Page 39 of Wolf Found

“You—you want to talk to me about my relationship with Ash.” Graham set his rolling pin aside and stared hard at the man. After the conversation he’d overheard between them, the last thing he’d have expected was to be asked about that. Unless, of course, it was a trap.

Instead of answering, he grabbed his glass and took a long drink. He cocked his head and looked at it as he set it down. Orange juice. That was fine, but he hadn’t gotten orange juice, he’d gotten water.

“Does he tell you he loves you?” Joseph asked. His voice was harder now, but also further away. “That you’re his whole life, and he’ll give up anything for you?”

Graham turned to look at him, surprised to find that he hadn’t moved, and his lip was curled up in a sneer. As calmly as possible, he stared the man down. “Why? Is that what he told you, before you told him he wasn’t worth giving up anything for?”

Joseph slammed down his glass of water, but... no, that wasn’thiswater, that wasGraham’swater. He looked back at Joseph, but now there were two of him. And both of him were smiling.

“It doesn’t matter what you think happened. Ash doesn’t matter, pathetic failed alpha that he is.” He stood and rounded the counter, and Graham tried to step back, to get away, but his feet didn’t respond to the order. His hand managed to flail out and knocked over the orange juice, sending glass and juice careening to the kitchen floor with a resounding crash.

Joseph reached for him, and Graham tried to pull his face away, expecting to be slapped. Instead, what he got was the softest caress. “Soon enough, you’ll be back at the enclave where you belong. You were happy there before this little trip, and you’ll be happy to be home. And Amos will finally forgive me for Ash leaving. He’ll see it was Ash’s fault, not mine.” He leaned in, his breath ghosting against Graham’s cheek. “Don’t you worry, cousin. I’m here to take care of you.”

Graham finally got his body to half turn away, but it happened slowly, like something from one of the action movies the pack sometimes watched. As he crumpled to the floor, the last thought that crossed his mind was that no one was going to put the dough back in the fridge, and it would be ruined. Dammit. He’d been working on that dough for two days.

22

Fight Song

The text arrived just as Ash was pulling up in the driveway.

Graham:I can’t handle this anymore. I belong in the enclave. I’m going home. Don’t contact me.

For a moment, Ash reeled. Graham was leaving? That couldn’t be right. He’d been so happy earlier that afternoon. There hadn’t been the slightest indication that he was unhappy.

If he were unhappy, why hadn’t he come to Ash? Why not say something to someone, to anyone, before giving up and deciding to leave?

But then Ash reread the first line and realized that the text wasn’t from Graham at all. Maybe Graham couldn’t handle everything by himself, but he also wasn’t some posturing ass. If he couldn’t do something, he asked for help. He’d left the enclave and traveled a thousand miles looking for help rather than give up and walk away.

Ash didn’t even close his car door, just slipped out and ran inside. Almost immediately, he was accosted by Hannah, holding a sobbing Paige.

“Something is wrong,” she told him. “There’s glass and juice all over the kitchen, and the juice smells wrong, and I can’t find Graham anywhere.”

Ash rushed through into the kitchen and was almost bowled over by the wrongness of the smell. He knew his sense of smell was stronger than average, but all he could make out was the stink of something medicinal.

The dough Graham had been working on was sitting on the counter. The dough Graham had told him over and over again needed to be in the fridge whenever it wasn’t being worked on.

The only possible answer was the Martingale pack. Graham hadn’t left of his own will, and it wasn’t even well covered up. Ash didn’t know why they had bothered to send the text. Did they think the Kismet wolves were so dense that they wouldn’t notice the mess? Did they think Ash wouldn’t notice Graham acting so very out of character?

Or did they think Ash was primed to assume the worst of people?

“Joey,” Ash ground out. “Where’s Joey?”

Hannah looked taken aback by the question. “I don’t—I don’t know? You don’t think he hurt Graham, do you?” Ash held his phone out so she could see the text message, and she gasped. “No. That’s not possible.”

“I think it’s a hell of a coincidence that Joey finally agreed to go meet with the Denver pack tomorrow, and then Graham disappears today.” He didn’t bother stopping in the kitchen. He headed straight out back, up the path to the guest house, and threw open the door without knocking.

It was empty. He knew that without even searching. The place was cold, and there was little sign Joey had even been inhabiting it for the last three weeks. His bag was gone.

He turned back to find Hannah and Paige following him up the path. “Is he there?”

“He’s gone, and so’s his bag.”

“Graham’s cookbook is still on the coffee table in the den,” she told him. “There’s no way he would leave that behind. Not for anything.”

It was so clumsily done that if Ash hadn’t been living it, he wouldn’t have believed it. It was like, Ash realized, they didn’t think Graham had any thoughts or agency of his own. They believed, because he was an omega, he would decide on a whim to walk away from his life, leaving the things and people he loved behind. They thought that was what he’d done before, with Hannah, so they hadn’t even tried to cover it up. Graham must be so offended if he knew what they’d done.

If they hadn’t hurt him with whatever they’d put in his juice.

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