Chapter 4
FOUR
Camden
I’m barely home from my patrol when the front door bangs open and a pissed off Rhodes storms in.
“You!” he snarls.
I blink at him. “What? What happened?”
“I found your fated mate is what happened,” he spits out.
My wolf howls inside me, lunging to break out. I grit my teeth, keeping him in check.
“What?” I ask again, wondering what I’m missing.
“Your fated mate. I know who she is.”
“Okay… and you’re mad about that, why?”
“Because she’s Addy’s best friend, Holly!”
“Oh.”
Holly, my wolf growls.
“Oh? Oh? What the hell, man? You need to fix this because my mate and her friend are both upset, and I can’t have that.”
“What do you want me to do?” I ask, throwing up my hands.
“What you should have done the other day!” he shouts. “Tell her. Claim her.”
My wolf nods in agreement.
“I can’t right now. You know why I’m waiting. You know we’re all busy right now with patrols and monitoring the cult.”
“Make time for your mate,” he growls, biting off each word.
“I—” I’m cut off from my argument when our phones ring at the same time.
We share a look, and Rhodes spins away to answer his phone as I pull mine from my pocket.
“What?” I bark.
“Jeez!” Cyrus says. “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine?”
“Cyrus, talk to me,” I snap.
He sighs. “Bad news.”
“What happened?” I ask impatiently.
“We’ve got a missing girl.”
“Okay, have you started forming search parties?” I ask, shifting into Alpha mode.
“Yeah, but she was last seen hiking the north trail near the cult’s land.”
“Shit.”
“So, do we think they took her?” Rhodes asks, and I know he must be talking to Foster.
“It’s looking that way,” Cyrus says. “I’m headed out there now, but Foster called me and said he picked up her trail. It disappears at the road up there.”
“Like she was picked up by a car,” I say.
“Or taken away in one. There were signs of a struggle.”
“Dammit!” I hiss.
Cyrus hums in agreement.
“Okay, we’ll head that way now,” Rhodes says, ending his call.
“I’m with Rhodes. We’re headed up there. See you in a few.”
“Sounds good,” Cyrus says.
I end the call, plowing a hand through my hair. My wolf and I growl in frustration.
“Camden—”
I hold up my hand to stall Rhodes. “I know you want me to claim her. I know it would make your life easier, but I can’t.
Not with everything going on. My Pack comes first. Always.
I have to protect them. I can’t be distracted, and that’s exactly what my mate is to me right now. A distraction. A weakness.”
My wolf snarls when I say that, and I can also see the anger in Rhodes’ eyes at my words, but he doesn’t say anything.
“We need to get out there,” I add. “We need to deal with this and find that girl.”
He nods once, then spins on his heel and storms out to the front porch.
“You’re wrong,” he says as I join him and we both strip. “Having your mate is a blessing, not a weakness.”
I swallow hard. He gives me one last look before he shifts and leaps off my front porch. I roll my shoulders out, ignoring my wolf as I follow.
We race up to Rhodes’ Pack land before finding Cyrus and Foster. When we shift back, we’re both panting.
“Any news?” I ask.
“Yep.” Foster holds up binoculars and points them toward one of the houses on the cult’s land.
“A lot of people are going in and out of there. When the door was last open, we heard a girl screaming.”
“We need to move,” Rhodes says.
“Now,” I add, and they all nod grimly.
“In wolf or human form?” Cyrus asks.
“Human. Maybe we can reason with them. If that doesn’t work…” Rhodes trails off, and we all nod in agreement.
Rhodes and I grab clothes from a box stashed behind one of the trees and tug them on.
“Let’s go,” I order, and we move out.
I can smell the girl as we cross onto the cult’s land, and my wolf paces when we scent her fear.
She’s human, probably a tourist out on a hike who got dragged into whatever the hell is going on here.
This could have been our mate, my wolf growls.
I stiffen. She knows about the threat from Rhodes, I’m sure, I try to reassure him.
He shakes his head. We need to protect her. It’s our job to keep her safe.
We will. Soon.
My wolf hates that answer, but we’re already at the door.
Rhodes knocks, and we let him take the lead as one of the men inside answers the door, glaring at all of us.
“This is private property,” he tells us.
“We know, but we have a missing girl,” Cyrus says. “She was hiking up this way, and we wondered if you’d seen her.”
A muffled scream comes from inside.
Rhodes shoulders the door open before the man can stop him. “Oh, there she is,” he says, pretending to be easygoing, like this is all an innocent mistake.
“We figured you got turned around,” Foster adds, stepping into the doorway.
I can’t see past them, but I can smell the men’s unease. They don’t know how to react to this intrusion. I tense, wondering if it’s about to become a fight. My wolf howls inside me, his ears straining, sniffing for any change in the men or the girl.
“Yeah, we were trying to help her figure out which way she came from,” the man finally says, and the other men in the room mumble their agreement.
“Well, we can take it from here. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure she gets home safe and sound,” Cyrus says.
“Right,” the man grumbles.
I step back, making room for my friends and the girl to exit the house. I catch her as she practically bolts out of the place. “Easy. We’ve got you. You’re safe now.”
She’s trembling, so I take off my coat and wrap it around her.
Grabbing her elbow, I gently steer her toward the trail.
Her teeth chatter, and she looks scared to death.
I share a bleak look with my friends as we walk back to our land in silence.
Rhodes and Foster make sure we aren’t being followed, and I pick up the pace, eager to be back on our property.
“You’re okay,” I tell the girl.
She nods shakily. “Thank you. Th-they…”
“What’s your name?” Cyrus asks, taking over and steering her along the trail.
“Beth.”
“You staying in town?”
“Yeah. At the Lodge.”
“Okay, we’ll take you there.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Foster asks, falling into step beside them.
“I was out for a hike and was about to turn around when these men popped out on the trail in front of me. They told me there was a shortcut, but something was off about them. I didn’t trust them. I didn’t want to follow them,” Beth says.
“Good. Good instincts.” Cyrus nods.
She swallows hard, seeming to calm a bit as the town comes into view. “Before I knew it, they grabbed me and dragged me to this van. I was so scared.”
I grind my teeth.
“We should go back,” I whisper to Rhodes.
He nods, looking ready to break a few necks, too.
Foster glares at us.
“There’s the Lodge,” Cyrus says.
Beth takes a deep, calming breath. “Thank you.”
“Did they say why they took you?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Those other men came into the room with me, but they didn’t say much. We were waiting for someone, but you guys got there first. Are you the police? Do I need to sign anything for your report?”
“No, we’re all set for now. If we need anything else, we’ll come by and ask for you,” Foster says.
Beth nods and returns my jacket before she heads inside.
Cyrus sighs. “I wish that they’d told her what they wanted with her.”
“Yeah, it would help us in figuring this all out,” I agree.
“They’re getting bolder. We should increase patrols. Send out a warning to the Pack and maybe tourists in town,” Foster says.
“I can handle that,” I offer.
Rhodes glares at me. “I’ll handle it. You have another problem to fix.”
Foster and Cyrus look between us.
I bite my tongue. “Let me know if anything else happens. I’ll be on patrol tomorrow morning as scheduled.”
They all nod, and I turn to head home.
Our clothes are still on the front porch, so I toss them into the laundry basket. My wolf paws at me, wishing we were coming home to our mate instead of an empty house.
Not now, I tell him. We’ll claim her when the time is right.
He growls and paces inside me, but I ignore him and go straight to bed. After being on patrol all night and dealing with the missing girl, I’m ready for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.
I fall face-first onto the mattress and close my eyes, drifting off to sleep right away, and dreaming of my mate’s pretty gray eyes.