Chapter 19 - Kane

Jack"s rules flew out the window the second Kane realized Miley was gone.

He might have searched the bedroom if not for the fact there was nowhere for her to hide. And why the hell would she?

Then he remembered how frightening, disorienting and just plain painful the first shift had been. And he remembered how he had tried to hide from it, to hold it off and avoid it for as long as possible.

The truth was, Miley might have been anywhere, hiding in a wardrobe from the brightened sunlight and her heightened senses, cowering in the shower with the jets turned on high just to block out all other sound, her hands over her ears, hiding under the kitchen table because every small creak of the manor sounded as if the whole house was falling down.

"Shit!" Kane cursed, practically putting his fist through the wardrobe door when he realized she wasn"t in there. And by the scent of the place, she hadn"t been in the room for a while. "I never should have left her alone."

He grumbled the words to himself over and over as he searched for her.

Her scent in the manor was fading fast.

When he made it out into the back garden, he knew immediately that she wasn"t there. It was too calm, too quiet, even with Freddie and his little sister playing on the lawn and Bonnie and her friends chattering away on the deck.

"Kane? Is everything alright?" the alpha"s wife asked when she saw him. Clearly, Jack hadn"t briefed her on everything yet. If he had, she would be pitching in already as if she were another one of the men, determined to protect her pack.

"Have you seen Miley?" Kane asked through gritted teeth.

Bonnie shook her head.

"No, I thought she was inside."

"So did I," Kane grumbled, and with that he stormed back through the house, headed for the front porch.

Maybe she would be sitting in the porch swing, all young and innocent and waiting for him to explain further.

But when he pulled open the front door, he immediately knew that wasn"t the case. His heart dropped when he saw the swing was empty. Miley's scent was stronger outside, more worrying.

"Fuck!" he cursed again. That could only mean one thing.

Taking the porch steps two at a time, Kane followed Miley"s scent across the yard and into the woods.

Clearly, she had no regard for his authority as a higher member of the pack. It angered him greatly, and only a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him that she had no idea of pack hierarchy.

And she never would if anything happened to her before he managed to locate her.

Bile rose painfully in his throat and his chest tightened, making it difficult for him to breathe.

"Miley!" he yelled, growing desperate when he smelled her scent growing stronger. "Miley, come back!"

The further out he went, the more his heart sank.

Her scent was a steady stream, casting through the trees as if she had been at a constant run. If he closed his eyes, he could almost picture it.

He stopped only when the scent started to pool as if she had stopped.

Dropping down into a crouch, he sniffed the ground where her scent had pooled, his heart stopping when he realized something else.

Hers wasn"t the only scent he could smell. And the ground at his feet was all torn up, as if there had been a struggle.

The bare footsteps he had picked up from the edge of the yard ended suddenly, disappearing into a mess of scuffs.

And when the footprints started again, they were no longer bare. Nor were they the footprints of a five foot four redhead with small feet. They were the large, heavy boot prints of a man, the scent of which interlaced with Miley"s, making Kane"s heart clench painfully.

"No, no!" he cried, slamming his fist into the ground.

He had smelled that scent before. It belonged to one of the wolves who had attacked Miley. And whoever he was, he had her again.

Jumping to his feet, he ran his muddied fingers through his long black hair in exasperation.

"No, no! This can"t be happening!" he growled, pacing up and down the clearing.

Every inch of his body was urging him to follow the boot prints, to go on a wild rampage until he had killed the wolf who had taken his mate and anyone else who stood in his way.

But he was no lone wolf. He hadn't been for a very long time. And though Miley was a member of his pack now, he needed the others if he had any hope of actually making her safe.

Closing his eyes, he forced himself to remember his army training, his black ops training, all the things that had gone wrong when someone had gone off half-cocked.

No, he wasn"t going to allow his impulsiveness to go and get Miley killed.

He had to go back. No matter how much he wished to continue going forward.