Page 7 of Rivers and Roads

Kor shook his head, baring his teeth. “He’s not missing. I sent him to check on a power failure at the edge of town, and he hasn’t checked in. I think he forgot to charge his phone. It’s not the first time he’s done it.”

“If something’s wrong, won’t Talia or Danyal know?” Misha suggested.

He was right, and neither of them had seemed concerned. If Zane was in trouble, Danyal would have been on the phone to Kor long before now. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

I didn’t bother saying anything more. Kor would be able to feel it in the pack bond, and it wasn’t worth arguing over until we had some answers. Kor still hadn’t heard back from the Beta he sent out to check the area, and with the signal being what it was in the city, we had grown used to long silences.

Tension followed us as we made our way to Cameron and Talia’s house. I led the way with Kor’s cane gently swiping the pavement behind me, and Misha’s conversation filled the gaping silence. I knew a lot of it had to do with the fact that there had been no action for months. We got some information from Sanderson, but his tracker was disabled within days of his escape, and it gave us a location to the middle of nowhere, without a single trace of evidence left behind.

Kor believed they killed him, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if they swept him off to a lab and added him to the growing numbers of Wolves we would never see again. I tried to find some measure of pity for him, but his prejudices and his alliance with Lior—who had gone radio silent since his departure—wasn’t something I would be quick to forgive.

Turning the corner to Cameron’s street, I glanced behind me at the pair, then picked up my pace. I was growing antsy to see Zane’s face, whispering a quiet prayer to the gods that he would be lounging on the sofa with his niece balanced on his knee. I hated that I was worked up over him—and it didn’t entirely make sense, but I was too damn tired to think about it.

I was born and bred for war—not this quiet espionage that led to nowhere.

I reached the door before Kor and Misha stepped onto the driveway, and I hit the buzzer, tapping my foot as I listened for footsteps. I heard the dog first, then Cameron’s quiet command before it was opened.

“Right on time,” he said with a smile, stepping aside.

Cameron never met anyone’s gaze the way Kor still managed it from time to time. His right eye was milky, the orange obscured by the scarring from the bomb. And his left eye was prosthetic—realistic, but lacking the natural glow of the Wolf. Still, I felt seen when he turned to face me, and he offered his hand.

His palm was warm against mine, and comforting, and I appreciated feeling like I had some sort of ally. “Is Zane here?”

Cameron’s brow furrowed. “No. I thought he’d be coming with you all.”

My stomach dropped, and I looked over my shoulder at Kor, who was coming up the steps ahead of Misha. His mouth was turned in a frown, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. “I’m going to check in with Keith. He should have at least sent a message by now.”

My stomach started to twist hard as Cameron stepped aside so we could head in. “Is there something wrong,” he asked, gently touching my elbow as I passed.

I didn’t want to give him too much truth, but I cared about him enough not to lie. “Zane never showed up to the Council meeting, and his phone isn’t ringing through. Kor sent a Beta to check out the site, but no one’s gotten back to him.”

“Shit,” Cameron whispered under his breath.

My heart began to beat harder when I smelled fear on him. “What happened?”

“Danyal called Talia earlier. He said he felt something off coming from Zane, but he’d been so stressed lately, he couldn’t be sure if it was anything worth worrying about.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Kor appeared behind me, reaching for my arm. “No answer. We need to get over there and see what the hell is going on.”

My heart sank. “You know what we’re going to find.”

Kor’s jaw tightened, and he shook his head. “We’re not going to go down that road right now. Just…can we borrow Talia’s car?”

“Of course,” Cameron said. He turned, hurrying down the hall, and he returned a second later with a set of keys dangling from his first finger. “What do you want me to tell her?”

“Nothing,” Kor said as I took the keys. “But if we’re not back and you haven’t heard anything from us in thirty minutes, I want you to have Misha call in the Council. No one is to come looking for us without a team.”

I could smell how thick the fear was, rolling off Cameron in waves. “You don’t think…”

“I don’t know what to think,” Kor interrupted, his voice rumbling with frustration. “I don’t even want to speculate until we get some answers.” He reached through the air, finding my arm after a second, and his claws all-but dug into my skin. “All I can say right now is that panic won’t help us, no matter what we find.”

Cameron’s jaw went tense, but he straightened his shoulders and gave a single sharp nod. “Please just…let Talia know the moment you can.”

I gripped his shoulder and squeezed once. “We’ll find him.” The urgency in me was only growing, and I appreciated that Kor kept pace with me as we hurried out and climbed into Talia’s car. It smelled like coffee and baby, and it was almost cloying as I backed out and pulled onto the street.

Kor seemed to have the same idea, because his fingers searched the door until he found the button for the window, and I breathed out a sigh of relief when fresh air flooded the cab. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” he said after a beat.

I startled a little, my hands squeezing the wheel. If this had been the middle of war—if it had been before the humans took him—Kor wouldn’t have apologized. He would have told me he was doing the best he could with the information he had. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was Misha’s doing or the fact that he still felt uncertain about the world around him.

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