Chapter 25 - Violet

After running all night through the forests as Lavender, it felt strange to walk home through the streets of Pinedale in my human form. The exhaustion, coupled with the odd feeling of moving on two legs, made me feel like a ghost—the absence of anyone in the street only solidified that feeling.

I unlocked the front door quietly so I wouldn't wake up Penny or her babysitter, Jane, slipping quietly down the hallway toward the stairs. I peeked into the living room, expecting to see Jane napping on the couch. I furrowed my brow when I saw that the blanket was still made on the armrest and decided to check upstairs.

Penny didn't usually fall asleep without me or Nile putting her to bed. I wondered if Jane had decided to sleep on her trundle bed to help her rest easier.

As much as my aching body wanted to stop on the second floor and fall into my own bed, I pushed myself up the next flight of stairs to Penny's room.

The door was open, so I stuck my head in to make sure they were both sleeping. The trundle had been pulled out from under Penny's bed, but both beds were empty. Blankets lie in a tangled mass on the floor, indicating a struggle.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins, erasing the exhaustion from my body as I jumped into action.

"Jane! Penny!" I shouted as I flipped the light switch on and dashed into the room.

I yanked the blankets off the ground, revealing Jane's unmoving form on the floor. She was lying face down, and her arms and legs were bent at an angle, showing she had most likely been attacked from behind.

"Shit," I muttered, checking her for a pulse. A steady beat came from her wrist, and I let out a sigh of relief that she was still alive.

"Jane," I said gently, trying to wake her. "It's Violet. Jane, can you hear me?"

She let out a painful groan and rolled onto her side slowly.

"Easy, easy," I said, helping her into a more comfortable position. "You're going to be okay. Can you tell me what happened?"

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, taking in her surroundings briefly. She sat up, and I helped lean her back against the foot of Penny's bedframe.

"I was coming upstairs to check on Penny," Jane said in confusion as she held onto the side of her head. "She was crying. I was standing there, and she pointed at her closet. But before I could turn around, something hit me. I don't remember anything else. Is Penny okay?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "Stay right there and don't move. You probably have a concussion. I'm going to have someone come and take you to the doctor."

Jane nodded and then winced at the pain from moving her head. I wanted to stay and make sure she was safe, but I needed to find Penny first.

I rushed through the house, checking every room and shouting her name while I searched for her. When I finished my sweep, I dialed Grace's number. She and April had stayed behind to take charge of the packs in their mates' absence.

"Grace, it's me," I said without preamble. "Penny is missing, and Jane needs a doctor at our house right away. The rest of the search party is still out looking for Diana."

"Oh, goddess," Grace cursed. "I'll send a doctor right away and alert the rest of the packs. What do you need?"

"This is the second disappearance from the Pinedale pack in less than twenty-four hours. I need you to get a head count of the entire pack and make sure no one else is in danger," I said.

"Done," she replied. "If there are any intruders still in town, we'll find them. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find Penny," I said simply.

There was a beat of silence on the line while Grace processed what I'd said. "Violet," she began tentatively. "There's only one of you, and you have no idea where to look for her. We don't even know who could have taken her yet."

"But I know where she hasn't been taken. We've already covered the trails to the east and south. The search for Diana is covering the west right now, so I'm heading north," I explained.

I hung up the phone before she could try to talk me out of it. There was no way I was going to let my little girl be scared and alone for one second more than necessary.

I left the house at a sprint, heading for the clearing just outside of town where we had begun our sweep of the surrounding area. My legs were burning from the exertion, but I needed the pain. It made me focus on the task at hand and reminded me of what I was working for. I would burn a thousand times if it saved Nile's daughter.

When Nile and I had run in the forest before, we had only gone a short distance from town, so I had no idea what lay in store for me beyond the trees to the north.

Let me run , Lavender offered. My senses are better than yours in the dark.

It will be light soon. And you've been running all night, I reminded her.

She needed to conserve what little energy she had left. If we managed to track down Penny's kidnappers, I might need her to defend us.

When we track them down. Not if, Lavender corrected me.

Penny couldn't have been gone long, or Jane would have recovered from her injury before I had gotten to her. Werewolves healed fast, and I imagined that whoever had taken Penny only had a thirty-minute lead at best. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, choosing the easiest route through the forest. Penny was either walking or being carried, and I couldn't imagine carrying a scared child through the forest would have been a simple task. My best bet was the trails.

I couldn't quite explain why I was so confident this was the right direction, but deep in my heart, I knew I was getting closer to her.

Soon, I reached an even wider trail, leading northeast through pine trees that appeared to get further and further apart. Within moments, the trees parted, and I saw a cabin peeking through them. I slowed my footsteps in case there was anyone inside, but it appeared to be abandoned.

After a moment, I realized it wasn't just one cabin but a row of four. I kept to the trees, walking around them to get a good view. There were four more behind the first row, and a picnic area set in between. It would have been a good place for rogues to hide out.

I stepped closer to the cabins, hoping to find a clue that Penny had come through here, when a sudden twang sounded through the air. I lost my balance and fell to the side, causing my phone to slip out of my hand and skitter away. I twisted around and looked at my leg, realizing it had been caught in some kind of trap.

I had stepped on something, released a wire that wrapped around my ankle and held me in place. It looked like some kind of trap that hunters may have used to capture coyotes, but I didn't have time to think about that now.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position and grabbed my leg to begin pulling the rope away from my ankle when I heard the sound of a door creak open. My head snapped up, and I saw Diana emerge from one of the cabins.

"Diana!" I exclaimed.

I hadn't been expecting to see her here, and my excitement at finding one of the people we had been searching for all night superseded my concern for my own predicament.

"We've been looking everywhere for you," I told her. "Nile and the rest of them are still out to the west. I dropped my phone over there. If you can help me with this rope, I can grab it and let them know you're safe."

"I wouldn't bother with the rope," Diana said.

She hadn't moved from her position near the cabin door. Instead, she stood, looking at me with her head tilted to the side as if she was trying to solve a puzzle.

Ignoring the rope made no sense, and I wasn't sure why she'd suggested it. I needed to release my leg so I could tell Nile where I was. I grabbed the rope to pull it away, and a burning sensation shot through my fingers.

I screamed in pain at the contact and looked at my hands in horror, unsure of what I had just experienced.

"See? I told you not to bother," Diana repeated.

"Diana, I need your help," I told her. "Penny was taken from the house tonight while we were all out looking for you. Someone has her, and we need to go get her back. Please, can you help me get my phone so I can call Nile?"

She continued staring at me, unmoving, and I was starting to feel like I was going crazy. I cursed and tried once again to remove the rope. The burning feeling shot through me once more, and I was unable to touch it, let alone pull it off me.

"DIANA, HELP ME!" I shouted, unsure of what game she was playing.

A slow smile spread over Diana's face, and the realization of what had truly happened finally set in.

"You?" I gasped.

"Of course, me," she said with glee. "I came here earlier today to get things ready for you. There's a dozen more just like that set up all around the cabins. I wasn't sure where exactly you'd step, you know. And I was so hoping you'd be the one to find me here."

"I don't understand," I admitted. "Why did you run away just so you could catch me?"

She laughed maniacally, and a shiver went down my spine. The woman sounded unhinged, as though she had lost any semblance of sanity.

"It wasn't just to catch you—that's just a perk. No, I set the traps so that if you caught up to me while I was trying to get Penny away from town, I'd be able to slow you down. And it worked," she said victoriously.

My blood ran cold at the mention of Nile's daughter. Of course she had been the one to take her. I felt like a fool for thinking two disappearances in a day weren't connected.

"Where is she?" I demanded.

"In the cabin," Diana said, nodding at the door behind her. "She was getting a little cranky about walking, so I put her in a time-out until she's ready to make another choice."

"If you hurt a hair on that girl's head, I swear to the wolf god, I will kill you where you stand," I threatened, teeth clenched in anger.

Diana's eyes went hard, and her mouth contorted into a frown. "I love my granddaughter, unlike you," she spat. "I wouldn't hurt her."

"If that's true, then why did you take her away from her father?"

"Because he doesn't need her anymore," she said simply. "You forget, I know all about that new parasite you're growing inside you. Nile decided to disrespect my Jana and start a new family with you. He's cast poor Penny aside now, too, and replaced her with your spawn. So, I'm doing what needs to be done to protect my little girl. I'm taking her as far away from this godawful place as I can."

The rope around my ankle was starting to feel hot, and I realized that while it wasn't immediately touching my skin, it was pulled tight enough that whatever it was made of was leaching through the fabric of my jeans. I tried to focus on Diana, distracting myself from the fear and pain while I came up with a plan.

"That isn't true, Diana," I said, tears beginning to well up in my eyes as panic and pain threatened to overtake me. "We both love Penny. She is our joy, and our life. And she loves us, too."

"We'll see," she replied. "I don't think it'll take too long for her to forget about you."

I let out a small sob, unable to contain it any longer. The thought of waking up each day without Penny being a part of my life was more than I could bear. I needed to try to release the rope one last time. It would hurt, but not nearly as much as living without my daughter would.

I grasped the rope lightly this time, trying to wiggle it away from my leg, but it didn't matter. No matter how little I was in contact with it, the pain was unbearable.

Diana laughed again as she witnessed my distress. "You should probably stop touching that," she taunted.

"What is this damn thing made out of?" I asked.

"That? Just a silver rope infused with wolfsbane. Alpha Jasper left all kinds of fun goodies behind in these cabins when he moved to Pinedale."