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“Fuck!”I snarled, Demon pushing against my skin.

“What is it?”Max asked, suddenly standing right beside me.

“Jezebel.She didn’t get to the bakery,” I snarled, unable to control the Wolf.

I started running towards my pickup, aware that the rest of the Crew were keeping pace with me.

“You don’t have to do this.I know the ranch needs these rodeos for advertising,” I said.

I was shaking with fear or rage, I was not sure which.Maybe both.

Please be okay.

“Jezebel belongs to you, and that means she is one of us,” Dante rumbled.

“Bear’s right.Let’s go,” Zeke said.

“Shut the fuck up and drive, Emmet,” Max commanded, but I was already turning the key without his Alpha order.

He pulled up Penelope’s location on his cell phone, and I raced to the back road where Jezebel’s car was laying in a ditch, abandoned.

Penelope ran to Max, who’d jumped out of the car at the same time I did.Only I was headed for the driver’s side.

“T-There’s blood,” Penelope whimpered.

“No, no, no!”I snarled, and dropped to my knees, fighting against my Wolf.

Demon was pushing so hard to get out.But I needed to keep my skin to find the bastards who hurt my mate.

I pushed the monster down and looked at what was right in front of me.

Blood on the door.It was hers.

Fuck.No.

I sniffed.

Fur.Wolf.

No, it was more than just a Wolf.

I knew that scent.I took another long inhale, ignoring the sounds of my Crew as they did their own investigating.

This was a Wolf I thought I was rid of.A Wolf I never expected to see again.A Wolf who’d just signed his own death warrant.

I closed my eyes, allowing Demon to rise inside of me.At the last minute I turned to my Crew.Locking gazes with Max, I said in an inhumane voice the last words I ever wanted to say.

“I know who has her.”

And I was going to make him suffer.

Chapter Twenty-Four-Jezebel

Dusk had fallen, wrapping the world in a shroud of muted gray.The air had turned bitterly cold as I sat tied to the trunk of a gnarly old tree, its twisted branches reaching out like fingers against the encroaching darkness.

The woods felt alive with malice.The unsettling stillness made me shiver.Each rustle of leaves echoed ominously in the growing chill.

I could see my breath misting in front of me.Like clouds streaming from my nostrils.I felt vulnerable out here, all alone with a madman somewhere between the ranch and the drive-in.