“Yeah. We got that. The question is where is she? No one can track her,” said Wes.
Ethan paced the kitchen. He froze and raised his head. Finally, something. She was calling him.
“She’s on Ashburn lands. Let’s go,” Ethan said to those in the room with him and bolted to the door.
Before Ethan could head outside, little hands found their way around his waist.
“Daddy, what’s all the yelling for?” Amelia rubbed her face against his pants.
“Sorry baby girl. I’m just worried. Sometimes when I worry, I get angry. Sorry, I woke you.”
His heart sank. Amelia deserved a mom. Deserved a childhood and a real life. Olivia would do right by her, there was no doubt in his mind. Except for the fact that she’d bolted the second he mentioned Amelia. Maybe Olivia didn’t know her potential, but he did. She was kind and caring. Her soul was pure, like the white of her wolf.
Damn though, if her running off didn’t hit him right in the chest.
Amelia smiled. “The new wolf, she’s in trouble.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose he sighed. Of course, she knew about Olivia. The entire pack did. Amelia was simply too young to understand it all.
“Yes. She’s a little lost, and we need to go find her.”
His mother came up behind Amelia.
“Why don’t we go watch from the front windows while Daddy and the rest of the pack figure out what to do? Does that sound good?”
“I dreamed of her, you know. She’s beautiful. Daddy. She’s probably in the caves.”
He froze.
“Sweetie? How do you know about the caves?”
She shrugged. “Mommy. I don’t feel her anymore, but she used to dream about caves. And that lady, I can see her sometimes in my sleep. Tonight, that’s what I saw.”
The good was that Amelia wasn’t wandering off into Ashburn Pack territory. The bad was that Olivia had already connected to his little one and she hadn’t even met her yet. That and Olivia was in enemy land. They now had the confirmation needed to break the treaty, and cross the lines. Why he’d ever agreed to such a one-sided agreement he'd never know, but then again he looked at his reason as she gazed up to him rubbing at her eyes again.
“Alright, baby. You go ahead and help grandma. Maybe she will lie down with you.”
“Okay, daddy.”
As they walked away into the other room, his heart broke a little more. He’d screwed up and given into his needs instead of his daughter’s. How could he have been so irresponsible? Then again, he wouldn’t have his baby if he’d always been the smart one. Too much heart, that’s what his father always said.
Right now though, without his heart, he’d question everything more than he already did.
He understood why Olivia spooked. It wasn’t Amelia. It was a threat of another female. Hell, he’d had all the same irrational anger at the mention of an old fiancé. Ethan supposed he was stronger since he didn’t run and kill the guy. It was that, or he had too much other stuff to scare Olivia off with, being all testosterone and male wasn’t going to help.
Alright, enough with the feels for now.
Once Amelia had left the kitchen he looked at everyone in the kitchen.
“Here’s the plan. Brody and Wes, you take the pack and spread out. I can feel her, she’s deep into their territory. It’s time to take back what is mine. No more living like watch-dogs.”
He took long strides, getting to the door quickly. Kurt was a loose cannon. The odds were he was waiting for Ethan.
Breathing in the night air, the fresh pine a natural energy boost, he shed his clothes with the rest of the pack. They’d stash them at the wood’s edge.
“We split up. Stay in pairs, start at the caves from the east and west. I’m still not able to figure out her exact location.”
One last nod, as their human forms were replaced by wolves.
Ethan could hear her, but he still couldn’t get a read on her location. He tried to reach out to Gianna, anyone in that pack. He couldn’t track Kurt except for smell.
Something blocked him from knowing the exact information he craved. Ethan thought back. Olivia had the connection, but something about her magic changed the rules.
If she heard what he’d said, maybe she was trying to keep herself separate from the Ashburns, and a side effect was that she wasn’t fully accessible to him.
He pushed harder and sprinted through the undergrowth towards where he knew some of their camp to be. Kurt didn’t believe in luxury. A few rustic buildings were all that separated their pack from the forest.
Howls sounded in the night as several of the teams reached the cave. A barrage of visions came to him from the scouts. She wasn’t there.
He corrected his path slightly as a gust of wind carried a hint of her scent. Calling out to the others, he changed course.
Approaching the cleared area, Ethan knew Olivia was there. He crouched at the forest edge and studied the camp. Not much going on.
The scouts flanked him as they sat in wait near the edge of the brush. They tried to hide their thoughts from the traitors, talking as little as possible between them.
They sat in wait for several minutes until one of them flashed an image, the message clear.
There’s an old tent in the clearing. Her scent is strong from that direction.
All eyes focused on where he nodded. The problem was, within a matter of seconds the tent was gone and the entire center of the camp.
What is that? asked Wes.
Ethan shook his head. Fog?
It spread out quickly, eating up one foot at a time. If you blinked, you lost the next building.
The Pike Valley wolves backed up. Do we go in?
No. It’s Olivia. Her thoughts are broken, but it’s her. Stay here.
He crept along, meeting the dense white fog. This shit was creepy.
Within the fog, he couldn’t make heads or tails
