Chapter 17 - Bryan
Every muscle in my body begs for rest, but I keep moving toward the medical center anyway.
I need to see Skylar. The thought has been pounding through my skull since the moment the alarm pulled me from her bed, and it’s the only thing keeping me upright now. She’s safe at the medical center with Connor guarding the door and Dylan’s wolves stationed at every entrance. I know she’s safe.
But I need to see her anyway.
The medical center comes into view, and I quicken my pace despite the exhaustion dragging at my limbs.
A gash on my forearm is still oozing blood through the makeshift bandage I wrapped around it an hour ago, and my ribs ache where a Cheslem wolf caught me with a lucky swipe.
None of it matters. I’ll let Skylar fuss over me, let her clean my wounds and lecture me about being more careful, and I’ll soak up every second of her attention like the lovesick fool I’ve apparently become.
Ten years of Black Ops work, and this is what I’ve been reduced to. A man who can’t go a few hours without needing to see his mate’s face.
I don’t even mind.
Connor spots me as I approach the front entrance, still blocking most of the doorway. He looks exhausted, too, though he’s hiding it well. Fern is inside, which means he won’t leave his post until someone physically drags him away.
He nods in greeting. “You look like hell, Bryan.”
“Feel like it too.” I glance past him into the medical center as I search for familiar copper hair among the patients and staff. “Where’s Skylar?”
“Inside somewhere. She’s been working nonstop since the first wounded came in.” Connor steps aside to let me pass. “Fern said she was going to take a break about twenty minutes ago.”
“She actually took a break?”
Connor shrugs. “She earned it. You should’ve seen her in there—stitching wounds, setting bones, keeping everyone calm. The woman’s a force of nature when she’s in healer mode.”
Pride swells in my chest. That’s my mate he’s talking about. My Skylar.
I nod my thanks and push through the door.
The medical center is calmer than I expected.
Most of the beds are still occupied, but the frantic energy I imagine was present earlier has faded into something more subdued.
Wolves rest while healers shuffle between them to check vitals and adjust bandages.
The smell of antiseptic and blood saturates the room, and I breathe through my mouth to avoid the worst of it.
Sera looks up from a patient’s chart as I pass, and she points toward the back of the building without me having to ask.
“Thanks,” I tell her, and I head for the back courtyard.
Fern intercepts me halfway there with her blonde hair escaping from its ponytail and dark circles under her eyes. She’s been working just as hard as everyone else despite being pregnant, and I make a mental note to tell Connor to drag her home soon.
“Bryan, thank God.” She reaches out and squeezes my arm. “Are you okay? We heard the fighting was bad out there.”
“I’m fine. A few scratches, nothing serious.” I’m already looking past her toward the back door. “Have you seen Skylar?”
“She went outside to take a break. Said she needed some air after—” Fern stops mid-sentence, and her brow furrows. “Actually, that was a while ago. Twenty minutes or so. She should be back by now.”
Twenty minutes. That seems like a long time for a break, especially for Skylar. She’s not the type to sit idle when there’s work to be done. A small knot forms in my stomach, though I can’t explain why.
“I’ll go check on her,” I say, though my feet are already moving before the words leave my mouth.
The door to the back courtyard is closed when I reach it, and something cold settles in my gut as I push it open. The courtyard is empty and silent. The benches are vacant in the darkness while roses climb the eastern wall in neat rows, but there’s no sign of Skylar anywhere.
“Skylar?”
No response comes back.
I step into the courtyard and eye every shadow, every corner where she might be sitting, standing, or resting. Nothing. The space is completely deserted, and it makes my wolf stir uneasily beneath my skin.
She should be here. Connor and Fern both said she came out here twenty minutes ago. Where the hell did she go?
I circle the courtyard once, then twice, searching for any sign of her. My heart beats faster with each passing second. Maybe she went back inside through a different entrance. Maybe she’s in the supply room or the break area or somewhere else I haven’t checked yet.
That’s when I catch it—her scent, faint but unmistakable, leading toward the back gate. I follow it without thinking as my feet carry me across the flagstones and through the narrow opening in the hedge.
The gate leads to a small parking lot behind the medical center. Staff use it during shift changes, but at this hour, it’s mostly empty. A few cars sit in scattered spaces with their windows dark. Overhead, a single lamp flickers and buzzes.
Skylar’s scent is stronger here, and I follow it across the parking lot with dread building in my chest. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong. I can feel it in my bones, in the way my wolf is pacing and snarling inside my chest.
Her trail ends abruptly near the back fence.
I stop and inhale deeply as I try to separate the threads of scent tangled together in this spot. Skylar was here. The smell of honeysuckle and herbs is unmistakable. But there’s something else underneath it, something that makes my blood run cold.
Cheslem.
Their corrupted stench mingles with Skylar’s scent in a way that tells me they were close to her. Too close. Touching-distance close. And underneath all of it, barely detectable but definitely there, I catch the acrid chemical smell of chloroform.
Shit.
I spin in a circle as I search for any sign of which direction they went. The scent trail continues past the fence into the woods beyond, but it’s already starting to fade. They have a head start. They could be anywhere by now.
My wolf rushes forward, and I barely manage to keep him from taking over.
Every instinct I have screams at me to run, to hunt down the wolves who took my mate and tear them apart with my bare hands.
The beast inside me doesn’t care about strategy or planning or the very real possibility that I’m walking into a trap. He only cares about Skylar.
I’m halfway over the fence when a hand clamps down on my shoulder and yanks me backward.
“Bryan. Stop.”
Nic’s voice cuts through the red haze clouding my vision. I try to shake him off, but his grip is iron-solid. When I turn to face him, his eyes are blazing with Alpha command.
“Let go of me.” The words come out as more growl than speech. “They took her. The Cheslem wolves took Skylar, and every second we stand here is another second they get farther away.”
“I know. I can smell it too, but like I said on the battlefield, every second you spend running blindly into the woods is another second wasted.” Nic doesn’t release my shoulder.
“I know you’re scared. I know you want to tear something apart right now.
But charging after them alone will get you killed, and it won’t save Skylar. ”
“I can track them. Her scent—”
“Will lead you straight into an ambush. You’ve been fighting for hours. You’re injured, exhausted, and running on nothing but adrenaline. If you go after them now, you’ll make mistakes. Mistakes will get Skylar killed.”
Everything inside me wants to rip free of his hold, disappear into the forest, and not stop running until I find her.
But some small, rational part of my brain recognizes the truth in his words.
I’m in no condition to mount a rescue mission alone.
The Cheslem wolves will be expecting pursuit, and they probably have traps set along their escape route.
I’ll walk right into every single one of them if I don’t slow down and think.
My wolf howls in protest, but I shove him back down.
“Then what do we do? They have her, Nic. They have my mate, and I don’t even know where they’re taking her or what they’re planning to do when they get there.”
“We’ll figure that out.” Nic finally releases my shoulder to send a text. “I’ll have Thomas gather the security team. Dylan and Connor are already here. We’ll track them, find their base, and get Skylar back. But we do it right, or we don’t do it at all.”
A few minutes later, footsteps approach from behind us, and I turn to see Thomas jogging across the parking lot with Dylan and Connor close behind.
“Perimeter is clear,” Thomas reports as he comes to a stop beside Nic. “Whoever took her is long gone. We found scuff marks in the grass near the back fence. It looks like she put up a fight before they knocked her out.”
Something savage and proud flares in my chest at that. Of course she fought. Skylar isn’t the type to go quietly, and knowing she didn’t make it easy for them gives me satisfaction despite everything.
Dylan moves to stand beside the Alpha. “They came in through the western tree line while everyone was focused on the main attack. Grabbed her from the courtyard and carried her out through the parking lot.”
“A distraction,” I realize. “The whole attack on the eastern boundary… It was just a distraction to draw us away from the medical center.”
“Looks that way,” Thomas agrees. “The trail heads northeast toward the mountains. That’s all we know so far.”
Northeast. Toward a dozen different places where they could be hiding, waiting, and planning whatever sick revenge Rafe has in store for my mate.
My hands are shaking. I look down at them and will them to stop, but they refuse to obey.
The tremor runs through my fingers, my wrists, my forearms—a physical sign of the terror I can’t afford to feel right now.
I’ve faced down corrupt shifters, rogue wolves, and supernatural threats that would make most people run screaming.
None of it ever made my hands shake like this.
“I might be able to help.”
The voice comes from behind Thomas, and I look up to see Caleb making his way to us. It takes me a moment to remember that he’s a former Cheslem wolf who was cleansed during the purification ritual three years ago. He knows how they think, which means right now, he’s invaluable.
“You know where they’d take her?” I ask.
“Not exactly.” Caleb runs a hand through his hair and looks uncomfortable under everyone’s attention.
“But I know how Rafe thinks. He’s Matthias’s son, which means he grew up learning his father’s tactics.
He’ll want to use her as leverage, and that means he needs to keep her alive and close enough to communicate his demands. ”
“That narrows it down to what? A hundred possible locations?”
“More like a dozen. Matthias had safe houses scattered throughout the region. Bolt holes, he called them. Places to retreat when things go bad. Most of them were destroyed after the purification, but a few might still be standing. If Rafe is using Cheslem tactics, he’ll go somewhere familiar. Somewhere defensible.”
Hope sparks in my chest despite my best efforts to smother it. “You can lead us to these places?”
“I can narrow down the list and give you the most likely options based on what I know about Rafe and his resources.” Caleb glances at Nic. “If Luna can use her magic to help pinpoint the right location, we might be able to find Skylar before Rafe does whatever he’s planning.”
“Luna’s on her way,” Nic says. “I sent word as soon as we realized Skylar was missing. She should be here within the hour.”
Skylar has already been gone for at least thirty minutes, and every minute that passes puts more distance between us. Rafe gets more time to prepare his defenses. More time to hurt her in ways I can’t bear to imagine.
I tell myself to breathe. In through my nose, out through my mouth. The way they taught us in Black Ops training, back when I thought I’d never need to use those techniques on anything personal.
Think like an operative. Not like a mate.
“What do we know about Rafe’s numbers?” I ask, steadier now. “How many wolves does he have left after tonight?”
“Hard to say for certain.” Dylan furrows his brow as he considers the question.
“We killed seven and injured maybe a dozen more. Before tonight, our intelligence suggested he had somewhere between thirty and forty wolves under his command. So we’re probably looking at twenty to twenty-five still combat-ready. ”
“That’s enough to hold a fortified position, but not enough to fight a prolonged battle.” I do the math in my head as I force myself to think tactically. “He’ll be counting on speed and surprise. Not brute force.”
Thomas nods. “Which means he’ll want to make his move quickly. Whatever he’s planning, he won’t wait long.”
“Then we can’t wait either.” I look at Nic. “Every hour we spend here is another hour Skylar spends in their hands. Another hour for Rafe to—” I can’t finish the sentence. Can’t put into words what he might be doing to her right now.
“Luna will be here soon,” Nic assures me. “Once we have a direction, we’ll put together a strike team and bring your mate home.”
I nod, but my hands still won’t stop shaking.
Skylar is out there somewhere, scared and probably hurt and definitely in danger. The only thing standing between her and whatever Rafe has planned is a group of wolves who haven’t even started putting together a rescue plan yet.
I’ll get her back. Whatever it takes, whatever it costs, I will find her and bring her home.
I just have to survive the waiting first.