* * *
I drove slowly on the highway, stretching the trip out to half an hour and forcing traffic to zip by me. As her breathing slowed and deepened, a sense of contentment stole over me. This is how it could be. Unbidden, the thoughts popped into my mind. Just her and me. Together.
Only at the moment, it wasn’t just her and me. A lot of uncertainty, wrapped up in one nasty virus, lay between us. If I tested positive, this could be one of the last normal days of my life. By our figuring, Dillon was already losing it by the time he’d been infected as long as me. If our initial timeline was correct, I reminded myself.
A car passed me on the highway, and I realized it looked familiar. Sure enough, as I turned down Chris’s access road, I followed it in. As soon as I slowed, Sam roused, rubbing her face. “Wow. I zonked.” She bent to retrieve her runners and put them on without undoing the laces. Looking up, she squinted ahead of us. “Is that Chris?”
“I think so. Garrett must have let him off leash to pick something up in town.”
“Either that or he couldn’t stop him, which is more likely.”
When we pulled up to the house in Chris’s wake, Garrett stood in the middle of the back lawn, staring at his tablet with a concentration that set off alarm bells. The rigidity of his body only added to my concern. As did the fact that he didn’t turn to acknowledge us, even though he had to have heard the vehicles pull up.
Sam agreed with me. “Something’s wrong.” She bailed from the SUV as I reached to unsnap Keen from her restraint harness. My furry friend bounced out the door after me.
Chris emerged from his vehicle wearing a frown and not bothering to unload the bags of food I could see in the back seat.
“What’s up?” he called to Garrett.
“They’re gone.”
The words sent a shiver through me. Peter and Josh. How could they be gone? He was supposed to be watching them.
Garrett didn’t turn as we walked up. Keen sniffed near him, keeping her distance, and then trotted across the lawn, her nose to the ground.
“Garrett, what the hell?” I sensed the anger coming off Chris in waves. “I was only gone an hour. They were playing Grand Theft Auto when I left. Where did they go?”
Grand Theft Auto? Since when does Peter play games? I knew Chris and Josh had a major man cave in the basement, complete with an elaborate entertainment system, but I didn’t know Peter liked to play. Of course, a month ago I didn’t know he was a wulf, so what do I know?
When I stepped up beside Chris, I saw that Garrett had an app open on his tablet. It showed a satellite view of the area, with two bright-red dots on the move. A blue dot indicated Garrett’s position, and three more reds clustered around him.
“I thought only Jason had our tracker codes,” I said. My heart pounded.
“Yeah, well, he gave them to me,” Garrett growled. “They were in the middle of their game. I went to the barn to work out, and when I came out to check on them, they were gone. The damned dog, too.”
“Havoc’s with them? Maybe they took him for a walk.” Chris sounded strangled, like he wasn’t breathing.
“They’re moving too fast to still be on two legs,” Garrett ground out. He handed Chris the tablet and stripped.
Chris’s face had lost all color. He transferred the tablet to me and started to rip off his shirt, but Garrett grabbed him by the arm. Chris shook him off, and I caught a flash of gold wulf eyes.
“No. You’re on lockdown—remember? Sam and I will go. You stay here with Liam.” The sympathy in Garrett’s voice surprised me. “We’ll bring them back, Chris, in one piece, I promise.”
Chris shot me a glance, and I read his mind—if he broke the rules and shifted, I would too, and he wasn’t wrong. Peter and Josh were out there running as wulves in broad daylight. My wulf strained to be let loose.
“They wouldn’t consciously break the rules,” I said through gritted teeth.
Chris shook his head. “It’s another memory thing, got to be.”
“It’s on me,” Garrett said, his jaw lengthening. “Shudn’t huve luft thum.” Black hair raced across his body and I winced as the collarbones gave way with two loud snaps.
Sam beat him to the wulf, her smaller cinnamon-haired form tracking across the yard in Keen’s wake. I called my furry friend back. I didn’t want her with them if Peter and Josh’s wulves were running wild.
“If you need us, you damned well better howl,” Chris yelled after them.
Keen whined beside me, wanting to run with the wulves, even if she didn’t like Garrett. “Sam will find them.” I said it as much to reassure myself as Chris. I barely recognized my own voice with the hoarse undertones of wulf laced through it.
Chris must have heard the wulf and recognized my efforts to maintain control. He put a hand on my arm. “Sam’s a good tracker. And Garrett doesn’t give up, ever. They’ll find them.”
I looked at the tablet and watched the red dots move. They had to be flying on four legs, moving deeper into the Mars Hill Wildlife Management area, which ran behind Chris’s property.
My brain raced through possibilities. I can’t just sit here and wait. I looked at Chris, who’d pinned a lip beneath a fang with enough force that it bled.
“Is there any way to access the area by vehicle?” I asked.
He nodded. “ATV trails run through part of it, but they aren’t anywhere near them. I’ll take us out there anyway, but I don’t know how much good we’ll be.”
At my feet, Keen whined, and it gave me an idea. “Havoc might still be with them. If you can get us within hearing range, he might come if Keen barks. It
