Page 14 of The First Year Continued
“Okay,” Sol said. He was trying to remain calm, but I saw the way his chest heaved, working for each breath. “We need to find her. More than whoever you were chasing, we have to find her.”
He was right.
“Where do we even start?” I asked. “What if he got to her? What if I failed?”
Evander clapped me on the shoulder. “We can’t think like that. Focus, Odin.”
I nodded and took a cleansing breath. “You’re right. Let’s shift and scent her out. We all know her scent. We can make better time that way.”
We stripped as fast as we could and shifted into our wolves. We took our clothes into our mouths and began to run. As a pack. Together.
It was too bad we couldn’t speak to each other as packs did, in our minds.
Where is she? Where are you, mate?
There were trails of her scent everywhere. Hints of her around every corner but nothing solid for at least an hour or so. It felt like years went by when we saw her silhouette in an area near the dining hall. Darkness was all around her but there was one light above her.
My mate was not okay.
We ran over and saw her shivering. Her eyes were wide. Darker. She wasn’t herself.
There was nothing behind her eyes.
“Roxy!” I said, shifting back and putting on a pair of pants, only.
“What?” she asked.
I took a step toward her but when I reached out to touch her, she gasped. It was loud and pronounced, like she was trying to suck in all the oxygen out of the world. She cried out as a shift took her over. This wasn’t Roxy shifting. The shift was taking her.
In seconds, she was a wolf in front of us. Silent. Not moving.
Something was happening to my mate. The shift wasn’t natural.
But in its wake was a scent I didn’t recognize. Not shifter. Not the blood of a vampire, metallic and tangy.
The scent was something or someone I didn’t recognize. Sol and Evander were still in their wolf forms. “Scent her,” I asked. “Did someone touch her?”
They would know if she was hurt by someone. Touched by someone. The scent would be all over her.
“Shift back. Let’s get her to her room before they come back.”
Evander and Sol shifted back to two legs and got dressed, but Roxy hadn’t moved. She shook in her wolf form. Whether it was cold or fear, I couldn’t decipher. Either way, we had to gether to safety. She was my first priority. I’d been a fool, chasing that thing, person, around and not making sure she as behind me—safe with me.
Such a silly male thing to do.
“Roxy, can you shift back?” Sol asked her, crouching down so that his eyes were level with hers.
“We have to get out of here,” I reiterated. We weren’t safe here. He knew that.
“I get that, Odin. I do. But if we’re seen carrying Roxy in her wolf form around campus, it’s not going to be a bit alarming? We will be called into the office and it won’t be to become some weird guy’s spies.”
Ugh. He was right. I hated when Sol was right. I would surely hear about it later.
“What do we do? She’s freezing and clearly in some kind of shock. Plus, whoever we were chasing or was chasing us, I’m not sure which now, we have to get her away from them.”
Just as Sol opened his mouth, probably to argue with me, Roxy shifted back to her human form. Her clothes were in shreds, but we managed to get one of our sweatshirts and a pair of sweatpants on her while trying like hell to keep her modesty.
“Well, that takes care of that. Let’s go. Rox, we’re going to carry you to your room now.” Evander spoke to her so softly. He picked her up, honeymoon style, and we followed them across the common area, trying to stick close to the shadows and then to the dorm building. Roxy’s room was on the second floor, but Evander didn’t seem exerted at all. Roxy was far too thin for her own good. She needed to eat more, but we weren’t yet in a position to coax her to do so.
