Unscentable

CH 10

Bradley POV

“What do you mean Hadley is missing?” Bradley frowned, as he listened to his father on the other end of the line. Saw his whole unit turn and look at him as well. Cooper actually stood up, looked more than shocked.

They were all back in Portland, had been for two days now.

“Her car is not here, Bradley. No-one has seen her in a whole day, not since she went to bed last night, not at breakfast either.” He could hear the worry in his father, Benjamin's voice.

“She’s not just gone out shopping with her friends? Left early this morning to beat the rush hour traffic?” Bradley asked “when was the exact time you last saw her?”

“When she went to bed. Was already up and gone from the suite, before Lilly and I woke up. We thought she was off at training...but no, she didn’t attend it this morning, I already checked that.”

Bradley was frowning now, “I presume you called her.”

“I’m not an i***t, son. Of course, I called her, so did Lilly. We have both called her a dozen times now, talked to all her friends, no-one has seen her.”

“Who’s out looking for her?”

“Your brother’s, me and my whole unit, everyone in the pack knows to report if they see her, she is not here, missing.” there was actual fear in the man’s voice now.

“I told you to lo-jack the girls' car, father. She is too pretty, a snatchers' dream.” he was now worried himself though. Hadley was such a sweet-natured girl, she was innocent and wanted to believe that there was only good in everyone. It's why he’d sent her out here with his entire unit, in fact. To protect her.

“I’ll call her. Has she picked up at all?”

“No, it goes right to the message bank.”

He could already see Eddie was on it, calling her “Hang on Eddie is ringing her now.” They all waited patiently till Eddie shook his head, “No luck.”

“We’ll keep searching son...but”

She was her father's little girl, his only daughter in fact, and everyone loved Hadley. He sighed “I’ll send my unit back to help with the search. I have to stay though.”

“No son, don’t do that. You all need to be there. Just...thought she might have turned up there, keep an eye out for her will you.”

“What? Why would Hadley be out here? Piper upset her completely.”

“I know that son. But she was more concerned that Piper ran away from you, and thinks it's all her fault. Was talking to Lilly about it last night before going to bed, worried she’d screwed up your Mate Bond.”

Bradley shook his head and huffed at his father. “Well, maybe you should have, lead with that.” he muttered, annoyed now “We’ll search here.” He hung up.

“You think she came out here to try and convince Piper to come home?” Cooper sighed.

“Oh, I know she did, she apparently believes what she and her wolf, Letti, picked up on was Piper’s reaction to seeing me with another. She did come and apologise to me, for scaring the woman off, before we left.” he could only shake his head again.

Bradley had tried to convince her that she was wrong, told her a bit of the truth. That Piper had used to be a pack member, but that was it, he'd told her that Piper was likely just scared to see her old Beta, and then Alpha was all.

Though she had not believed him at all, she had stood there and raised a delicately sculpted eyebrow at him and then repeated his own words back to him, “It’s not fear, it’s pain.” didn’t miss a thing that girl. Was going to make an excellent lawyer.

“On it.” Cooper was dialling a number a minute later, got a ‘no I didn’t see her or her car leave Beta.’ Cooper was not so dumb, shook his own head. The girl, who was all sweet, was also very intelligent, intending to follow her father's footsteps and go to Law School.

“Did Hadley, Alpha Order you to say that you hadn’t seen her or her car?” he asked in return. Was talking to the night gate guard.

Bradley sighed, knew as soon as he heard Coop ask the question the answer was going to be ‘yes’ and he was not wrong.

“What time did she put the order on you?” Cooper asked again. He knew how to question and interrogate.

“Thank the Goddess you asked, Beta.” the guard actually sounded relieved to be being questioned “it was three in the morning. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault, Hadley is very bright.” he hung up.

The guard would not be punished, he was under an Alpha’s order not to tell, so he physically couldn’t. The poor bastard sounded like he was worried as much as the rest of the pack.

“3am.” Bradley looked at the time now, it was nearly 7pm. It was a 13-hour drive without stops for eating and using the bathroom, and their father did drum into all his children the stop, revive and survive policy for driving, a break from driving every two hours to stop the monotony of staring at the road and causing fatigue.

Hadley would likely only just be getting here now. “ Let's watch the use of her pack card, she’ll have to book into a hotel at some point.”

Harry agreed to track the girls' cards. His laptop was already out, so not an issue.

Eddie took one of their rental cars to go and drive around to actually look for her car.

Bradley put in a call to her himself. She wasn’t likely to ignore him. It would get her punished, not that he thought his father wasn’t going to round on the girl, about being young and alone, an un-mated Alpha female alone and vulnerable.

She did train, but hated to fight, it was not in her nature, to sweet like her mother Lilly was. Lilly had been an Omega before she met his father, still had a submissive nature and was eager to please, even 19 years later. Had been an omega for 40 years before meeting his father, not so easy to grow out of, she’d once told him.

Just like Hadley was sweet-natured, liked to be helpful, didn’t like to be a burden, and usually did exactly what she was told. The only difference was that Hadley did have Alpha blood, and could be, at times, defiant and strong-willed. Though only when things were important to her, and if she felt guilty about Piper Harper, or Piper Whitlock, as he now knew, that was her real name. This could well have set off Hadley’s defiant nature, and combined that with her need to help others.

He sighed when he got her voice mail like everyone else did: “Hadley, it’s Bradley. You will call me back when you get this message. Or I will be personally searching for you.” he told her.

Hadley knew that he was out here in Portland trying to get Piper to talk to him, not that he or his unit had even laid eyes on the woman. It had been two days and only Izzy and some other human women were working in the store. He and his unit had stayed out of sight, or he and Cooper had due to the fact that Izzy would recognise both of them.

Eddie and Harry had strolled on by the store a few times, the woman’s office was closed up, and the lights were out. As it had been on Saturday, when he had last been in the store. No such luck, and it was now Wednesday night.

The store had been closed by Izzy at 1730 on the dot, just like the day before. Opening hours were 0900 to 1730, that’s what the golden lettering on the door stated, and Izzy was prompt to open and close.

Eddie had offered to snag a human and stroll in there to sus this Izzy out, but Bradley got the distinct impression, Izzy was not stupid and would see through it, his Gamma was just as big and muscled up as his Beta was. And he’d had people calling all weekend trying to get an appointment.

Eddie was full of charm, literally could charm any woman with the acceptation of his Mate, when he found her. But he was also what humans would call damn good-looking and Izzy, he thought, would hazard a guess as to Eddie being one of Bradley’s men.

Considering the amount of calls he’d had put in, and that Piper had shut him down, this Izzy would likely be on the lookout for anything that was out of the ordinary or even slightly suspicious. So now they were waiting. Piper Harper was a bit of a mystery.

She owned three stores and nothing else, not even a house in her name, no car in her name and all her stores and the land they were on, were all purchased through her company, Piper Harper Designs. There was no company car that he’d seen, and none registered to this store. Both the store managers of her two other stores had company cars. Izzy did not, and he had no idea if Piper Harper owned a car at all. No car registered to one Piper Harper that he could find.

She had changed her name when she had left the pack. That was all he knew, though every Piper Harper he’d tracked down to an address was not her and there were only five Piper Harper’s in Portland, and not one of them had been the one he was looking for. She had hidden herself not just in the pack, but had also taken great lengths to hide herself, out here within the human world as well. It was odd.

He didn’t like it. His father had freaked him out a bit. Telling him that Whitlock’s were few and far between, that she would be in danger out here all alone. That he had to get back out there to Portland and bring her back to the pack as soon as possible.

He had not really elaborated, but his actual worry and concern over the girl had shone through in full. So here he was back in Portland trying to track a lone she-wolf. Who constantly masked her scent, which he supposed she did now to protect herself from those that would kidnap and sell her off; a lone rogue female.

At least she’d been safe all this time, and was well known in the human world. If she went missing, Izzy would report her missing. He was certain of that, there would be a state wide search for sure.

That brought his thoughts around to the fact that he couldn’t just go and snatch the woman off the street himself, he was going to have to find a way to get her to agree to come with him. Maybe he could get her to tell Izzy she was taking a trip or something. He wondered if he could actually get Piper to agree to date him for a bit? He didn’t know, could only ask, he supposed.

His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts, and there it was, Hadley’s number. “Where are you?” he grated out, didn’t even bother to state hello “Father is worried sick.”

“I just went for a drive. Heading home now.” she told him calmly.

He didn’t believe her. “So where did you drive to?”

“I’ve been in Helena all day. Just shopping, watched a movie.” she answered him.

“I don’t believe you, Hadley. Not considering you left My Pack at three in the morning.” he spoke to her, his Alpha tone rolling out of him, not as her brother, but as her Alpha.

There was silence at the other end of the line.

“We have ways of getting answers, Hadley. That poor guard,” he sighed, he would use her sweet nature against her.

“You didn’t hurt him!” she whispered, sounding mortified to his ear.

“What do you think it takes to get passed an Alpha Order?” he commented, and saw both Cooper and Harry shake their heads at his tactics, but also smile at the same time.

“I don’t believe you, you’re not even there in the pack.” she suddenly snapped at him, her alpha genes kicking in.

“No, but father is, and he’s much more hot-headed than I am, you know this... That poor guard,” he sighed sadly, “you’ll really have some apologising to do to his Mate and his two children, when you get home.”

“No.” she sounded more than horrified now.

“Tell me where you are.” he asked her softly.

“Bradley, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean... I just...Oh, you bastard.” she suddenly snapped those last three words at him and the line was disconnected.

Heard both Cooper and Harry laugh, but it was Cooper who stated “Oh, she’s on to you and your tricks.”

“Ah, it was worth a shot. Used to work on her all the time.” Bradley smiled to himself “Guess she is not so little anymore.” he dialled his father's number.

The girl when little had been easily swayed into talking by her guilt, not so much anymore, it seemed. Damned Alpha genes, but at least she was alright and had not been kidnapped at this point.

“I spoke to Hadley, she sounded fine. I nearly got her to tell me where she is. I’m betting here in Portland, trying to find Piper Harper to clear things up.”

Heard his father sigh, “It is her nature to fix things.”

“Eddie’s out now, looking, we're tracking her pack card. She hasn’t used it yet though, she must have cash on her.”

“Ah, that would be my doing… I’ve always told her to carry cash, in case of an emergency.”

“How much is she likely to be carrying?”

“A couple hundred,” his father informed him.

“Just bloody great.” Bradley muttered “So we’ll hunt two missing she-wolves going under the radar.” he snapped and hung up, before his father could even retort.

“Hadley has cash, a couple hundred dollars.” he told Harry, “so she won’t need that card until she runs out of cash.”

“I’ll continue to monitor anyway.”

Bradley was tempted to cancel it, but he didn’t want her running into any trouble if it was declined. “She’ll need it to book accommodation, even if she pays cash.”

“Doesn’t mean the hotel will run it right away,” Harry commented.

He already knew this, but there was nothing he could do about it. Eddie was out looking, it was unlikely Hadley would stay in her car, or some dingy hotel. No, she was used to staying in very nice accommodation. It was likely she would go to a larger, more respectable hotel, and they would insist on her credit card and likely swipe it right away. Seeing how young she was, they would want assurance she could afford the room.

Though she was driving a nice new BMW convertible which her father had given her for her 17th birthday, when she’d officially gotten her driver's licence, she’d not needed a big hulk of a car, was small and petite like her mother was.

He and his unit were booked into the Nines, a Luxury collection Hotel, here in Portland and had booked out 4 of their 1 bedroom king suites. His had a nice corner view, though they were all in his suite talking and planning when not out there sitting and waiting on Piper to return to her store. Which was a 30-minute drive from where they were staying, the closest he could get.

Eddie strolled in the door, pulling Hadley behind him two hours after he’d spoken with the girl, “Look at what I found at the Hilton.” he smiled, “thought I’d stake out your father’s favourite hotel chain.”

Bradley stared right at her. “You are in so much trouble.” he let his displeasure about her disappearance known, “Sit your ass in that chair.” He snapped his fingers at the couch in his room.

She looked suitably guilty to him. He put in a video call to his father. He answered right away. “We got her.” he told him, and then turned the phone around to show her to him. Hadley looked at the phone, took it even as their father was already yelling at her about how irresponsible she was, how dangerous it was for a young Alpha female to be out there on her own. The dangers of k********g, r**e and torture.

Bradley watched as she sat quietly and took the tongue lashing from their father, just nodded when she should, and apologised too. Then and only then did his father calm down, and tell her she’d scared him and her mother half to death, that they’d thought the worst had happened, then let her actually talk to her mother, Lilly. Told her she had better do everything, absolutely everything Bradley and the Unit told her to do, or she would be severely punished when she got home.

Bradley didn’t believe that last part, but it did look like Hadley believed it. His father had the biggest soft spot for the girl, a severe punishment, that likely just meant being grounded to her bedroom for a day or two, and that room had everything she could ever want in it anyway.

He took the phone back from Hadley and spoke briefly to his father and told him he’d have one of his men drive her back tomorrow. He saw Hadley actually pout, but it was his father that had his attention.

“Just keep her there, son. Don’t lessen your chances of getting to Piper. It’s very important she is brought in. Hadley’s punishment can wait.”

Bradley was surprised, but didn’t object. He put a few rules on his little wayward sister, 1. that she had to stay here in the suite, 2. she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere alone, as it wasn’t safe to do so. 3. If she left this suite without permission, she would be spending time in the cells back home. For every minute she left the suite, there would be a minute in the cells. It was more of a threat, used in the hope she would actually stay put.

The look on her face said it all, she was horrified by the thought of it and also seemed like she actually did believe him too. He was staring right down at her, his jaw was set and his tone harsh, he was all Alpha, not brother. Saw her glance at Cooper as though he was going to save her, and got nothing from him, just nodded her head after a moment and even stated “Yes Bradley.”

“Oh and you will be sleeping on that couch, I am not giving up my bed for you.” he told her, and saw her pout right up at him. Give him that look from her big blue eyes, that always got her, her way.

He tossed her a pillow and a spare blanket to make his point.

One she-wolf found, though she had not really been hiding.

One she-wolf to go. That was in fact hiding from him right this minute.