Page 53 of Wulf’s Pack

“Could you follow the rules, be nice to the other shifters, even the ones who aren’t wolves, and do your part to help out with chores and things?”

She nods again. “I’ll be good. I promise.”

I crack a small smile at her eagerness, but sober again quickly. “Our pack is new, small, taboo, and we have an omega to protect,” I warn Dennis. “There will always be an element of danger for us.”

Dennis nods gravely. “There is always an element of danger in our lives anyway.”

He makes a good point. They may actually be safer with us despite the threats our pack might face. “We’re also a famous pack. Join us, and both you and Abby will be put in the spotlight. We won’t be able to hide her.”

Dennis takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “I’m aware,” he admits. “But she needs a pack, and I have a feeling yours will be able to accept her for who she is. I believe the benefits outweigh the negatives.”

Again, I agree with him, and that was my last argument. “All right,” I relent. “If it’s what you both want, I will accept you into the pack, whether Abby helps us or not.”

Abby beams. “You mean it? We can join your pack?”

I match her smile. “Yeah, sweetheart. You can join the pack.”

She squeals and dives forward, wrapping her little arms around my neck. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’m so excited!”

All of us standing here chuckle. None of us can resist her cuteness. This little one is going to have our entire pack wrapped around her finger in no time.

My wolf is every bit as enthusiastic as Abby, and he tries to shift. Luckily, he’s not pressing that hard, and I’m able to resist. Hold your horses, you psycho! We’ll claim them, but let me at least warn them and take off my damn clothes first. I’m running out of pants!

He huffs his annoyance, but he stops pushing.

I return Abby’s hug, then stand up. After one last confirmation from Dennis, I hop off the bleachers and crouch down to Abby’s eye level.

“I need to shift in order to claim you as pack. My wolf will have to bite you, but he’ll be gentle, and it will only hurt for a second. You think you can be brave for me?”

Abby bites her lip and casts her father a nervous glance. He gives her an encouraging smile and takes her hand in his. Abby looks back at me and gives me a small nod.

“You want your dad to go first so you can see it’s not so scary?”

She nods again.

“Okay. I’m going to shift now. You can keep holding your dad’s hand the whole time. It will all be done in a minute, and then you’ll be part of the pack.”

She gives me another nervous nod and squeezes her dad’s hand. He lets her crush his fingers and gives me a somber nod. “Thank you, Alpha. You have my loyalty for life.”

I don’t waste any more time. I strip down and shift quickly, but I approach Dennis slowly so as not to scare Abby.

Dennis climbs off the bleachers and takes a knee on the floor in front of me.

He holds out his hand, and I clamp down on his forearm.

Once the bond is in place, Dennis motions for his daughter to join him.

She slowly kneels on the floor beside her dad and takes his hand in another crushing grip.

I wait for her to let me know she’s ready, and my wolf is surprisingly patient.

He’s already in love with the pup and doesn’t want to scare her.

She takes a deep breath, then slowly holds out her shaking arm.

I press my nose to her forearm first in a gesture meant to soothe, then, as gently as possible, I bite down just hard enough to break the skin.

Abby whimpers, but she doesn’t cry. I release her and then lick the wound, wanting her to feel her new alpha’s love.

The pack bond flares to life, and I reach out to her.

You okay, sweetheart? You did great. You were so brave.

Abby gasps. “I can hear you!”

It’s the pack bond. You can always reach out to me, and I will hear you. You just have to send me a thought. Go ahead and give it a try.

Like this?

Exactly. Good girl. Now you’re connected to me. As your alpha, I’m always here for you, just like your dad, okay?

Abby nods again. Her eyes mist over, and she flings her arms around my wolf’s neck. If he were a cat, he’d be purring. As it is, he’s seconds away from rolling over and giving her his belly, the softie.

He huffs at my mental teasing. Need pups , he says, pushing a picture of Skylar, stomach swollen with our child, at me. It doesn’t take a genius to decipher that demand.

We’ll give her pups , I promise. But we need to bring her home first .

Find mate. Kill alpha.

Couldn’t agree more, buddy.

After I shift back and dress, I open up the pack link and speak to everyone. Hey guys, we have two new members. Dennis Madsen and his daughter, Abby. Please be welcoming, and introduce yourselves when you can.

“Welcome to the pack.” I shake hands with Dennis, and Abby surprises me by holding her arms out in a silent request for me to pick her up. She’s too old to want to be held, but I’m sure she’s overwhelmed by the pack bond right now and is instinctively seeking comfort from her alpha.

I pick her up and melt a little when she lays her head on my shoulder and wraps her arms around my neck.

Dennis watches her with such a pained expression.

His emotions are tumultuous and so mixed.

He’s relieved and happy, but seeing how much she needed this has him feeling sad and guilty as well.

“You’ve done right by her,” I say gently.

Dennis wets his lips and swallows hard. “Thank you, sir,” he rasps.

“I wish I could give you time to settle in and meet everyone, but we’re in crisis mode at the moment. If you’re truly serious about Abby helping, it would be best to do that as soon as possible.”

“Of course. Baby girl, are you ready to help Alpha Winters?”

Abby pulls her head off my chest. “Yes. I’m ready.”

Dennis wrings his hands and looks around the room. “Is there somewhere more private we can go? Abby’s very vulnerable when she falls into a trance. I trust the pack, but it still makes me nervous, and she needs to be able to concentrate without distractions.”

“Of course.” I don’t blame the man at all for being nervous. He hasn’t had a pack for nearly a decade and doesn’t know any of us. I’m not sure if I had a daughter, I would be able to let her do this at all.

I lead them up to my apartment. “Will this work?”

Dennis and Abby look around and both nod. “Do you have something of your mate’s?” Abby asks. “Something that belongs to her?”

For a moment, I panic. “Skylar has only been here days, and she came with nothing. I’ve got clothes for her, but will they work if she’s never even worn them?”

Abby frowns in thought, then says, “What about a hairbrush or a toothbrush? Those would work better because they’ll have her DNA on them.”

I sigh in relief. “Yes. I have that.”

I hurry to my bathroom, startling Sophia, who is watching over Audrey, when I burst into my room. “How is she?” I ask as I head into the master bathroom.

“Clean,” Sophia says. “Comfortable.”

I grab both Skylar’s toothbrush and her hairbrush. “Good. She’ll probably sleep for a long time. If you want to head downstairs, you can.”

Sophia combs her fingers through Audrey’s hair. “I’ll stay with her a little longer. Make sure she’s not going to have any nightmares.”

I give her a nod, touched by her compassion for her packmate.

Then I’m out the door and practically running back to Abby.

Abby takes the hairbrush and sits on the floor in the middle of the living room.

My pulse picks up speed. I have no idea what to expect.

I’ve never seen anyone scry before. “What else do you need?” I ask.

“Just peace and quiet,” Abby says. There’s a surprisingly serene quality to her now that reminds me a lot of Enzo. It makes her seem much, much older than her nine years.

Dennis sits on the couch, eyes glued to his daughter, but he doesn’t look worried at all.

“It takes deep concentration,” he explains.

“She falls into a sort of trance. If she’s distracted, she’ll be pulled out of it, and she’ll lose the vision.

If that happens, she’ll be too exhausted to try again for hours.

It takes a lot out of her. That will lessen the older, stronger, and more practiced she gets, but for now, she’ll really only have one chance to do this, and then she’ll have to wait probably a day before trying again. ”

One chance? My anxiety spikes. We can’t screw this up. “How long does it take?”

Dennis’s brow furrows. “Hard to say. It varies. But usually, it’s about fifteen to twenty minutes.”

I cut a glance to Bree, who is the only one to have followed us up here. I don’t have to say what I’m thinking. “I’ll keep an eye on everything downstairs and make sure you aren’t disturbed.”

“If an emergency comes up, contact me through the pack link only.”

Bree tips her head in a nod. “Yes, sir.”

She heads downstairs, and I silence my phone while blasting out a quick message to the pack to not come upstairs for any reason.

I join Dennis on the couch and force myself not to fidget.

Restless anticipation courses through me.

I hope. Despite my best efforts, I’m so full of hope I’m practically choking on it.

Dennis must sense my anxiety, because he murmurs, “She can do this, Alpha.”

I take a deep breath and force my body to calm. And then I wait.

Abby sits cross-legged, clutching the hairbrush. She closes her eyes and starts taking slow, deep breaths. Gradually, her posture relaxes. She seems to shed all tension as she falls deep into a meditative state.

She begins to murmur to herself, chanting whispered words of a spell.

The room fills with the tingling of magic, making the hairs on my arms and neck stand up.

I expect something to happen now. For her to finish the spell and suddenly have a location.

It’s already been fifteen minutes. But that’s not what happens.

When she finishes the spell, she simply repeats it.

This process continues on for an agonizing half hour.

Each time she finishes her magical poem and starts it over again, my impatience grows.

Worry creeps in. Will this not work? Is Victor hiding Skylar with magic?

When we reach the hour mark, I start to lose hope.

I tell myself over and over that Dennis said the timing can vary, but my desperation is starting to get the better of me.

Beads of sweat dot my brow. My muscles ache from being so tense for the past sixty minutes. My head is starting to throb.

“Rural,” Abby says suddenly. It’s the first time she’s broken from the chant of her spell.

Her eyelids lift slowly, and I suck in a breath. Her eyes are unfocused and fogged over with a milky-white sheen. I throw Dennis a startled look, and he nods. He seems calm. This is apparently what’s supposed to happen.

“Trees,” Abby whispers. “Lots of trees. A lake. Small. Docks. A rowboat.”

As excited as I am that she’s got something, dread pools in my stomach. Trees and a lake don’t exactly narrow things down. Most of Michigan can be described as trees and water.

“A house,” Abby continues in her trancelike voice. Her brow crinkles. “Two houses? A barn?” She sounds unsure and frustrated. She frowns, but doesn’t shake her head or even close her eyes. It’s actually a little creepy. “Hidden,” she says. “Warded.”

My heart lurches. This isn’t going to work. We’re not going to find her.

“Town nearby.”

I hold my breath. That sounds more promising.

“River. Historic main street. Train tracks. Rail station.”

I resist the urge to pull out my phone and start Googling. There can’t be that many towns nearby with a river and a train station near a lake. And considering we know exactly when Skylar was taken, that should limit the search too. But then Abby says, “Courthouse. Lapeer County Courthouse.”

I gasp. That’s it. Lapeer. I’ve never been there, but it’s not that far from here. And even if she can’t get a specific location, how much property near Lapeer will be on the banks of a lake and warded by magic?

As if she knows she’s gotten what she needs, Abby blinks rapidly and shakes herself from her trance. The milky film clears from her eyes. She takes a moment to orient herself, then looks at her father and me. She frowns. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t see. It was hidden. I couldn’t focus.”

She looks like she wants to cry. Her father scoops her up and hugs her tight. She hugs him, then glances nervously my direction again. “You did great, Abby,” I promise her.

Her eyes gloss over with tears. “It’s not enough.” Her voice hitches. “I wanted to find her.”

I take the child’s hand. “It’s enough,” I promise.

Abby refuses to look at me, and her small sniffle breaks my heart. I place my finger under Abby’s chin and lift her face until she’s forced to meet my eyes. “We will find her. Thanks to your gift, we know exactly where to go to start looking.”

She wipes at her tears and searches my face for sincerity. I give her a soft smile. “You did amazing.” I lean forward, overwhelmed with gratitude, and kiss the precious girl’s forehead. “Thank you, Abby.”

She sniffles again, but her face lights up, and she finally cracks a smile.

I rise to my feet and meet Dennis’s gaze, not at all surprised by the pride shining in his eyes. He has a right to be proud. “Thank you,” I tell him. My voice is so thick with emotion I can barely get the words out. “What does she need? Food? Rest?”

Dennis studies his daughter and lets out a breath. “Both.”

I nod and wave around the apartment. “Make yourselves at home. There’s food in the fridge, a bed down the hall if she needs to sleep, or she can use the TV and just relax.” I grin at Abby. “It has all the streaming services and lots of video games to play.”

She grins brightly.

I turn to Dennis. “I’ll be downstairs. If you need anything, find me, or Sophia is just down the hall.” I point toward my room.

Sophia, having heard me with her shifter hearing, comes out. I make quick introductions and leave the three of them to go make a plan.