Page 14 of Pregnant Wolf's Mate

“Hey! Asher! What is going on?” he called to one of the men who raced past him. For a second he thought that perhaps the other werewolf hadn’t heard him over the sirens, but then the grey-brown-haired wolf skidded to a halt, sending out a spray of dust from his boots as he turned on Ray.

“Haven’t you heard?” Asher asked, panting as though he had been running for just as long as Ray had. That was another concerning sign. If they were all racing around long and hard enough to get winded, then something was seriously wrong. “One of them has escaped.”

The sweat that rolled down Ray’s spine immediately turned to ice at the other wolf’s words.

“When you say…who do you mean? Who has escaped?” Ray asked, determined to be wrong. He couldn’t possibly be right.

“One of the demon wolves has escaped,” Asher explained, giving the very answer that Ray had been so desperate to avoid. “He’s made it out into the community. Everyone is on high alert and searching.”

Ray’s throat constricted. “Who was on guard?”

He had been on guard so many times of late and there hadn’t been a single sign of an escape attempt. Hands tightening into fists and teeth gritted, he wondered whether maybe he ought to have given everything up and just stuck to guard duty until the damn demons had been taken care of once and for all. The werewolf temper he had managed to keep in check for so many years immediately came rushing to the surface.

“I…I don’t know,” Asher admitted with a shake of his head.

Growling low in his throat, Ray gestured him away. “Get out of here and get on with the search!”

For a second the other wolf’s gaze darkened and Ray thought for a second that he was about to protest that he didn’t take orders from any old wolf. Then, the younger shifter seemed to think better of it and he dipped his head before hurrying away in the same direction that Ray had come through the gates.

He shouldn’t be going out alone, Ray thought, gritting his teeth even harder. Not with a demon wolf on the loose.

He cringed as he felt the old scars on his chest beginning to burn. Nobody needed to tell him how dangerous demon wolves were. He had experienced them firsthand. Most of the wolves in Silverdale had, but he had been one of the wolves worse off. At least, one of the ones who had survived.

Picking up his pace, he headed for the front door of the manor, hoping to catch Dash to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing sending wolves out alone when there was such a dangerous enemy on the loose.

But he never got the chance. Instead, he found himself almost being thrown right back down the porch steps as a blonde bombshell threw herself through the front door and right into him.

Lottie appeared frantic, her hair sticking out at odds and ends and her face twisted with fear. For several seconds she fought his grip on her arms as he grappled to steady her. Then, she seemed to recognize him and her eyes grew huge, “Ray! Have you seen Macie?”

The way Lottie gripped hold of his forearms, squeezing tightly until he felt her fingernails digging into his flesh, unnerved Ray immensely. Not to mention the fact she had said Macie’s name. Whenever he heard it, he felt an odd tingling sensation in his stomach, even though he had been avoiding her for the past two weeks and she had been doing the same to him.

“Why would I?” he demanded, his tone harsher than he had meant for it to be. Lottie snatched herself away from his grip and glowered at him.

“If you aren’t going to help me, then get out of my way!” Lottie hissed at him and before he could offer any kind of protest, she slipped around him and began to charge down the steps.

“Lottie! Wait!” Ray hissed after her, his stomach clenching at the thought that maybe something had happened to her sister. He had been avoiding her and trying not to think of what had happened between them for the last few weeks, but that didn’t mean that he wanted anything bad to happen to her. “Why are you so worried about Macie?”

Even for a she-wolf, Lottie was fast, and it took Ray a lot of effort to keep up with her as she started to race for the gates of the estate, following the same path that Asher had already taken.

“She’s my sister, you dimwit,” Lottie pointed out. “And there’s a damn demon wolf on the loose if you haven’t heard.”

At the mention of Macie and a demon wolf in the same sentence, the hair on the back of Ray’s neck began to stand on end and if he had been in wolf form, his hackles would have done the very same.

“Macie is a big girl,” he urged her even as he struggled to keep up at her side. Today wasn’t the best day to go for a run. He had already used up a good portion of his energy and he was in desperate need of a good bloody steak to recover a little. “I’m sure she can take care of herself.”

Even as he said the words, he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince more, Lottie or himself. Just one glance from the blonde she-wolf told him that he was convincing neither of them.

“You, me, and the entire pack know that isn’t true,” she snapped back at him, and Ray’s skin crawled even harder.

“Look, I know that she struggled on the night of the full moons but since then she had made a great deal of progress,” he blurted, trying to ease his packmate’s concern for her sister. Yet the suspicious look she threw at him told him that he was only making matters worse.

Shit! he thought, realizing that he had basically just told Macie’s sister he had been involved with her somehow. All he could do was hope that she was too worried about Macie to actually take in the information.

Hoping to quickly change the subject, he added, “I’ll help you find her.”

At that, Lottie did pause and turn on him. She glowered at him almost angrily and asked, “Why would a McCormack help a Silverdale?”

Ray’s stomach twisted at not only her words but also at the tone of her voice as she said them. He had asked himself the same question many times over since his helping Macie out in the woods that night, and yet he had never quite been able to come up with a good enough reason.

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