Untamed Wolf (17 page)

The last thing he wanted was a prolonged battle or the damn pack. “If you want me to challenge you, keep being a bitch. This isn’t about you. This isn’t about Three Rivers. It’s about Chrystal…”

“Chrystal is
mine
. She is Three Rivers. She is mine to protect. Mason Clayborne does not rule here, nor does he have the right to demand her release.”

“Luciana,” Julian spoke. “She’s an Omega. You know this. We can help. Your pack isn’t ready for the burden of her.”

“It doesn’t matter if we’re ready or not.” The Alpha switched her attention to Julian. “I will not abandon her. We didn’t know, but she is worth making changes to help.” The declaration went a long way toward deflating Dylan’s anger. “Stealing her away or turning her over to your Enforcers is the last thing she deserves.”

“I don’t want to steal her,” Dylan took a step towards the female Alpha, ignoring the death glare from her mate. “I want to help her and make sure she is all right. She’s my
friend
and I care about her.”

“She has plenty of friends here.” Though the destruction behind her decried her dismissive statement.

Collin appeared at the back of the crowd, and met Dylan’s gaze. He shook his head. Chrystal wasn’t at her place. She wasn’t in the crowd… “You don’t know where she is, do you?” Though Luciana’s expression didn’t reveal an answer, but her sudden silence did. Worry skated over his nerves. Chrystal liked to take photographs, and she loved to wander.
There are so many pretty things to see.
He checked his phone, no message from her, but depending on where she was, she may have gotten out of range of a cell tower. “When was the last time you saw her?”

“Mrs. Barrows.” Jerome clapped a hand onto Dylan’s shoulder. “Delta Crescent offered you tentative friendship, and we support the action of Willow Bend tonight, but I think we can all agree this goes beyond the politics. Omegas need special care. I believe you when you say you care about her and want to protect her. Fighting Dylan on this doesn’t serve either goal. You have a missing wolf, don’t you?”

The fist in Dylan’s chest tightened.

“Brick,” Luciana called, glancing away from them. A wolf strode forward at her summons. “When was the last time you saw Chrystal?”

“When she turned in for the night. She finished the last coat of paint at the restaurant, then went to her place. She’s been going to bed early most nights, so I waited till she’d settled before I left.” The statement carried a note of uncertainty.

“You left your post?” The Alpha’s mate took over the questioning. “Did you have anyone else keeping an eye out for her?”

The big man shook his head. “It made her more uncomfortable to feel watched, and you said I was to keep her calm and settled. I spent four nights sleeping right outside her place. She’s been too tired to wander, and she preferred to roam early when the sun was…” he trailed off, frowning.

Pride flared in Dylan’s chest.

Julian snorted. “She made mornings a habit after she noticed you following her, didn’t she?”

Surprise rippled through the crowd, then Brick nodded slowly.

“She didn’t vary her routine once, did she?” The Enforcer shook his head. “You all have so much to learn. You were a Lone Wolf, Brick. Why do you stick to a routine when you know the Enforcers will be checking on you?”

The wolf grimaced and Luciana sighed. “Because she wanted to distract us from her actual objective.”

His beautiful girl had slipped her leash. Maybe Luciana meant well, and maybe Three Rivers had been trying to protect her and themselves. It didn’t matter, not anymore. What mattered was she’d been caged and she wiggled out from the cage. She was out there, on her own. His wolf’s scrabbling ceased as he rose dangerously close to the surface. She was missing. Dylan would find her. No other outcome was acceptable.

“I need to know everything she did.” Chrystal liked to run, to explore and to find pretty places. If she took off in the middle of the night, she’d meant not to be followed. So had it been a casual run in the snow? Or what?

Brick glanced at his Alpha. Luciana frowned. “We can find her,” she began, but Dylan was done with the game.

“You could, but I’ll find her faster and she wants to see me.” It wasn’t a boast. “You can help me and tell me everything she did, or you can get out of the way, but I am going to find my mate.” The last word resonated within him.

“Thank you,” Julian said, clapping his hands together, then he gave Luciana a hard look. “Will you really stand between an Omega and her mate?”

What the hell did his being her mate really have to do with her being an Omega? Yet the transformation of Luciana’s expression couldn’t be argued. “No,” she said quietly. “Only a fool would do so. Brick tell him everything he needs to know. He can help you track her.”

Dylan didn’t need anyone’s help. Collin trailed him as he stalked after Brick. Surprisingly, so did Julian. Dylan only half listened to Brick’s recounting as he studied Chrystal’s house. She had an apartment on the second floor. The old Victorian had been converted into several smaller apartments, though hers was the only one currently occupied.

Studying the street, he measured the distance from the front door to the street…too much open ground if she were looking to escape unnoticed. The space between the houses would have provided her shadows and cover. Abandoning the porch, he dropped to the snow and circled to the west side. When he found only undisturbed snow, he headed to the east.

The faintest of depressions dimpled the snow. It had been coming down for hours—the steady dusting would fill in her tracks.
Clever girl
. His wolf’s approval radiated through him. She’d done what he would have suggested, using nature to protect her path, but he was better. Withdrawing his phone from his pocket, he fired off a message.

I’m tracking you. I won’t have my phone. Get some place warm and stay there. I’ll find you soon.
After hitting send, he stripped his shirt off. Collin caught it as he tossed it to him. “Take the SUV, head for the border. She liked the waterfall on Dempsey River.” But she wasn’t going there; his gut told him she wasn’t.
Still…
“I’m going to trail her.”

Not waiting for their response, he shifted. Collin would watch his back. Once on four legs, his wolf’s nose caught the faintest hint of her scent.
Mate.
Damn, he would need time to get used to the concept. Maybe fifty or sixty years.

Mate.

The others headed off, all save for the Enforcer. “Dylan?”

Sparing the man a look when all he wanted to do was find her took considerable effort on his part. Julian crouched, bringing their heads level. The cold, icy look in his eyes had warmed with a hint of concern.

“Be really sure she is your mate before you claim her.”
Stupid advice.
Of course he was really sure. “No,” Julian said with a shake of his head. “You misunderstand me. Be really sure of her. You have to believe in her, one hundred percent. Mating will pull her from her pack. Her ties to Three Rivers are far too tenuous and all of Willow Bend is going to hit her at once. Omegas are the truest reflection of a pack’s health. She’ll feel everything they do—their certainty, their fears, their passion, and more. What she experiences, you will to a certain extent.”

What the hell was he talking about?

The Chief Enforcer shook his head. “You won’t understand until it happens. It’s like being Alpha. All the ties are there, but none of the command. Be a rock for her. She’s going to need it, and so will you.” Then the wolf snatched him by his scruff before he realized he was moving. The fist jerked his muscles back, and Julian’s gaze went glacial. “Be sure of her, because if you hurt her, I will kill you. You were right when you said I should have done more. Understand me—while she doesn’t have a father to speak for her, I’ll do it on her behalf. Clear?”

The threat carried weight. Dylan and his wolf believed him. He bared his teeth.
She’s mine.
The growl reverberated through him. They were on the same page. The Chief Enforcer released him with the same speed he’d caught him.

“Good. Now go find her. I’ll deal with the fallout here when it hits.”

Whatever the hell that meant.

Dylan streaked off, following the path he could barely see. In his gut, he knew he could find her. She was smaller than most wolves, fit in places they wouldn’t, and didn’t think as they did.

So he had to think like Chrystal. He had to follow the pretty.

Dammit, she was lost. She studied the landscape ahead of her. She’d found the river, crossed the river, then darted into the woods. An hour to ninety minutes by car was fifty to sixty miles or so. She’d been on the move for hours. Though she didn’t have a watch to tell time, she was certain dawn neared because the horizon lightened gradually, even with the heavy cloud cover.

In the trees, it was worse.
Snow. Pine. Cedar. Old oak
. The trees all had a different scent, but not the one she wanted to find. She had two choices, keep going and trust her nose or shift and dig out her phone. It was so cold, the chill seemed to infect her bones, even through her dense fur coat.

Glancing behind her, she couldn’t see the edge of the woods any longer. They’d taken a calculated risk and gone deeper rather than parallel the edge. Even if they hadn’t, the snow continued to fall and obscure her back trail. Great idea in theory, but if she wanted to retrace her steps to head out, she wasn’t sure about the angle.

Woods surrounded Dylan’s cabin. They’d headed west and south from the cabin to get to the highway. So if she continued mostly east and some north, she’d find the area she sought. Her wolf’s thoughts seemed to bleed through her own. The wind changed and she caught the first hint of wetter snow. It sliced through the trees, and a rumble of thunder rolled from the sky.

Thunder snow? Really?

Frustration welled in her gut.
Go back or go forward?

What would Dylan do?

T
he thunder accompanied
him as he raced along the creek bed. Her rapidly disappearing trail vanished into the gulley. Smart girl used the icy ground to disguise her passage. Trusting his instincts, he ran full out. He could go for hours without slowing. For Chrystal, he could go a hell of a lot longer. Paralleling the road till he reached the river, he emerged and studied the rocky path. Fatter flakes floated down and clung to everything they touched.

Wet snow.

Raising his head, he tested the wind. The weather diluted the scent of woods, oil on the road, concrete, muddy water…swinging his head toward the bridge. He studied the layout. If he were small and fording the river was too damn dangerous, he’d take the street.

She better have taken the damn street.
His wolf’s immediate agreement sync’d with him and they were already in motion. Racing across the bridge, he descended to the other side and spotted relatively fresh prints beneath the trees on the far side. She’d cut into the woods. Throwing his head back, he released a howl. The call would echo, and if she were within hearing distance…hopefully she’d answer.

Ears flicked forward, he listened. No answering call. Testing the scent of the prints, he found the first strong note of Chrystal since leaving Three Rivers.

A harsher crack of thunder split the night. Lighting flickered overhead. The snow fell faster. Increasing his speed, he followed the rambling path she’d set off on. Thankfully the trees preserved her trail. The wind shifted again, increasing in force and beginning to swirl. The weather worked against him.

He had to find her.

B
owing
her head to the wind, she leaned against a tree and wrestled with her decision. Change and go for her phone or find a place to hide until the storm passed. Even her wolf wasn’t entirely certain. They hadn’t spent as much time on the hunt as they would have liked. A rustling sound underscored the screaming wind and she glanced at the branches over her head. After having a cat fall on her, she never intended to repeat the same mistake of believing a tree sheltered her from all danger.

No visible animals and nothing touched her nose. Unsettled by the idea, however, she made her decision. Abandoning the tree, she set out against the wind and continued to angle north and east—she hoped. If she could find a road, maybe she could find a gas station or other human fixture, then she’d slip out of her bag, shift, and go inside. Calling Dylan was her best alternative. Surely she was far enough away to be on the Willow Bend side of the border.

Unless the one time I want to wander over the border, I can’t find it.
The thought sent a trill of amusement through her and lifted her diminishing mood. Another mile passed by and no sign of human habitation or streets. How lost was she? The weather grew worse. She shivered despite her constant movement, and the pads of her feet burned with the cold.

How much further could she go? Lost in an endless sea of trees and snow, her stomach cramped. Exhaustion was the enemy in the cold, one she rapidly lost the battle against. Maybe if she sat for a moment, gathered her thoughts and her energy she could…

A howl split the night air. The sound cut straight through to her heart and she jerked to her feet. Whirling, she flicked her ears trying to pinpoint where it came from. The notes faded away too quickly.
Dammit.
Throwing her head back, she howled a plaintive answer. Maybe if she could find other wolves—Mama, even—her howl still carried when the answering call came.

Excitement dislodged some of the chill in her veins. The answering howl was to the west…wasn’t it?

Trotting forward a couple of steps, she loosed another call and the sound echoed back to her. When the answering howl joined hers, she flicked her ears toward the sound and ran toward it. The wind snatched away the trailing notes, but she kept going. Finding the edge of the woods, she skidded to a halt.

She knew the spot. It was where they’d rescued Mama. Across the clearing, a wolf emerged. A wolf she knew. Her heart sang. Abandoning the woods, she raced for Dylan. She’d found him—or he’d found her. It didn’t matter. He was there.