Page 25 of The Reluctant Mate (Shifters of the Three Rivers #5)

Chapter twenty-five

Derek

I pushed my SUV to its limits. The engine roared in protest as I drove the accelerator into the floor, tires skidding on the trail to the cabin. It was nearly dark, but Sam’s truck stayed close, his headlights bouncing wildly in my rearview mirror.

Mate in danger! Move faster! Don’t stop. Don’t fail her again .

My wolf was feral, clawing at me, howling to get out. To hunt.

The cabin appeared ahead, a gray smudge against the snow-laden trees. My eyes scanned the area, taking it all in, assessing and cataloging everything. The tire tracks came first—deep-set grooves in the driveway, scattered with fresh patches of snow. There were no cars here now. Whoever was here had already left. The front door was smashed in, hanging at an angle on its hinges.

Fuck!

Hope that they hadn’t found Sofia vanished. They must have laughed. I’d tied her up and left her as a present for them.

The SUV screeched to a halt, tires kicking up snow and gravel. I didn’t turn it off, just leaped out and tore toward the porch.

Inside, the air smelled wrong—men, intruders, metallic and cold, blood, sweat, and gun oil. My wolf snarled, rage rising. Enemies had invaded our space.

I didn’t stop to think. I raced to the bedroom. Her scent was strong here, laced with fear. I knew she was gone, but the sight of the empty bed almost undid me. The rope hung loosely from the bedpost, frayed and empty, the fibers stained with a streak of blood. Her blood. My gaze locked on it, my chest tightening with something I couldn’t name but sure as hell could feel.

My wolf yelled at me to do something, to move, to find her, but I was frozen, rooted to that goddamn rope.

She was gone. Really gone.

“Derek!” Sam’s voice was sharp, cutting through the fog of panic.

He strode past me, then crouched near the bed, his fingers brushing a small smear of blood on the floor next to the rope.

“If she got hurt when they cut through the rope, there’d be signs of a struggle.” He picked up the cord, then looked at me. “No. Sofia did this. They didn’t catch her here.”

I latched onto the words like a lifeline. “You’re saying—?”

“I’m saying if you stop panicking and pay attention, you’ll see she got out,” Sam said, meeting my gaze evenly.

I took a breath and then another. I was no fucking use to Sofia if I panicked. She needed me clear-headed and focused so I could find her.

A cold breeze brushed against my left cheek. I spun, striding to the bathroom. Empty, no signs of a fight, but the window was open. “Good girl.”

I spun and sprinted for the door, Sam on my heels.

Outside, below the window, I could see where she landed in the snow. And the footprints, both hers and the people who’d followed her.

“She’s barefoot. She won’t last long out here unless she Shifted.”

Sam glanced at me. I knew what he was thinking. He knew as well as I did that Sofia’s skills and instincts as a werewolf weren’t great.

“Trail’s there. Heading northeast.” Sam pointed toward the tree line.

We set off at a fast pace. We needed to move quickly but not so quickly that we ran straight into a trap. It took me half an hour to find the place where she Shifted. Snow had covered her tracks, but her scent was sharper here, stronger. My wolf rose up again, snapping at his cage. He wanted blood. Wanted violence. Wanted her.

I crouched, running my fingers over the place until I found her jeans. It was a desperate move, Shifting when she was being hunted. But at least in her wolf form she would be able to move faster, more able to withstand the cold.

Sam placed a hand on my shoulder. “She was still alive here, and she increased her odds of surviving by Shifting.”

I didn’t wait to hear more. I shot forward, following the trail like a beast possessed, the sounds of my brother’s soft footfalls behind me.

The trail was broken and chaotic, weaving this way and that. She’d been trying to evade them.

There were signs of her pursuers, though. Broken twigs, disturbed snow, their scents converging and separating as they coordinated their hunt. Too many of them.

I gritted my teeth and kept moving.

The scent hit me before I saw it—coppery and rank. Blood. Fresh. Some of it Sofia’s.

I slowed. Sam went left, covering me as I approached two mounds of snow. I brushed the flakes off with my boot.

Huh.

What the hell had happened here?

I turned my head to the side. “Clear.”

Sam appeared next to me, his eyes scanning the ground. “This doesn’t make sense.”

No, it certainly did not fucking make sense.

Sam crouched beside the body parts, his expression unreadable. “It looks like one cut, straight through his torso.”

“Why wouldn’t they take the body with them?”

Sam looked at me sharply.

“Not whoever or whatever did this.” I gestured at the body. “The dead guy wasn’t alone. I’ve scented at least eight men tracking Sofia. Why wouldn’t they take the body of their man?”

Sam stood. “Maybe they’re coming back for it.”

I inhaled deeply, trying to match all the scents. Sofia. She was in pain, angry, full of adrenaline. The dead man, already smelling of decay. Seven of the men who’d been hunting my mate. Something new here. Something almost reptilian. I’d never smelled anything like it before. And one more. One that hadn’t been in the forest so far. A scent I recognized from Three Rivers, though not recently.

“Lucian Black,” I growled. I spun to Sam, grabbed his jacket with both hands, and slammed him against the nearest tree.

“When you came home, you asked about Black. You were tracking him. Why? Who the fuck is he?”

“Let me go, Derek, before I put you down.”

I lifted him higher. “I’d like to see you try. You’ve been keeping things from me. Things that affect me and my mate.”

“I didn’t know Black had anything to do with Sofia apart from being her boss. You really think I’d keep it a secret if I thought for one second that he was a danger to her?”

I searched his face, then dropped him. He was right. Sam might work for the Council, but we always came first.

I ran a hand through my hair. “Sorry. I—”

“I know.” He straightened out his jacket. “But you’re not the only one who cares about Sofia. She’s your mate; that makes her my family.”

I sighed. “Point taken. But I still need to know why you were looking into Black.”

Sam gave his head a small shake. “I had a meeting last week with a guy who feeds me information now and then. He called and asked if I could meet him at his apartment. When I got there, he was gone. Car still there, wallet on his bedside table. I haven’t been able to find any trace of him. But in his wallet, he had a handwritten note that just said ‘Lucian Black’ with a question mark on it. I don’t know if it’s connected to his disappearance. I don’t even know if it’s the same Lucian Black who used to live in Three Rivers.” Sam’s eyes went to the two mounds on the ground. “The Black we knew was human, and a human couldn’t have done that. But I’m beginning to think it isn’t a coincidence his name was in that wallet.”

My gaze locked onto the trail where the scent of Lucian intertwined with Sofia’s. “He took her.”

We followed the trail onto the road, going slower now, the icy ground crunching beneath our boots as twilight edged closer to night. Anger festered under my skin like a hot coal, but I shoved it down. Getting distracted by emotions right now would help nobody—not Sofia, not me.

“Trail’s thinning out,” Sam voiced what I already knew.

I stopped. Sofia and Lucian’s scents ended here. They must have gotten into a car.

Sam crouched by a set of tire marks embedded in the semi-frozen ground. He dragged his fingers along the ridges.

“Tracks are fresh. An hour, two at the most,” he said, tilting his head slightly. “It’s big. Probably an SUV.”

I nodded tightly. Lucian had gotten her into the car—had gotten her out of here before I could find her. Had she gone willingly?

“She’s gone.”

Sam pushed himself upright, brushing gravel and snow from his hands.

“What’s Sofia’s relationship with Black?”

I had my hand around his neck before he could blink. “There is no relationship with Black. She’s my mate. Mine.”

Sam held up his hands. “Alright. She’s your mate. No one’s saying any different. Now back off.”

I let go of Sam’s neck. “We need to find out who the fuck Lucian Black really is. And why he has my mate.”