They returned to their cars and headed down toward the nearest turnoff to take them back down the canyon road to get as close as they could to where Sorley might have landed. They spent hours hunting for him but came up empty-handed, which could mean he’d managed to survive and crawl away or that he just was in a hidden space where they weren’t locating his body.
If he died in the fall, he’d shift back into human form and be hard to find in the underbrush. If he survived, he’d be so severely injured that he’d need to stay in bear form for a while to heal that kind of damage. It was doubtful that he could have made it, but without a body, Olcan couldn’t be sure, and that was frustrating. At any rate, he’d not be doing anything but trying to survive for many days to come.
They pulled free of the woods and returned home. Well, the rest of the bears did. Olcan was headed that way when he got a call from Fallon, letting him know what had happened at the house and telling him they were on their way to the cabin in Maine.
“Fuck,” Olcan replied, pulling off the shoulder and turning the car around, pausing in the road to let Niall and Ronan climb in one of the other cars. “See if you can find any word on the street from the Dracords. I’ll see if I can make direct contact with their Alpha on my way up.”
“Done. Be safe,” Niall told him.
“I keep trying,” Olcan laughed before heading back north toward the cabin. He made some calls and managed to finally get Conor Dracord on the phone.
“Well, I would say this is a surprise, Olcan, but it isn’t, I guess.”
“It shouldn’t be, not with you pitching in to help Sorley Maguire take down my family.”
“Who said we were doing that?”
“You know—people.”
“Well, people are wrong. You and I may not see eye to eye, but we’ve always been neighborly. You mind your business, I mind mine.”
“Except when you’re offered a cut of my business once it’s taken over by Sorley and his goons.”
“Come on, Olcan. You think I’m that kind of man? You think I’d violate our truce just to bring in a bunch of hotheads who don’t know how to stay in their lane?”
“The dragon you sent to kill my mate and burned down my house says different.”
“What? No. None of my dragons were sent after you.”
“Someone’s dragon was. You know any other dragons around these parts, Conor?”
“I know I don’t like your accusations or your tone, and you’d do well to mind them,” Conor replied.
“If you don’t know anything about it, then it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which one of them it was. He’ll be the dead one not coming home to roost tonight.”
“Your bears killed a dragon?”
“My bears defended themselves against an attack.”
“I swear, I knew nothing of this.”
“Was Sorley coming to visit you today?”
“Yes, but not about your territory. He said he had some export business to discuss with us.”
“I’m sure he did. Exporting Boston Bear commodities.”
“Fuck. I’m going to call you back, Olcan,” he said, ending the call rather than waiting for an answer.
Olcan wasn’t sure if he should believe him or not. He could be lying to cover up a failed coup or he could really not know anything about it. Still, a rogue dragon? That seemed a bit far-fetched. Dragons didn’t usually betray their own here in America. In Scotland, where the Dracords originated? Sure. They were a greedy bunch, always stabbing whatever back needed to get ahead. Here in America, though, they stuck together.
Olcan was nearly at the cabin when the phone rang. It was Conor again.
“His name was Hogarth. We kicked him out a few weeks ago for crossing a line, nothing I’ll be discussing with you. Apparently, he’d somehow hooked up with Sorley, told him how to get our attention and get us in on some export business. I don’t have all the details on that yet, but you can be sure I’ll be finding out what I can to make sure it gets shut down. I can only offer apologies that aren’t really mine to give, but I will, in the spirit of our continued truce.”
“I’ll take you at your word, Conor. If you feel there is anything further I need to know about the situation, please reach out.”
“We’ll see,” Conor replied, ending the call.
Olcan pulled down the long gravel driveway that led to the old cabin his family owned. He spotted the old Cadillac that belonged to Lucius sitting in the driveway and pulled up alongside it, parking and going inside. The men were playing cards, all dressed in gray sweat pants and white shirts from the stockpile that had been kept there since Fergus had an incident here a couple of years ago.