Chapter 16

OLLIE

I didn’t go to work the next day, calling in sick, citing a family emergency. My boss wasn’t thrilled, but I didn’t give a shit. My brother was more important than any job, let alone one I didn’t even enjoy.

Markus and I had always talked about working together. Me overseeing his company and personal finances, and some freelance work on the side. Maybe now was the time to start changing things up.

Only, there was something off in my gut when I thought about Markus. I couldn’t explain it, but when Lexie and I woke up this morning and he wasn’t back, my worry grew.

Not that either of us had managed much sleep at all.

“Something’s wrong. I can feel it,” Lexie said in an echo of my own concern. She was audibly shivering even though I had the furnace cranked up.

“The rain’s stopped.” I glanced out the window and came to a decision. “I’m going to make some phone calls and see if I can find Markus.”

“If you can’t, we’ve gotta go find him,” Lexie managed to say though her teeth were chattering now.

I glanced at the clock. “It’s only noon. He could be sleeping off a hangover somewhere, so how about you go have a hot shower, and I’ll see if I can find out where he is.”

Lexie nodded and ran up the stairs to the bathroom.

I picked up the phone and called Nancy first. She picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Ollie, what’s up?”

“Have you seen Markus today?”

I could almost hear her smirk. “Well, not today, but yesterday...”

“He didn’t fuck you, Nancy. I know. So, what really happened? Did he reject you? Is that why you came over to our home to stir up shit with our mate?”

The silence on the other end of the line was all I needed. “Oh... you little bitch.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Fine,” I managed. “But I’m calling my parents as well, and if they haven’t seen him, I’m sending out a text for a wolf council meeting.”

Nancy groaned on the other end of the line. “Stop being such a drama queen, Ollie. Markus doesn’t buy into any of that Fated mate bullshit. And if he’s missing, it’s because he wants to be. You know what he’s like. He’s a lone wolf.”

I closed my eyes and pressed the palm of my right hand to my forehead. “You don’t know anything about him, do you? He’s part of a perfect pair, Nancy. A twin. Born to be part of a triad, a large pack. He’s anything but a lone wolf. And if something bad has happened to him because you fucked him over with Lexie, you’ll regret it. I promise.”

In the end I hung up on her. I didn’t wait to hear her bullshit response.

The conversation went pretty much the same with my parents, both of them assuming that Markus was just hiding out, shirking his responsibilities of work and his mate.

But I knew my brother. Maybe not perfectly, but better than anyone else.

When Lexie came back downstairs dressed in warm leggings, a turtleneck and a leather jacket, I froze. “Where are you off to?”

She looked dressed for traveling, even wearing sneakers and thick socks.

“I want to go look for Markus. Did you find out anything?”

I shook my head and slid my cell into my back pocket. “No. No one has seen him, and since he left his keys and phone in his truck, I think he’s most likely shifted and gone running.”

Lexie inhaled sharply. “Okay. Where would he go?”

“The forest. Up into the mountains, probably. There’s a cave we used to visit when we were younger. He could be there.”

She nodded and zipped up her jacket. “Let’s go, then.”

I grabbed my keys. “I texted the wolf council and called an emergency meeting. Everyone is meeting at my parents’ place within the hour.”

Lexie’s annoyance was obvious in the twist of her lips. “Why did you do that?”

“Safety in numbers,” I said, locking the house and following Lexie to the truck. “We’ll be able to cover a lot more ground and track Markus down a lot faster if we put together a search party.”

Despite the logical move to involve the wolf council, I was definitely in agreement with Lexie. Something was wrong with my brother. I’d been feeling odd ever since late yesterday, but had put it down to the fact that he was gone, and he was upset.

But even though he was beyond upset at us, I didn’t believe he’d leave us hanging like this, with no way to contact him.

I started the truck and Lexie put out a hand. “Can we stop by the drugstore?”

I reversed down our driveway and took off toward town. “Sure, we have time. What do you need?”

“It’s not for me,” she said, her voice tight, firm. “Markus could be hurt. I want to get anything we might need. Painkillers, Tylenol for a fever. Bandages, first aid tape, bottles of water. Not that I know anything about wolf physiology. Any pointers?”

She was expecting him to be injured too, so I tried not to address our mutual fear, worried it would multiply and consume us both.

Instead, I answered her question as calmly as I could. “We’re basically the same as humans. We have a similar life span, but we run a few degrees hotter, and have advanced healing capabilities.”

“So, if Markus is hurt... like, he broke a leg or something, he’d heal really fast.”

I nodded. “As long as the bone was set right, then, yeah.”

She inhaled sharply and nodded, her lips set into a determined, thin line.

When we arrived at the pharmacy, I handed her my credit card and she took it. “I won’t be long.”

I let her go, because I needed a moment to think. I wanted to shift immediately and head up toward the cave to check it out, but Lexie wouldn’t be able to follow in that rough terrain. I needed to clear my head, ready for the council meeting.

When we got to Mom and Dad’s house, I wasn’t sure how everyone was going to vote or what decisions would be made. But no matter what, I was going after my brother.

***

LEXIE

I had no idea what state we were going to find Markus in, but I could already sense he wasn’t going to be healthy. I was practically jumping out of my skin with nerves. I felt... anxious. If I was wrong and he was fine and I’d spent hundreds of dollars on supplies for nothing, then oh, well. We’d have a stocked up first aid kit, which was never a bad thing.

With my pharmacy purchases clutched in my hands, I ran out of the store and jumped into the truck.

“Looks like you got a few things,” Ollie said, helping me arrange the bags on the floor so I could actually get in.

“Yeah, well I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.”

I’d even bought a fanny pack and a larger bag, in case I needed to travel, though I wasn’t sure that would be the case.

“Tell me more about this mountain you think Markus might have run to. Is it far away?”

I was chattering away, and I could hear the nervous tone in my voice, but I couldn’t help it. Every time I thought about Markus, I imagined him lying at the bottom of a hill, broken and bleeding, calling my name.

I couldn’t stand it and had barely slept last night. I missed my big, gorgeous, tough man.

My cell phone rang, and I scrambled to answer it. “Hello?”

“Hey, Lexie, it’s Megan.”

Megan worked at the diner. “Hey, hon... we’re kinda busy at the moment. I’m sorry, can I call you back later?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course. I just wanted you to tell your friend that the boss won’t be in tonight. So if he was planning on coming back, there’s no point.”

I put Megan on speaker, my stomach twisting hard. “Sorry, Megan, what do you mean? Which friend?”

“Didn’t he tell you?” Megan asked. “A hot guy came in yesterday afternoon looking for Geoff. He said he wanted to sort out something to do with you.”

I swallowed hard, my gaze catching Ollie’s as he glanced over while he drove. “What did this guy look like?”

“Well over six feet. Dark hair, dark eyes. Pretty intimidating.”

I put a hand over my mouth to stifle the sob. “When was this, Megan? That was Markus, and we’re looking for him, actually.”

“Around two, I’d say. I was working the eight till two shift, but Tilly was late, so I was still there.”

I inhaled sharply, trying not to cry. “Thanks for letting us know.”

“Yeah, of course. No problem. Catch ya later.”

She hung up, and tears burned my eyes. “He went to my old job. He was trying to get my money, wasn’t he?”

Ollie reached over and squeezed my hand. “Probably. Markus would rather pay his staff than himself, any day. He hates employers who screw over their people.”

I nodded, gulping and wiping the tears away. “That’s so good of him. I can’t believe...”

Did that mean he’d gone to see Nancy after he’d tried to sort out my wages? Why would he do that?

I wasn’t going to ask Ollie, because no matter what he said, he was only guessing. I’d wait until we found Markus, then I’d get my answers.

After I begged him to forgive me, of course, because if I wasn’t feeling bad enough that I hadn’t believed him about Nancy, now I knew he’d been trying to be my knight in shining armor.

I hadn’t thought I could feel worse, but it turned out I definitely could.