Chapter 21 - Shawn
I wake with first light, the soft, pale glow of the early morning sun tinting the room with a suggestion of brilliance. Sara’s soft weight in my arms soothes me instantly, and I take a deep breath, savoring her sweet, delicate scent.
Finally, I have her trust. Now all I have to do is keep it.
I sit up a little so I can look down on her pretty face. Even in sleep, her pale cheeks are tinted with rose, and her lips look red and lush. Her long hair is scattered across the pillows like strands of honey and spun gold.
If you had told me a week ago that I’d find everything I ever needed in a forgotten little pack on a peak far from anything I’d ever called home, I would have laughed hard enough to raise the dead.
Even when I agreed to come out here and try to lead these people, I never really imagined I’d be happy here.
I was seeking fulfillment, purpose, not happiness. I guess a man who’s seen as much action as I have always feels undeserving of contentment.
I know that my second chance at life is lying right here in my arms, and that the two of us can save this pack and all the people in it.
We can all thrive. We just have to take care of Jackson.
Just the thought of the old man makes me scowl. I sit up and distance myself a little from Sara, just in case my bad mood creeps into her dreams. I want her to rest for as long as she can, and I’m in no hurry to start the day.
The others and I will have to come up with a plan. Something to draw the old guy out, make him show himself.
I slip out of bed and head for the kitchen, putting on coffee while I think over our options.
It would be good to search his place and find out how much gear he’s hiding, but even that isn’t evidence. He could just say he was holding it for the pack and make up some bullshit story about how he got it.
After I’ve got the coffee going, I sneak back up the hallway and look in on Sara.
She turns over in her sleep, pulling the sheet around herself as she murmurs in her dreams. Just watching her and knowing she is safe gives me peace, and my only regret in this moment is that I have to wait for her to wake up to see her beautiful eyes—and I don’t want to disturb her.
I go out to the courtyard to get some fruit and pick some flowers for her, gestures that she’s always seemed to like. As I head back to the kitchen, there is a low-level excitement gearing up inside me as I think forward to my future days with her, and discovering all the ways I can make her happy.
I’ve truly never known such a sweet heart. She’s innocent in a way I could never be. Even after the trauma she’s suffered, she never let any of it darken her soul.
Before I start mixing up the pancakes, I go out onto the porch and look out into the gray dawn.
The sun is climbing above the horizon and beginning to clear the air, promising a bright blue sky and killer heat for later in the day.
Even though I know someone will be awake in the hall, I decide not to meet up with the others just yet.
I want to enjoy this perfect morning with Sara for as long as I can, before our duties in the world take us out of this perfect place we’ve found.
Back in the kitchen, I stir up pancake batter and oil a frying pan, whistling to myself as I make breakfast. I take my time, and once I’ve got a decent stack of pancakes made, I begin to wonder where Sara is.
If she’s really that tired, I’ll just put them in the oven to keep warm and then catch up with Rex. I don’t want to wake her.
When I get to the bedroom door, it takes me a moment to understand what I’m seeing. I take two slow steps into the room, then charge over to the bed, hurling pillows and blankets to the floor.
“Sara?” I say, spinning around to check the rest of the room.
The bathroom. Chill out, she’s probably in the bathroom.
I jog down the hall and knock on the door, only to have it swing open slowly with a long, almost apologetic creak.
Panic surges in me, but years of dealing with high emotion kick in at exactly the same time, making my senses sharper and honing my instincts. I stride quickly back to the bedroom and take a deep breath, following her scent to the window.
“Sara?” I say, barely stirring the morning air with my voice.
Okay. Just think this through.
My first thought is that something terrible has happened to her, but the odds of someone kidnapping her when I was so close by are slim.
They’d have to be lightning-fast and deadly silent to pull that off.
The other possibility is that she left of her own will. That idea wrings my heart out so tightly, my hands and feet feel numb.
She wouldn’t leave me. Not after what we shared last night.
I turn around and take a look around the room.
There is absolutely no sign of a struggle, and no smell of blood.
The room also feels peaceful, and after seeing a lot of violence in my life, I know that places seem to hold a disturbed air for some time after the act has happened—and this room is as still as a tomb.
As I look around, I notice the closet door is hanging open. I head over to it, frowning.
Was this open before?
I tilt my head as I look at it, trying to remember if it was open when I woke up. The images overlap in my mind, and I curse under my breath as I admit I truly don’t know.
Did she leave me?
I look in the closet, but I don’t know the contents well enough to know if anything is missing. I practically stagger back to the bed and sit on the edge, my head in my hands.
Sara wanted to leave here…
The thought cuts through me, a sharp pain right through the chest. I remember her voice when she talked about leaving for the human world, how free and light she sounded.
But last night…
A soft groan echoes in my chest as loss sets its heavy weight into my chest. The first time Sara let me make love to her, I betrayed her. I was playing a role to fool her father, but it still gutted her and broke her trust.
Why do I deserve any better?
For just a brief moment, I allow myself to panic. My heart speeds up, my breath burns my throat, and my thoughts spin like a compass needle too close to the pole.
Maybe she left. Maybe she got taken. Either way, I have to know what happened, and I don’t have much time.
Jumping up, it only takes seconds to throw on some clothes, and a minute later, I’m jogging up to the hall and banging on the back door.
“Hey,” Alisha says, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Do you mind if we come up to your house for a shower—whoa! Is everything okay?”
“No,” I answer, opening the door and pushing past her. “Guys, I need help.”
“What is it?” Rex asks, hurrying over.
“Sara’s gone.”
“Taken?” he snaps.
“I don’t know. There’s no sign of a struggle, but…”
“But what?” Rex asks.
“I don’t know if I should panic,” I mutter. “She did tell me last night that she’s always wanted to leave here and go to a human city. I just—I don’t know what to think right now.”
“Finding her is priority one,” Brad says. “We need to know she’s safe. If she wants to leave you, that’s something you guys can figure out later, but right now, we just have to know where she is.”
“And if Jackson has one more crime to own up to,” Rex adds.
“We’ll stay here,” Scarlett says. “We’ll keep an eye on the rest of the pack, too.”
“Everyone will be out for a while, I think,” Luke says. “The party went on pretty late, and everyone was drunk as hell. There’s still a bunch of people passed out in the park.”
“That can only help our situation,” Rex says. “The fewer people moving around, the easier it will be to track her. Any sign of Jackson?”
“No,” I answer.
Rex scowls. “That’s all I need to know about the situation,” he mutters. “Come on, guys, let’s go.”
It only takes a few minutes for the guys to throw on their clothes, and we all hurry back to the house, starting outside at the open window.
“You’re right,” Rex says. “It looks pristine. If someone got dragged out of here, they did it cleanly.”
“No footprints, though,” Brad says. “If she just took off, it’s not like she’d think to sweep them away.”
“True,” Luke says. “Not much scent, either.”
“I know,” I say, raising my head to test the wind. “That was bothering me, too.”
“Okay,” Rex says. “We’ll split up. I’ll go southwest with Luke. Brad, you take Dan and go north. Shawn, you go west, and we’ll howl to keep track of each other until we find a trace we can follow. Agreed?”
Nodding, we follow Rex roughly northwest to the edge of town. We’re almost ready to split up when a twig snaps somewhere behind us, and I spin around to see Jackson coming through the trees.
“Good morning, fellas,” he says. “You’re up early.”
“Yeah,” I reply, trying not to glare at him. “Just scouting, you know. Getting it in early before the day heats up.”
“I hear that,” he says, grinning. “Scouting for anything in particular?”
I take a slow step forward, ready to grab the old man by the throat and shake him until his neck breaks. When Rex puts a hand on my shoulder, it takes extreme effort to hold myself back.
“Just ordinary scouting,” Rex says in an easy tone. “Checking out your boundaries, natural resources, that kind of thing.”
“Understandable,” Jackson says, walking up to us with a casual, easy stride. “You guys are in charge here, after all.”
If he kidnapped her, would he really be standing in front of us like this right now? Is he that stupid—or maybe just insane?
“What are you doing up so early?” I ask. “Didn’t you stay at the party until late?”
“I did,” Jackson confirms. “I’ve got a sturdy constitution, though. I don’t need much sleep.”
Tension runs through me, making me clench my fists, and Rex squeezes my shoulder again.
“Well, it was nice running into you, Jackson,” Rex says. “But we’re about to head off, so—”
“Oh, I’ll come with you,” he says. “You’ll need a guide.”
“We’re splitting up,” Rex says. “And we’ll cover ground faster without you. Really, we won’t be long, you should just wait—”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Jackson says, grinning. “There are all kinds of danger in these hills. You guys split, and I’ll stick with Shawn. What do you think?”
“Great plan,” I snap, before anyone can say anything. “Stick to your original idea, Rex, and Jackson and I will take due west. Should we move out?”
“Absolutely,” Jackson says.
Rex and the others don’t look happy, but I scowl back at them, shaking my head.
Don’t fucking kill him, Rex lip-syncs at me. I raise my hands in an exaggerated shrug.
We shift and head in opposite directions, spreading a wide net that covers the woods on three sides of Clover town. Jackson keeps pace with me as we run through the woods, and I know I won’t be able to shake the old dog. He’s tougher than I thought.
After running several miles along the westward ridge, we shift back to our human shapes, and Jackson leads me to a rocky gorge on the north slope.
“We’ve found gold in this gully,” Jackson says. “As well as natural minerals. We haven’t mined it before because of the terrain, but with help from your friends, we could cultivate this entire area.”
“Yeah,” I reply, barely listening to him.
“It could make us rich,” he adds, but I’ve turned my back on him to keep my nose to the wind.
Is that her scent? It’s faint, but I think it’s coming through on the breeze.
“Come on down this way,” Jackson says, gesturing to a narrow track. “I’ll show you the first section of caves. The ores are visible right by the entrance. We’d need explosives to start mining, though, I think.”
Yeah, right. Like we’re going to let you have explosives.
“Sounds exciting,” I mutter, turning in the opposite direction to examine the wind more closely.
“Shawn,” Jackson says in a mocking tone. “I really thought you were smarter than this.”
“What?” I mutter. “Why?”
“Because you fell for this way too easily,” he says. “Unless you know what I’m up to, and you’ve just got brass balls the size of fucking tractor tires?”
His words cut through my thoughts, and as I turn to look at him, all my rage, all my confusion, narrows down into a single, sharp spear pointed straight at him.
“Jackson,” I say. “Have you been a naughty boy?”
The old man laughs, slapping his knee. “That’s it. Now you’re getting it. You really should be paying more attention.”
“Oh, you’ve got my attention now,” I say, turning to face him. “And you’re about to find out that’s not something you should want.”
“Oh, but Shawn,” Jackson says, slowly moving away from me and onto the rocky path. “If you don’t pay attention to where I’m going, how will you ever find her?”
“I knew it!” I shout. “I knew you fucking took her! Where is she?”
“Come and find out!” Jackson yells, turning to run down the gorge.
I don’t even think. I shift into my wolf shape mid-stride and leap after him.