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“He left the clubhouse last night and still isn’t back. That’s not like him. The pup always lets his mom know if he’s staying out. He knows how she worries. But we’re not getting anything, brother. Not even Dirk or Elena can pick up his scent.”

Fuck. If the pup was invisible to us, to his parents, that meant he was being hidden from us. We’d know if he was dead, Lucifer would have told us. Someone had him, someone powerful. “Anyone know where he was headed?”

“A female, not one who comes to the clubhouse, one he met in the city. We got no other details on her.”

Not good. “On my way.”

I got on my bike and tore out onto the street.

Witches, demons, shifters of all kinds, except maybe crows, all could be caught and held against their will and used for their powers or strength.

Hounds were left alone, we were too old, too strong, too hard to conceal, and no one wanted to tangle with Lucifer.

So if someone was hiding him from us, it was someone with some serious power behind them.

When I pulled into the clubhouse, everyone was already there. I strode over to War. Dirk stood with him. Willow stood beside Elena, trying to comfort her.

“Anything?” I asked.

Worry etched Dirk’s face and he shook his head.

“This isn’t like him,” Elena said, eyes full of fear.

“Who’s he tight with?” We were brothers, and we were here for each other, but Brick was only twenty, still a pup, and he had to have friends more his own age.

“He texts Gus a lot. They hang when he comes above ground,” Dirk said.

Gus was one of a new batch of hounds Lucifer created, born full grown like the majority of us but definitely still considered a pup. They looked physically about the same age, and he was definitely more on Brick’s wavelength.

“I’ll call him, see if he can tell us anything about this female.”

War nodded. “Good thinking.” He shook his head. “We let you down,” he said to Dirk and Elena. “We should’ve kept a closer eye on him.”

We weren’t used to having pups around. Besides Kurgan and Relic, who were born and raised in Hell, we hadn’t had that many pups.

There were others mated, who stayed in Hell, brothers who had already mated and lost their females long ago to old age, their female children as well.

Brick was one of the first pups with mated parents born out of Hell.

We’d never had to worry about it before, and I guess that gave us some blind spots.

I scrolled to Gus’s number as I walked to a quieter spot.

“Jag,” he said in a voice that was more hound than man. Living in Hell all the time did that to a male.

“Brother, you heard from Brick?”

“Negative.”

“You know anything about the female he’s been spending time with?”

“Only that she lets him mount her regularly.” There was a pause. “And that she has blond hair, big tits, a nice ass, and a tight?—”

“Anything besides the way her body looks?”

“When she orgasms, she’s extremely loud,” he said matter-of-factly.

I shook my head. Gus and Brick were opposites in every way.

Created by Lucifer as Gus was, he hadn’t learned social cues like the rest of us had to, how to mimic emotion and blend in with humans.

He was as emotionless as the rest of us were—or in my case, had been.

Brick, on the other hand, being born to mated parents who both had the full scope of emotions, he’d never experienced the way most of us had lived.

“You know where his female stayed? A name?”

“Serena.”

“Anything else?”

“He mainly just told me how it felt to mount her.”

When we got Brick back, I needed to have a talk with him about this shit. He was a hound, he was big, we all were. Lost to lust, he could hurt a female. Not all could take a cock our size, definitely not humans. “She a shifter?” Shifters were made to take big.

“He mentioned running in the forest with her, so I can only assume she is.”

We ended the call and I hit Draven’s number, the alpha of the Silver Claw pack.

“Jag,” he answered.

“You seen Brick at the keep lately?”

“No, what’s up?”

“He’s missing. You got a female out there named Serena?”

“No.”

“You know of any with that name, packless, living in the area?”

“No females I know of with that name. If there was, one of our males would have sniffed her out.”

“If you hear anything, let me or War know, yeah?”

“Will do.” He was quiet a beat. “We good? Had a conversation with War, heard a few of my pack got rough with your female?”

“We’re good, as long as you dealt with that shit.” Draven was a good male, a tough but fair alpha. If he hadn’t been those things, we’d have a problem.

“I’m still dealing with it. That shit does not fly with me. Won’t happen again, I assure you.”

“Appreciate that.”

We disconnected, and I strode back to War and Dirk and told him what I knew, which wasn’t a whole fucking lot.

“We’ll search in shifts,” War said. “I’ll lead the first shift, you stay here with Rome and Fender and guard the females and pups. Keep everyone in the dens. We’ll switch when I get back.”

“Sounds good.”

His gaze slid to my hands, still covered in Poe’s now dried demon blood. “That’s a lot of blood, brother, anything you need to tell me?”

“Nothing to report.”

He held my gaze, then nodded. “You know where I am if you change your mind.”

I lifted my chin and waited while Willow kissed her mate goodbye, then I ushered her and Elena down to the dens. Not that Willow needed protection. The female could kick ass.

Once everyone was situated and Rome and Fender were on guard duty, I headed to my den to wash that fucker’s blood off. The females wouldn’t like it, and I didn’t want to scare the pups.

Reaching back, I tugged off my shirt, then turned on the shower. Now that everything was quiet, Sutton filled my mind once more. She never left it, though, did she? Even when I was trying to fight our connection, deny it, she was always there.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and was about to put it on the bathroom counter when I got a proper look at myself.

There were a few scratches on my side and shoulder from Poe’s claws, but they’d already healed and only red streaks remained.

There was plenty of blood spattered across my tattooed skin, up my forearms and some streaked across the side of my throat, though. None of it was mine.

I didn’t know how to please Sutton. I didn’t understand what she needed from me, and I doubted I’d know how to give it to her even if I did. But I could give her this—I could protect her. The blood on my skin, from the male who dared touch her, who dared touch what was mine, filled me with pride.

Not sure what the fuck I was doing, but needing to do it for some reason, I opened the camera and snapped a picture. She said she didn’t need my protection, but that wasn’t true, and deep down I had to believe she knew it as well. She needed me. She needed me to be this for her.

Clicking open the Nightscape app, I opened our messages, the only one there now was the one I’d sent her that morning, after delivering the herbs to her.

Did she like them? I had no idea. I hoped she did.

I wanted to make her smile. I wanted to make her happy, to give her something she needed.

So she wouldn’t have to steal from the Ellis coven cemetery, anymore.

Attaching the picture, I thought about what to say.

I liked seeing pictures of her, so I had to assume she’d like seeing one of me.

She’d sent me so many over the three months I’d been away, and she’d always written something cute or silly to go along with it.

I wasn’t capable of either of those things.

I didn’t know how to be funny. I wasn’t like Relic.

I tried to think of what he might say, then something Sutton had messaged me popped into my head.

She’d been angry at the time, yes, but it was definitely something Relic would find funny, something he wouldn’t hesitate in sending to his mate to make her smile or laugh.

I quickly typed out the message. I stared down at it. Would it piss her off? She was already angry at me. Anything was worth a try at this point, right?

I hit send, and a weird feeling filled my stomach. Fuck. I was nervous. That’s what this sensation was. I’d never been nervous in my life.

I stared down at the message, focused on the icon with her profile picture on it sitting beside my last message, letting me know she’d seen that one. There was a little yellow dot beside it, letting me know she was on the app now. I was literally holding my fucking breath?—

The icon dropped down beside the picture I’d just sent.

She’d seen it, and my message.

I waited, my fingers curling and uncurling at my side. The seconds ticked by, then turned into minutes.

The yellow dot vanished.

She’d gone.

Heat washed over me, not for the first time. I’d made the wrong play. I’d fucked up again. This female had me in knots, had me fucking sweating, and—I looked at my face in the mirror—blushing. I was a motherfucking hound, lieutenant of this pack, I did not blush.

Slamming my phone down on the counter, I stripped and got in the shower.

How the fuck was I going to get through to her?

How the fuck was I going to win her back?