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  “The Pack isn’t responsible, and according to Dominick, neither are the Vamps. Could there be a rogue were doing this? One we’re not aware of?” Biker Guy suggests.

  “It’s a possibility, Billy. There have been reports of a rogue vampire, but for now we should all keep our eyes, ears, and noses open for any evidence of a rogue of any kind. We’ll discuss this more at Saturday’s meeting. Stay safe tomorrow. Make sure you’re all at your designated places. Good night.”

  Without a word they all stand and start to file out the front doors.

  “Can someone get Chloe out of my house on the way out?” Theo asks, pointing to the still unconscious leggy blonde laying in a heap on the floor.

  A young guy, who was just about to go out the door turns, walks to Chloe and effortlessly hauls her over his shoulder, “Do you know where she lives?” he asks as he turns to look at Theo for an answer. It’s then I recognise him as Paddy from the gym the other night.

  Billy ‘Biker Guy,’ whom I have decided must be Theo’s third, pats his pockets before pulling out a pen, a crumpled scrap of paper and jotting down what must be her address.

  Paddy glances at it as he takes it from Billy’s hand. “Cheers, Billy,” he says, heading out the door with Chloe bouncing over his shoulder.

  The room emptied, leaving Theo, Wesley, Billy, and me. I watch from my seat on the chair as Theo leaves the room through another door, Billy and Wesley both follow. Not knowing what to do, I rest my head back against the chair and close my eyes. I could really do with getting to bed soon.

  “It’s much comfier in the other room, you know.” Theo’s gravelly voice makes me jump.

  “I didn’t know if you were discussing pack business. I thought I’d just close my eyes until someone told me different,” I confess.

  He slides his fingers around my wrist and pulls me to my feet, leading me towards the doors to the room he had been in. It must be a dining room. I can now see a beautifully restored antique twelve-seat table pushed against one of the walls. It matches the three chairs Theo, Wes, and Billy were using in the meeting.

  Billy and Wesley are now sitting on a red L-shaped sofa when we walk into the lounge room.

  Theo pats the seat next to him, suggesting I sit there. When I sit down, Theo throws an arm around my shoulders and pulls me against his chest, and puts his feet up on the solid oak coffee table.

  Once everyone is comfortable, the brain storming starts.

  The three men go over ideas on how to find the rogue vampire. I lose interest pretty quickly and close my eyes, listening to the strong heartbeat under my ear, and it’s beating in time with my own. I can feel his voice vibrating through his body and in no time I feel myself drifting off to sleep. Try as I might, I just can’t stop myself.

  * * *

  An incessant twitch in my thigh wakes me from a deep sleep.

  I try to move my arm so I can slap the offending body part, only to find it tangled with an arm that doesn’t belong to me. I only have to use my nose to work out who it belongs to. I can feel Theo’s energy pulsing off his body, and his scent is everywhere.

  “If you don’t stop that phone from buzzing, I won’t be held accountable when I break it,” Theo grumbles as he burrows his head under the pillow.

  With that, I realise it isn’t my thigh twitching; it’s my phone vibrating in the pocket of my dress. I take note of the time, quarter past five in the morning, and the caller ID, Misty, before hitting answer.

  “Misty, I am so sorry for not calling,” I apologise, thinking she must have been worried that I hadn’t made it home yet.

  “Theo called to let me know ya’d fallen asleep and he wasn’t waking ya.”

  Theo places his arm over my middle and pulls me towards his body. His energy running along my skin comforts me and I relax into him.

  “I’m not calling about that. Ya’ve got a visitor. I can’t get out of him who he is. He’s in a bit of a state.”

  I sit up immediately.

  Jared has found me. I bet he’s drunk. I hope he doesn’t get aggressive with Misty. He isn’t usually violent unless he needs to be. He isn’t a bad guy.

  “I’ll be right there, Misty. If he gets violent you lock yourself in another room, you hear me?”

  “He doesn’t seem like he’ll hurt me but I’ll keep that in mind,” she says before disconnecting the call.

  I grab my shoes from the floor alongside the bed and pull them on. The bed moves as Theo gets up. My mind is running away with me imagining all the damage Jared could cause while I’m on my way.

  God. I hope he stays human.

  Theo appears in my line of sight, crouching before me. He rubs my forearms with his warm hands. “Everything is going to be okay. Let’s go and see what’s happening.”

  Instead of going through the front entrance like I expect, he leads me through a door that brings us into a garage. I hear the click of a car unlocking and look around the array of cars. It isn’t the black car from last night that flashes its indicators; it’s a 4x4 of some kind. I’m not much of a car junkie. The badge tells me it’s a Mitsubishi and that’s about it. It’s white, if that helps.

  It doesn’t take us long to get to Misty’s. Theo pulls up outside her apartment block and starts to exit the car. I lean over and grab his arm to stop him. “Theo, wait.”

  He closes the door and sits back in his seat.

  I release my hold, allowing my hand to relax against his arm. “You can’t come up. If it’s who I think it is, all hell will break loose if you do.”

  He gives me a worried look. “If there’s a threat I don’t want you going up there without me.”

  “He isn’t a threat to me. He’d never hurt me. But he will be a threat if he sees you. Please Theo,” I plead. I need him to let me go up alone. I don’t know if Jared will recognise my change in scent, but if Theo goes up too he’ll flip. He’ll attack Theo and I can’t have that on my conscience.

  “Okay. But I will wait down here, until I hear that you’re safe. If I hear anything that sounds violent I won’t be able to stop myself from coming up there.”

  Knowing it’s the best I’m going to get, especially from an alpha; I grab his face and give him a quick kiss before exiting the car.

  “Thank you,” I call over my shoulder as I dash into the building.

  I walk into the apartment, expecting the worst. A fight with Jared or worse yet, a bloody Misty if he’d lost it, in my absence. My brain takes a minute to catch up to what my eyes are seeing. My cousin Benji is sitting on the sofa. A suitcase is by his feet and tears are streaming down his bruised and battered face.

  “Oh, Benji,” I whisper, dashing to crouch before him.

  “I’m sorry…he made me…made me tell him,” he says between sobs, as I pull him into a hug.

  Misty comes into the lounge from the kitchen with a tray loaded with coffee and cookies. She gives me a worried smile as she catches my eye.

  “Don’t cry, Benj. Did he do this to you?” I ask pointing to his face. Neither of us needs to say the name, we both know who we’re referring to. Jared.

  Taking a few deep breaths he calms down and reaches for a coffee and a cookie. “Yeah, I tried not to tell him. He didn’t want to hurt me, I could tell. But he wanted to know where you were and he knew I could find out. I pinged the GPS on your new phone. I’m sorry.”

  I’d bought the new phone a few days before leaving so Jared couldn’t get a hold of me or ping my GPS. Looks like my purchase was pointless.

  “It was all pointless. I should have just stayed; he wouldn’t have done this to you then.” I reach out and stroke his bruised face as I try pushing away the feelings of guilt.

  Benji smiles at me but it’s sad. “No. You needed to leave. You don’t belong there. You need a pack. You always have.”

  My phone starts vibrating in my pocket. When I look at the ID and see Theo’s name I jump up from my seat and pace to the window.

  “Oh shit,” I say to no one in particul
ar before hitting answer.

  Ten

  HUNT

  THEO

  I barely hold back from storming into the building. I’m an Alpha, the leader, the protector. Allowing my mate to go upstairs alone to face an unknown danger goes against all my natural instincts. I last five minutes before I can’t take it any longer.

  I reach into my pocket and manage to pull out my phone without crushing it in my hand.

  Bel answers fairly quickly. “Theo.”

  The relief of hearing her voice causes me to lose control, leaving my phone a crumbled mess in my hand.

  “Dammit!” I yell, throwing the useless pieces of phone across the cab.

  I try not to slam the door as I get out. I don’t need a busted truck to go with the busted phone.

  Once in the apartment block, I take one look at the elevator and know I won’t be able to handle waiting. I storm straight for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  I hear the security guy calling me.

  “Sir, you can’t go up there. You need to be signed in. Sir!” It doesn’t sound like he’s following me up the stairs. His lazy arse probably took one look at the stairs and decided to leave me to it.

  I barge into Misty’s apartment, only calming down when I see Bel standing unharmed in front of me.

  “Theo? The call’s not going through,” she says, waving the phone in her hand about.

  “Yeah. Technical glitch with my phone. I thought I better just come up.” I look around the room and find Misty on the sofa.

  “Sorry for just barging in Misty. I wanted to make sure you were all safe.” That’s when I notice the visitor next to Misty. His face is battered and bruised and he looks like he’s been crying too. Bel and Misty might be okay but this guy isn’t. The Alpha in me wants to jump in and help.

  “Everything is fine, Theo. This is my cousin, Benji.” She gestures towards the black and blue stranger on the sofa. “He’s been in a spot of bother but he’s safe now.”

  I watch her saunter towards me. The sexy sway of her hips makes things stir beneath my jeans.

  “Thanks for checking on us.” She leans up on her tiptoes and kisses me on the cheek. If that isn’t a dismissal, I don’t know what is.

  “Always,” I reply before taking her mouth with mine. I’m not leaving without tasting her. “See you tonight at the hunt?”

  “Oh, no. I won’t be hunting.”

  “Not hunting. Why?” It’s unheard of for a wolf not to join in a hunt on the full moon. Even a lone wolf will hunt alone. We feel closer to our wolves on a full moon because she sings to us, begging us to change. Nothing but pregnancy will stop us from changing on a full moon and sometimes even that doesn’t stop us. That’s why miscarriage rates in werewolves are so high. Sometimes the wolf just takes over and the change is too violent for a foetus to survive.

  “I’ve never hunted. The pride would never allow me to hunt with them and they made sure to run their hunts in time with the full moon, no doubt out of spite. I’ll just shift here. I’ll be fine.” She reaches around my neck and pulls me down to whisper in my ear. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving Benji in this state. We’ve only just stopped him crying.”

  I hold her waist as she drops back down on her feet. “I’m not happy about it. A wolf in my town should be able to hunt. But I understand your reasons. How about I take you on a special hunt on Monday—just the two of us? I’ll pick you up about noon.”

  She smiles gratefully and steps out of my arms. “Yes, that would be great. Monday at noon it is.”

  I nod and say goodbye to both Benji and Misty as I head for the door. I can feel Bel following behind me, her energy brushing against my skin. I turn to find her standing in the doorway.

  As I reach to pull her into my arms again, the lift dings and the doors open behind me. Glancing over my shoulder I see a security guard with a face like thunder barge out.

  “Sir, you need to leave. You can’t just storm into the building like that. We have a security system to keep the residents safe.” He dismisses me and turns his attention to Bel. “Ms. McGuiness, I’m sorry about this blip in our security. I will escort this man out and personally make sure nothing like this happens again.”

  “It’s fine, Bob. He’s a good guy.” Bel starts to back away out of my reach. “Thanks again, Theo. I best get back in and see to Benji.” She reaches for the door and closes it without even a goodbye kiss.

  The lift behind me dings. The security guard must have already called it back.

  “You need to leave now, sir.”

  Holding my growl in, I turn to the security guard. My wolf is unhappy with being ordered around by this man. He’s just a human. He doesn’t realise the dangers of giving me orders. I keep telling myself that I can’t attack a defenceless human as he glares at me.

  I place my hand on the doors and wave him in—my wolf can only take so much. He might not consider the guy a threat, but that doesn’t mean he will give him our back.

  It doesn’t take the lift long to make it down to the ground floor, making me think he must have stopped to check all the lower floors before getting to Misty and Bel’s floor.

  I head straight for the front door, ignoring the guard behind the desk whom had decided to take it on himself to give me a lecture about signing in and calling up to the residents before going up. I close the door behind me while he’s still mid-rant.

  * * *

  I walk around the house when I arrive and head to the back yard. I can hear the pack members fooling around.

  Wes is flipping burgers on the barbie. Alyssa, his mate, is lounging on the grass with a couple of other females; Rachel, Chloe, and Delly. Eddie and Matthew are throwing a football around. The only member missing is Paddy.

  The rest of the pack are all in groups at other locations. It’s too dangerous for us to hunt together. We can be noisy on a hunt. Humans would notice large groups of us, making our existence harder to keep from them.

  There are already dangerous groups of humans who grow up knowing that fairy tales and monsters are real. They like to call themselves ‘the Cleaners.’

  Their mission is to cleanse the human race of all supernatural beings. They’re trained generation after generation to destroy us. If we hunted in one large group, we would be giving them the opportunity to wipe out a whole pack at once.

  We rotate locations and members so we all get a chance to hunt together. It’s safe and it works, so we stick to it.

  I reach out for the footy, grabbing it as it soars straight towards my head. “Nice try Eddie but you know I’m too quick for you. I don’t know why you bother.”

  My comment doesn’t stop me from throwing the footy back in Eddie’s direction at full pelt, aiming for his arse.

  He easily catches it with a laugh and carries on his throwing game with Matthew. It’s virtually impossible to catch a wolf off guard. Our reflexes are just too quick.

  “Is Paddy on his way?” I ask no one in particular.

  Everyone looks at me but not one of them offers a reply.

  I turn my attention to Ed and head for Wes at the grill. “Ed. You two are pretty good mates. Why isn’t he here? He’s usually one of the first to arrive, he loves the hunt.”

  “I haven’t heard from him today. I just figured you’d sent him to track for the rogue vamp or whoever is kidnapping the vamps. He often goes silent when he’s tracking.” Ed makes his way towards me, digging his phone out of his pocket. He taps the screen and holds it out. We can all hear it without even putting it on speakerphone. The seven of us crowd around as we listen to it ringing out before Paddy’s voicemail finally kicks in.

  “You’ve reached Paddy. I’m either ignoring you or I can’t answer the phone right now. Depending on which category you fall in, leave your number and I might call you back.”

  I speak up knowing he’ll call back immediately on hearing my voice. “Paddy, call me.”

  Ed wanders off, redialling his number.

  I close
my eyes and feel for him through the pack bonds. I find him in no time, agitated and scared. I open my eyes.

  “Something’s…not right. He’s scared. We need to find him, retrace his footsteps.” I think back to the last time I saw or heard from him. The pack meeting. He left last night with Chloe over his shoulder.

  I focus my sights on Chloe. “What happened when he dropped you off last night?”

  “I’d come around by the time we arrived at my house. I thanked him with a peck on the cheek and left him in his car. He didn’t drive away until I closed the door behind me. Was I the last person to see him?” she asks, sounding devastated at the thought.

  “Fuck! He’s still not answering. When I got home and he wasn’t there I thought he’d gotten lucky with Chloe. I should have fucking called him. Some mate I am,” Ed says, pacing around the yard with his wolf riding him. I can feel the energy flowing around him.

  Delly steps up to him, placing a comforting hand on his arm. “Don’t beat yourself up, Ed. You won’t be any help to him if you turn wolf now. You know turning so close to the full moon means you won’t shift back until morning. We have a few hours before we have no choice but to shift so let’s make the most of it.”

  He nods his agreement and they all look to me for direction. The problem? I have no fucking clue how to find him. He was in a car; meaning there’s no scent trail to follow.

  “Wes. Can you call the rest of the pack and make sure no one else saw him after he dropped Chloe off?” Wes wanders off with his phone in hand.

  “What if the person taking the vampire’s has him? Are we safe? Could it be the Cleaners?” Alyssa asks, with a trembling lip.

  I pull her petite frame into my arms. “He’s alive, sweetheart. It’s not the Cleaners. We all know they wouldn’t keep him alive. Whoever has him, we’ll get him back. To make sure everyone is safe tonight, we’ll bring everyone here for the hunt. It will just have to be a quiet one.”