Page 8 of Rivers and Roads

“It is what it is,” I said after a beat. “Can you start up the GPS and get the coordinates going?”

It took him a moment with his phone, his finger dragging over the screen, the metallic voice-over filling the quiet between us. But eventually, I had the directions, and I didn’t have it in me to say anything else as I hit the gas as fast as I could push the car and took the turns as recklessly as I dared.

It didn’t take us long to find the downed powerline, but the only sign that anyone had been out there was a lingering scent of chemicals and Zane’s Jeep, which was haphazardly parked on the embankment. Kor was tense, his nostrils flaring, and I rolled the car to a stop but didn’t turn it off.

“I can’t see anyone. Are you catching a scent?”

The Alpha ability to scent the enemy was naturally more powerful. Mine was honed from years of training, but Kor didn’t need to try as he leaned his head out and breathed in deep. After a beat, he pulled back, and his cheeks were faintly pink. Fear, I realized when something sour and sharp hit my senses. He was afraid.

“There were humans and Wolves here several hours ago. And I can smell that… I can smell that shit they used to blind me.” There was a faint tremor to his voice, but I knew he wouldn’t have appreciated it if I reached for him. “It’s fading though. I don’t think anyone stuck around.”

“Fuck,” I hissed, slamming my hands on the wheel. I turned the car off, then opened the door and pressed one foot to the asphalt, my head turning from left to right hoping to catch something—anything—that might give us a clue. There were some tracks not far from Zane’s Jeep—tires that indicated either a smaller vehicle or a van—which was the most likely cause.

We knew the van they drove and what they used to subdue Wolves. I just couldn’t believe no one had spotted them crossing the border. Or, I realized, the Wolves who had were in on it with them.

“Who called in the repair order?” I asked.

Kor, who had gotten out along with me, walked around the car with his hand guiding him. “I don’t remember. Someone on my Beta team. I’ll need to get back to the Council office and pull up the phone records.” His hand curled into a fist, and I saw blood from where his claws pierced his palm. After a beat, his rage struck me just before his knuckles hit the car. The boom echoed across the wide expanse of road, and his growl rumbled low in his chest. “I’m going to fucking rip them limb from limb.”

“We’re going to have to find them first. It looks like they took down the one pole that had the CCTV cam.” I swallowed thickly, hating the next question I had to ask. “Do you think we’ve got more eyes in the city?”

“I knew we did. I just didn’t think they’d be bold enough to take one of the Council members,” Kor said, his voice dripping with his anger. “They’re most likely long gone, though.”

I looked around one more time, then sighed. “What about Keith? He’s not here, and he never checked in.”

Kor sniffed again, and I recognized the look on his face. He was searching for a body. After a beat, he bowed his head and shook it. “I don’t know. I want to believe he couldn’t be in on this. That maybe he couldn’t reach me, but…fuck. Fuck, I don’t know who to trust anymore.” He bowed his head and breathed out a long sigh. “We need to get back.” He moved over to the door and got in as I slid behind the wheel. “We need to find Zane. We can’t waste time debating how.”

I opened my mouth to argue that Zane wouldn’t have wanted us to rush in without a plan, but I realized I was feeling something entirely unexpected. Desperation, grief, anger, and fear. This felt like more than a mission, and the hollow ache behind my ribs was more terrifying than anything else I had experienced before.

I turned the key, but Kor reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Orion?”

My name on his lips stopped me from backing out, and I tried to pull away, but he would always be stronger than I was. “Don’t.”

“Is there something you haven’t told me?”

I swallowed thickly. No, there wasn’t. But there might have been something I hadn’t told myself. Zane and I had spent so little time together, but he had gotten under my skin so unobtrusively and quietly, I only noticed now that he was gone. My neck burned with something close to shame, and I swallowed thickly as I gently extracted my arm away from my Alpha.

“Not right now,” I eventually said.

His face was forward, but it still felt like he was staring at me as he nodded, then reached for his seatbelt and clicked it into place. It was a silent cue for me to get on the road, and I didn’t hesitate as I jammed my foot on the gas and raced toward the city center.

Chapter

Four

ZANE

Darkness, laughter, pain. The scents of those around me were wrong wrong wrong wrong. They broke my skin without claws, forcing me down…forcing me down to my knees, to my hands. My bones ached to shift, but I was trapped. My spine curved, on the verge of breaking.

Kill, they told me. Kill. Taste the blood, feed on it.

It choked me, and somewhere, a name was just beyond my grasp. My name.

A name that meant someone would come for me.

But there was only this.

Chapter

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