Chapter 8
Chapter eight
Fin
Jed MacTaryn was dead. We should be celebrating the death of a man who turned his town into a meth-riddled hell. I didn’t think his sons would be any better. They were younger, bigger, and more stupid than their father. But one less bigoted asshole in the world is never a bad thing.
How had Channing being about to go into heat slipped by me?
As Ricky clung to me on the back of my bike as we tore along the road to Northlake, a cut off phrase Riley said came back to me.
He’d said, ‘But Channing–’ like there was more.
I thought it was about her coming home at the time, but what if he’d been saying she was going to be home and vulnerable?
Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and all that. We could have told her to stay away, though then she would have been unprotected somewhere else. We might have made her stay home. One of us could have retrieved whatever she needed. Dammit, how did it all go to hell so fast?
Pulling up to the casino, a few people I recognized were gathered by the road that veered towards the reservation and tribal clinic.
Kono Dasan was a coyote shifter, and would be the next alpha after his father.
He graduated high school with Ricky and the other guys, and his people were friendly to our pack.
Beside Kono was Valeria Ironjaw. She was the social worker who brought Rowen to me, and always helped organize our winter charity ride for the local children in foster care. Both of them were good people, and they looked upset.
Well, Kono looked angry where he was usually serene. His long dark hair was mussed as if there was a fight, and he was consoling Val.
Skidding to a halt in front of them. Ricky hopped off before I had the engine stopped, and I almost forgot to set the kickstand before following him to the sidewalk.
“What happened?” I asked, aware my voice was angrier than I’d ever used around them.
Ricky stopped short of the others and added, “Have you seen Channing?”
Right, I should have started with that. My brain, or maybe my inner wolf, instinctively knew it was about Channing. Whatever made them upset, it had to do with the youngest omega in our pack.
“Oh, Fin!” Val cried, tears spilling over her wrinkled eyes as she clutched my hand in hers. “The MacTaryns were here. And Channing was leaving.”
Ricky cursed under his breath and smacked the side of his helmet in anger. While I could fill in the blanks as my blood ran cold, Kono gave us more information.
“I was driving by when I scented Channing and the twins from opposite directions. I decided to make sure they didn’t cross paths with her heat so obviously coming soon.
” Kono took a deep breath before going on.
“One of them grabbed her and tossed her into the back seat of a truck before I stopped. The other twin laid me out and I was trapped under my bike for just long enough for them to get away.”
“They fought you and you let her go?” I asked in a growl, angry he didn’t stop them.
“Fin,” Ricky chastised under his breath, gesturing to Kono’s scratched up purple motorcycle about fifty feet away. I followed Kono’s example and took a deep breath. Ricky nodded and turned to Kono. “Which way did they go?”
“North,” Kono answered before walking to his bike and standing it up. I could tell it would take a lot of work to fix the paint and dents, but it still looked like it could run.
“North?” I asked, confused. They hadn’t gone south towards Blue Lake, or we would have passed them and smelled their horrible scent on the breeze. “Not southwest to their home in Lakeland?”
“No, it was definitely East,” Val confirmed. I noticed a group was making their way over from the casino, led by tribal police and security. “They may have been heading to see their father in the hospital.”
“He’s dead,” I told them without inflection. “But you may be right.”
“Maybe they took Chan when the opportunity arose, but they still planned to go see their father one last time?” Ricky suggested, eying the security approaching.
“More like they went to see if he was really dead,” I spat, not believing they cared about saying goodbye in some sentimental way. “Let’s head that way.”
“Here,” Val held out a phone and keys she must have dropped in the scuffle. “Take Channing’s bike.”
“Thanks,” Ricky replied, pocketing the phone before jogging off to where her Harley Sportster 1000 was parked.
Straddling my own ride, I turned to Kono, “Call me if you find anything else or hear about where they are.”
“They took her on our land. I’ll help you gut them if you ask,” Kono promised, a deadly look in his dark eyes.
Nodding, I took off with Ricky on my tail.
The bike he was on was a bit small, but we went faster without both of us weighing down one bike.
I knew the hospital where Jed was from our research in preparing for him dying.
It was only fifteen minutes away at top speed, but we’d wasted time talking to Kono and Val.
I couldn’t be angry about it, because they sent us on the path to find them.
Pulling up to the hospital parking lot, there was no sign of the rusty truck they sometimes drove. I did see a motorcycle with a tall, young, red-haired woman standing beside it holding a bag.
She looked like a MacTaryn.
Not waiting for Ricky to get off his bike, I strode towards the woman. “Where are your brothers?”
“What?’ She looked startled, but I didn’t buy the innocent act.
“Janessa,” Ricky said from beside me, putting an arm in front of me like I was about to attack her. She was an alpha, so it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility if she had anything to do with Channing’s abduction. “We’re looking for your idiot brothers. Have you seen them?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen ‘em,” she rolled her eyes and dropped the bag of what was likely her father’s things on the seat of her bike. “Yelled out the truck window to ask if dad was really dead, then cheered and peeled out of here about ten minutes ago. Assholes.”
“They’re the oldest alphas now,” Ricky muttered, but I didn’t care about their shitty pack politics at that moment.
“They kidnapped Channing King,” I barked, pushing Ricky’s arm away to go toe-to-toe with Janessa. “If you had anything to do with it…”
“Fuck you, man,” Janessa spat, anger making her freckled face redden in a flash. She looked a couple years younger than my son, but held herself with confidence. “I just got into town this morning, and I’m not like them.”
Something in her eyes, or the indignation in her voice, had me believing her. “Where would they take her?”
“I just said I don’t live here anymore. I’m in college.” She rolled her eyes and picked up the helmet strapped to her saddlebag. “They like drugs and booze, and seemed in a celebratory mood.”
“So?”
“So, they’ll likely get too drunk to hurt your precious wolf princess tonight,” she explained. “I’m headed to my dad’s house to dump his clothes and grab my last few things I left behind. I’ll see if they’re there.”
“What’s your number?” Ricky asked, and I looked at him in surprise. For a split second I thought he was hitting on her and I was angry for a whole new reason. “I’ll text you so you can tell us if you find them.”
“And if I don’t?” Janessa asked, but she held out her phone for Ricky to enter his number.
“We’ll hold you just as accountable as your brothers for the kidnapping,” I interjected. “Which happened on reservation land. So you have the coyotes to deal with as well.”
She was a bear shifter, and an alpha, so I didn’t think she would fear one wolf. A pack of wolves and coyotes working together, though? Janessa narrowed her eyes and nodded as she handed Ricky his phone back.
“Understood. I’ll text if I learn where she is.”
“Channing. Her name is Channing,” I added, wanting Janessa to see Chan as a person and not only her brothers’ mistake. “Thank you.”
Tossing her long, curly hair over one shoulder, Janessa hopped on her bike and started it up, plopping her helmet on before eyeing us. We stepped out of the way and watched her go.
Ricky and I were no closer to finding the MacTaryns, but I hoped their sister followed through on her promise. I’d hate to kill a woman. For my pack mates, I’d set the world on fire.