Page 59 of A Cock and Bull Story

“The girls are right,” he finally decrees.

Jack mutters something angrily under his breath, but Jude just raises a hand for silence.

“I will shift and go fly overhead to keep an eye on her. Belle needs some space, but that doesn’t mean she’s safe. I will keep an eye on her—at a distance—so everyone gets what they want.”

He quickly strips and shifts before anyone can argue with him. Jude buzzes near the window, and I leap over to open it for him to fly out.

There’s a moment of awkward silence before Jack addresses the birds.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes.

Sian nods her acceptance, but Elise just sniffs in affront.

“Come on, Leez,” he begs the booby. “I’m just. . . worried—”

“And we’re not?!” she snarks.

“I didn’t say that!” Jack retorts in defense. “I care for Belle—I mean, I have a different connection with her, I think—”

“She screwed Arthur, too, so I doubt it,” Elise responds icily.

Jack looks at me sheepishly.

“I think we all care about her. . .deeply,” I offer.

The ass shifter stares at me intently before acknowledging my words.

“Then, I guess we’ll all do whatever it takes to keep her safe.”

There’s a hum of agreement and, once more, we’re working together as a team with a common goal.

Suddenly, Jude flits back through the window and shifts mid-air. He lands gracefully on his feet, but his eyes are panicky.

“Belle’s gone! I can’t scent her anywhere on campus—nor can I find her!” Jude’s frantic tone puts us all in a state of agitation—he’s always the calm during the storm. “I can just vaguely smell her near one building, come on!”

Jude hastily pulls on some clothes, and we race across campus. Just as he said, I can faintly smell traces of Belle on the front steps of the office building, but there’s no indication of which direction she went—it’s like she justvanished.

“How are we going to find her?” Sian cries.

“We need a tracker,” Theo concludes.

My innards protest at the thought of Belle missing—our time to save her at this point is dwindling.

There is little chance we’ll be able to get to her in time before the Tertiaries kill her—if they haven’t already.

“I know someone!” Jack yells. “Best tracker around—and he owes me big time.”

“Great—call him now!” Jude orders, but Jack is already dialing the number.

For our sake, I hope this tracker is a miracle worker—because we’re going to need one.

“Wake up, Miss Harper. We have things to do,” a familiar voice commands me in my ear.

My eyes slit open, and I find myself bound in an unrecognizable area. From what I can see, it looks like a cemented area with fluorescent lights and cages.

That's right—cages.

It's exactly like something I would expect to find if somebody ran an underground cockfighting ring. I look back over at the man who woke me up and see Dean Hardwick.