidnapped baby?”
Noah scrolled through his phone, pulling up the research he’d done the night before.
“The only thing I was able to find was a trip the Thornes made about ten years ago to visit some relatives in Moonfang. Distant family on Alderic’s father’s side.
Third cousins or something. They stayed for a week, attended some pack gathering, and then came home.
From what I could tell based on Alderic’s phone records and some digging, they didn’t keep in touch afterward.
Christmas cards maybe. Nothing substantial.
We never recovered Mary’s phone so this is all we have to go on. ”
I hummed, considering the information. Ten years was a long time.
A lot could change in a decade. But family was family, even when that family was distant and barely remembered.
Some wolves felt obligated to help blood relatives no matter what they’d done.
Some wolves believed that pack loyalty extended to anyone who shared your DNA.
“That’s something, though,” I said slowly. “It’s thin, but it’s something. If Mary was desperate enough, she might reach out to family she barely knows. Might hope that blood connection would be enough to earn her some protection.”
“It’s worth checking out,” Noah agreed.
I moved to my computer and started typing, composing two separate emails in my head before my fingers even hit the keys.
The first went to Ryder Thorne, Moonfang’s alpha and a distant relative of the very family I was hunting.
I chose my words carefully, explaining the situation without revealing too much.
Mary Thorne had escaped custody. She’d taken an infant with her.
We had reason to believe she might be heading toward Moonfang territory.
Any information or assistance would be appreciated.
The second email went to Jackson Bennett, alpha of Shadowcrest. Similar message, similar careful phrasing.
I didn’t know Jackson well, had only met him a handful of times at inter-pack gatherings, but he had a reputation for being fair and cooperative.
If Mary passed through his territory, he’d let me know.
I hit send on both and pushed back from the desk, feeling marginally better now that we had something resembling a plan.
“It’s done. Now we wait.”