7

I thought coming up here and sitting under the simple twinkle lights she loved so much would help, but it's only causing the ache to intensify.

I considered tearing this all apart. Shredding it all to scraps of nothing, but that won't help either. And she loved it. She'll expect it to be here when she gets home. Because she’s coming home. She has to.

Sitting in the same place we sat the night I decorated it all for her, I allow my head to fall back against the cushions and let it all wash over me. The rage, the terror, the uselessness, the pain, the failure. This is all my fault. My wolf huffs in agreement. I deserve that.

I've been sitting here for hours, wallowing in my fear, allowing it to swallow me whole. The sun is starting to set, and it's dragging my hope below the horizon with it.

I force myself to my feet with the intention of going back inside to clean up the mess I made in the kitchen. I'll be even more pissed at myself if, because I fucked that off all day, Matilda ended up cleaning up after me. My phone pings with what I hope is an update from one of my men, but they don't really text me.

One look at the screen has me flying through the rooftop door and down the stairs to where Slate is still sitting in the exact same spot. The only change is the cord attached to his laptop to prevent its death and an additional laptop beside it.

“Leera just texted me from her number. I don't know how that's possible when we have her phone, though!” I’m yelling as I approach him. At the sound of my voice, Benny races into the kitchen area as well, with the twins hot on his heels.

Slate snatches the phone from my hands and starts typing like a madman on one of his laptops, with all of us hanging over his shoulder, like we’d understand anything on the screen anyway.

He shakes his head as he mumbles to himself, “I'm so fucking stupid. I should have thought about that. Goddammit, Boss, I should have thought about that. I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Should have thought about what?! WHERE IS SHE?!” I roar, my chest rising and adrenaline pumping through me as I impatiently wait for an answer. “Doesn't she wear one of those smartwatches?” he asks as the realization dawns on all of us. We could have tracked her this whole time.

“Yes, she’s always using it for alarms and appointments and reminders. I didn't know those could be tracked.”

“Some of them can't, but the ones like hers that are connected to the networks can be. I'm not able to pull a signal from it now, but I can triangulate the general area from the towers her text pinged off of,” he says as he continues to type furiously on both laptop keyboards.

In only a few minutes, he locates a one-mile area for us to search. We crash around, grabbing our things on our way out of the townhouse to get our girl, as Matilda calls her. Fuck! I didn't clean the kitchen. I'm going to owe that little woman big time. But that can wait until we get my mate back.

We reach the garage, and my men turn to me for instruction.

“We take two cars in case shit hits the fan.”

They instinctively split into two groups. One group takes Benny's lifted, white truck, and the other group takes the black SUV with dark tinted windows.

Benny and the twins in his. Slate, Andrei, and I in the SUV.

I am hoping that driving will help channel some of the burning, electric intensity surging through my body, but nothing will help until she is safe in my arms.

According to the GPS directions Slate loaded to the SUV's navigation system, she's only been twenty fucking minutes away this entire gods-damn time!

I've never been so pissed and happy about something at the same time in my entire existence.

We approach a new neighborhood development area. There are what looks to be about fifty mid-construction homes scattered throughout the new subdivision. We initially drive by to ensure the area isn't crawling with whoever—or whatever—took Leera from me.

Seeing no signs of life in the extended area, we park on the outskirts of the neighborhood’s boundaries in the black of night.

She's in this neighborhood somewhere. I can't get a solid direction on her location because her scent is so faint on the light breeze.

I take off my clothes and throw them in the back of Benny's truck without a second thought, my men following my lead.

We're surrounded with the sounds of bones crunching and snarls as we give our wolves control of our bodies.

Benny's wolf is ready first. He’s all cinnamon-red fur and muscles, as he nods to me with a snarl.

The twins’ wolves are next, in their matching forms. They're both leaner than Benny and I, but it works to help them slink about when needed. They're both solid gray with the exception of their tails; that’s the only way you can tell them apart in wolf form. Eris has a black tip on the end of his tail, while the tip of Dolos’ tail is white.

Andrei comes snarling up to the group in his large brindled wolf form, as Slate casually approaches still in human form, checking his laptop one last time before exploding into a solid onyx-black wolf, pawing at the ground.

In an instant, we're sprinting through the development, trusting my wolf to lead us to our mate. Her scent is slowly getting stronger, but so is that of the other unknown wolves.

When I'm certain we're about to approach the house where they must be keeping her, I hear the skip of a rock on the pavement to my right. Hold it, men; we've got company. With my men to my left, I whip my body to the right and capture the man, who is still in human form, by the throat and rip it out, hopefully preventing him from alerting anyone of our arrival. Benny's huff in approval is all it takes for us to continue our pursuit.

Judging by the scents in the air, we have one or two more men to take care of before we can safely get Leera out of here. Swinging my head in either direction, I send my men to circle the house and take care of any others as I approach the nearly finished home in front of me.

I shift back into my human form to comfortably fit inside the house and survey my surroundings as Eris calls out through our mind link, Got one, while Dolos bitches that he wanted him.

The house is massive. Open concept like our townhouse, but it hasn't been painted yet. The drywall on the walls is still covered in spots from the builders using mud to cover the screws and divots. There is a pile of cabinets sitting in what I assume will be the kitchen, waiting to be installed. Just on the other side of the kitchen area is an empty chair next to a door, where the last guard must have been sitting.

I think she's being kept in the basement. I'm going down.

Heard.

I slowly turn the knob on the door, and it doesn't creak or squeak, and I'm thankful for the new building. There's a light on at the bottom of the stairs, and in that moment, I know she's here. But so is someone else. No longer caring for discretion, I throw my body down the stairs as fast as my legs can go.

The greasy slime ball of a man rounds the stairs just as I reach the bottom. My wolf wants to rip his head from his body, but we need answers, so I settle for kicking his right knee backwards, listening for the sound of the bones snapping as he wails. The bones will heal fast, so I kick him in the chest, knocking the wind from his body as Benny catches up to us. He grabs the man from behind and holds onto him as the twins approach, ready to carry him out of here. He's thrashing and growling and likely about to shift, so Slate punches him right behind the ear and knocks him out to save us the trouble.

It only takes a second to find her; she’s laying on her back at the far side of the basement in the dark. She's barely breathing. Checking for her pulse, she doesn't even stir. Her pulse is incredibly low as well. They must have been keeping her drugged.

I kneel and lay my body over hers and take a moment to treasure the feel of her living body under mine. The moment is reminiscent of finding Imogen, but I made it this time. I made it to her in time.

We don't have time for me to give in to my emotions, so I hold them back as I scoop her tiny body into my arms. I stand and turn to find Andrei waiting for me. His eyes glaze over when he sees her limp body in my arms as we climb the stairs.

As soon as the twins give the all clear, we sprint out of this house and away from the neighborhood.

Slate's waiting in the driver's seat of the SUV, the truck already having left with the twins, Benny, and the man we found. I climb into the back seat with her in my lap as Andrei throws me my clothes before slamming the door and catapulting himself into the passenger seat. Slate peels out onto the road to take us home. I set Leera on the seat next to me only long enough to slide my pants on before I'm scooping her back up and plastering our bodies together, whispering everything I wanted to say to her that I held back. Whispering everything I wish I could have said to Imogen had I found her in time. Promising that this will never happen again. Promising her the world.