Page 139 of Moonlit Nights & Northern Lights
“Dirt bike?” Rory questioned.
“If they’re moving kidnapped shifters, they’d need something bigger. Possibly, they have another way in?”
“I’m going to shift,” Rory announced suddenly, already moving towards the cover of a large tree, shrugging out of his jacket. “See what I can smell or hear.”
“What?” I said, following him. “Hold on.”
But then, he was already down to his underwear, clothes all over the ground. “Shut your eyes,” he instructed, and for a moment I considered a joke about being pretty well acquainted with his cock.
I faced away while he shifted, the agony leaking through the bond now familiar.
A soft bark. I turned to find wolf--Rory, dropping to my knees to give him a quick scratch behind his ear, his fur thick beneath my fingers. Rory’s bright green-blue eyes were alert and intelligent as they met mine. He panted, his pink tongue contrasting beautifully with his black lipsand nose.
“You still can’t go right up to the building,” I whispered firmly. “Just sniff around the perimeter, understand?”
Rory’s wolf smiled at me—an unsettling expression on a canine face, tongue lolling slightly—and then he was off.
I watched through my binoculars as he began a wide circle around the complex, his movements fluid and purposeful. Golden fur caught occasional glimpses of filtered sunlight as he wove between the scrubby bushes and patches of heather.
The circle grew tighter.
And tighter.
My jaw clenched as I realised what he was doing. The bloody fool was spiralling inward like a hunter closing in on prey, each loop bringing him closer to the buildings.
“Rory,” I whisper-shouted, as loud as I dared.
He ignored me completely, continuing his methodical approach.
Another loop. Now he was barely twenty metres from the buildings.
“Rory!” I tried again, louder but still keeping my voice low.
He disappeared behind the partially collapsed structure, golden fur vanishing from sight.
Anxiety twisted through my veins.Why, Rory, why?!
The connection between us thrummed with his excitement, his wolf’s satisfaction at being useful, at tracking something interesting. But all I could feel was mounting dread.
A side door opened.
Two people emerged from the largest building and my blood turned to pure ice.
A man and woman, both mid-thirties. The man was already rolling a cigarette between his fingers whilst the woman clutched a coffee mug, tilting her face skyward as if she hadn’t seen daylight in weeks.
Terror shot through me like a bolt of lightning. Surely Rory had heard them by now, even if his wolf senses hadn’t picked up their approach long before I’d spotted them.
But where was he?
I couldn’t sense anything from him. Did that mean he was too far away?
My mind raced with horrific possibilities. Images of having to ring Kit, of begging him to come help me save his brother from unknown torture. Of explaining to Seb and Priya how I’d lost Rory on my watch.
The woman said something to her companion that made him laugh—a sound that carried clearly across the open ground. They clearly had no idea that a wolf shifter lurked somewhere nearby.
I found myself holding my breath, straining to catch any hint of movement, any flash of golden fur that would tell me he was alive and safe. The binoculars shook in my grip as adrenaline flooded my system.
Where are you, Rory?
