Derek
Finally, they could delay leaving no longer. It wasn't right for them to have an extended vacation while Roman had a new baby at home.
They had exhausted every resource looking for Jesse. They had hit as many of the main cities as they could, stopping at all of Jesse’s favorite spots. And they had even checked through the more remote areas as well. Derek just couldn't feel him there and finally he had to give up. There was one more place that he could look. His favorite city was Chicago, and Derek could easily arrange for them to fly back through the Windy City.
"How would you feel about going to Chicago?" Derek asked Kyra.
"It's been a while since I've been there, but that's fine with me. Is that someplace Jesse likes?"
"Yes. It's his favorite place in the states besides Alaska." Derek didn't want to spend too long in the city, but he did take Kyra down Michigan Avenue and over to Navy pier.
At one point she froze. "Do you feel that? Is that a shifter?" she asked.
Derek briefly closed his eyes, trying to filter through all the different people. There was a shifter present. It was very clear. But when he concentrated it wasn't Jesse.
“It's not him.” Derek deflated.
He had just enough hope that he'd finally found his friend by Lake Michigan. He and Kyra stood by the choppy waves. He felt pretty hopeless over the situation. "What if he doesn't want to be found?" If a shifter wanted to hide, they could probably do so pretty effectively.
“From what you tell me,” Kyra said. “He’ll want to be found eventually.”
Derek just hoped he wouldn’t be too late. "Let’s change the subject. Tell me what you've done here in Chicago." He'd never known a wolf shifter family who was open to traveling. It's what made him such an anomaly in the wolf shifter world. He and Jesse were the odd men out. Most of the pack liked to find a spot and stay there. For generations. That was one reason Roman hadn’t wanted to leave their original pack land. Their pack had been there for centuries. So many shifters just felt really tied to the places where they came from.
Derek felt the same way about Alaska being home. He never wanted to live anywhere else permanently. But he did like to travel. However, Kyra's parents seemed like they had been globetrotting jetsetters. At least compared to most shifters. They sounded more human, and he was curious about them. Especially because they had originally been part of his pack, but he had been too young to remember them.
At that age he hadn't really paid attention to the inner workings of the pack or who was coming or going.
He wished he could. But whenever he asked about her past, Kyra froze. She gave away very little information. And she always seemed startled when he asked. As if he put her on the spot. He didn't want to pressure her about an uncomfortable topic. At first, he thought maybe she had an unhappy childhood, but when she spoke about her parents, she seemed to have fond memories. So it must have been something else.
"It's amazing that your parents wanted to travel," he said. "I guarantee that if Roman’s dad had lived, our pack would’ve never moved. He was a great male, but he was stubborn. As it was, Roman almost lost the pack because he wouldn't budge." Derek chuckled remembering that time. “It's funny now because it's been five years and we’re all settled in. And of course, Roman met his mate in Anchorage, so I have to really tease him about that a lot. But if that hadn't happened, then we’d probably have already been dragged back to the old pack land. But his mate is the city girl. She's a bear all the way, through and through, but she loves wolves and humans as well.”
She was pretty quiet, but he was really intrigued. "Did your parents ever talk about it? Did they ever say that they like to travel? Did they miss the pack?” he asked.
Once again, he saw that he had pushed too hard. Kyra chewed on her lip. "I don't know. Sometimes I think they were driven to travel like they did. I don't think they could help themselves."
"So they had some serious wanderlust? I get that – that's how I've always been. My mom said I was born that way. I tried to walk off when I was two. When I was four, she actually caught me trying to hitchhike into a human car. When I was six, I got smart about it and turned into a wolf and tried to ride in the back of a guy’s truck."
"Oh my gosh, what happened?"
“Well, luckily, he was an animal lover. I watched him to make sure. He offered me some of his ham sandwich and I did my best not to act like a dog. I didn't want him to keep trying to keep me as a pet. I just wanted to ride.”
She laughed out loud, something she rarely did. "I wish I could've seen them like that. Your parents must've been frantic."
"Nah. They were disappointed, but they were glad I hadn’t done something stupid. They kind of expected it when I was fifteen. They finally sort of gave me permission to go out.”
"Oh, wow. What about you? Are you like your parents? Did you love traveling?”
Then he noticed that her eyes were a little watery in her left wrist trembling.
"Did I say the wrong thing?" he asked.
"It's just hard to talk about them." She looked away, pushing her hair behind her ears. He wrapped his arm around her.
"Just tell me to shut up when I push too much. Roman talks about his dad all the time; he likes us to do it too. Says it helps him remember. But everybody's different. So really, just knock me upside the head when I'm too much."
She wiped her eyes. “I don't think that'll be necessary."
He joked with her, but something felt a little bit off. Her distress was genuine that much was clear, but something she said about not wanting to talk about her parents… It just felt a little bit odd. He couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe they had been estranged.
He would come back to it later and figure out what exactly the missing piece was. There was no point in pushing her if she was upset. And maybe it wasn't any of his business. Even if they were mated, it wouldn't be his right to make her talk about something unpleasant. Even though he was intensely curious about what exactly was going through her head.