“Call your father. He’s with Carlos, one of our deputies. He insisted on riding along. Convince him your mother needs him. He’s the main reason we haven’t shifted already.”
I yanked my phone from my pocket. “Of course.”
Dialing Daddy’s number, I shifted from foot to foot as it rang. He picked up just as I was about to give up and call again. “Pumpkin? Is there news?”
“No, Daddy, but Mom’s nearly hysterical. You’ve gotta let them bring you here to calm her down. Let the police do their job and find Tiffany. We don’t have any business out there with them.”
“I can help, Bethany.”
“Daddy.” I didn’t leave any room for argument. “Come to the station. Now.”
He paused, then sighed. “Okay. I’ll come.”
I nodded at Maddox, who gave his father a significant look.
“Okay, Daddy, hurry. Mom needs you.”
He relayed the info to Carlos, who took the phone. “Tell Maverick I’m bringing Mr. Leeds to the station right now, and there will be no civilians on the case.” He gave me coordinates, which I rattled off to Maddox. He nodded.
After I hung up, Maddox pulled me into his arms. “Trust me,” he whispered. “We’ll find her.”
“I don’t care how. Get my baby back.” I trusted that he would. It was funny, I’d been so terrified of them before. Now I trusted he could do exactly what I needed him to do.
As he and Maverick ran from the station, I knew it was to turn into flying dragons and find my daughter. And I knew she’d be beyond delighted to see her pet dinosaur.
It would be okay. It had to be.
22
Maddox
When Bethany’s mom had come running from the park, bursting into the station with other witnesses, I’d been ready to rage. But I kept my head while Dad got all the witness statements. I’d wanted to shift immediately and track down the fucker who’d taken my little girl.
But we had to follow human laws. This was a human problem. For all anyone could ever know, we had to find her the proper way. Of course, we’d be using our preternatural senses to track him down, but all the reports, everything on paper had to say we lucked out and got a lead. We’d figure out later what that lead was.
Jury was driving around. I’d called him on the way to pick up Bethany. He couldn’t shift and search that way, but his nose was still a step above the rest even when human. He was trying to pick up Walter’s trail even in his vehicle.
As soon as I walked outside, my Dad looked at me. “Be smart. Be stealthy. You cannot be caught, so you absolutely must keep a level head.”
I gave him a somber look. “I will. I know the importance.”
He squeezed my shoulder, then took off toward the park to coordinate with Grandpa, Uncle Axel, and Carlos and his wolves. They were all on foot, searching for information or scents. “Hey, meet me at the manor. We can shift and stay in the woods. Try to pick up the trail.”
“You got it. I just started over at the park. I keep losing the scent because of Walter’s car. It’s got an oil leak and the smell is overpowering. If I can shift, I can discern the scents.”
“I’m at the station,” I said. “Pick me up.”
He was close. He pulled into the station parking lot about two minutes later and I hopped into his truck. “Did Bethany give the okay?” he asked. “To call off her old man?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they’re on their way back to the station so we can get out there into the woods and shift.”
He drove fast down Main Street. He wasn’t in a cruiser, so we had to wait for a couple of cars to get out of the way, but as soon as we hit the woods on the family driveway, he pulled over. We ran into the woods on the park side of the driveway and stripped. stuffing our clothes into my neck bag. “Take the lead,” I said. “Focus on Tiffany. I’ll focus on keeping us hidden.”
Jury nodded and we both shifted quickly. Artemis and Nyx roared quietly at each other before Nyx took off through the trees. We moved with a combination of running, jumping, and propelling ourselves forward with our wings. We were far too bulky to be able to properly fly inside the tree line. Having to hide like this slowed us down, but it was still faster than trying to do it as humans.
Even though I was supposed to be watching for any stray humans in our forest this close to the main roads, I caught a whiff of Tiffany. I nudged Artemis, who spoke to Jury through his dragon. Jury had the scent in seconds and took off. We had to stay in the woods, but we followed the road until it branched off onto a side parking lot.
I was beyond thankful the trail didn’t lead back toward town or into the next county, where I was pretty sure Kyle’s parents lived. We were still in Black Claw, and technically still on Kingston land, though it stopped at the road.
We had to cross the street. I stuck my head out and checked up and down the street. When I was sure it was clear, we launched ourselves across the road and into the woods there. We were officially off of Kingston land and toward the area I used to like to hike before Bethany almost caught me.
When the scent was so strong that I was afraid I’d run right into them shifted, I stopped and changed back, quickly pulling clothes out of the bag. Jury shifted too and dressed. “We’re very close.”
A woman’s shrill voice caused both of us to step forward as quietly as we could.
“Damn you, Walter!” Mary Bearth cried.
I spotted Tiffany’s grandfather on the other side of a SUV and pulled my phone out of my bag. First, I