Page 45 of Bound

“We really gonna do this right now?” Our phones buzzed in unison. Slowing at the next stop sign, I swiped the screen.

TAKE YOUR WEREWOLF TO WORK DAY

The picture August had sent was snapped at a slightly awkward angle, but it was clearly of a cheerful mint-green room down at Fangs and Howls Animal Clinic. Masked and wearing warm rose scrubs that gave her russet-brown skin a soft glow, Dr. Naomi Jennings held a hypodermic needle poised by Brody’s fluffy blond wolf tush. In the corner of the shot, Major was trying unsuccessfully to upend the glass jar of doggie cookies that was perched up on the exam counter. A string of texts appeared.

Ethan: Take his temperature.

Dallas: Emergency flea dip.

Lacey: Who’s a good boy? *cookie emoji*

“I’m all about the multitasking.” Caldwell stabbed a fry at me. “Talk.”

“You remember a few weeks ago when I told you I was driving close to the university and I swore just for a second I felt that same buzz I’ve been getting when vamps are nearby, but not close enough to ID?”

“You said you checked it out and there was nothing there.”

“Right. But I couldn’t shake the feeling we were missing something, so I went back.”

Caldwell made a sound that could only be called a primal scream strangled by a mouthful of cheeseburger. Swallowing, he glared. “Just once could you wait for me before barreling headfirst into danger? I feel like I need to cast a protective salt circle around your Kia.”

“Damn. Know what I forgot to pick up this morning?”

Grabbing one of the salt packets out of the sack of fries, he flicked it at my head. “Drive, wench.”

Highway 29 grew hillier the farther we drove from town. Limestone bluffs rose sharply from shallow creeks. Overhead, turkey buzzards circled lazily in the last rays of the fading day.

“I’m not saying we don’t check this lead out,” Caldwell said at last. “I’m saying there’s a reason you switch out tails when you’re doing surveillance. I’m saying there’s a reason no one goes in without backup. Let’s say we assume Maddox Blake is dirty. Maybe he and others in his pack are cooperating with the Vampire Nation outright, or maybe they’re just taking kickbacks to look the other way. If you’re onto something with this location downtown, they’re going to have scouts posted. If they mark you—”

“They won’t.”

“Oh, okay.”

The bond flared with something hot and possessive. Caldwell grimaced. I gripped the wheel, breathing hard, my pulse pounding like it had every single morning since the one where we’d woken tangled up together in my bed, the memory of his lips and hands writing a symphony of promises across my skin that I knew in the morning we would never be able to keep, but allowed myself to believe anyway if only for the space of a night. Because some people didn’t get forever. And if all West Caldwell and I could ever have was that moment, I wanted the perfect unspoiled beauty of that lie, those untarnished seconds where I wasn’t the scarred wolf with a past I couldn’t remember and a future I couldn’t keep. Where he didn’t hate himself. Where we wouldn’t be hunted for the power burning in our blood. Where we could have disappeared into the pages of a book with an ending we could have written ourselves.

“I met up with two guys from my brother’s firefighter crew today. I know Brody said he interviewed everyone, but I wanted to talk to them myself.”

There was a long pause. “And?”

The road curved sharply through the hills. I slowed to bump over a low water crossing.

“They checked in on Kieran a couple of times in the months before he disappeared, but his behavior was erratic. He was having a tough time dealing after what happened to our mom, then when I was reported missing, he just sort of spiraled downward and couldn’t get himself back out.”

“I’m sorry. That can’t have been easy to hear.”

“Something felt… off, though. These were some of Kieran’s closest friends. They were always over at our house on weekends we weren’t scheduled to work—grilling or watching a game. But the whole time I was there, it felt like they just wanted to get me out the door.”

“Maybe they were ordered not to talk about it. Or maybe they’re uneasy because they suspect correctly that something is off about the story they’re being told.” He hesitated. “You need to be careful. People from your former life, your human life, have enough information to ask the sorts of questions that could be dangerous.”

“I haven’t been back before today. Our house in Austin has been sitting empty. I just… needed to know we weren’t missing anything.”

“And you’re still convinced the Tracers are somehow involved. Because some dealer claims he remembers seeing a dark SUV at your brother’s house over a year ago? You do realize how faulty eyewitness testimony is?”

“What if he’s not wrong?”

Caldwell frowned, starting to say something, when suddenly, he gestured me towards the shoulder.

“This is it.” The hills opened up into a straight stretch of road. The wild unclaimed land was tangled with prickly pear cactus, sage and mesquite. Pink granite gravel crunched under the tires as I ground to a stop before a green state highway sign announcing: BLOOD MOON, 10 MILES.