When Tawny laid her head on his shoulder, his cock shot to attention. That was totally inappropriate. Liam had more control than that—or he used to before he met his mate, or rathertheirmate.
When he and Alex had discussed what they needed to do about having her in their lives, they decided they would pretend as if they were competing for her affection. They wanted to make it impossible for her to choose. At that point, they would suggest she at least try both of them. Hopefully, she’d see that being with two wolves was better than one.
Liam sat up straighter. He could hear Alex running around. Snow crunched and twigs cracked.
“Found something,”Alex telepathed.
“What did you find? A cave or did you actually find Zach?”
Tawny placed a gloved hand on his. She must have sensed that he was communicating with Alex.
“A cave. But I also found blood on a tree trunk.”
That sounded promising yet potentially terrible.“Which way?”
“Follow my paw prints.”A howl sounded about a thousand feet away.
Liam stood and helped Tawny up. “Alex found a cave and possibly some evidence that Zach had been there. It’s not far.”
This time he led, but he made sure she was right behind him. Finding Alex was easy, though sometimes his tracks crossed back over one another.
“Over here!” Alex shouted, now in his human form.
Going as quickly as the snow allowed, they made it to Alex, but Liam didn’t see anything. “Where is the cave?”
He smiled. “Follow me.”
They let Alex lead. The rock face rounded a corner. At first Liam didn’t see the entrance, but then he spotted some fallen trees that someone had propped up against the cliff.
“Do you think Zach did this?” she asked.
“Let’s look inside and see,” Liam said.
As soon as they moved the downed branches from the entranceway and went in, Tawny stilled. “I can feel him.”
He hoped for her sake that she could. Otherwise, she might question her sanity.
“Zach,” Liam shouted.“Can you hear me?”He also telepathed in case her brother was too weak to respond. Whether they even had the connection, he didn’t know.
Liam received no response.
Tawny charged ahead. “Use your flashlight,” Liam said. The last thing they needed was for her to trip and hurt herself.
She stopped, slipped off her backpack, and searched for her light. Being a female werewolf, she had better eyesight than most humans, but this cave was dark even for him.
She found it and flicked it on. When she swung her torch around, it showed two passageways.
“Have you been in this cave before?” Alex asked.
“I don’t think so.”
What he didn’t want was for them to spend so much time in there that they were stuck in the woods another night. If they delayed, it would take too long to reach the main road and too long to return to the cabin. “How about you stay here while Alex and I search in our wolf form? Trust me, we can cover a lot more territory.”
She hesitated. “I guess, but shouldn’t I look too?”
“There are only two tunnels. As wolves, we won’t get lost.” Or so he believed. “Just sit here. Maybe Zach is out gathering wood for a fire.” He hadn’t seen or smelled any evidence of that, but he didn’t want to lose her in the maze of the cave. To be honest, he had no idea how far back the tunnels went.
“Okay.”