Page 15 of Alpha Rising (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

“Reese isn’taroundto kill you,” I said. “And it’s not like you sent her into the north woods, barefoot, in a blizzard.”

“She must have gotten lost. She should have been back hours ago.”

I already knew this. I tucked my hair behind my ear and offered a less worrisome theory. “She’s probably just parked somewhere, waiting out the rain. It’s hard to see, even with the wipers on full blast.”

“You’re telling me.” Toby leaned forward and wiped his sleeve through the condensation that was building up on the inside of the windshield.

“Wait. Look.” A dark object was taking shape on the shoulder, just ahead. There were no lights on it though, so I couldn’t be sure. “Slow down.”

“You see something?”

“Slow down!”

We were practically on top of it by then, and Toby hit the brakes.

“That’s our Jeep, right?” I asked.

Toby lifted up on the brake and rolled slowly forward along the shoulder. His lights illuminated the Jeep logo on the back of the other car, and he hit the brake again. “Yep. And it looks like the back tire’s flat.”

“Mystery solved,” I said.

Toby flashed his headlights to let Sarah know help had arrived, then he shifted into park.

I unbuckled, jumped out, then ran semi-crouched through the pummeling rain to the driver’s side window. I pounded my fist against the glass, but there was no reaction from inside.

Putting my forehead to the window, I cupped my hands around the sides of my eyes. There was no one inside. I tried the handle, but the door was locked.

I ran around the front of the vehicle to the passenger-side window. From this angle, I could see the key still in the ignition. Fuck.

I ran back, my mind racing as to what this could mean, and jumped inside the Jeep with Toby.

“Well?” Toby asked, his expression alarmed.

I wiped the rain off my face and cringed as more water dripped from my hair under my already soaked collar. “She’s not there. The keys are locked inside.”

“Why would she do that?” Toby asked, confused.

I gave him a sideways glance. “I doubt she did it on purpose.”

“So now what?” Toby scanned the woods while his knuckles whitened on the steering wheel.

“If it was raining when she locked herself out, she’d look for shelter, right? Let’s check the trees.”

“We won’t be able to track her scent in the rain,” Toby said.

“I realize that, but we need to find her. You check the left side of the road. I’ll check the right. She won’t have gone far.”

Toby pocketed his keys, and we opened our doors. I jogged down into the ditch, then up into the trees on the right side of the road. The forest was thick in this area, but not thick enough to be impermeable. Wherever Sarah was, she had to be soaking wet and freezing.

I blew warm air onto my fingers and considered making a shift so I could have a fur coat to keep out the chill. The only reason I didn’t was that—should we find Sarah—I didn’t want to scare her unnecessarily.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to go far before I picked up her trail. It wasn’t her scent though; it was a single flip-flop sandal.

“Tobes!” I cried out. “Here!”

Toby jogged across the road with a relieved smile spreading across his face. That smile faded as soon as he arrived. “Where is she?”

“Look.” I indicated the sandal as well as a set of paw prints in the muddy ground—prints too large to be a natural mountain lion.

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