Secrets of the Wolves

Chapter 10: And Run

"Yeah," she said slowly and she walked back inside, warily watching Raylor. As soon as the door sucked shut, Raylor began at a rapid pace.

"Last night we were mulling things over when Toby's mom came home in a tizzy and called an urgent pack meeting because she'd been at the park earlier with Grace and she'd gone to the bathroom and then when Grace didn't come out for a while, she went to the bathroom but she couldn't go in because there was a Hex and--and . . . Sigrid, someone took Grace."

I heard the words, oh for certain, but they didn't register. Someone took Grace? It didn't compute. "Someone . . . someone took Grace?" I repeated, my heart slowing down. That meant that Grace . . . Grace was alone and scared and oh God my knees were crippling beneath me.

Uncle Zion had brought home a souvenir last night. Grace had gone missing last night.

My breath was caught in my throat. Nononononono Grace couldn't--he couldn't have killed Grace! "'Scuse me," I said breathlessly, pushing past Raylor. "Be right back." I closed the back door, shutting her out, and rushed upstairs with wobbly feet.

Would he have killed an innocent little girl?

I banged on his office door, my heart pounding like a drum, my stomach twisting like mashed Play-Doh.

"Come in," he said pleasantly, as if he had no idea what he'd done. Of course, he didn't.

I barged through the door, unable to compose myself. "Uncle Zion," I said when he looked up at me from his desk. "Where did you go hunting yesterday?" I wasn't worried about Raylor hearing me; the plethora of Hexes on his walls acted as soundproofing.

He tapped his pen on the desk and his eyebrow twitched in suspicion. "Why?"

WHY? "Be-because--" I bit my lip and looked around his room frantically. "Because it's relative to my life and--and I'm trying to find a safe distance to keep myself away from the places that you hunt at," I lied.

"You've never showed interest in my field before."

"Change of heart."

"So it seems." He took a breath and filed through papers.

WHERE DID YOU GO HUNTING? My wolf roared over the blood rushing in my ears. I winced as he looked up at me.

"Ah. I went hunting in the Rich Lake Pack, about one hundred miles southeast of here," he said. "One of the scouts," he said, holding up a pearl bracelet, "and her best friend, the wife of the Beta," he finished, holding up a pendant necklace.

The wife of the Beta.

That's us, my wolf said, shivering. If he continued like this, one day, he might kill me or my mate or my future pack--

That's not our future, I reminded myself as I thanked my uncle and skidded onto the back deck. So Grace wasn't dead, but that meant she was alive and terrified, lonely, maybe cold, tortured--

I shook my head as I closed the back door, trying to clear my thoughts.

"You okay?" Raylor asked.

"Yeah. Bathroom," I lied, rubbing my stomach like I'd hurled. I felt like I needed to anyhow. I took a deep breath. If the kidnapper had use Hexes, that meant her scent was untraceable.

But we are immune, my wolf said, on her feet and pushing up to meet my skin. We can find her. "How'd you get here?" I asked Raylor, my fingers running up to my earlobe, rubbing it in fear for my little friend. I was supposed to take care of her! I'd told her I was going to.