“What? He was banished,” Kris said, turning her to face him.
“You don’t understand,” she said, running to the room where the kids were last seen.
“Della, please explain.”
“Crows don’t follow Shifter law. They do what they want. I should have guessed earlier, but Blayne hates kids. He would only come here to pretend he was interested if Cade was already planning to come back. Goddamn him!” she raged at the last.
“Shit,” he growled. “It’s okay. Come on. Let’s try to catch his scent.”
“Crows have better eyesight than sense of smell,” she whispered, fat tears dragging down her cheeks.
“Then you can be my eyes, Della. Come on. There has to be a clue here somewhere,” he said and went to work sifting through the room.
“Here! He must have snagged it on that nail,” she said, holding up a piece of torn cloth.
“Perfect,” Kris said and kissed her head, racing downstairs to where Michael had just arrived and was holding his mate.
“Got a scent?” he asked.
“Yeah, looks like he climbed in the window. Fucker needed his arms to carry Janie,” Kris growled.
“There were no other tire treads, I checked. And I called reinforcements. They’re on their way,” Michael said.
“Footprints!” Della hollered, pointing towards the edge of the yard. “His brother likely carried them to right there. Cade and the kids would be too heavy even for an adult Crow to lift while shifted into his animal form.”
“Smart to stick to the tree line,” Michael said, already kicking off his shoes.
“Not smart enough.”
Kris’s eyes glowed as he joined the other male, shucking clothing. Rage raced through his veins. But he wasn’t lost to it. He turned, shocked to see Della right there beside him, stripping off her clothes.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to look for them, too. They’re my kids, Kris.” she said.
He inhaled and nodded. Of course, she was going to do that. She was an excellent mother and the bravest woman he’d ever met.
“Stay in the sky and call out when you see something. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you,” he said, cupping her cheek and kissing her before he let the Wolf take his skin.
The frosty air was nothing against his thick winter coat. Michael’s beast trotted ahead, sniffing for clues, but Kristoff’s Wolf stilled, mesmerized by the beautiful black Crow staring at him with velvet eyes before she took off straight into the sky like an arrow.
God, she was beautiful with glossy feathers and a fan-shaped tail. Shifters were larger than their wild cousins, and that went for Crows as well. Della’s Crow was enormous compared to them.
Her wingspan was easily six feet across, and her black beak looked powerful. She had a lithe and sleek body, aerodynamically designed for speed and flight, with fierce looking talons at the end of her sturdy legs.
She cawed, and he took off like a crimson bullet, cutting a path through the snowy forest floor and diving between trees. God, she was fast, too. Urgently she flew, and he loosed a short howl to tell Michael where he was headed.
Following her was instinctual. He trusted her to know what she was doing. If only he had bitten her. Then he might be able to hear her through a telepathic link some mated pairs shared.
He knew they had a matebond already. It was light and weak, but to form one without a bite was extremely rare. It spoke of how much he loved her already and how strong destiny was on their side.
The sound of a baby crying caught his ears, followed by Della’s fierce caw. Kris pushed harder. He didn’t want his mate entering danger alone. Michael was behind them, but he was too far, having veered off in the beginning to check out the footprints. Turned out those were a decoy.
Kris was close now, he could smell the soft baby smells of Janie and Sean, followed by the scents of their fear.
Both children were crying earnestly now, begging their father to stop. It was the single worst sound he could remember hearing in his entire adult life.
Then he heard something just as frightening for the big Werewolf.