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18
DEAN
I couldn’t sleep. Even after getting back to my place and collapsing into bed, my eyes stayed locked with the ceiling. Exhaustion poured through my bones, filling the marrow of them with anguish. Last night had been a climactic failure, and I knew there was no fucking way in God’s great green creation that we’d get Raven to stay after that full moon.
I pressed myself up onto my elbows, focusing on the task at hand. Caffeine, food, then I had to make my rounds and check on the pups. They had brawled pretty significantly last night, and some of them had required medical attention.
But I didn’t even make it downstairs before a vision slapped me across the face.
“No,” I said breathlessly.
Everything around me faded away before I saw Brody’s face come into view. He was running, peering over his shoulder, and I tried to focus on what he was running from. Was he being chased? Was he in trouble? Did he need help?
Then, I saw something that made me hold my breath.
“No fucking way,” I whispered.
I leaned heavily against the wall as bears started to emerge. One by his left, and one by his right. They ran alongside him, and I watched as he ran, his feet bounding against the dirt. I waited for him to shift and attack. I waited for him to be devoured. Something, anything to push away the thought that had immediately popped up into my mind.
However, when I saw him smiling at them, the vision faded away.
Before I slid down the wall and hit my ass against the floor.
“It can’t be,” I said breathlessly.
There was no way in hell. Something had to be wrong. He had to be under some sort of spell, and if that was the case, I needed to find him. I leapt over the railing of my lofted balcony and slammed down in front of the living room couch. I marched into the kitchen and threw open the fridge before I grabbed a soda and slammed it back. I needed caffeine swimming through my veins. I needed to focus so that I could find Brody.
Because if he was in danger, we needed to get to him sooner rather than later.
“I’m coming, Brody,” I growled.
The first place I went to was across the street. Him and I had been street pals for as long as I could remember. He had always been the neighbor across the street. Just a few footsteps away in case either of us needed anything. And as I slammed my fist repeatedly against his front door, I waited for his footfalls. I waited for him to throw the door open and slap me across the face for waking him up.
Brody had never been a morning person.
But when he didn’t come to the door, the hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end.
“Not good,” I murmured as I turned around. “This is not good at all.”
My gaze darted around as I tried to locate him. Where the hell was Levi when I needed him? I leapt off the porch and allowed my eyes to focus, tapping into my wolf form long enough to latch me onto the groupthink of our entire pack. And as whispered voices swirled around in my head, I dug deep until I found Brody’s.
You’re already late, his wolf voice whispered, you need to get going. The woods will grow thick soon.
Something wasn’t right. I had no idea what the hell any of it meant, but Brody shouldn’t have been near the woods. Even if he somehow magically woke up early and went on patrol, he would have been patrolling the neighborhood. The Inner Circle had been tasked with making sure the pups healed from their fighting wounds, so he had no business being anywhere near the goddamn woods.
Which only fueled my desire to find him.
His scent lingered in the air, but just barely. I allowed the smell to lead me toward the north side of the woods where we had just been the night before. If we went far enough north, it eventually turned into bear territory, and my mind tried to find ways to justify what in the hell Brody was doing.
But as I came upon his shadow disappearing further into the woods, his scent grew.
“What are you doing?” I whispered to myself.
All at once, his scent fell away from my nose. My eyes widened and I dipped toward the ground, pressing my nose right up against the footprints he had left behind. Even with as close as I was to him—even with being able to see him—the smell of him was practically nonexistent.
And when the wind kicked up further, it eliminated his scent altogether.
“This isn’t right,” I murmured.
