Page 133 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Ipushed the stew around in my bowl. It was mostly potatoes and carrots, but if I lookedhard enough I might find at least one more piece of beef.

Clay smirked, watching me slyly from the corner of his eye as he drained the remnants of his own bowl.

It’d been a few days since the most recent incident with the witch and our stores of meat were getting low again.

The hunting party managed to bag a deer and a few hares, but when you were talking about feeding a pack of nearly fifty wolves. That didn’t last very long.

I sighed, resigning myself to finishing the potatoes and carrots.

“When are Seth and Layla getting back?” Clay asked, sliding the back of his hand over his hips as he set his bowl down on the picnic table.

The chatter of conversation from the other tables around us hushed a little.

No doubt everyone was just as eager for them to get back as I was.

We’d sent them into Portland to do one last grocery run before our butcher order came in on Monday.

We couldn’t keep clearing out the Forest Grove grocery, and we’d need a fair amount more to last us the next few days.

Hazel had been right. Hungry wolves made for grouchy wolves. And grouchy wolves tended to cause some problems. We’d already had to break up two fights in the last day alone.

“They’ll be back later tonight. Probably in the next few hours. I told them to go to a few stores so they’d be able to get enough for everyone to eat a real dinner tomorrow. The steaks won’t be as good as Sal’s, but...”

“Hell, I’d take one well-done right now,” Destiny said on a sigh and Viv nodded, agreeing with her mate.

“I’d even take one with that awful blue cheese sauce on it.”

I barked a laugh at that, but their admission cut me deep. I was the alpha. It was my job to make sure my pack was cared for. Safe. Fed.

“Another bowl?” Clay asked, lifting my now empty bowl from in front of me. I shook my head. There wouldn’t be much left, and I needed to make sure everyone got some.

Grimacing, Clay brought both of our bowls to the outdoor sink under the new canopy we built earlier this spring to rinse off. I hated that he would also go without seconds just because I did, but I couldn’t fault him for it.

Jared and Clay had been my right and left hands since the start. Together, we formed a united front and truly, it was more like we were all the alpha, even if I was the one who formally made all the calls.

Sara emerged from the tree line a bit breathless, with her patrol mate close in tow. She was a newer recruit, having just joined the pack last year. But…they weren’t on patrol until dark. Sara and Tyler had been taking over most of the overnights now that Clay was hanging around camp more often.

They came straight for the tables and made a beeline for me.

“What is it?” I demanded before they could get a word in, my hand fisting in my lap beneath the table.

“It’s Luke,” Sara told me, glancing around before taking the seat opposite me. I didn’t like the way she was keeping her voice hushed and sensing my unease. Clay rushed back to slide into the seat next to me.

“What’s going on?”

“Luke didn’t come back last night,” Tyler replied. Luke…

Being pack alpha and absolute shit with names was not a good combo. I knew all of their faces. My wolf recognized theirs as pack, but with names I was pretty much useless.

“Tall. Skinny. Light hair. Scrappy. Joined the pack when Ry killed Samson,” Clay filled in the blanks for me in a whisper.

I gave a tight nod and turned my attention back to Sara and Tyler. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“At dinner yesterday. He left for a run before dark. I don’t think he’s been back since then.”

I mulled over the info, Clay and I sharing a look, and the stew in my stomach soured.

“Luke’s left before, hasn’t he?” Clay asked, fixing Luke’s friends with a hard stare that told them they’d better be honest.

Ty winced but nodded. “Yeah. He’s got a temper. He usually just goes into the city and gets smashed, but he wasn’t upset about anything.”

“Not that you know of,” Clay snapped back, and I had to put my hand on his thigh beneath the table to steady him.

“Charity,” I called and saw her head pop up at the next table, her dreads bobbing as she got up and made her way over, mouth full of stew.

She leaned over the table, glancing between Sara and Ty and me and Clay. Her face fell. “What’s up, Allie?”

“Luke didn’t come back to camp last night.”

“He’s probably sleeping off a massive hangover somewhere,” Charity told me with a shrug, obviously she had no trouble remembering who he was.

I nodded, wanting to agree with her, but something in my gut told me this wasn’t that. It was worse. “You’re probably right,” I agreed, “But if he’s not back by morning, could you get a small party together and track him. Bring him back?”

“We already tried to track him,” Ty argued. “His trail went cold a few miles past the third ring.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. Fuck, I really hated being put on the spot.

“Well…” I trailed off, thinking of how best to handle this.

“I’ll go with Charity,” Clay offered without a second’s hesitation. “You might have lost his trail, but I should be able to pick it up.”

I gave him a grateful smile, and he covered my hand with his, squeezing. Jared and Clay were the best trackers we had. Better even than I was even with the advantage of my twin soul wolf’s extra strong sense.

Tyler and Sara seemed satisfied with that and gave me a pair of tight, thankful nods before leaving.

“He’ll be back by morning,” Charity assured us. She gripped my shoulder, giving me a meaningful look. “Don’t sweat it. I don’t know the guy very well, but he’s a loose cannon on the best of days. Probably just got riled up about something and went to blow off steam.”

If that were all it was, I’d be relieved as hell, but Luke would be getting an earful.

Pack members weren’t allowed to leave territory without notifying me or Jared or Clay first. It wasn’t a control thing, it was a safety thing, and I rarely ever denied any requests to leave pack land.

We just needed to know when they left and where they went so that if they didn’t come back we’d know where to look.

“Thanks, Cherry.”

She grinned at the nickname and spun on her heel. “Let me get you guys a couple of beers, yeah? You both look like you could use one.”

“You don’t think it’s…” I muttered under my breath, not daring to meet Clay’s stare or speak the word witch aloud for fear of anyone overhearing and word spreading. I told Jared about Gregory, and Hazel already knew. That was enough for now.

“Nah. His kind aren’t that stupid.” He squeezed my hand again. “Relax before you give yourself an aneurysm.”

Scanning the tables, I mentally went through the faces of the pack, counting to make sure everyone who should be here was. Save for those asleep now from night patrol and those on active patrol. Or working at the quarry with Jared or at Grove’s End.

Several other faces were missing. Likely they were just gone for runs before dinner or out on errands, but it set me even more on edge. I couldn’t help but notice the lack of one face in particular and my brows lowered. Sam wasn’t at dinner. In fact, I didn’t think I’d seen her all day.

That wasn’t unheard of for her, though. She seemed to think that she could outrun the ghosts haunting her and was gone sprinting through our territory more often than she was here.

“You seen Sam today?”

Clay grunted his thanks as Charity plopped two frothy mugs down in front of us and took a long swallow of her own, leaving a foamy white mustache on her upper lip.

“Out for a run. As usual. She’s supposed to check in before dark.”

She’d fucking better.

I writhed in bed like I needed an exorcism most of the night. It was a good thing it was Jared next to me instead of Clay or he’d have tied me down by now. As it was, I knew there would be no chance of sleep.

Running my hands through my sweat dampened hair, I sat up, dropping my tired head into my palms. There was no point in lying there.

When my insomnia hit me this hard, I could be up for days without sleep.

Maybe if I just went and checked to see that Luke was back, I would be able to grab a few hours of shut-eye before dawn.

I slipped from the bed, pausing to admire the work of art next to me for a moment before tugging on a pair of jeans to go with Jared’s oversized shirt and padded barefoot out of the room.

The heat of the early summer day still lingered, making the night air damp with humidity as I crept through the cabin and out the front door.

I’d forgotten to check if Clay was sleeping in his wolf form around back of the cabin, and made an extra effort to silence my steps, leaving the front door open behind me to avoid the noise of shutting it.

Much as he tried to hide it, or brush it off, I saw his dark circles too. He needed his sleep and I didn’t want to be the one to wake him.

Pack camp was always quiet this close to dawn. The only wolves awake the ones out on patrol. The first ring wasn’t far from the borders of camp, but it was far enough that I couldn’t see or hear whoever was running it.

I shivered as I picked over the dew-dampened dirt near the fire pit and around the foot-trails through the cabins to where I thought Luke’s cabin was.

Hushed conversation met my ears as I approached the edge of camp and I saw the girl from dinner, Sara, sitting with Archer on the small front stoop jutting out from the cabin on my right a little further down.

“Sara?” I called quietly, hurrying my steps. “What are you doing out here? It isn’t dawn yet.”

“Is he back?”

Sara’s face fell and something twisted in my gut.

Damn.

She jabbed a thumb behind her at the darkened windows of the cabin to her back. “I just came to check,” she explained. “I thought maybe he’d have slipped back in sometime in the night, but…”

“The other guys said they hadn’t seen him.”