Page 25 of Defiant
I lick my lips and then bite the lower one at the memory. Yeah, Elena’s a little scandalous sometimes, but never full-on reckless.
She wouldn’t head off into the woods.
I wonder if something’s up with her mom.
But, no, that can’t be right. Elena just stood up in the middle of class and ran out without even looking at her phone.
My heart thumps faster and I know. I just know.
Her wolf’s here.
I can’t think of any other reason she’d disappear this long.
Her wolf is here and she didn’t come back.
Because she doesn’t want me.
I try to ignore the way my throat goes dry or how my wolf tilts his nose up and howls inside my head. Something dark spreads inside my chest that feels like rot, as if my insides have suddenly gone bad.
Fuck.
I blow out a breath and tell myself not to have a fucking breakdown on campus. I hoof it over to the parking lot, and as I get close my phone rings. My heart jumps.Elena!
But it’s not her number I see. It’s Damon’s. One of the other betas from school who is also in the Lobos. I swipe to answer as I walk across the semi-abandoned lot, eyes still scanning in case I recognize Elena’s silhouette.
“Hey,” I say.
“Dude, where are you?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, furrowing my brow.
“Pack howl. Duh.” He laughs at me.
Aw, shit. I completely forgot. “Has it started?” I pick up my pace and cross underneath a streetlight to my beat-up old Camaro, my fixer-upper, a girl named Dolly.
“Official start time was delayed ten minutes or so. Some kind of Elite’s meeting going on or something.” Damon replies evenly. “If you floor it, you might make it in time.”
I press my key and unlock the chipped, scratched cherry red doors, carefully bending and setting my bag and Elena’s on the passenger seat before climbing in myself. “Anybody new there tonight?” I ask, trying to keep my voice casual as I start the car and pull down my seatbelt.
“Not that I’ve seen.”
“Can you ask around for me? Someone I know was due for the change.”
“Do you mean Elena?” Damon replies, a hint of teasing in his voice.
I might have drunkenly confessed how into her I am one night during beer pong.
“Dude—” That’s all the warning I give him. My wolf might not kick his ass, but I definitely will.
“I haven’t seen her. Calm your tits. Just get here so you don’t end up on Alpha Maddox’s shit list.” With that, Damon hangs up.
I floor it, the sound of my baby’s purr bringing a small smile to my face even if my arms are still tense. Dolly jets out of the parking lot and I take the curved ramp that leads to the highway way too fast—chasing an adrenaline high to stave off the fear that’s eating at me.
If Elena has shifted, then she’ll be at the pack howl. If she’s not there, then maybe something bad has happened. Maybe she puked her guts out in a bathroom on campus and passed out. Goddammit! Why didn’t I think of that before? I should have checked every bathroom stall or something. Or maybe something else happened. Something worse.
Maybe what I need is Alpha Maddox’s help.
I’ve never actually spoken to our pack alpha beyond initiation day when I first shifted and swore allegiance to the pack. The memory of the cliff side in the moonlight comes back to me.
