6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
HARRISON
I drum my fingers against my upper arm as I lean against the front of my red truck, watching the students as they make their way into the school.
It’s their first day back after their winter break, and I’m parked across the street.
I feel like a stalker, but this is the only way I can gain insight into what happened.
I can’t storm up the mountain to her pack and demand answers.
Not without starting a war between Lupine River and Crescent Lake.
If Emily shows up at school today, then I can see her, make sure she’s okay, and find out what happened on her birthday. If she doesn’t show up…
I’ll worry about that when I need to.
“Incoming,” Brad mindlinks me from the school’s front doors.
I glance towards the entrance. The Lupine River vans file into the parking lot, pull up to the loading zone, and their occupants exit the vehicles. As more of them leave the vans and I don’t see Emily among them, my conflicting emotions ratchet higher.
Part of me is hopeful—if she’s not here, then there’s a chance she escaped and found her way to a safer place. But there’s also a chance her alpha caught her and has her imprisoned. Or worse.
Twenty-nine students exit the three Lupine River vans. Twenty-nine, when there should be thirty. And Emily isn’t one of them.
“Fuck!”
I drop my chin and close my eyes, fighting against the raging lycan inside me. In the back of my mind, I know it’s possible she left. But my lycan—he’s pure animal, and he doesn’t listen to logic. He’s convinced she’s been punished. He wants blood and revenge.
“Harrison—”
“I know. There’s still a chance she got out. See what you can learn from her pack mates and—”
“Harrison! Get your head out of your ass and look over here!”
Brad’s desperate, almost shouting mindlink forces my attention back to the school. There, climbing out of the third vehicle, is Emily.
Brad straightens as Emily walks up the front steps. My lycan is unhappy that Brad is so focused on her, but I can’t run over there to talk to her myself without drawing the humans’ attention with my supernatural speed, or the attention of whoever is driving the vans from her pack.
There’s something fishy and sinister going on in Lupine River, and we don’t yet know how deep that treachery runs. But there’s no question that it all stems from their alpha.
Whatever is going on there, it’s why he didn’t want Dad’s help. Or help from anyone else. It’s why the pack keeps mostly to itself.
It’s why Emily wanted to run and why she didn’t show up at Brewed Awakenings last week for her birthday.
From my spot across the street, I can see that Emily is wearing way too many layers for a werewolf’s naturally higher body temperature.
She’s wrapped a heavy scarf around her neck, and she wears thick gloves on her hands.
She hugs her books to her chest—her broken backpack nowhere to be seen—and walks past Brad without so much as a hello or a smile or a glance.
“Shit,” Brad mindlinks me. “Harrison, she looks…”
I don’t let him finish that sentence. “I need to talk to her.”
I need to see how she looks for myself.
“How are you going to do that?” Brad asks.
“I—” My shoulders slump in defeat. “I don’t know.”
We have to be as discreet as possible. We can’t let anyone from her pack know we suspect something is amiss.
The students from her pack have kept to themselves most of the year so far instead of disrupting the peace like my dad thought they would—thank Selene—but that doesn’t mean they’re safe. And word can’t get back to her alpha.
“Mr. Martin.” Brad says the name slowly.
“What?”
“She has Mr. Martin for English fourth period,” Brad explains. “But he has a prep period right now, so—”
“So I can ask him to call her in under the guise of discussing her grade last semester. Brad, you’re a genius.”
“I shall mark this day on my calendar. The day you admitted I’m more than just a pretty face.”
I can’t help it. I have to laugh a little. But I don’t let him know his joke worked. “Get to class,” I growl through the mindlink.
“Yes, Alpha.” He gives me a mock salute from his station near the school’s entrance, then heads inside.
I wait until the vans from Lupine River leave the loading zone, then I head into the school, mindlinking Mr. Martin. I don’t give him the specifics of why I want him to pull Emily out of her class, but since he’s a member of my pack, he doesn’t question my motives.
I sign in at the front office, telling them I have pack business on campus. Luckily, since most of the staff on campus are werewolves from Crescent Lake, Silver Ridge, or Amber Forest, none of them really question or care what my business there is.
Thank the Goddess no Lupine River pack members work here.
I keep my pace in check as I walk the halls to Mr. Martin’s classroom, even though my lycan urges me to sprint. There’s no need to rush. Mr. Martin won’t call Emily in until I’m in his room, and I don’t need to draw attention to myself.
As soon as I enter his classroom, Mr. Martin picks up his classroom phone to call Emily’s teacher for this period. I tuck myself away in the corner furthest from the door. I cross my arms and plant my feet so I remain out of sight of the hallway and the windows.
It doesn’t take long for Emily to show up. She comes into Mr. Martin’s room still bundled in her winter gear that is way too heavy for a werewolf to be wearing inside a heated building.
“You wanted to see me, Mr. Martin?” Her steps are timid, but she puts on a brave face and a fake half smile as she speaks to him.
But I see through it all. I see how her hair hangs limply around her face.
Her gray eyes, which usually sparkle with her personality, have no life or hope left within them.
The dark circles beneath them are proof that she’s gotten little rest over her holiday break.
Her skin is paler than it should be, and if I’m not mistaken, she’s lost weight.
“Emily.” I take one step towards her—just enough to draw her attention to me—then stop.
My lycan urges me to run to her and hold her. But I don’t know her. Not well enough to initiate an embrace. We’ve become friendly over the months she’s pretended to tutor Brad, but I don’t presume to be someone she’d want or accept a hug from.
Her expression cracks when she sees me. Tears line her eyelids, and her lip trembles. “Harrison…”
The soft, broken noise that follows my name has my lycan howling with sorrow. Emily sprints down the row of desks towards me and throws herself against my chest with a sob. I wrap my arms around her and hold her as tightly as her thick, navy blue puffer jacket lets me.
Even with the fabric’s density, my hands graze against the rippling of her rib cage.
She’s definitely lost weight.
Emily cries into my sweater. I sway her gently, holding her close and letting her release her hurt and anger and frustration without interruption.
I just wish I could do more for her. I wish I’d done more for her.
“What happened?” I ask as her tears slow. “Why didn’t you come to Brewed Awakenings on your birthday?”
She sniffles and lifts her head from my chest, but she doesn’t leave my arms. “I couldn’t. Alpha Justin… he—he found my money and…”
“Did he alpha command you?” I refuse to say that bastard’s name.
“Yes.”
Now that she’s closer, now that her face isn’t buried in my chest, I see how drawn her face is, how the circles under her eyes are so dark they might as well be bruises.
“What was his command?” I growl, unable to keep my anger in check.
Even in her state, even with everything that’s happened, she doesn’t flinch away from my fury.
She’s stronger than she gives herself credit for.
“I can only leave the pack to go to school, and I can only leave school to go home to the pack.”
Fuck. Even without throwing her in a cell, he’s made her a prisoner.
“Call my dad. Now,” I mindlink Mr. Martin.
I don’t care what my dad is doing. All that matters is getting Emily out of that pack for good. But I need him here since she can’t leave the school.
“What else?” Somehow, I doubt his command is the worst of it. “What else did he do to you?”
Her fingers touch her scarf. As quickly as her hand lifted, she sets it back on my chest. She didn’t want me to see that reaction, but it’s too late. My gaze lingers on that stupid scarf, then flicks to the thick, long sleeves of her coat, then back to her scarf.
“Did he touch you?” My voice has gone dangerously quiet, my grip on Emily unrelenting. “Did he hurt you?”
Her eyes widen and her entire body trembles, but she doesn’t attempt to back away or break eye contact with me. She unwinds the scarf and lets it drop to the floor, then rolls up her sleeves as far as her layers allow.
Fingerprint bruises mar the skin on her neck and forearms. Deep, dark bruises, the kind only an alpha has the strength to make. But even so, there’s no reason they should be this dark. Or there at all.
And it doesn’t escape my notice that there aren’t bruises on her face. Her alpha made sure the bruises could be easily hidden.
I cup her cheeks and gently tilt her chin higher, frowning as I examine the injuries. “It’s been over a week since your birthday. These should have healed.”
Like Emily, my body trembles, but for a much different reason.
My trembling stems from the restrained anger burning within me.
It’s taking all my strength not to go on a rampage.
Alpha Justin deserves his throat ripped out for what he did to Emily, but right now she needs me more than I need to exact revenge.
“I’ve always healed slowly. I’m an omega.”
“Stop calling yourself that!” I finally release her and pace the back of the classroom, running my hands through my hair.
I’ve put up with her insulting herself with that word for far too long. She needs to know how wrong it is. She needs to stop degrading herself.
“Why should I stop? It’s what I am. A wolf without a rank who can’t even shift.”
That stops me in my tracks. “You can’t shift?”
“No. I’m an omega.”
“Have you ever shifted?”
“I just told you: No. I’m. An. Omega. I don’t have a wolf.”
Fuck. This is worse than I thought.
What are they teaching them in that pack?