Page 57

Grey

“He needs to be safe!” my father points at Erica, deadly serious.

“Graydon, get your finger the fuck out of my mate’s face,” Rye warns, voice equally lethal.

“Her magic has been suppressed,” Erica says, sounding confused. “And your son has demonstrated that his magic is very, very powerf–”

“Was my mate poisoned by magic?” Dad demands. “Why does she smell like Soleil Young?”

“Are you sure that’s who you’re smelling?” Rye asks.

“If you say–” Erica starts to reply.

“I’m fuckin’ sure,” he insists, thrusting his hand through his hair with frustration. “She was my fucking fated mate, of course I remember what she smells like.”

“Let her finish a goddamn sentence, Graydon. You’re really pissin’ me off here.”

“It’s okay,” she placates. “It’s okay, Riley.”

Dad growls in frustration.

“You’re all right? You feel okay?” I’m talking to my mom now.

“I… Yeah, I feel fine,” she replies looking disoriented. And her eyes keep pinging to my father. He’s upsetting her.

Dad already asked her a bunch of questions, but she has no idea how she got poisoned. She was in town today for a manicure and pedicure, but she didn’t get a takeout coffee or other drink or food anywhere.

The color has returned to her skin. I know I took all the poison from her and what I spat into that sink was vile. And there was a lot of it.

Dad is worried Soleil is going to do something to me, wants assurances from the coven that they’ve got me covered with magic.

Erica tried unsuccessfully to convince him I’m already showing I can hold my own with magic and that Soleil’s magic is suppressed. My father is certain it’s Soleil he’s smelling on Mom and worries she’ll come after me next, which I don’t get. Mom smells like the hospital and faintly like the poison I pulled from her, but I don’t smell anyone else. I just told him Soleil and I spoke the other day. And he’s livid about this. I’m trying to not lose my shit here and throw in his face that he hasn’t filled me in about her yet, and I’m hanging on by just a loose thread because Stacy is fucking missing.

“You got this?” I turn to ask Erica and Rye. “I need to go.”

It’s been less than five minutes since I found out my mate is gone and that’s as many minutes too long for me to be still standing here.

“Absolutely,” Erica states. “But I just got a text from Vivi. She wants you to take that ampule Dani gave you. Let’s set up a circle and then–”

“No time,” I deny.

She doesn’t try to reason with me. She seems to get that I need to move. I need to move right fucking now. I’d be gone already if it weren’t for the fact I knew, instinctively, that I was the one who needed to pull that poison from my mom.

“Okay. Call me if you need me. I’ll keep my phone with me.”

“We’ve got this. Stay in touch,” Rye says and claps my back.

“Stay at Riley’s until I get back,” I say to Mom and kiss her forehead. “You stay there, too. Be safe,” I say to my sister.

She nods.

“Dad, stay with Rye and Erica, yeah? Know you can hold your own in a fight, but I want you protected by Erica’s magic.”

“Son, I’ll walk you out,” my father insists.

The minute we’re outside, I’m demanding, “Give me the sixty second version of what the fuck caused you to end your bond with her. Now, Dad. Got no time to spare.”

My father succinctly tells me in about a minute why he severed his bond with her, what she did when I was an infant, and my blood runs icy cold at his explanation.

But I can’t give much headspace to it for the moment. I have to get to my mate. I have to end my brother-in-law. And then, I’ll have to figure out why and how my birth mother hurt the woman who raised me as well make sure that she can’t do it again.

My phone rings.

Vivica Young calling.

“Vivi,” I answer. “Not a great time.”

“Greyson…” she breathes, sounding upset. “It just hit me that something is up with your birth mother. And…with Stacy. And Halla Starling. It’s all connected, I don’t know how, but you need to be extremely cautious.”

***

I’m dead on my feet. I keep blinking away double vision because I haven’t slept. I’ve been up for more than forty-eight hours and just drove for over eight hours between the drive to Drowsy Hollow and back to Silver Hills. I won’t be sleeping any time soon.

Dani also called me just a few minutes after Vivi called, this time with Vivi and Erica on conference call, to tell me they’re all on standby if I need them, that they’re all linking up to do a group protection spell to offer me protection as well as trying a locator spell for Stacy. Dani says there should’ve been protocol followed after I pulled that spelled poison from my mom, and she’s worried about my wellbeing.

“I just need to find my mate, Dani,” I said. “That’s all I can do right now. I refuse to leave her at the mercy of her fuckface brother a minute longer than necessary.”

“Okay, Grey. If you get a minute, please draw a salt circle and take the ampule. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

“We’ll do a protection spell in case something goes wrong before you can, but it won’t be as effective so please try,” a voice in the background says. I think it’s Jessie.

“Okay,” I repeat and end the call.

***

As I survey the last place my mate stood, where Jared’s RV was parked, my wolf abruptly pushes through. And now there’s a new scent in my nose. Obviously, my wolf instincts are more honed right now, so I’ll be leveraging those.

I know what that scent is. Holy shit.

“You good, bro?” Jase asks, concern etched into his face.

I shift back, saying, “Gotta go.”

“I’ll come,” Jase offers.

I’m about to tell him to stay here, but I can tell by his expression he has every intention of pushing to take my back.

“I’ll drive,” he asserts, and I grab my clothes from the ground while I hand him my keys.

“Need you to stop just on the main road so I know which way to go.”

“The masking–” he starts to say, but I cut him off.

“Although Meadows obviously masked Stacy’s scent as well as his own, my wolf pushed in just now when I shifted abruptly by where Jared’s camper had been.”

“Yeah?” he prods.

“I scented someone else. Someone reminiscent of her and also reminiscent of myself.”

Jase doesn’t say anything at first. And now his body language has changed. It’s sinking in.

“The only explanation is one I’m certain explains it. Despite that Stacy is masked, I’m smelling the scent of our growing baby inside her.”

“Let’s find your family,” Jase says and seconds later, we’re peeling out.

Dani said she and her sisters would do a remote locator spell and call if they’re able to glean any information after I told her I couldn’t participate. Because I can’t wait. I won’t.

“Stop here,” I say and get out. I don’t smell it, so I shift. As wolf, the scent hits immediately and I know which way they went. I run that way, and Jase follows me in my car.

Silver Hills is like a wasteland right now. I didn’t take time to talk to anybody, but Brody and Linc followed me to where Stacy’s scent ended. Brody told me he’s telling these people in a few hours to pack up whatever they want to keep and is renting a couple buses and moving vans to get them to Arcana Falls temporarily. He’ll be working to close the deal on the land he wants fast. Says if they don’t choose him as their alpha he’ll be starting his own pack and will open it up to our waiting list if any of them want to join.

There’s nothing for these people to go back to. Other than maybe some sentimentality, Silver Hills is nothing but junk and shit.

***

We’ve been driving for another hour and Jase is on the phone talking to Joel. I shifted to wolf a few more times and then half-shifted without leaving the car as that was just as effective. But now I can smell the scent trail in this form, too, so I don’t need to keep shifting. And it’s a good thing, too, because when I was half-shifted, Jase said the driver of a passing car did a double take. I shouldn’t be reckless right now around humans, but I can’t be bothered to give a shit. All I care about is finding Stacy.

Jase and Joel are talking logistics on speaker. The Silver Hills folks can be spread out between the clinic, the school, and the town hall. Supplies are being gathered, and shit is being organized to help them out until they can get onto their own land. If they don’t choose Brody as their alpha, that can be figured out later. For now, they’ll be somewhere safer and healthier than where they were.

Joel patches Ty and Mase in and they talk about having Joel liquidate some of our assets so we can loan Brody the cash to finance their property purchase and get things up and running. He has a decent down payment aside, but he’ll need much more than that, especially with all the infrastructure that’ll need to be put into place for all those people.

I let them talk it out while I think about what I’ll do to Wyatt Meadows. The fucker is toast. I’m on fire to reach my mate immediately, because once he realizes she’s carrying my baby the sonofabitch will try to use that to his advantage.

I’m absolutely enraged that my mate has had to endure her fuckface brother when I promised to keep her safe. And I can’t fathom how he got his hands on her with nobody noticing. Once I get to her, I just know it’ll be a hell of a long time before I let her out of my sight again.