Page 57 of Her Shifter Pack
Chapter 17
LEXIE
The wolf pack congregating in Ollie’s parents’ house was much smaller than I’d expected, but it was a Tuesday afternoon. I had to assume some of them were working and couldn’t get away.
“What’s this about, Oliver?” a big man asked from the comfort of Anne and David’s couch.
We were all crowded around the living room. Nancy was in the corner, keeping her eyes to herself, and Anne was trying not to look at me as well.
Cowards.
I stuck by Ollie’s side, not willing to leave him alone for even a moment. What if I looked the wrong way and lost him too? I wasn’t sure what I’d do if that happened.
Out of nowhere, those two men had become my whole world, and I couldn’t imagine my life going forward without them. As a woman who’d tried never to look more than one day into the future, I now had years mapped out.
For the first time ever, I had plans. I had something to look forward to. A place where I belonged. People who loved me, or at least wanted to build a life together.
I’d finally gotten something worth holding on to, and I wasn’t going to lose it. Not now. Not ever.
“Markus is missing,” Ollie said, answering the man’s question. “I’d like the pack to help me look for him.”
The big guy shifted on his chair. “He’s only been gone what, a day? Not even twenty-four hours. Surely, it’s possible that he’s just hunting, or dallying with a shifter from another pack. Markus has been known to do some wild things.”
There was a general mumbling of agreement, and Ollie grabbed my hand, pulling me closer. “Markus is my twin, and Lexie is our Fated mate. We know something’s wrong with him. We can both feel it.”
The big guy on the couch glanced at me, then threw a pointed look at Ollie’s parents, then back at me. “Well, no one mentioned that before now. Welcome to the pack, my dear. But I don’t see how either of you can feel anything that would make me endanger our pack. You know a storm is predicted for this evening. The forest will flood and trees will come down. People could get hurt.”
People? What about Markus? He was still out there.
I kept my mouth shut because I was the outsider and didn’t know most of the men and women standing around the room.
“You don’t have to force anyone to help us, Alpha. But I’m here to ask for help. If anyone would be willing to search some of the forest with me, we can cover a lot more ground, hopefully getting in and out before the storm hits.”
“I’ll go,” Nancy called out, putting her hand up. “I’ll take the north end, near the lake. Markus used to love swimming there.”
“Thanks,” Ollie said, though I glared at her. She wasn’t helping us, she was helping herself. But I wasn’t turning away another set of eyes and paws.
“We’ll come, of course,” Anne said, stepping forward and indicating between herself and her husband. “I suppose we’ll go east. Along the city edges and around the forest.”
A few of the other shifters offered to accompany Anne and Nancy, and I could see Ollie visibly relax. “Thank you. All of you. And please understand that I don’t expect anyone to put themselves at risk. As soon as the weather turns, get home.”
The wolf shifters began filing through the doors and walking outside, and Ollie followed, dragging me along.
Once we got outside, I turned to Ollie. “Has someone got a dirt bike I can ride? I’ll follow you. I assume we’re going up to that cave you were talking about?”
Anne and Nancy turned toward me, the latter with a nasty smirk on her face. “You’re going up to the bluff caves, Ollie? You’ll be lucky to make it that far before the weather hits.”
Ollie shrugged, unbuttoning his shirt and folding it up. “I have to try. If there’s anywhere Markus went to wait out the storm, it’ll be the cave.”
Nancy turned her gaze on me and there was a sneer lifting her upper lip. “You won’t make it up there. You’re human for one thing, and no bike I know could make it over that terrain. It’s steep and hasn’t got any roads. You need to be a wolf shifter to travel through the forest.”
You wanna bet?
Nancy turned to look at Anne, who was nodding with an oddly triumphant look on her face. Then Anne said, “Nancy’s right. You don’t belong here, Lexie. Go home... or wherever it is that you sleep.”
Fury roared up inside my head. “I sleep right beside your sons, Anne. And I suggest you get used to that idea.”
