Page 11 of Wolf Bound

“Well, her name isPruitt,” Remington reminds me with a pointed look. “And I assume she went home since she wasn’t feeling well. Here I’ll text her now and ask if she made it home okay.” She reaches into her back jeans pocket and pulls out her phone. She looks down at the screen, and her eyes go wide. “Shit!”

“What?” Everyone in the room demands. I’m already so on edge that if one more thing happens, I may lose control of my wolf and shift. That is something that hasn’t happened to me since I was fifteen years old.

“Addison has been trying to call me. I had my phone on silent for the party, I didn’t hear her calls.”

“Who’s Addison?” Avery asks as she stands from her spot on the floor.

“Pru’s aunt,” Remington tells Avery as she places the phone to her ear and waits for an answer. “Addison! What’s going on? My phone was on silent, and I didn’t hear—” Remi pauses, listening to something the woman is saying. “What do you mean she ran after a wolf? What the hell does that mean?”

All the heads in the room snap up at the mention of a wolf. I feel a bead of sweat roll down my back as bad thoughts fill my mind, many involving the rogue wolf I’ve been tracking. I knew that fucker was close to the territory; I don’t know how close.

“Wait, I’m putting you on speaker,” Remington tells the woman whose voice is now so shrill we can all hear it. “Addison, you’re on speaker. My parents are here, and so are my brothers.”

“Pru has been obsessing over this wolf since we moved here,” the woman begins, speaking quickly. “She’s told me she’s had the same dream every night about it since we moved here. Over the last couple of months, every time she hears or God forbid sees something resembling the wolf in her dreams, she goes after it. Just last week, she ran after a poor coyote one night when we were on a walk. And on her way home from your place tonight, we were talking on the phone, and she almost ran over a red wolf, or what she thinks is a wolf. But she ran into the woods after a wild animal,alone, and I can’t reach her.”

Listening to the woman’s words, the blood drains from my body and I break into a cold sweat.

A red wolf.

I run my hand roughly over my face, a hundred scenarios going through my head. I turn and look at my father. “I haven’t had time to tell you why I’m here,” I begin, the room falling silent as everyone listens to what I have to say. “Sawyer, Avery, and I have been tracking a rogue wolf the past couple of weeks who’s been growing more and more violent every day. I strongly believe he’s in our territory.”

I can’t help but look out the window and at the setting sun. “The wolf we’ve been tracking is a red wolf, and if there’s even a slight chance she’s in the woods alone with that fucker, we need to gonow!”

“Ryker, why didn’t you tell me sooner?” my father demands, jumping to his feet. “Don’t you think that information could have been a vital thing for me to know? I could have had pack enforcers out patrolling the territory?” My father is visibly upset with me, and reaching into his pocket, he begins sending texts to the enforcers who are on duty. Pack enforcers are the protectors of the pack, and in the pack hierarchy, they fall below the beta.

“Wait!Ryker?” The woman’s voice coming from the phone goes up another octave. “Ryker Weylyn?”

“Yes, my brother Ryker is here. Why?” Remi questions the aunt.

“Crap!” the voice curses, and there’s a slight pause before I hear her speak again. “I thought I had more time to explain everything to Pru. She isn’t ready,” the woman whispers, her voice full of concern.

Having enough of being in the dark, my father snatches the phone from Remi’s hand and speaks to the woman. “What are you talking about? I want real answers, Addison. I’m growing tired of not having all the facts.”

The woman doesn’t speak for a second, but when she does, it leaves all our mouths gaping and my heart feeling like it’s going to burst. “I’ll explain everything to you soon, Alpha,” she says calmly like she had used the term before. Dad’s eyebrows shoot up in shock while everyone in the room gives each other questioning looks.

“But first,” Addison adds, “I need you to go find Grey. Yes, Grey Thorne is alive, but if what Ryker says is true, and she’s out there with a rogue wolf, she might not be for long.”

With that, my wolf bursts through my skin so fast, I barely have time to prepare myself for the shift.

5

Pruitt

Iwill be the first one to admit running after a wild animal when the sun is setting, was not a good idea. I’ll also admit leaving my phone and flashlight in the car was a bad idea. I’ll even admit not marking a path to remind myself what direction I came from was an epically bad idea. Because I amsolost.

After having my episode back at the Weylyns’ house, I decided it was best I leave in case the week-old leftover Chinese food I ate last night wasn’t the reason I puked my brains out. After leaving the Weylyns’, I took the long way home. Instead of taking the better lit main roads, I decided I’d take the less traveled back roads. Again, I’ll admit I am not making the best decisions tonight. But riding with the windows down and feeling the summer breeze on my face had a calming effect, and I wanted it to last. Which is why I chose a route I wasn’t quite as familiar with.

I had called Addison to tell her how weird it was I got sick. I don’t get sick often, and I never throw up. I was about to tell her about Ryker being there when out of the dark shadows of the treeline, a red wolf sprinted across the road. I had to swerve to miss him. And using my wonderful and smart decision-making skills, I decided to abandon my Jeep and run after the wolf. Fully aware the red wolf isn’t even close to looking like my wolf. But I’m desperate to find him—I didn’t care.

I lost track of the red wolf almost immediately and have now spent the last twenty minutes running aimlessly through the woods. The farther I go, the darker it gets, the moonlight above barely cutting through the thick greenery. And unlike in the dream in which I know where I’m going and don’t fear the dark, I have no idea where I am, and I am most definitely feeling afraid.

“You’re a fucking idiot Pruitt Bailey,” I mumble to myself as I duck under another long hanging tree branch. I’m lucky I saw this one because I ran into the last one and I’m absolutely sure I have a cut on my cheek now. “Who’s going to be able to find your ass out here? Well, knowing Addison, she probably already called the cops, but how long do I have to be missing for them to even consider looking for me? Twenty-four hours? Forty-eight? Well shit. By then, I’m going to be squirrel food.”

The horrible image of my face being eaten by the bushy tail rodents pops into my head, and I shudder. “Yikes, that is not the way you want to go out, Pru.”

I kick at the brush under my feet in frustration. I don’t know what it is about the black wolf from my dream that has me so caught up. I spend all my free time in my little art studio Addison built for me in the barn recreating the wolf’s face. The entire hayloft-turned-art-studio is littered with portraits of him. Golden eyes stare at me from every surface. Remi always asks why she can’t go up there, and I always lie and say it’s where Addison keeps her new top-secret clothing designs. But truthfully, I don’t want to explain to someone I’m not crazy and this wolf appeared to me for a reason.

But Iamgoing crazy. I followed a wild predator into the woods and chased after it. No sane person would ever do something so stupid.

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