Landon sniffed around but there was nothing to find. It was like they had sterilized the place.
My eyes widened. “Jane!”
“What?”
“They went after her!”
“How do you know?”
“A wolf’s weakness is his mate. It is the kink in his armor — the one thing that will crush his soul. We were not yet mated with Jane when they came after us but I am sure that they were able to put two and two together…”
Landon shook his head. “And we left her? I knew that this was a bad idea and yet, I allowed her to convince me otherwise.”
“Well, we do nothing by standing here. We have to find her.”
“She’ll be with Cynthia and only an army of tanks could take down that treehouse,” said Landon.
“Right.” I tried to let that thought console my fears but it did little. There was something not right with the air. I could feel it creeping into my bones. “But let us not waste time.”
We headed for the door and that’s when I noticed the yellow slip of paper that had been slipped underneath. It was an eviction notice.
“Wait.” I paused to read
it. As far as I could tell, it looked authentic. There was even a seal from the city government. “You don’t think that it was as simple as the pack forgetting to pay their bills, do you?”
“It’s never that easy,” said Landon. “They’re up to something and I do not like it when people plot against me.”
“Neither do I. Come on, let’s get to the bottom of this before it is too late.”
Again, we were just about to make our way back to the forest, when yet another item in the room caught my attention. It was happenstance, really. For at that exact moment, the moon made its way into the building. Its light was bright enough to illuminate a gemstone lying on the bar. But it wasn’t just any regular gemstone — it was the family heirloom that Landon had been desperate to find on that night that we saved Jane.
“Look!” I snatched it up and held it by the leather cord. “How did they get their hands on this?”
Landon yanked it away from me and ran his thumb across the smooth surface. It was as clear as glass. His reflection mirrored the anger on his face. “Those bastards,” he snarled. “They have been watching our every move from the very beginning. We underestimated them… and it might prove to be our downfall.”
“It’s impossible,” I said. “How could they be right under our noses without us knowing it? We would never be so careless.”
“And yet, we were,” snapped Landon. “We’ve been nothing but a play toy for them to torment.” He was holding the necklace with such force that I feared the gemstone would turn to dust under his grasp.
“There’s a note,” I said.
“What does it say?”
“It says: We have the fate of your clan in our hands. Now, you had better play nice if you ever want her back. Meet us at the river where this necklace was lost and we can talk this through like civilized wolves.” It was difficult for me to keep my voice steady.
Each word tested my patience. They had already taken everything from us and now they wanted to do it again.
“We have to save her,” I said. “Because we do not know what they are capable of.”
“Hell will freeze over before I let them get away with this.” Landon howled at the moon and made his transformation. I didn’t know whether it was a trick of the mind, but he seemed bigger and stronger than usual.
“It is time for us to end this once and for all,” I whispered, teeth grinding with a need for vengeance.
“Jane,” we both thought at once as we sped through the city in our wolf form. Neither one of us cared whether civilians happened to see us. They would write it off as their imagination anyway. And if they didn’t, well, that was a problem that we’d address at a different time. “We’re coming for you,” I said into the emptiness, in the hopes that she might hear us but she didn’t offer us a response.
My heart sank into the depths of my chest.
For the first time in a long time, I prayed, because what we needed was nothing short of a miracle.