“Who’s there?” I called, my gun in my hand. It was pointed at the floor, but the safety was off in case I needed to get off a round quickly.
“Cole?” Darla called from the other side. “Thank God. Please, let me in.”
I knocked the safety into place but kept the pistol in my hand as I unlocked and opened the door. Darla came in, in full-on panther form, as well, and I wasn’t surprised. If Sebastian had shifted, it would make sense that the other panthers would have, as well. Not that any of this made sense.
“You okay?” I asked, dropping to one knee in front of her and rubbing my hand through her thick fur.
“Except for shifting a night early, yeah, I guess.” She knocked against me hard enough to push me into the wall. “Sorry, I didn’t know where else to go.”
“It’s fine,” I assured her, getting to my feet and locking the door before turning back up the hall. “Come on upstairs. Bastian just shifted, too. Let’s go see if we can figure this out.”
I led the way back to the apartment, cursing my brother for the millionth time for taking off on us. What the hell did I know about were-panthers shifting before the full moon? What was I supposed to do for them?
The door was still open, and Bastian sat in front of it, waiting for us. His tail flicked in a manner that told me he was irritated. His icy glare turned from me to Darla and back again.
“You touched her,” he said, his tone low and menacing.
“What?”
“You. Touched. Her,” he repeated, each word ground out angrily. “You put your hands on her.”
“I just pet her for a second to see if she was okay. Jesus, what’s your problem?” I needed a drink. Bad.
I walked past the moody cat and into the kitchen, and I heard his claws clicking behind me. Reaching into the cabinet over the fridge, I pulled down a bottle of whiskey, hoping it would help to clear my head.
“Don’t drink too much,” Sebastian warned.
I spun around to yell at him. Now was not the time for a lecture about my drinking. I saw Darla had followed us, and they both sat, stoic now, staring up at me.
“May I ask why you’re so interested in how much I do or do not imbibe tonight?” I asked, as calmly as I could.
“Because we have to leave,” he answered.
“And where are we going?”
“Bryce,” Darla hissed.
“Excuse me?” I looked fully at her. “Don’t you think that if we knew where he was I’d have already dragged his ass back here?”
“Bryce,” she repeated, her eyes narrowing at me. “He’s calling us. He pulled our beasts.”
I looked back at Sebastian, and he nodded before huffing a breath through his nose.
“Why would he do that? Is he in trouble?”
“Get in the fucking car, human!” Darla screamed at me. “Our alpha calls.”
“Darla!” Bastian yelled, turning and snapping his jaws at her.
She hissed at him, and the two rose together, circling each other as if to start fighting.
“Stop it!” I demanded over their growls and spits. “Right now. Bastian, do you hear the call, too?”
He nodded.
“Do you know where Bryce is?” I asked.
“Not exactly, but I feel a pull, calling me in his direction.”
“And where is that?” I tried for patience, but honestly, I was out of it.
“North,” he said. “I don’t know where, but he’s north. Far north.”
My mind spun. What the hell was Bryce doing up north? For a minute, I just stared at the panthers, trying to figure it out. The information was there, but it was just out of reach.
“We need to go,” Darla said, her tail whipping in a fashion similar to Bastian’s earlier. “Why are we just sitting here? Our alpha needs us.”
And then it clicked.
“Sonofabitch!” I ran my hand over my face, realizing I hadn’t shaved in a few days when stubble scratched my palm. “Pops.”
“What?” Sebastian asked, cocking his head to the side. “What’s pops?”
“Not what,” I said, walking around them. “Who.”
I went down the hall and into our room, the cats clicking their way behind me. Instead of answering, which I wasn’t really ready to do, I pulled a duffel bag out of the closet and started tossing clothes into it.
“Cole?” Sebastian’s voice was gravelly, the tone a warning one.
“Just shut up a minute,” I snapped. Looking at the clock, I groaned. It was already ten. There was no way I’d be able to drive eight hours straight tonight.
“Look, I know where he is,” I said to the panthers. “But we can’t just leave right now.” I held up a hand to stop their arguments. “It’s too far to get to him tonight. If you really feel him, you should know that. We’ll get some sleep and head out first thing in the morning. Darla, you can take Bryce’s bed. Bastian, you can have ours. I’m gonna crash on the sofa.”
Darla glared at me, but when I didn’t move, she huffed and padded down the hall toward my brother’s room. Bastian jumped onto our bed and watched me as I packed.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I answered honestly.
“Bryce has been gone for months, and you’ve known where he is this whole time?” he asked, obviously not letting this go.
“No. I didn’t figure it out until you told me he was up north. I guess I should have realized it. I mean, if I needed to run away, I’d go find Pops, too.”
“Who’s Pops?”
“Our grandfather.”
“I thought your family was dead?”
I glared at him, and he ducked his head, dropping it to his paws with a mumbled apology.
“Our parents are dead, thank you, but my dad’s father is still alive. He lives in a cabin in Hunter’s
