Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

Evelyn

L ate afternoon sunlight filtered through the gauzy curtains, making the bed look like something straight out of heaven. I blinked, my heart quickening with an urgency that jolted me fully awake. I swung my legs over the edge, the floorboards cool under my bare feet. The silence of the room pressed in on me, and I flipped over my phone to check the time.

Four o'clock. What the hell was wrong with me? I'd wasted hours I could've been searching for more clues, and now the day was nearly over.

I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of the dagger resting on the nightstand and shivered. The metal was cold no matter how long I held it, and it felt like air from a freezer was snaking up my arm as I strode toward the door. My wolf rumbled deep within me.

She sensed it, too. Of course, she did. I stopped with my hand on the brass door knob and closed my eyes.

"Just for a minute," I whispered, then drew a deep breath and allowed my wolf to lift closer to the surface. I couldn't do this without her, but the idea of letting her loose sent ice slipping down my spine.

If humans were unpredictable and erratic after experiencing trauma, a wolf was a wildfire. I'd tried to let her out shortly after arriving in Seattle, but after she caught sight of movement and nearly killed a man out walking with his dog, I had to lock her down. She was too volatile. And I was too much of an emotional mess to take the reins.

We'd settled into homeostasis for a time, but the past six months, she hadn't been thrilled about our arrangement. I couldn't blame her, but while I felt plenty of guilt over locking her up, I couldn't risk losing control again.

That was before Callista went missing. Now we were going to have to figure out how to work together.

As my wolf ascended, I gritted my teeth at the torrent of sensation. My senses sharpened in a snap. The smells of the world became more pronounced, more nuanced. Tears stung my eyes as I tried to settle my breathing while my black-and-white world exploded into color.

"Easy," I murmured, striving for control. Embracing my full shifter abilities meant unleashing my wolf, and the thought made my knees knock. The beast within me was no longer just a part of my identity. She was a liability. A wild card I couldn't afford to play recklessly.

As she surged forward, the memory of that night flashed through my mind—a blur of fur and fangs, and Nathan's eyes, darkened with something I couldn't decipher. Betrayal or protection? The line had blurred, and my trust had shattered along with it. He had wounded us both, yet it was my wolf who bore the deeper scar, the one that festered and threatened to drive her into a frenzy.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image, but another took its place. Rowan Steele. Alpha. What? Why was she focusing on him? Sure, I'd thought about him a couple of times since seeing him yesterday and…fine, yes, he had appeared in my dreams last night, but that was normal, wasn't it? Seeing someone from my childhood after years apart was bound to mess with me. But why was she paying attention?

As if on cue, my wolf surged forward at the thought of him, drawn to his strength like a moth to flame. I suppressed a shudder, feeling the power of her longing.

"Stop it," I scolded, pressing my hand harder against the door. "I get that you're horny, okay? But we're here for Callista, not tail." Even as I said it, my stomach swooped. Tail did sound nice…

I groaned, forcing my eyes closed. "We can discuss that later," I hissed. Maybe I had locked down too hard, but jumping into bed with someone here was not an option. And Rowan Steele? Hell, no. He was an alpha, and not only outside my pack but the leader of the one pack that had ousted us. Rowan hadn't led Black Lake Pack then, but he used to be Nathan's best friend. The fact that he was their alpha now? I knew exactly how Nathan and the rest of Kitimat Pack would feel about that.

Even as that knowledge slammed into me, it hadn't kept me from noticing all of him in those thirty seconds. His pale blue eyes. The stubble on his chin. The energy zipping under his skin that made me wonder if he'd locked things up just as much as I had…

"Shiiiit, can you focus, please?" I gripped the door handle until my knuckles turned white, trying to think about anything other than the burning in my midsection.

Finally, I zeroed in on Callista's scent, teasing it apart from the myriad others that filled the room: the pine-scented soap she favored, the tangy residue of old tea in a cup on her nightstand, the underlying musk that was all wolf. Closing my eyes, I followed the scent trail to the window, pushing it open to let the crisp air of northern British Columbia rush in. Redwood and cedar whispered in the breeze, but underneath that, the faintest trace of Callista's passage beckoned.

I leaned out, drawing in a long, steady inhale. There it was—a thin thread of her essence, pulling me toward the dense forest surrounding the town. Her path was erratic, zigzagging through the underbrush, a sign she was either in a hurry or...

I shook my head. No time for speculation. Not when every second could mean the difference between finding her safe or not. I jumped out onto the clover and stalked forward. "She went into town." My wolf locked in, and I tracked mentally first, envisioning her potential route, noting the places where her scent spiked—by a cluster of berry bushes, across the creek where we used to play as pups, near the old logging road that humans rarely traveled.

Once I had the beginning of her trail in my mind, I slipped back inside and gathered the rest of my belongings. A sturdy jacket, some provisions, and an extra pair of socks from Callie's drawers. Essentials only. I shoved everything into a backpack and trudged into Blake's study, the cold metal of the dagger pressing against my palm. Its ornate handle glinted in the soft light filtering through the blinds, casting intricate shadows on the walls. I laid it carefully onto the mahogany desk, watching as Blake and his mate, Celeste, leaned in for a closer look.

"Ever seen anything like this?" I asked.

Blake's brows furrowed as he picked up the weapon, turning it over in his large, calloused hands. "No," he admitted, a hunter's focus narrowing his green eyes. "No markings or symbols I recognize."

Celeste, her ethereal beauty always seeming so out of place in the ruggedness of our world, shook her head, her delicate fingers tracing the air above the blade as if sensing its history. "It's not from any of our known artisans or blacksmiths. Where did you find it?"

"Under her bed."

Celeste's eyes narrowed. "This was here in the house?"

The room fell silent, each of us lost in our thoughts until Blake cleared his throat, breaking the spell the dagger seemed to cast. He placed it back on the desk with a thud. "We're heading south to the lower provincial pack meeting. You could come."

My heart skipped a beat. Pack meeting? I couldn't show my face in town, let alone at a meeting with every lower provincial pack. The thought of it set every nerve in my body alight with resistance. The thrumming undercurrent of my wolf's instincts warned of the inherent danger in mingling with those who could tear me apart for simply existing outside their rigid hierarchy.

"Callista might have had dealings with someone from the other packs. You wouldn't have to show your face," Blake continued, unknowingly echoing my own thoughts. "You could gather information. Watch. I could take the dagger to the elders?—"

"You could take it, that's a great idea. I could stay here, and you could tell me what you find."

Blake raised an eyebrow, and he didn't have to say a word. I clenched my jaw, my heart knocking against my ribs. If there were clues out there, whispers of her fate caught in the wind, we both knew I would be the one to find them. Yet the coil of dread in my gut refused to unwind.

It was risky. The mere thought of being submerged in a sea of wolves who could recognize me tightened my chest. But Callista was out there, possibly in danger, and every instinct I possessed screamed at me to find her. To protect one of our own.

"Alright." I swallowed hard. "I'll do it."