Page 23 of Timber Hollow

23

My Pack

Jay

M y phone rings as I speed down and around the curves of the back roads. I'm going well over the limit, and it's no surprise whose name the caller ID reveals. The Bluetooth connection takes a moment to connect the call, but when I do, I greet him with a simple "Father."

"Any particular reason you are speeding haphazardly around the back roads?" Magnus asks with a sly tone to his voice, so he probably already knows, but I'll be damned if I give him the satisfaction.

"I like to live vicariously."

"Sure you do, Son. Come to the Packhouse." My father disconnects the call without another word.

"Mother fucker. Cock sucking dick balls MOTHER FUCKER!" Anger seeps out of me like a poison. There are cameras all over the roads in TImber Hollow, installed as an automated solution to surveying Pack lands. Before that, enforcers would patrol every hour of every day. There are still Pack enforcers, but their job is less be a wolf twenty-four-seven and more to teach the young wolves how to be wolves these days. How to meet the two halves of your soul and balance them.

So, obviously Magnus or one of the enforcers saw me on the cameras. Likely saw Artemis in the car with me on the way up. There's absolutely no way I'm making it back to the apartment before, or in any way close to Artemis now.

Dutifully, though I turn down the appropriate roads toward the Packhouse, rather than ignoring him like I truly want to. The big brick building is lit up, the parking lot just as illuminated as the interior.

Magnus is standing at the pool table, watching Nero, his Beta line up a shot. Nero had been Beta with Artemis' dad before his death. In other packs, Virgil's death would have opened up a spot for another wolf to become Beta, and the competitors would fight for the position. There are even some packs in the south that still fight to the death. My father had never replaced him though. Never even mentioned it.

"Hello, Son." He greets me simply, bending to line his shot up. Nero nods his head in my direction, folding his hands over the top of his stick.

"Father," I answer, giving Nero a similar nod.

"What were you doing at the lookout?"

"Why?" I'm squeezing my jaw so tight I think my teeth might crack. My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it. I hate to, but I have to for the moment.

"Call it a father's curiosity." He says, blue eyes swiveling to me as Nero takes his turn.

"I took Artemis up. She seemed like she could use the quiet." I finally respond.

"Why do you give that girl the time of day?" Magnus' back is to me once again, so I can't see his face but I hear the inflection in his voice, the implication that she's scum, unworthy .

"Because she's Pack ," I growl.

"She hasn't been in years. She disappeared, remember?"

"Artemis Hunt has always been, and will always be my Pack." I snarl at my father's back, feeling my wolf rise.

"Ahh. I see. And where did she run off to this time?" He answers, turning to face me.

"Back to the house. She was racing me. That is why I was speeding, father . " I practically spit the words at his feet.

"So you say," Magnus replies simply.

"What do you mean?" My heart feels like it's going to pound out of my chest, my stomach dropping immediately.

"Artemis was picked up from the apartment."

"She left?"

"Yes."

Immediately, I pull my phone out of my pocket. A message from Dante greets me.

Artemis left the house. She has a backpack.

Didn't say where she was going. I'm following.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! "

"Where is she going, Son?"

"I don't know." I'm walking down the hall and away from my father before I realize it.

The Alpha only orders "Control your wolf!" as I exit the Packhouse.

The drive over to Aggie's cottage seems like it takes no time at all. I know that Artemis wouldn't leave without telling her. Or…at least I hope she told Aggie. It's my only hope of finding Artemis again. Artemis' aunt greets me at the door, my knuckles only rapping once against the pink wood.

"Jay! What a surprise. What can I do for you young man?"

"Where did she go?"

"What?" The woman blinks at me, brown eyes blinking rapidly.

"Artemis. She left town maybe forty minutes ago. Where is she going?"

"California. Are you going after her?"

"Yes." Aggie halts my spin away from her with a gentle hand on my arm.

"Take my phone. She's sharing her location with me. Passcode is her birthday." Artemis' aunt presses her device into my palms, patting my shoulder. "Bring her home young man." Then, she's nudging me down the stairs, closing the door behind me.

Before I leave Aggie's driveway, I check Artemis' flight itinerary. "Fuck!" She's on a private plane. I can't buy tickets for her flight.

"Fuck, Fuck FUCK!" Throwing the car into gear, I speed down the roads towards the hangar. This land was once grazing pastures for dairy cows, but it now houses the new addition to the town. Which will come in handy, tonight. Very handy.

Magnus originally purchased a little Cessna to spray crops, but the addition of the six-seater is relatively new. It's the large rolling doors for the six-seater that I push open. There is absolutely no way I'm leaving California without my girl in one of these seats.

Ain't no fucking way.