Chapter 26 - Where the hell is she?
Justin's POV
I sit in my room, staring at my wall blankly as my mind runs on overdrive. It's just closing in on Sunday night, meaning it's been roughly about a day and a half since I kissed Lucy, which also means it's been roughly about a day and a half since I saw her last.
She went to Beck's, I'm certain of it, but the question is... how long is she going to stay there for?
When I got back from the lake cabin yesterday I went straight to her house, but Jess and Amy were the only ones there. I didn't tell them what had happened at the lake cabin, I didn't really think that Lucy would appreciate that much, so I just asked them where she was and they both told me that she was probably at his.
Ugh, I really hate that guy.
I want to know what she's thinking. No, I need to know...
From the moment she ran away yesterday right up until this very moment, there's been one thing playing on my mind and one thing only. That kiss.
Sighing, I lean my head back against the headboard of my bed as the scene replays in my mind for what feels like the thousandth time.
The feel of her lips against mine, the way her scent seemed to only intensify with each passing second, it was just so... right.
Only, there's one small problem, the fact that she ran away.
Although, she also kissed me back. She kissed me back and then ran away so... what does that mean exactly?
She said that she couldn't, not that she didn't want to, so does that mean that she secretly did want to...?
I frown slightly, trying to figure her out. Normally I'm really good at reading the signals that girls give me but... Lucy is just so hard to decipher. But she did kiss me back, so I'm thinking that counts for something.
But she also ran away.
I sigh again. I really need to talk to her.
Just then, my phone beeps next to me, and I quickly reach over to see who the text is from.
What if it's her?
It's not, and I immediately feel the disappointment sink in my stomach when I realise that it's only Dean.
'Hey, man, you feel like hanging tonight? A few of the lads are thinking about heading to town.'
I contemplate it for a while before replying.
'Nah, I'm good. Maybe another night.'
Another text comes through a few minutes later.
'Your dad got you on lockdown or something?'
'Or something. Sorry, man.' I reply.
Once I send the text, I quickly flick to my contacts list and scroll down until I find the name I'm looking for. When I get to it, I let my thumb hover over the call button for a few seconds before telling myself to man the hell up and press it, placing my phone to my ear and listening as it begins to ring.
Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Ring, ring. "I'm sorry, the person you are calling is unable to get to the phone right now, please try again later or leave a message after the beep." Beep.
I hang up with a sigh. Great, she's ignoring me.
Or... maybe she doesn't have her phone on her?
Not that it makes the situation much better; it still leaves me unable to get through to her. Unless...
No. No way. You're not going over there just so you can talk to her; she'll probably come home tomorrow anyway.
And yet, even as I tell myself this, I find myself putting my phone in my pocket as I get up off my bed, quickly stuffing my feet into my shoes.
Fine, if she won't come here then I guess I'll just have to go to her. Who cares if that seems like something a stalker would do? I can justify it. She hasn't answered her phone, which might just mean that she doesn't want to talk to me right now, but it could also mean that she's in trouble.
My heart plummets at the thought of her being in any kind of danger, and that makes up my mind.
I'm going to Beck's.
"Dad, I'm off out!" I call to him as I pass his office.
"Okay, be careful!" he calls back just in time before I close the front door behind me.
Okay, let's get this over with.
***
After an hour of running through to woods in wolf form, I begin to recognise my surroundings as being close to Beck's cave, so I decide that now would probably be a good time to change back.
Once I'm dressed again, I quickly head in the direction I think the cave's in.
God, I hope I've remembered this right; it would suck to get lost right now.
I'm in luck, though, as not ten minutes later I hear the sound of running water as a familiar looking cave comes into view.
Crap, well, here goes nothing.
I go to call out Lucy's name but an annoyingly familiar voice beats me to it.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Beck asks, coming around from the back of the cave holding a pile of clothes. He doesn't look all too pleased to see me. Well, I can honestly say the feeling's mutual.
"I need to talk to Lucy," I reply, keeping my voice as neutral as possible but failing miserably.
"Lucy?" he asks with a frown, stopping dead in his tracks. "Lucy's not here."
Now it's my turn to frown, and a small feeling of dread begins to slowly grow inside me.
"What?" I ask, glancing towards the cave and heading towards it.
He could be lying. Although... even I can't deny the fact that there seems to be an obvious lack of her sweet citrus scent in the air.
When I enter the cave I glance around. There's a candle on the shelves casting a dim light over the walls of the cave, but there's definitely no Lucy. Now my dread turns into panic.
She's not here. Lucy's not here. If she's not here then... where the hell is she?
"Believe me now?" Beck asks from behind me, dumping the clothes on the floor, but his voice is lacking its usual hostile tone towards me. He knows that something's wrong. "What's going on?"
I head back outside, ignoring his question. She has to be here!
"Luce?" I call out, surveying all the trees surrounding me. "Lucy!"
Maybe she really just doesn't want to talk to me, or maybe she's just gone on a run, or - or...
"She's really not here," I say, looking back at Beck and taking note of the growing worry in his expression.
There's not really a lot that the two of us agree on, but the thought of Lucy being in trouble is definitely one of the exceptions.
"You don't know where she is?" he asks, his voice deadly serious.
"I thought she came here after..." I trail off. "When was she last here?"
"Yesterday," he replies immediately. "But only for a few hours, then she went back home."
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I call Dean. He picks up after three agonizingly long rings.
"Hey, man, what's up? You changed your mind?" he asks, and I hear the sound of a crash and then some laughter in the background.
"No, listen I need you to do something for me," I reply, getting straight to the point.
"Hold on," he says quickly, obviously picking up on my serious Alpha tone of voice. "Guys, shut the hell up for a sec, would ya!" he calls to the others, and the noise in the background dies down a little. "What's going on?" he then asks me.
"Are you still up town?" I ask, hoping he's not too far away from the Harbours' house.
"Yeah, why?" he replies.
"I need you to go to the Harbours' for me."
"Why, what's happened?" he asks, immediately sounding worried. "Is Am - is everyone okay?"
"I don't know," I reply honestly, my panic growing by the second. "I don't know where Lucy is. I thought she was at Beck's but I'm here now and she's not here-"
"Dude, dude, calm down, I'm like a five minute walk away from their house. I'll go and check things out," he assures me. "Just get your ass back here and we'll figure this out."
"I will, just make sure you-"
"I'm practically running," he promises. "I'll speak to you soon." He hangs up.
Okay, okay, so she might be okay. She's probably sat at home watching TV with Amy and Jess right this second.
"Dean's checking to see if she's at home," I tell Beck. "I'm going to head back-"
"You're crazy if you think I'm not coming too," he replies, already heading in the direction of the trees.
I consider arguing that he stay here for a split second, but quickly decide that there's no point, and that I have more important things to worry about right now.
Things like: where the hell is my mate?
***
When we get back to Pack borders, we quickly change back and head in the direction of the town, neither of us talking but both seemingly as determined as the other.
I pull out my phone and call Dean again.
"What's the verdict?" I ask as soon as he's answered.
"She was a no show," he informs me, causing my heart to plummet once again before speeding up to the point that I'm pretty sure it's going to get stuck in my throat. "None of the Harbours' knew where she was either. They all thought she was with Beck. They haven't seen her since yesterday morning."
"Shit," I hiss, running a hand through my hair in frustration. "So she's missing?"
"...yeah," Dean admits. "I've already informed your dad, he's called an emergency Pack meeting. I'm at yours now and almost everyone's arrived."
"Be right there." I hang up.
"Nobody knows where she is?" Beck asks, his voice tense.
"No."
"Fuck, how can nobody know where she is?! Somebody must know something!"
"There's a Pack meeting being held at my place right now," I tell him, knowing that he's not going to leave until Lucy's safe and deciding that I might as well get used to that fact now. At least he looks to be a good fighter, which means he might be useful. "Follow me."
It doesn't take long to get to my house, and I don't hesitate to open the door and head for the dining room the second we reach it. It's already full with Pack members, some looking confused, others looking worried. I instantly spot my dad stood at the table talking to Wayne and make my way over to them, Beck not far behind. However, just as I'm about halfway into the room, I get pulled to a stop by someone I really don't have the time or patience for right now.
"Not now, Melissa," I mutter, trying to keep my voice as polite as possible as I attempt to walk around her. She doesn't let me.
"What's going on Justin?" she asks, looking confused as hell.
"You'll find out in a minute," I reply, once again attempting to dodge around her to get to my dad.
"Why can't you just tell me now?"
"Why can't you just shut up?" I fire back, successfully managing to walk around her this time and get to the table.
"Justin, you're here," my dad says when he notices my arrival, looking tired and stressed. "I've sent some people out to patrol the area, they said they'd let us know if they found anything."
I nod, but his words don't do anything to ease my tension.
"What are we going to do?" I ask him.
"Well, first of all, we're going to inform the Pack of what's going on, then we're going to figure out what's happened and make a plan to get Lucy back," he replies.
"Or," Beck says, speaking up for the first time, "we could just skip to the getting Lucy back bit."
"I agree," I say, surprising everyone including myself. "The Pack isn't important right now. What's important is the fact that Lucy is missing. She's out there somewhere with a gigantic group of rogues living right on our doorstep."
"The Pack is always important," my dad replies, using the same lecturing tone on me as he has done my whole life, along with his number one rule of being an Alpha.
"Not to me," I tell him. "Not right now. You see them?" I point out to the other Pack members as they talk amongst themselves. "They're here and they're safe. Lucy isn't."
Dad looks at me, then to Beck, and then to me again before sighing. "Look, guys," he says in a resigned tone. "I know that you're worried about her, I am too, but we need to be rational here. What if one of them knows something? They might be able to help."
I think it over for a few seconds before sighing. "Fine," I mutter, taking a seat at the table. Arguing with him is just going to waste more time anyway.
Within seconds the rest of the seats at the table are filled and Beck goes to stand in the corner of the room, looking just as impatient as I feel and completely ignoring the curious looks that some of the Pack members are giving him.
A silence then falls over the room as people wait for my dad to speak up.
"One of our Pack members is missing," he announces, getting straight down to the point.
The silence continues for a few more seconds before someone speaks up.
"Who?" Janet, a woman who works at the bakery in town, asks.
"Lucy Jacobs."
Then everything erupts into chaos.
"Do you think it was the rogues?"
"Ugh, what mess has the girl gotten herself into this time?"
"Well, she does go out of borders quite a lot, maybe she just got lost."
"How long has she been gone for?"
"What are we going to do?"
"Does anyone know where she is?"
"Of course not," someone replies to the last one. "Otherwise she wouldn't be missing would she?"
"Enough!" my dad calls out, ordering people to be quiet. "Now, does-"
Just then, the door to the room opens suddenly and in walks Helen. "Sorry to interrupt, Alpha," she says, "but we found this one heading into town." Then, Max appears, bringing a rogue in with him and roughly dragging him into the room.
Nobody seems to know what to do for a while, and then someone announces that we kill him and all hell breaks loose. People start shouting over one another, their voices growing louder so to be heard over the others. Of course, it just results in a big incoherent ramble that nobody can understand.
I completely ignore everyone else, however, as my main focus is on the guy currently being dragged to the front of the room. He's definitely a fighter, that much is obvious, and I'm immediately on guard.
"Everyone be quiet!" my dad orders, using his Alpha voice to get everyone back in their seats as Max shoves the rogue down on his knees in front of him. Then, he turns to the rogue.
"What's your name?" he asks, keeping his tone firm but guarded.
"Devlin," the guy answers, keeping his head bowed just slightly as a sign of respect to the Alpha.
Huh.
I study him closer. His entire body is tensed, but not as if to attack, more as if to defend himself if necessary. He's not after a fight and my dad seems to have already figured that out. So, the question is, what does he want?
Dad turns to Helen. "You said you found him walking into town?"
"Yeah," she replies. "He was alone and didn't put up much of a fight when we found him."
"Sounds like more of a surrender than an attack to me..." Wayne muses, sizing the rogue up as if trying to figure out his angle.
"Who cares?" Baldwin calls out from the back of the room. "Kill him!"
A few other people cheer in agreement but my dad ignores them.
"What are you doing here? You must've known that turning yourself in was practically suicide," he says to the rogue.
"I was hoping you'd give me a little time to hear me out first," he replies, looking up and meeting my dad's eyes directly. Not exactly a challenge, but more of... a possible alliance?
"And what exactly do you have to say that would be of any interest to me?" my dad asks, his voice still guarded but also curious.
"I know where she is," is all the rogue replies, glancing my way and meeting my eyes for a few seconds before looking back at my dad.
A shock of hope flashes through me at those five words.
"She's okay?" I ask, not caring about the warning look my dad sends my way. The message is still clear, though.
We don't know if we can trust him.
"Okay is kind of a... strong word," he replies, apparently choosing his words carefully. "She's alive, that much I'm certain of, but she might not be for much longer. You'll need to hurry."
I look over at my dad, sending another clear message his way.
I'll go alone if I have to.
"How long will it take to get to her?" I ask, looking back at this Devlin guy.
"Not long at all, about fifteen minute's maybe?"
"She's in town?" my dad asks, unable to hide his surprise.
"Yes, along with two more rogues."
"Where are they keeping her?" I ask, ready to go and get her right this second.
"Her old house, the one she used to live in with her parents," he says immediately. I frown.
Her old house... why would they be keeping her there? How would they even know where her old house is?
"Why would they be keeping her there?" Wayne asks, looking just as confused as I feel.
"It's... a long story. We don't have the time. She doesn't have the time."
"We have to go get her," I say to my dad, turning to find him apparently deep in thought.
"How do we know he's not lying?" Dean asks before turning to look at him. "Why are you helping us? What exactly do you gain here?"
"I have my reasons," Devlin replies simply.
Well that's... vague.
"I think he's telling the truth," dad says suddenly. "How else would he know where her old house is?"
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go," I say, growing more and more impatient by the second. Each second we waste is one more second that Lucy's in danger.
"Okay," dad says with a nod. "Who's going?"
"I am," I say immediately. "And so are Dean and... Beck."
I glance over at him and he gives a single nod of agreement. We both might hate each other's guts but, like I've said before, he looks like he knows how to handle himself which is good if we have a run-in with any of the rogues, and I'm pretty sure he'd jump in front of a bus if it meant keeping Lucy safe. I can't really fault him on this. He's probably the best option out of the people I have to choose from.
"They're two of the best fighters here," I add on.
"Right," dad replies, sounding almost... proud? "Well it looks like you have everything pretty much under control. A small group seems like the best option, it'll give you more of a chance of sneaking in unnoticed, but the three of you should be able to handle it if you run into any trouble. Wayne and I will stay here and deal with the official business."
"Sounds good," I reply with a nod, looking at Dean and Beck. "Ready to go?"
"Wait, I don't see why we should put two of our best fighters at risk over an omega," Baldwin speaks up again. "I mean, she's more trouble than she's worth!"
"Baldwin," I snap before my dad has a chance to reply, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. This isn't your decision to make."
He does as I say and sits back down in his chair.
A few seconds of tense silence pass before my dad breaks it.
"Son, I think you'll do just fine as an Alpha."
"Thanks," I mutter, looking back at Dean and Beck. "Ready?" They both nod.
"Okay, then, let's go," I say, making my way towards the door without checking to see if they're following.
This day has really pushed me to my limits.
(Hey guys!!! So guess what? This is the first time in ageees that I can actually say I've made an EARLY UPDATE!!! I mean, it's only by one day but early is early, right? :)
What do you all think of chapter 26? It's the first Justin POV chapter that I've written in a little while so it might seem a little rusty. Even so, I hope you liked it :D And what do you all think of Devlin now? I know he's not been in the story for long but he's already started to grow on me :) endlesstwilight you managed to hit the nail right on the head with that comment on the last chapter :D
So... Beck or Justin, who're you routing for? It's always fun reading all your opinions on those two :) And what do you think is going to happen next? Next chapter will be a Lucy POV and I'm not quite sure when it'll be up for, I'll try and make it soon, promise!!!
Oh, and before I forget... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Well, I mean, technically that's not for another few hours yet but you're all crazy if you think I'll manage to write the next chapter in time for midnight tonight ;) I hope 2014 has treated you all well and that 2015 will treat you even better :) I can safely say that I'm going to miss 2014, it's definitely been one of my best years yet. I mean, come on, leaving school? What can beat that? :D Plus, I have to work tomorrow, meaning I'll be starting the new year by waking up at 6:45 (which is just CRIMINAL in the holidays!) so I can get to work for EIGHT IN THE BLOODY MORNING!!! Sounds fun right? (note the sarcasm) but I guess it's not all bad as I do get to finish early so :D :D :D
Anywho, I'm officially rambling so I'll shut up now. Thanks for reading and don't forget to Vote/Comment/Add if you liked it, thanks!!! So, yeah, until next time, byee!)