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A dric spent a precious few minutes tracking Tyrus. The night fae’s noxious scent covered Evie’s but he caught a hint of her as well.

“He’s headed north,” he told Marjani and Zuri.

The three of them jumped on the bikes, Marjani still behind Adric, and accelerated down the quiet street. He deliberately didn’t call any backup. Any more men and they’d risk spooking Tyrus, and then they’d never find Evie. The same applied to Corban and Jace.

As alpha, Adric could use Jace’s quartz to pinpoint his location to within a hundred yards. However, with the quartz removed, that ability was gone. Still, he had the sense the quartz—and possible Jace—were moving in the same general direction as Tyrus.

He refused to think about the fact that his friend had been bleeding right up until they’d apparently put him into a car. The only good thing was that if he was still leaving a trail of blood, Adric could follow the scent.

But Evie first.

“Faster,” Marjani said in his ear. “If he takes her out of the city, we’ll never find her.”

He shook his head. “Sun’s too high. He’ll have to go to ground until tonight.”

“You hope,” his sister returned.

Zuri zoomed up beside them, and they wove through the early morning traffic, ignoring red lights and stop signs. The trail led into Druid Hill Park.

They pulled into the nearest parking lot. Zuri inhaled. “Jace is here, too.”

Adric’s heart leapt. Maybe when they found Evie, they’d find Jace, too. “He said something to me early this morning about Corban having a lair in the park. Let’s spread out to search.”

The three of them loped into the woods to shift. They needed their animals’ heightened senses to track Evie and Jace.

Adric completed the shift first. He took off north without waiting for the other two, his Gift for tracking on hyperalert. It was like a sixth sense that let him know if he was on the right or wrong path, and it also sharpened his regular senses.

Behind him, he heard the other two finish their shifts and spread out to the east and west.

He crossed an asphalt path and scented the night fae. A few yards later, a drop of blood. Jace .

He changed back to man so he could alert Marjani and Zuri through his quartz, and then back again to his cougar to continue following the scent. When the trail left the path to go into the trees again, he overran it for few seconds, but his Gift soon alerted him.

Wrong .

He doubled back and met Marjani and Zuri arriving different directions. He jerked his head to the right and they all darted into the trees. Zuri had his nose to the ground, but Adric and Marjani were using their cougars’ sharp vision as much as their noses.

They were on the right track. There were multiple signs that men had come through these woods, and recently: a broken twig, a partial shoeprint, a short blue thread caught on a wild rosebush’s thorn.

He scented Jace’s blood and a hint of sweat—the acrid odor of a man pushed to his limits.

Where the fuck are you?

He drew on his quartz and frowned. The connection he had to Jace’s quartz was fainter, as if a barrier had been thrown up between the two of them. Then the connection broke.

Adric’s heart punched. Damn you, you’re not dead. You’re not.

He halted. His cougar couldn’t communicate in words, but he yowled a warning: Danger.

The scent trails split, with Tyrus’s going in one direction and Corban, Kane and Jace’s going in the other. Adric didn’t hesitate—the important thing was to find Tyrus, and hopefully, Evie. He loped after Tyrus.

Something was balled up on the ground. Adric’s breath caught, but it was just a bloody T-shirt covered with Jace’s scent. When he investigated more closely, he realized it wasn’t even Jace’s T-shirt.

He snarled. Corban was messing with him—trying to confuse the trail.

But that didn’t mean Jace wasn’t close. Adric slowed down, slipping from tree to tree, eyes peeled and ears pricked.

The woods went silent. The fur on his nape bristled. Zuri and Marjani sidled up to stand on either side of him.

A black wolf burst out of the trees. Corban.

Go! Adric hissed at the other two. He could hold off Corban while they rescued Jace and Evie.

Marjani tore off. Zuri hesitated, torn between obeying his alpha and protecting him.

Adric had never demanded unquestioning obedience from his lieutenants—he wanted men who could think for themselves—but now he put all the force of his dominance behind his growl. “ Go—now .”

Even then, Zuri might have stayed, but protect the vulnerable had been their creed since they were cubs, and Jace and Evie needed him more than Adric did. He turned and sprinted after Marjani.

Adric planted his paws and snarled at his cousin. Bring it on .

And then Kane slunk out of the shadows.