The Next Luna

4

Jack

I entered the small house two towns away from the pack's territory. They had been so close I could have passed them on the street and never known. Everyone else waited outside for me. I was the tracker. I had to find the scent of the ones we needed to find. I couldn't do that if everyone was in here with me blending their scents with those of the ones I wanted to kill, those I had to find. It was bad enough I would have to work through all the human scents that had already been through the house after they found June’s body. I moved through the front room, the image of June's body laying on the floor covered in blood flashed in my mind. I had to force it out of my head. She wasn't the one I needed to help now. She was gone. I had to focus on my baby girl. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply, letting my wolf push forward and share control with me. He whimpered in my head. "She was so scared." We could smell her fear. It was so heavy. They held her in place, in view of her mother's body. Had they made her watch what they did. Goddess, my poor baby girl. There had been four of them. Only one of them had stayed in the hallway. He had been the one to move through the rooms. It had been June's blood they had used to leave their message. Zoey hadn't been harmed physically while in the house. A good sign. They wanted her alive. I moved to the back room. The walls were painted lavender. The bedding on the bed was a plum color. On the wall were cutouts of different national parks around the country, all taken from travel magazines. A few of the locations had large red hearts drawn over them. Laying on the table next to the bed was an atlas with a piece of paper sticking out of it, marking one of the pages. I picked it up and opened it to the page. The paper had a list of different locations on it. At the top, it read, 'possible stops for road trip extravaganza!!!!!' On the map that was on the page that had been marked was a purple outline of a route that covered several states. It made a large circle that would bring them back here. All the locations listed on the list were things that would be on that route. A few of them had several stars next to them. 

I set the book back down. The message to me wasn't on the walls of this room which meant they were on the wall in the other bedroom I had passed. I made my way back out of this room, stopping just in the doorway. I turned and took one last look around. I felt like I was missing something. My eyes moved over the bed, the table, the small desk, stopping on the dresser. I turned back around and walked over to a small four-drawer dresser. There, tucked under a small jewelry box, was a piece of paper. It stuck out just slightly from under the little brown box. Carefully I lifted the box up and picked up the paper. I set the box back down just as carefully and unfolded the paper. In the same handwriting as the list in the atlas was my name, address, and a list of my social media accounts. I sat down on the bed. She had looked me up but never reached out. Why? Had I hurt her mother that bad that she had told my daughter awful things about me? Had she told her she couldn't contact me? If so, why? A growl rolled through me. I needed to find her. If I had known about her, this could have been prevented. Or at least we would have known sooner than a whole day later. They could be anywhere by now. 

Standing up, I tucked the small piece of paper back under the small jewelry box. I will find her, and I will keep her safe. I had what I needed. I was wasting time now. I walked outside the house. Taking a deep breath, I caught the scent of which way they went. My wolf pushed forward, taking full control now. I didn't stop him as I began to shift right there. We could follow her better and faster in wolf form. It wasn't the way we did things when working with humans, but I didn't care. "Jack, what are you doing?" Troy's eyes widened as he looked around. There was no one around but the two humans that already knew about us. I know it wasn't fair for the young alpha, but I didn't have time to baby him. One of our own, my baby girl, was in danger. The rest of the warriors that had been sent with us followed me as they too began to shift. I have fought alongside every single man here. I have helped every single man here. And they were ready to help me. Troy thanked the officers for their help before shifting himself. He didn't look happy but didn't say anything as I took off in the direction Zoey was taken. All of them following me as we left the two humans behind.