Chapter 4

Beck rushed along the waterfront after having lost Boyd. He kept his eyes peeled for Lydia, the need to see her again an itch he didn't understand. His Bear was trying to get loose so he could search for her. She and the redhead weren't where he left them, so he continued toward the office. Delaney didn't answer the business phone, and her cell phone went to voicemail. He tried Chloe, but she didn't answer either. He slowed his steps as he entered the building. The office door was open, and the phone was ringing. Beck strode toward the desk. "Laney? Chloe?" When neither responded, he reached for the phone. It stopped ringing before he could answer.

Grabbing his hair and pulling, Beck blew out a breath. He walked behind the desk to see if Delaney's purse was in the bottom drawer, but before he had a chance to bend over, a moan sounded from the bathroom. "Laney?" Beck's long legs ate up the few steps to the door. He eased it open, and his sister was pushing herself up from in front of the toilet. "What the fuck did he do to you?" Beck knelt, checking Laney over for injuries.

"What did who do? I'm sick to my stomach. That's all."

Beck lowered his voice. "You're a shifter. You don't get sick."

"I do if I'm pregnant." Laney pushed past him to get to the sink. She opened the top drawer of the cabinet and pulled out a toothbrush and paste.

"Pregnant? How? I mean I know how, but who? You aren't dating anyone. Are you?"

Laney ignored him as she cleaned her mouth. After spitting the foam, she cupped her hand under the water and rinsed. Tapping the excess water from the brush, she stared at him in the mirror. "Just because I don't date doesn't mean I don't have sex, Beck. You should know all about that. Instead of badgering me, why don't you help Chloe find Mom?"

"Laney, I'm not badgering you. You shocked me is all. Are you happy about the baby?" He wanted to hug his sister, but she wasn't an affectionate female.

She pushed past him to get to the desk. "Ask me again when I find out the gender." Beck shouldn't be shocked. He understood how males were viewed in their society, and his sister was no different than their mother. "Now, who did you think hurt me?"

"Boyd. He ran out of the front door like his ass was on fire."

"What the hell was he doing here?" Delaney didn't have the same loathing for Boyd as Beck did, but she wasn't close to him either, not as far as Beck knew.

"No idea. I chased him, but he got away."

Delaney chewed her bottom lip, looking across the room. "I didn't see him."

"Fuck. What if he's the reason you haven't heard from Amara?"

Delaney snapped her eyes to Beck's. "He wouldn't—"

"He absolutely would." Beck reined in his anger and softened his tone. "Valerie turned him loose, and there's no telling what scheme he's come up with this time."

"How do you know that?"

Beck paced over to the window and gazed out. "Have you heard from Chloe in the past couple of hours?" He wasn't going to tell her about Dooley and the cryptic messages. At least not yet. Beck didn't trust his sisters where their father was concerned.

"No. She has a helicopter tour in thirty minutes, so I'll talk to her then."

Beck turned away from the window. "I'll take over looking for Amara since I have time before my next flight. Call me if you hear from her."

"Beck, how did you know about Dad and Valerie?"

"I may have left my friends in BC, but I'm still in contact with some of them." Beck figured a half-truth was better than an outright lie. When he got to the door, he glared at his sister. "If Boyd does contact you, be careful. You have my niece or nephew to worry about now." Delaney jutted her chin and glared right back. Being female, she didn't like being told what to do, even if what he said was for her own good.

Beck strode down the hallway with a bad feeling stirring in his gut. Why would Boyd run from the building without speaking to Delaney? Why run at all if he weren't up to something? As much as Beck wanted to hunt the male down, he had an Empress to find. Having forgotten his cookies, he jogged down to the seaplane and grabbed the bakery box, eating one of the treats while making his way to his truck. Climbing in the cab, Beck started the motor, letting it warm up a few minutes before driving off. As he waited, he pondered where his mother might be. Beck had no idea if she was seeing someone since he wasn't privy to her private life. Having an heir, Amara didn't worry about producing more offspring. She needn't bother with shifters if she didn't want to, but he couldn't imagine she would entangle herself long term with a human, not while in charge of their pack.

Pulling out of the parking lot, he took a couple of side roads to Highway 9 and headed north. He turned right onto Nash Road. Amara's place was almost directly across the bay from the office on twenty secluded acres. The house itself wasn't anything spectacular, but the scenery was the draw. Since he wasn't female, Beck didn't get the same perks his sisters did from the business, so he saved every penny hoping he would have somewhere similar to call home one day.

For now, he had a small one-bedroom shoebox close to the office that he bought for next to nothing. It had been in dire need of repair, but his father had taught him how to swing a hammer, put on a new roof, fix a leaky faucet, and do all types of electrical work. The house had originally been two bedrooms, but as soon as he moved in and reshingled the roof, he tore down the wall between the living area and one of the bedrooms to enlarge the living room. He didn't need more space to sleep in, but he refused to watch television with only a few feet between the sofa and the TV. He wondered what Lydia would think of his small home. He hadn't been able to shake the memory of holding the female in his arms nor how good she smelled. His Bear had been irate ever since meeting the stunning woman. It wanted him to forget everything else and go find her. Beck couldn't though. He had to find his mother and figure out what Boyd was doing in Seward.

Beck turned into the driveway and parked, then got out and unlocked the gate. Amara didn't have an automatic opener. She made sure to keep her wealth under wraps, thus the less than grand house and basic padlock. When she had been Queen of the BC pack, Amara had been well off. Having to start over in Alaska wasn't easy, but the four of them made it work, and within five years of arriving in Seward, his mother's bank account had seen an uptick. Enough to buy the property and build the modest house.

Not bothering to close the gate behind him, Beck eased down the long driveway and parked in front of the garage. Stepping out of the truck, Beck used his shifter senses to search for any signs of his mother or someone who shouldn't be there as he walked to the side door. After climbing the steps, he input the security code that unlocked the door and paused right inside the mud room. Nothing looked out of place, but he hadn't been there in a few months.

"Mom?" Beck continued past the laundry room to the kitchen. There were no dishes in the sink, so he opened the dishwasher. There were two plates, a frying pan, and silverware in the bottom rack, and two coffee cups in the top rack. Beck removed both cups. Only one had lipstick around the rim. Amara had always dressed and put on makeup before making breakfast. He sniffed the second, and the faint scent of something masculine met his nose. It could have been after shave or cologne. He put the mugs back and closed the door. Beck surveyed the rest of the house, saving her bedroom for last. He hated breaching her sanctuary, but if she were truly missing, it was necessary. The bed was made, but the scent of sex overpowered any other smell. After a thorough scan of the en suite, he found nothing amiss. A condom in the waste basket didn't tell him anything about the male his mother had invited into her home.

Stopping at the closed door to her office, Beck debated whether to break in. She would be pissed, but if she would call one of his sisters, they wouldn't be worried. Beck pulled out his phone and opened his favorites list, tapping Amara's name. He didn't expect her to answer, so when it went to voicemail, he said, "We have a problem. Call me back." Beck retraced his steps through the house, only this time, he opened the door that led to the attic. Climbing the stairs two at a time, Beck listened before opening the door at the top. The walls were lined with boxes and furniture Amara had brought from BC. Some of the boxes contained the girls' clothes from when they were babies. Others held his sisters' mementos from high school. None, however, included his things. Anything he held precious was in a storage locker only he and his father had a key to.

Making his way back downstairs, Beck returned to his mother's office. He doubted there would be clues within to her whereabouts, and it was possible she was off with the man she'd slept with, so he left the house without breaching the room. If she didn't show up in the next day or so, he would reconsider breaking in.

Beck didn't bother calling Delaney. Since Chloe had already been by the house earlier, she would have noticed the same things Beck did, namely the presence of a man. Instead, he called Dooley.

"Nothing new, my man," Dooley said when he picked up.

"That's not why I'm calling. When I got back to Seward, Boyd was leaving the office building and ran when I yelled his name."

"Please tell me you caught the bastard." Dooley was aware of Boyd's part in overthrowing Amara.

"No. He knocked a female down, and I stopped to make sure she was okay. By the time I got her settled, he was long gone. Since he was coming from our building, I asked Delaney about it, but she swears she didn't talk to him."

"And you believe her?" Dooley had never been a fan of either of Beck's sisters for some reason.

"Maybe? If it had been Chloe, then no. But Laney has no reason to lie."

"Those females don't need a reason," Dooley muttered. "Let me hit the cameras and see what I can find. Still no word from the Empress?"

"No. I'm at her house now, and nothing looks out of the ordinary." Beck didn't share about the male visitor. He wouldn't unless it was necessary.

"I'll widen my search parameters. If Boyd is in town, it's for no good reason."

"Thanks, Dooley."

"No problem, my friend. Talk later."

Since he had time before his next flight, Beck walked down to the water, keeping his eyes peeled. His bear urged him to shift and go for a swim. It had been months since he let his other half out to play, and the thought appealed to him, but they were too far south to do so without calling attention unless he went out into the mountains. It was one argument he'd had with Amara when they moved. Beck wanted to settle in the northern part of the state where they could shift freely, but she had been more concerned with setting up their business where it would be successful. Beck traversed the incline to the bay's edge and knelt, dipping his fingers into the frigid water. He was due a vacation, but he wouldn't take one until his mother was safely home and Boyd was nowhere near any of them.

Beck stopped by his house to eat a late lunch. He'd taught himself to cook over the years because having leftovers was cheaper than eating out every day. His schedule was available via a shared calendar, and Beck doublechecked it while eating to ensure the flight hadn't been canceled or delayed due to the snow moving in. Since he was taking six men to Katmai National Park, he was flying the larger Cessna. The flight was five hours one-way. Most often, Beck spent the night whenever he had the chance, but with things as they were, he would return to Seward after refueling. He had a few more of Kennedy's cookies for dessert before he returned to the harbor.

The passengers were strapped in, and Beck was doing his pre-flight checks when his phone vibrated. It was a text from Dooley with the initials BS and an address in Sterling. Beck sent back a thumbs-up emoji. By the time he made it to Katmai, unloaded his passengers, grabbed dinner, then made it back to Seward, it was going on midnight. Beck loved the harbor when most of the businesses were closed, and the only people out were those who had chosen to drink at the tavern. When he got in his truck, Beck entered the address Dooley sent into his GPS. He wouldn't get to Sterling until two, but creeping around was better done in the dark than in daylight. He flipped to a hard rock channel and headed out.

As close as Sterling was, Beck never ventured to the small town. He'd never had reason to before now. The address was easy enough to find, but the house sat back off the road. Beck pulled over and opened the satellite app that showed the area from above. After studying the map of the surrounding properties, Beck drove his truck a few miles to where he could park and not be seen from the road. He turned off the motor and got out, easing the door closed. He checked the map once more, then set out through the woods. After about twenty yards, he paused. Something was thrashing through the trees, followed by a low growl that sounded familiar.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." A female's voice muttered as it neared Beck. "Ow, shit," she cursed. Beck hid behind a tree, not wanting to be spotted. When she came into view, she was pushing tree limbs out of the way. The hood of her thick coat covered most of her face. It snagged on a branch she released and dragged both the hood and her backward. The female landed on her ass. "Sonofabitch." Lydia. Adorable, pouting, Lydia. What in the goddess' name was she doing tromping through the woods? Especially these woods. He'd wanted to see her again, but not here. Lydia huffed, then picked herself up, wiping her hands on her jeans. She hadn't gone five feet when she stumped her booted foot on a large rock, and she pitched forward. Beck rushed to grab her before she could fall again. The next thing he knew, claws grabbed at his jacket, and a knife was at his throat. He sure as fuck hadn't seen that coming.