Page 86 of Wulf's Pack
Her eyes gloss over with tears. “It’s not enough.” Her voice hitches. “I wanted to find her.”
I take the child’s hand. “It’s enough,” I promise.
Abby refuses to look at me, and her small sniffle breaks my heart. I place my finger under Abby’s chin and lift her face until she’s forced to meet my eyes. “We will find her. Thanks to your gift, we know exactly where to go to start looking.”
She wipes at her tears and searches my face for sincerity. I give her a soft smile. “You did amazing.” I lean forward, overwhelmed with gratitude, and kiss the precious girl’s forehead. “Thank you, Abby.”
She sniffles again, but her face lights up, and she finally cracks a smile.
I rise to my feet and meet Dennis’s gaze, not at all surprised by the pride shining in his eyes. He has a right to be proud. “Thank you,” I tell him. My voice is so thick with emotion I can barely get the words out. “What does she need? Food? Rest?”
Dennis studies his daughter and lets out a breath. “Both.”
I nod and wave around the apartment. “Make yourselves at home. There’s food in the fridge, a bed down the hall if she needs to sleep, or she can use the TV and just relax.” I grin at Abby. “It has all the streaming services and lots of video games to play.”
She grins brightly.
I turn to Dennis. “I’ll be downstairs. If you need anything, find me, or Sophia is just down the hall.” I point toward my room.
Sophia, having heard me with her shifter hearing, comes out. I make quick introductions and leave the three of them to go make a plan.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Itake Ben, Isabella, and Easton with me to scout Lapeer, leaving Bree to stay back and watch over the rest of the pack. We’ll need everyone to fight the upcoming battle, but we don’t want to alert Victor that we’re close by, bringing everyone into the city all at once. We don’t know what we’re walking into yet.
I called Nora before we left, asking what the FUA knew about the underworld scene in Lapeer, but she didn’t have any data. They had no contacts, and there were no packs or clans registered in the area. This isn’t uncommon for smaller cities, but the odds of there being no underworlders are pretty slim.
I’m not sure where to start. Abby said it was rural. She mentioned trees and a lake. But there are half a dozen lakes nearby, all of which are surrounded by trees. With no real plan, I head for downtown and park on Main Street. It’s a sort of touristy shopping area that has a historical feel.
We pile out of the car and huddle on the sidewalk, scanning the area. There are quite a few people out enjoying the shopping and dining. A human woman passes the four of us without so much as a curious glance. Which means either she’s not from around here, or Lapeer is big enough that people don’t noticestrangers rolling into town. In fact, with it being a touristy area, they probably expect it. That’s not necessarily good news for us. It means we probably won’t get any info from locals that could help us find Victor’s pack.
Easton frowns at the retreating woman, probably coming to the same conclusion as me. “What’s the plan, boss?”
I resist a sigh. Coming up with plans is not my strong suit. I eye all the shops with a grimace. “Not really sure. I figured we could canvas the area. Hopefully we’ll pick up a scent or find an underworlder who may have seen or heard something. This is a busy enough tourist spot that the humans will probably be oblivious, but there can’t be that many underworlders in town. Two dozen strange alpha wolves aren’t likely to go completely unnoticed.”
The three of them all nod in agreement. Ben looks up and down the street with pursed lips and a crease in his brow. “If we’re lucky, we might even come across some of Victor’s men. If I were him, I would probably leave a couple here as lookouts in case we or the FUA show up.”
He has a point. “That would definitely be helpful. Let’s split up. Easton and I will go north.” I point up the street in one direction.
Ben and Isabella glance the other direction. “South it is,” Ben says.
“Start with Main Street, then work your way west on the other main roads. We’ll go east. Stick to the places with the most shopping. Restaurants, grocery stores. Walmart, Target… Everyone’s got to eat, and they couldn’t have been prepared when they fled Vail. They probably needed supplies.”
That doesn’t sound like a completely useless plan, right? I hope not, anyway, because I’ve got nothing else. If we can’t find anything here, that means we’ll have to go to each lake inthe area and just start running around them. That could take forever.
“Stay on alert, and if you run into any of Victor’s pack, try not to kill them. We need to question them.”
With one last confirmation, we split up. Easton and I head north up the sidewalk. We don’t talk much, too focused on our surroundings. We let our wolves rise to the surface a little and concentrate on our hearing and sense of smell, and just that feeling of something other you get when you’re close to another underworlder.
We’re almost to the end of the main shopping strip when I get the faintest hint of shifter. It’s so weak I’m worried I’m imagining it. I stop and pull in a deep breath, closing my eyes to concentrate all my attention on the smells around me. Car exhaust, perfume from a woman who just passed us. Various scents waft from a candle and soap shop. Across the street, the smell of pastrami and baked bread distracts me momentarily, reminding me that it’s dinnertime.
I’m tempted to suggest we get a couple of sandwiches when I catch it again. Mixed in with the salty meat and grilled onions and peppers is the distinct scent of a shifter.
Easton follows my lead, and after another deep inhale, he says, “Bear?”
“Bear,” I agree. “I think it’s coming from the deli.”
