Fuck. There’s no phone ringing. I pace down the alleyway, catching Charlie’s sweet scent. I don’t have to shift into the wolf to use my nose. Scents are clearer when I’m in wolf form, but I won’t risk someone spotting a giant wolf near the plaza. Not unless I have to.
Then I spot it—over by a cluster of dumpsters. The phone is cracked, but it’s Charlie’s. It smells like her. There’s another scent nearby—someone with a greasy, diesel-fume scent.
A growl bursts out of me. I can’t hold it back. My wolf is fucking frantic. I clutch the phone and crouch to the pavement where there are traces of her scent, and the faint lingering scents of two strange men. The trail ends in the alleyway where the diesel scent is strongest.
Something's wrong. Charlie’s gone.
Charlie
Slowly, I come to. There's clear air washing over my face, alternating with blasts of diesel fumes. There’s a gag stretching my mouth and I’m tied tight with my hands behind me, lying on my side. Sharp pain radiates through my head from a spot in my skull. When I try to open my eyes, I retch a little into the dank wad of cloth filling my mouth.
Oh God, the baby. I hunch as if I can protect my abdomen. My insides feel fine—as fine as they can feel with me tied up and desperate for water. The ropes tying me bite into my skin and my sides throb with a collection of bruises I didn't have before I woke, but I’m alive. For now.
What happened? My head throbs as I review… the shop, the strange men, a blow to the head. Did I interrupt a robbery? What is going on?
I wonder for what feels like hours. Eventually, the truck rumbles to a stop. In the sudden quiet, I try to scream, but my throat is too dry and the gag muffles all sound.
A sharp sound of a canvas flap being drawn aside, and a bright light calls across my face.
A man swears. “You fucked up taking her. Black Wolf’s going to be on our ass.”
“Who?”
The light cuts off and the canvas falls, swallowing the rest of the conversation. I strain but all I hear are murmurs. I flex my fingers, trying to test my bonds, but they hold tight, chafing my skin.
Black Wolf’s going to be on our ass. Does this have something to do with Black Wolf Security? Hope blazes in my chest like a flare in the dark. Lance and his pack will save me. They have to. The alternative is unthinkable.
But as the truck rumbles on and I shiver with the cold and sick adrenaline, another thought settles in. What if I was kidnapped because of Black Wolf?
Lance and his pack are into very dangerous business. I saw the way his body was riddled with bullet holes. If someone found out he had a mate, or worse, a child, our family would be a target. For leverage. For revenge. For any number of things I don’t even want to think about.
Lance
I tear into pack HQ, chest heaving like I ran from town instead of racing like a maniac and leaving my Ducati lying on its side on our front lawn.
“Update?” I bark, bursting into the operations room.
Channing’s big form is hunched in front of a display of screens. He’s got huge headphones on and doesn’t notice my arrival. Rafe intercepts me, a hollow look to his face.
“We’ve got visual from security cam footage.” Rafe leads me into his office. “Security cameras in the alley picked this up.” He points a remote at a screen mounted on the wall. The blurry footage is a small square in the center, but it clearly shows Charlie’s limp body being loaded into a nondescript van by two hooded men.
I throw back my head and howl. My wolf crawls under my skin, threatening to burst out. But that won’t help Charlie. I need to stay in human form.
“Steady,” Rafe orders, stepping close.
I grit my teeth, every muscle flexing. I want to wreck myself, scream, run a thousand miles. Anything to save Charlie and my pup. Anything to stop the constant litany pounding through my head. My fault. My fault she was taken. My fault they’re in danger.
“It’s not your fault, soldier,” Rafe barks, and I realize I said my litany out loud.
“They took her, I know they took her.” I’m pacing. “We need to find out where.”
“We don’t know who they are.”
“It’s gotta be Vincent Sarcero.” I name the arms dealer we robbed in our last job. “He figured it out, he’s hunting us down for revenge. Fuck!” I explode and punch the wall. The drywall dents under my hand in an explosion of white dust.
“Get it together, soldier,” Rafe orders, and I turn on him with a snarl. He growls back louder, and it steadies my wolf somewhat. My brother’s dominant alpha presence helps. “We don’t know shit right now. And going full wolf won’t help Charlie.”