Chapter Eighteen
Aries
Nothing worse than waking from a dead sleep to the phone ringing. On the second ring, my brain kicked in and I realized it might be Carver.
“Hello?” I barked into the phone.
“She’s gone.”
I sat up in bed so fast that my head spun and I nearly keeled over. “What do you mean she’s gone? She walked somewhere? She… What the fuck do you mean?” My voice cracked with worry. Our mate was gone. Where? How? Carver was supposed to be keeping her safe.
“I was on watch all night. Thea said she’s gone. Out the window. It was open. I had no idea. I’m sorry. I…”
“I’m on my way.”
Carver cursed under his breath. “Fuck, Diesel is gonna kill me.”
I hung up on him. Diesel wasn’t the only one who was going to kill him. But we couldn’t have had any idea that Josie would choose to flee through the window.
Tripping and jumping into some pants, I knocked on Diesel’s bedroom and felt the house shake as he made the few steps to the door. “What?”
“She’s gone. Carver called. Out through the window. Let’s go.”
“Fuck! Two minutes.”
I had a feeling we would all be using the f-word a lot today until we found her.
In less than fifteen minutes, we arrived at the motel to find Thea frantic. Her eyes were wide.
“Nothing?” I asked. My chest tightened. What if we never found her? What if our date was the one chance we got to spend time with our mate ever again.
No. No, I couldn’t think that way.
As easy as it would be to slip into a path of negativity, we had to stay positive. We would find her. Or she would come back. There was a good chance all of this was a misunderstanding, and somehow we’d find our way through it.
Find mate. Now.
He was right. We had to find her before figuring out what the hell happened. I was getting ahead of myself. “Not last night. We have to find her, Aries. She might be in trouble.”
“We will,” I assured her.
Diesel was making rounds and sniffing things out. He’d gone straight to the window and was trying to follow her trail, but it had been hours, and the scent had faded.
Carver came in. Pale. Shoulders slumped. Utterly defeated. “I’m sorry.”
“No. This isn’t on you. We had no idea she was a flight risk.
I have no damned clue what caused this, but let’s focus on finding her.
Here’s what we do…I want you to go to the club and print out a good picture from the cameras in the laundromat.
At least ten copies. I’m going to start going door to door and asking people if they’ve seen her when you get back with those. Diesel is doing his tracking thing.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he sprinted away.
“Thea, I’m going to start asking around. Call us if you see or hear anything, please.”
She nodded, and I got to work. Carver, smart man that he was, texted me a pic from the security cameras and then said he was printing more. I’d already asked all the residents if they knew anything. With the photo on my phone, I went outside to ask strangers.
Carver and I made our rounds, separately. We knocked on doors. Asked store owners and anyone we saw. Even people walking by on their way to work. The coffee shop patrons gave me weird looks when I asked about her.
Everyone did, really. Only a small few shared some of my concern.
Diesel called and told me he’d lost the trail. He was doubling back to start over.
Hope dwindled. The more I knocked on doors and showed her picture, the more my chest tightened and my wolf howled.
Goddess, please don’t do this to us. And if you do, at least keep our mate protected.
I moved on to a small, out of place in the city pink cottage. An older woman sat on the porch, rocking in a white chair. “Need something, young man?”
“I’m looking for my mate.”
She cackled. “You lost her? Bad luck.”
“Can I come up and show you her picture? Maybe you’ve seen her?”
“Sure. Come on.”
I opened the gate and walked up and showed her the picture on my phone.
She reached for a pair of reading glasses, and it felt like an eternity for her to put them on and get a good look.
Her eyes ticked up to meet mine. “You know, I’ve been an insomniac for twenty years.
And for you, today, it is finally serving a purpose.
I saw this young lady. Tore through here a few hours ago.
Headed east. Cut through my yard if you like. ”
I didn’t even thank her. I made a note in my head to go back and bring her flowers or something.
That was, if she was right.
When I reached the back of the yard, I saw Diesel across the street.
“This way,” I said, and we met up and called Carver who was there in an instant.
We all ran at top speed, Diesel leading the way until we came to the wilderness park at the very edge of the city.
We’d shifted there a few times, and as soon as we reached the main trailhead, I knew.
It was a perfect place for any shifter to hide.
My only question was why she would leave?
Had we done something to spook her so badly that she’d rather face her demons in the form of a forced marriage than stay with us?
We followed the trial for a while, Diesel still picking up her scent, before her scream and the smell of fear, our mate’s fear, filled my senses.
“Josie!”