Page 19 of Nick (The Moonstone Pack #4)
NICK FLICKED THE LAST droplet of water from his fingers. As he stepped out of the trailer’s cramped bathroom, Sarah’s absence hit him, sudden and disorienting.
He couldn’t have said how he knew she was gone—only that he did.
“Sarah?” His voice, usually calm yet direct, faltered slightly in the silence. The trailer was small; there weren’t many places to hide. He opened the door and glanced out at the Jeep.
She was nowhere to be seen there either.
“Una? Javier?” Nick called out, his throat tightening with worry. He paced the length of the living area, the worn-out carpet barely muffling his heavy steps.
Una appeared first, her tiny frame almost swallowed by the oversize cardigan she wrapped around herself.
“Have you seen Sarah?” Nick asked her.
She shook her head.
Javier trailed behind her, clutching a stuffed wolf, its fur matted from too much love. Their expressions only amplified the growing knot in Nick’s stomach.
“Hey, Javi. Where’s Mommy?” Nick asked, crouching down to Javier’s level, trying to keep his voice even despite the dread lacing his words.
Javier’s little brow furrowed, his gaze searching Nick’s face for answers he didn’t have. “Don’t know.”
Nick stood, running a hand through his long dark blond hair. He peered out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sarah returning.
“Did she say anything? Did you hear anything unusual?” Nick pressed on.
Una shook her head, her eyes wide and filling with tears. “No. I heard her tell you she was going to the Jeep.” She, too, opened the door and looked outside. “She was just here. And then…she wasn’t.”
“Shit,” Nick muttered. A cold fist clenched around his heart. This wasn’t right. Sarah wouldn’t leave without saying something, without some explanation—especially not to Javier.
“Stay inside, okay? Lock the door after me,” he instructed, masking his rising panic. He could feel the beast within him stirring.
With one final reassuring glance at Una and Javier, he stepped into the night, his senses heightened and alert.
You should have been out here with her. You should have protected her.
The words echoed through his mind.
A growl rumbled deep within him, the sound more felt than heard, as his gaze followed a trail of disturbed earth leading away from the home. He knelt to examine it.
Scuff marks in the dirt told a tale of struggle. One where Sarah had been unwillingly swept off her feet?
Nick’s heart hammered against his rib cage, his wolf pacing just beneath the surface, snarling at the delay.
He allowed his wolf to take over, crouching in the dirt as he shifted, kicking his clothes aside as his limbs flowed into the form of a wolf.
Finally, he rose, casting a look back at the trailer where Una and Javier waited. His nostrils flared as he searched for any trace of Sarah’s scent on the night air. He followed it until it disappeared. And then there was nothing.
Without hesitation, Nick set off at a sprint toward the motel.
According to the message they’d sent earlier, Ryker and Bronx should be back by now.
Dust kicked up behind Nick. The wind howled through the sparse vegetation, whispering warnings and weaving doubts through his mind.
Sarah was strong, fierce even, but Vincent…
Vincent was a force unto himself.
A dark thought crept in, slithering like a snake. Had Vincent already sunk his claws into her?
The possibility drove him faster across the desert.
He would not allow her to be harmed.
The neon sign of the motel flickered in the distance. As Nick approached, his vision tunneled, every fiber of his being focused on getting there.
He had to find Sarah, had to ensure she was safe.
To fail would be to break the unspoken oath he’d made the day he recognized her as his mate.
No matter what had happened since then, he owed it to her to keep her safe.
With the motel looming before him, Nick’s breaths came fast and shallow.
Before he reached the parking lot, he shifted back into his human form.
“Please,” he whispered to the stars above. “Let her be okay.”
Nick pounded on the door of room 112. It popped open under his fist, and he stumbled inside.
Ryker and Bronx both sat up, instantly awake.
“Sarah’s gone,” Nick spat out. His gaze darted around the room, searching for an echo of his own panic on their faces. “I think she’s been taken.”
Bronx and Ryker stood in unison. Their gazes assessed Nick, noting without surprise that he stood naked in their room—the sure sign of a shifter moving from his wolf form to his human one without considering human social norms.
“Details, Reagan,” Bronx said.
“Outside her place, there’s sign of struggle.” Nick’s hands shook. “No note, no nothing. She wouldn’t just leave…not without—”
“We move now,” Ryker cut in.
Malcolm and the other rebels of the Sunburst Pack—Anders, Conall, Quinton, and Larissa—filed in.
“Una called us,” Malcolm said. “We came as soon as we heard.”
“Vincent?” The name was a curse on Nick’s tongue, a possibility he couldn’t afford to overlook.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Anders said.
“Conclusions be damned,” Nick growled. “She’s out there, and every second we waste—”
“Is a second longer she’s in danger,” Quinton finished for him.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Larissa said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialing.
Nick’s thoughts spiraled into an abyss of what-ifs. Sarah haunted his vision.
He had failed her.
“We’ll find her.” Ryker’s hand clamped onto Nick’s shoulder.
“Vincent has her,” Larissa said abruptly, sliding her phone back into her pocket. “Word’s gotten around Sunburst. He’s taken her out to the old Last Strike Mine to be ‘corrected.’”
“Corrected?” Nick asked. That word set off a fresh wave of fear for Sarah.
“Means punishment,” Anders explained. “Not pretty.”
The others murmured their agreement, a chorus of grim understanding.
Malcolm’s gaze bored into Nick’s. “We’ve dealt with Vincent’s kind of justice before,” he said. “He doesn’t go easy.”
“Damn it,” Nick rasped, his throat tight, anger and guilt knotting in his gut. “This is on me. I should’ve seen this coming.”
“Easy, man,” Conall said. “Blame won’t help Sarah now.”
“Right,” Nick snapped, shrugging off Conall’s grip, his movements sharp with self-reproach.
“Enough,” Bronx ordered, a note of command in his voice that brooked no argument. “We move out, and we move out together. No lone wolves here.”
Nick’s hazel eyes flickered among the assembled shifters, allies who were quickly becoming his lifeline in the search for Sarah. He swallowed hard against the bile of guilt.
“Nick!” Ryker’s voice cut through the haze of despair. “Vincent isn’t some rookie making mistakes. If he wanted Sarah dead, she’d be gone by now.”
Bronx stood beside Ryker, his imposing figure a silent bulwark against the encroaching darkness. His eyes, deep pools of resolve, met Nick’s. “He’s right,” Bronx said, his voice low but sure. “This is a power play. Vincent took her for a reason.”
The words were meant to be a lifeline, but Nick felt them wrap around his chest like steel bands. Breathe , he reminded himself.
“Like what?” Nick’s question was the growl of a man teetering on the brink. “Why take her?”
“Control,” Anders said. “She’s leverage against us, against you.”
Conall nodded. “Vincent knows we’ll do anything to get her back. He’s counting on it.”
Quinton’s fists clenched at his sides. “We should’ve seen this coming,” he spat out.
“We’re wasting time,” Conall agreed.
“Let’s go get her,” Quinton said.
Without discussing it, they all moved out into the desert, stripping down and shifting into their wolf forms.
Malcolm and Larissa led the way to the old mine.
Nick had been there years before, but he hadn’t remembered the name of it, couldn’t remember if he’d ever been inside.
As they neared the location, the group’s pace quickened, their bodies tensed for the confrontation ahead. Nick’s muscles coiled tightly, ready to spring into action at the first hint of danger. The thought of Sarah, alone and at Vincent’s mercy, clawed at his mind, leaving trails of guilt and fear.
They moved together, shadows flitting across the desolate terrain, driven by a singular purpose—to rescue one of their own from the clutches of a monster.
Nick’s throat tightened with the need to howl, to call out to Sarah and assure her that they were coming, that he was coming.
But the time for howling would come later.
Now was the moment for action.
Ahead, the outline of the old mine loomed, an abyss waiting to either swallow them whole…or give them the woman they were heading in to save.
Tonight, they would bring Sarah home—or die trying.