Page 62 of The Alpha's Forced Rejected Mate

“Robyn said she heard something and wandered off,” I replied. I gestured to Sydney. “She said she knows her mother is missing.”

Faye took Sydney’s hand. “What did your mother say before she left?”

“Mommy is missing.” Sydney rested her cheek on the top of my head. “Daddy, we have to go find her.”

“This is bad. This is so, so bad,” I muttered while sliding Sydney down from my shoulders. I cradled her over my shoulder so she could rest. It was getting late, and she must have been tuckered out by now. “Faye, Hector—don’t alarm anyone. I need you to collect Sonya, Larry, and give Adrian a call. See if he can get up here on the next flight.”

Faye directed her attention to the woods. “Cliff, can you trace her scent?”

“Yeah, I can do that.” I tried to set Sydney on the ground only to find out how hard she could squeeze my neck and scream in my ear. I squeezed my eyes shut as I bore through the pain of a toddler’s fury. “Shoot, hey, Sydney—”

My sister passed Sierra off to Hector and then held out her arms to me. “Let me try to get her calm. You shift and track her mother.”

“Are you sure? I just—”

“Cliff, it’s okay. She’ll be safe with me.”

I smiled uneasily, holding out the only spawn I had ever created. I was reluctant to let her stay in someone else’s care when her mother had just disappeared. I couldn’t lose them both. Not now.

Not when I had just gotten them back.

Faye placed a hand on my shoulder. “You go ahead. I’ll get the others.”

“We’ll need your magic, Faye.”

“How do you know?”

My stomach wound up. “I just have a feeling, okay?”

Her lips tightened into a line. “When does my goofy, perfectly normal wolf brother ever get a feeling about anything?”

“Ever since he started loving that girl.”

She gasped with a look of astonished glee. “I hope you mean that.”

“I do, too.”

She pointed to the woods. “Enough talking. More saving.”

I wasn’t about to argue with her there, and I didn’t need a ton of research to know which way to go. The black licorice and pepper scent tickled my nostrils as soon as I broke away from the crowd. At the tree line, I noticed the scent broke off in a couple of different directions—that must have been leftover tracks from the ritual.

I gritted my teeth as I tried to discern which was the freshest scent. I caught the tail-end of one that followed a similar track from the completion of our ritual. Ahead, the remaining sensation of electrifying lust marked the air. This was where we had made love, and I had opened my mighty jaws to mark her with my bite.

My irritation tripled as I skipped past a fallen trunk and darted after a thicker scent, one that entwined with my mate’s delicious, spiced candy. Though I couldn’t put words to the description, I knew it to be putrid, like an animalistic musk used to mark territory. I must be getting closer to where they are.

Once I exited the woods, I found myself in the cul-de-sac. Before me stood the structure of Bill’s home that looked so bare bones without any lights inside. The front door stood ajar, wheezing on its hinges and smacking the foyer’s wall whenever the wind blew hard enough. Brisk air circled my body as I walkedpurposefully to the porch, where I hugged my jacket tighter around my shoulders.

“Robyn?” My voice sounded hollow on the porch. “Princess?”

The wind died, revealing a cracked whimper and a feeble sob.

I raced inside without a second thought, sniffing around the still-furnished living room that no one had taken apart just yet. Hector had advised leaving it up for a while as it might rock the boat too much to dispose of the previous Alpha’s items without allowing the pack to mourn.

Even if the guy was possessed and long gone.

I stepped quietly around the couch, shuffled past the coffee table full of protein-bar wrappers, and eased into the dark dining room. Antique lamps sat in the corners, winking whatever light shed from the streetlights. I tugged on one of the chains, hissing when light blanketed the room. In the corner, a curio cabinet gathered dust. The inside was empty, but I could see where plates had once been displayed.

Many of the bookshelves were bare. The wallpaper was ripped in some places. Otherwise, it was a refined, rich green, hosting a gold foil floral design that ran the length of the wall. Beneath my feet was a decadent carpet, beige, fluffy, fresh. I could see the impressions of shoe prints, some scuffs on the tile leading into the kitchen, and then the backdoor ajar to reveal a minor spatter of blood on the frame.

---