Page 117 of Rogue Wolf

Where could he be?

Had the vampires come? Taken him? It was daytime, but she couldn’t help herself from expecting the worst. After all, they’d come and taken him during daylight hours last time. Maybe the residual power from the Opal infused blood still lingered in them?

Or what if it wasn’t that but something else? It hurt to breathe as she turned and made herself run.

She rushed out of the room and repeatedly yelled Kodiak’s name, hoping he would answer her.

But he didn’t.

“Hey, what’s going on?” asked Channing. rushing up from the basement.

“He’s gone,” she stammered. “He’s not there! He’s gone!”

He looked at her like she’d gone mad. “Who?”

“Kodiak. Who do you fucking think? He’s not in his room where I left him.” Tamaska clutched at him. Like that would somehow right whatever was wrong. Like it would bring him back.

“I’m sure he’s taking a piss or something,” said Channing.

“I don’t know—I don’t feel…” The bond between them felt distant, as if he was no longer close. Emptiness yawned inside of her.

Had the vampires gotten to him again?

She couldn’t stop coming back to that. Over and over again it spun in her head

They had gotten in once before. It could happen again.

Worse she’d left him. Let it happen.

She had to say it. She needed to say it. She opened her mouth as she clutched at him, but no words came.

Kodiak had become her world so fast she hadn’t noticed, and yet she somehow always knew it from when they first met. So how could she have let him be snatched.

“Do you think…”

Channing shook his head. “No. No way. I’d have seen them. Or not seen them but detected them, and you’d have noticed. So would have everyone else who’s around. We can fucking smell them and…” He took a giant deep breath and released it. “See? Vampire-free air.”

Her throat was hot, closed up and her eyes burned and blurred. “What if they have a spray, too?

“That’s dumb.”

“It isn’t.” She shook her head, teetering on some kind of edge. “This is all my fault. I should have been there, in that room, watching him, defending him. He’s hurt, he’s—”

“A shifter,” he said softly. “The strongest I know. He’s healed up.”

“You don’t know that.” She let him go and started to frantically move about the room. She needed a weapon, something. “I have to find him. You have a gun, right? Give it to me.”

His eyes went wide.

“I’m going to kill whoever took him. I’m—”

“Ash!” Channing called into the basement. “I need your help!” He stared at her. “You can’t have a gun. We don’t know who has him or if anyone does or—”

“What is it?” Ash came running up the stairs looking about. Her gaze fell on Tamaska and turned completey serious and the shadows of anxiety from the last day turned darker under her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Kodiak’s gone.” The words tumbled out. “It’s the vampires, I know it. And Channing won’t let me have a gun. I need car keys.”

“Tamaska!”

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