Thrown to the Wolves (Black River Pack Book 3) (4 page)

“They,” I growled. “Not he—they.”

Carrick hadn’t found any sign of her in the towns Elias had been to so far. In my heart though? I refused to give up hope, because if she wasn’t with him, then I had no way of finding her. I didn’t know her name or what town she was from. I had nothing else to work with except Eliza’s dream that showed my mate with her father.

“They,” Carrick agreed even though his tone implied he was humoring more than anything else. “Talk to your dream-walker and let me know what she says.”

Stabbing the red button to end our call, I was so pissed off that I wanted to hurl my phone across the room. Instead, I punched Eliza’s number in and waited for her to pick up.

“Any news?” she asked without saying hello—a clear sign of how worried she had been about her dad ever since she had the dream.

“Nothing yet,” I replied. Then I hurried to explain my theory when she sighed because I knew the situation was hurting her almost as much as it was me. “But I think your dad might be searching for you. The places he’s been recently line up with towns you’ve mentioned before.”

“Oh my God!” she gasped out.

Spencer’s voice suddenly came through the other end of the line, asking if she was okay. She’d started crying, so he must have grabbed the phone from her because she hadn’t answered fast enough.

“Who the fuck is this?” he demanded.

“I think they’re good tears, bro,” I quickly said before Spencer could get royally pissed off at me for having made his mate cry.

“What the hell, Parker?” he bellowed. “Eliza’s not a crier. What the fuck did you say to her?”

“Carrick’s trail on her dad has led to some of the towns I know she was in before she came to Wolf’s Point.”

The complete silence on the other end of the line told me that he understood the implications.

One of Spencer’s strengths as pack enforcer was his ability to step back and see the bigger picture. When it came to his mate, he was quick to wade right the fuck in and ask questions later if he thought anyone was hurting her. He’d even been like that before he’d realized she was his mate. I probably should have figured it out myself the night he’d found her drunk in The Den since he’d never acted like that with any other woman before Eliza.

Spencer’s question pulled me back into the conversation. “Where was he last seen?”

“Lyallville.” Which was one of the towns I’d recalled Eliza talking about one night when she was drinking while I was bartending.

Spencer repeated it back to me, and then Eliza must have stolen the phone back, because it was her voice that filtered through the line.

“That’s where I was right before I came here. If he really is looking for me, then this should be his next stop.”

“Holy fuck,” I breathed out, stunned at the thought that my mate could be here in a matter of days. Or less.

“Yeah,” Eliza sighed.

“I’ve gotta call Carrick back to let him know he can call off the search—at least for a little bit while we wait to see if they show up in town,” I said, desperately trying to keep my focus on what needed to be done when all I wanted to do was howl with joy at the thought of meeting my mate.

Since time was of the essence, I forced myself to call the bear who’d been helping with the search and shared the news with him.

“If he doesn’t show in the next week, we’ll hit Lyallville again and see if we can catch another lead,” Carrick offered.

“I’d appreciate it.”

“And if he gets into town without the girl?” he wanted to know.

“Then I’m screwed unless Elias knows what Eliza’s dream means.”

“I won’t give up searching for her,” he promised.

“Neither will I.”

He chuckled on the other end of the line. “I’m sure you won’t if you think she’s your mate, but what you need to understand is that female bears are rare. We don’t have many young, and when we do, they’re usually boys. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for her.”

“Not many young?” I repeated. “Bullshit! You’ve got three sons. Watch out for them and keep your nose out of my mate’s business. I needed your help to find her. That’s it.”

“You came to me for help, but that doesn’t mean you get to order me out of this if I think that girl needs my help,” he warned. “And I’m damn lucky to have my sons, but I’m the exception to the rule because my genes ran stronger than their mother’s. Which is a damn good thing because that bitch doesn’t deserve to have any part of them after the way she abandoned my boys—something no bear would ever do because we treasure our children.”

“Just as a wolf cherishes their mates,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, buddy,” he replied, sarcasm heavy in his voice before he hung up on me.

It reminded me that, even though he’d agreed to help, Carrick had a reputation for not liking wolves. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that the only reason he had agreed was the possibility that my mate was a bear with trouble at her heels.

****

The next six days passed painstakingly slowly. Last night was the worst of them with the full moon high in the sky. My wolf had been even more restless than usual, so I’d ended up running the entire night, letting my beast free in an effort to release some of my frustration. It hadn’t worked though. I’d spent hours patrolling the forest that surrounded our town, hunting down every strange scent like it presented an immediate threat. I was pretty sure I’d marked every damn tree within a couple-mile radius of my home, too. My wolf had been feeling particularly territorial, and I could only assume it was because he was as peeved about the wait as I was.

Dragging my ass out of bed, I glanced at the clock and was surprised to see that it was already early afternoon. I’d managed to wear myself out enough to catch more than just a couple of hours of sleep. The edginess hadn’t left me yet, and I still had a ton of nervous energy in my system. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the full moon was supposed to be tonight because I felt none of the relief I usually did with its passing. I still felt like my wolf was going to tear out of my skin.

My shower didn’t help, and I couldn’t bring myself to make lunch, so I decided to head over to the Packed Plate for some food. If I timed it right, I figured I’d be able to catch Spencer when he dropped Eliza off for her shift, so I sent him a quick text before I hopped into my car to head into town.

Enough time had passed that we needed to think about reaching out to Carrick for help again. I couldn’t go another day without doing something to find her. Knowing that my mate was out there and in need was driving me fucking insane.

Pulling up to the diner, I noticed that Spencer had beat me there. His truck was parked along the street already, and he must have just gotten there, because he was stepping out of his truck to walk around to the passenger’s door to help his mate out. Before he’d even made it halfway around the truck, her door flew open.

“Daddy!” Eliza screamed before she hopped out of the truck and ran, hurtling down the sidewalk and throwing herself into the arms of a man who had just walked out of The Packed Plate.

Scanning the area, I searched wildly for the woman I hoped like hell was traveling with him. Eliza was enveloped in the arms of her father, sobbing uncontrollably while my brother came up from behind to wrap his arms around her. Although I was incredibly happy that she’d found her dad, my heart dropped at the possibility that her dream had been wrong and my mate wasn’t with him.

As I walked towards them, my pace was slow. It felt like there was a pit in the bottom of my stomach, and as much as I wanted to ask Eliza’s dad about my mate, I was petrified that he wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about. That all hope would be lost and I’d have to start from scratch.

Eliza’s eyes met mine over her dad’s shoulder, and she stepped back. Her face fell as worry filled her gaze—concern for me because I couldn’t even muster up a smile at her good fortune.

“God, it’s good to see you again, baby girl,” Elias said, his voice cracking with emotion, which drew Eliza’s attention back to her father. “It took me way too long to find you. It was like you fell off the face of the Earth.”

“I thought you were dead,” she whimpered. “All this time, I thought you and Mom were both gone and nobody would ever come looking for me because I’d been kicked out of the pack.”

“Dead?” Elias gasped. “Fuck, baby girl. I was hurt pretty damn badly, and it took me a while to recover because I’d lost so much blood and they’d used silver bullets, but there wasn’t ever a moment when they thought I was going to die.”

“She told me you were gone,” Eliza said before explaining what had happened to her in the month she had waited for her dad to return. “I had no one. Nothing was keeping me there, so I left.”

“Fuck!” he swore. “I’m gonna kill that motherfucker if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

“Not if I beat you to it,” my brother replied.

I stood by silently as Eliza introduced her mate to her dad, a moment she thought for years would never come to pass. When her dad turned to me, I held out my hand.

“And this is one of my new brothers, Daddy,” Eliza said. “Parker.”

“Nice to meet you,” I mumbled.

“Sorry he’s such a sad sack, but he was hoping you hadn’t come here alone,” Spencer explained. “With Eliza’s dream and all.”

“Dream?”

When he looked at us in confusion, I realized Eliza still had a lot to explain to her dad since she’d kept her gift hidden from him for so many years at her mom’s urging.

“I’ll explain later,” Eliza interjected. “Unfortunately, I’m about to be late for work. Even though I’m mated to one of the owners, I really don’t want to take advantage of my coworkers by skipping a shift. Again.”

“Everyone will understand, dream girl,” Spencer argued. “You finally got your daddy back. Take some time with him.”

“How about you kill two birds with one stone and I’ll stay here with you for a while, baby girl?” Elias offered.

“I’d love that,” Eliza agreed as she gave Spencer a kiss on the cheek and grabbed her dad’s hand to head inside the diner.

The door had just started to close behind them, so I almost missed her dad’s next words. Thank fuck I didn’t though.

“Besides which, I left Annora at the table when I saw you pull up,” he explained. “Poor girl probably thinks I’ve abandoned her, and she’s still too sore to move quickly enough to catch up to me.”

“Annora,” I whispered in wonder.

My brain was catching up to my wolf as I grabbed the door and swung it open to catch up to them only to stop dead in my tracks. The scent that drifted to me was sweeter than anything I’d ever smelled before. Like cotton candy on a hot summer’s day.

Breathing deeply, I zeroed in on the curvy brunette sitting in the corner booth. She really was here. My mate.

Chapter 4

Annora

While I watched Elias hug his daughter, I was happy that the man I’d come to trust with my life had found her after having searched for so long. Once we had crossed the state line, Elias had found the closest motel and made sure I’d had time to clean up, rest, and get some much-needed food into my system. He’d taken better care of me than my own parents, and I’d found myself telling him about what they’d done. His reaction to the Lyall name let me know that he understood the danger I would be in if Wyatt ever found me. So we hadn’t traveled directly to Wolf’s Point because he’d wanted to make sure it was difficult to track us in case anyone was looking for me.

I figured it had to have been killing Elias to know where his daughter was and not get to her as quickly as possible, especially after how long it had taken him to find her. If it had been my father, I would have paid dearly for his frustration at the situation, but Elias had never once made me feel like he was mad at me. Instead, he’d handled me with kid gloves and treated me like I wished my father had done.

As tears gathered in my eyes, my gaze moved away from the happy reunion and drifted to the man standing a few feet away.

Holy hell, that guy is smoking hot.

He was insanely tall. Elias was over six feet, and this guy had him beat by several few inches. And damn was he built from what I could tell from the bulging muscles that strained against his shirt. His dark hair looked like he’d rolled out of bed and run a hand through it without doing much of anything else to get ready. I’d never been into guys with facial hair, but the scruff on his cheeks made my thighs clench at the thought of it scraping against my skin. Watching him as he stood there with a look of sadness and longing on his face, I felt the strange need to comfort him.

When the bell over the door jingled, it drew my attention back to Elias and his daughter. As they walked towards the table where I was sitting, Elias was telling her about me, and her eyes lit up with joy when they connected with mine. I wasn’t sure why she’d be so happy to see a strange woman with her dad, but I didn’t have long to ponder it because the man from outside stormed past them and didn’t stop moving until he’d dropped to his knees in front of me. I couldn’t help the squeak of shock that slipped out of me as I tried to jerk away from him when he reached for my hands.

“Mine,” he growled, breathing deeply in a manner I’d seen other male shifters do when they were scenting their mate.

I’d been holding my breath in shock, and my heart was beating wildly at the flare of possession in his eyes. There was a roaring sound in my head, and my vision started to spin as my gaze narrowed on his. When I finally remembered to breathe and his scent hit me, my bear pushed for control. She’d come to me late in life, which meant I didn’t have any experience in controlling her, so I struggled to rein her in as my hormones raged. As stunned as I was, there was no doubt in my mind that this man was the cause of my struggle.

“You’re hurt,” he said in an accusing tone.

“I was in a car accident,” I explained.

His fingers brushed against the bandage at my forehead. “I can smell your pain. Have you seen a healer? You shouldn’t be hurting like this.”

“Leave my girl alone,” Elias cautioned as soon as he reached the table. He towered over us, his arms crossed while he glared at the man kneeling at my feet.