Page 145 of Pack Choice

“Exactly, so I need you to go with Andy here. He’s going to take you back to the box and we’ll go find Molly, okay?”

“Okay,” she says, “am I allowed one of those sodas when I get to the box?”

“Whatever you want,” I say, straightening and whispering by Andy’s ear. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“I won’t.”

He carries her away and I turn back to Colt ending his call with River.

“I don’t like this,” I tell him, “this doesn’t feel right. The woman who took Harper was told to do so by her ‘mom’.” Colt shakes his head. “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he says, his gaze hovering over his phone. “Her phone’s been switched off. The tracking won’t work.” He raises his gaze, meeting mine. “We need to split up again and–”

“No,” I say, “we need to think about this logically. They couldn’t have simply snatched her from in among this crowd. Molly wouldn’t go without a struggle and she’d make a whole lot of noise.” Colt nods. “They must have lured her somewhere quiet and they’ll be looking to bundle her into a vehicle to get her away.”

“There are no cars. The streets are all blocked up.”

I bring up a map on my phone, scrolling through. “There’s a multi-story parking lot. To the west. It’s about a thirty-minute walk.” I shake my head. It’s too far away. I keep scanning the road. “Otherwise, it’s all street parking around the perimeter, even further away.” I curse.

“There’s the harbor,” Colt says, pointing in the direction of the tips of masts we can see, bobbing over the heads of the people, the stalls and the tents.

“Yes,” I say, “the harbor.”

We start running in that direction. Despite how quickly we sprint, the crowd parting for us as we come hurtling through, those masts seem to grow no closer and I could scream in frustration.

How the hell did I let this happen? Why the hell did I let her out of my sight?

Colt’s phone starts blaring again and he brings it to his ear.

“River, we’re heading to the harbor.” Then his feet falter and he stops. He nods along to whatever River’s telling him on the phone before hanging up.

“What?” I say, stopping too, my breath ragged, my shoulders rising and falling as I catch my breath.

“Seems River has a tracker for Molly, too.”

“What?” I frown in confusion.

“In that necklace he gave her.”

Both of them have been tracking her? They are far more obsessed than I thought.

“I was right,” Colt screws up his eyes, staring into the sun as he scans the crowd. “She’s on a boat. It’s still in the harbor.”

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“River’s nearly here. Ahhh, there, he is.” It’s not hard to miss him because all those people milling around only seconds ago freeze as if they’ve been struck by some kind of magic as River Caspian, still wearing his driving suit, comes sprinting through. He’s followed by about six security personnel, several holding back the crowd as they snap out of their spell and start to surge in River’s direction.

“What the hell are you waiting for?” River says, racing straight past us.

I swear again, and pick up my feet.

“We need a plan,” I say, “these people want to hurt Molly.”

Neither of the other alphas stop running. The water is in sight now, the yachts and boats too, and it spurs us onwards. There’re hundreds of the things, floating on the water like a maze. I hope River’s tracker is accurate. Otherwise, they’ll be halfway out to sea before we find her.

“You’re the soldier,” River says, panting, “what’s your suggestion?”

“If we think this is the work of the Snakebite gang, then we know there’s only three of them. Two alphas and an omega,” I say as we run together.