Page 20 of Find Me Tracker
“No! Chase wouldn’t have done this, he couldn’t have!”I shout, and when my brother turns to me, I realize my mistake.
“How do you know what the enemy would or wouldn’t do?”His body language changes so drastically from being worried about the attack below to being ready to shred me to pieces. “You’re not telling me what really happened, are you?”
I cower, whimpering, just as a chorus of howls breaks the settling dark all around us. It sounds like the entire Dark Moon pack is right behind us, although both of us can scent that none of them are close. I try to breathe a sigh of relief, it’s not a mourning howl but a calling. They must have found Chase. He’s going to be alright.
I look back towards my brother, and high on the hill behind him, the lights of our mansion flicker on like a beacon. Cole growls, circling me and herding me back towards the house without another word.
Servants meet us at the edge of the woods near our house with clothes, and we shift and dress quickly. Cole in a black button up shirt and blue jeans, me in a white sundress. I barely have a moment to slip on my flats before Cole’s huge hand is on the back of my neck and dragging me forward. I yelp and try to pull away, but his grip on my neck is like a vise. On my left Jax appears, boxing me in without a shadow of a doubt. He looks at me coldly and jingles keys in his hand with a frown.
“You owe me a new Jeep,” he says between clenched teeth.
Jax is the mate that Cole is pushing me to accept. His right hand and Beta, as Chase is Ryder’s, he’s the best option in the pack hierarchy. He’s entirely too big. His body towering over mine like the bear did. His close-cropped hair and serious face makes my skin crawl. I’ve never been the slightest bit attracted to him. He’s huge and ice cold, his rigid sharp features never crack a smile, and he watches me like the hound dog my brother made him into. He’s hardly a wolf, he’s a highly trained killing machine. I’ll never bare myself to him, no matter how powerful the pups will be.
“Ruby Richardson!”
I freeze, eyes slowly rising to see my mother, the unshakable pack Luna, glaring down at me with fire in her eyes. She’s backlit by the warm lighting of the house as she stands on the threshold looking like doom in the flesh. Cole drags me up the stairs to her, Jax bringing up the rear so I have no chance of escape.
Momma steps into the light, and no matter how angry her voice was, her eyes are filled with tears. I hate myself immediately for making her worry and I crumble against her chest as she reaches out to hug me. “I was so worried about you, honey!” She sobs and squeezes me as only a mother can, but then she pushes me back at arm’s length, her softly lined face hardening. “How dare you sneak out of my house! Do you have any idea what you put me through?”
“That’s not even half of it!” Cole says, and Momma raises her eyebrows at him.
“Where were you? You crashed Jax’s Jeep and left no trace!” she continues, watching Cole like she’s going to pull the information out of him one piece at a time.
“I sheltered in a cave, Momma. I got snowed in. I’m so sorry!”
She narrows her eyes as she looks at me, but her maternal instinct is stronger than her anger. She pulls me under her arm and rubs my shoulders to warm me. “We’ll get you fed, then you'll tell me everything. Both of you.” Her sharp look at Cole makes me want to giggle but I hold it back. She turns to Jax, smiling at him gently. “Take the company car and replace your Jeep, Jackson. It’s the least we can do.”
As I walk through the house under my mother’s arm, I focus on my feet. Ever since dad went missing I can’t handle being inside. There are pictures of him and us everywhere, but the one I avoid the most is the one over the mantle in which my mother now stands below as she motions for me to take a seat on the couch.
Gabriel Richardson was a mountain of a man, stronger than any man I had ever seen. In the last five years his long hair had gone gray and his beard had grown to the middle of his chest. In the huge picture looming over the sitting room, he sits in an armchair in a black pinstripe suit, his hair and beard groomed until gleaming, and his eyes sparkling as his teeth grip a tobacco pipe.
My heart clenches and tears slip down my face. No one could have ever asked for a better father. He went hunting last year with the pack and never came back. Everyone searched for weeks but there was never a trace to be followed. We even called in the humans, even their FBI came up empty handed. Gabriel Richardson was a missing persons cold case.
Whenever Cole and I were being scolded Momma would bring us here, so he’d be behind her like he always was before. I stare at her, her long silk evening dress makes her look elegant, the robe she’s wrapped around herself a soft blue. She’s already tied up her hair in pin curls for the night, her face washed and fresh. Even in her older years she’s extremely beautiful, and she wears her white hair like a crown. Her chin trembles as she looks at me, but her gaze settles on Cole as she nods.
“I found her with the Dark Moon Tracker,” Cole says matter of factly, going in for the kill.
I glare at him so hard that I wish he could feel the stab in the back he’s giving to me. Momma’s eyes narrow and her lips form a thin line as she stares down at me.
“It’s not like that, Mom!” I try to stand but Jax is behind me and his hands land on my shoulders and keep me in my place. As if he’s already my mate, as if it’s his job to keep me in line. I look up at him and scowl. If Chase saw this I wouldn’t have to worry about Jax ever touching me again. He wouldn’t have hands left.
“I told Cole, but he never listens! Chase pulled me from the wreck, he was trying to bring me home when we were attacked by the bear! I’mluckyhe was nearby,luckyhe was trespassing!”
“He was nearby alright, slaughtering sheep like the bastard he is,” Cole snaps.
“He was not! I don’t know who did it, but it wasn’t Chase!” I exchange anger-filled looks with Cole, both of us bristling and ready to shift and fight it out.
“How do you know it wasn't him?” Momma asks.
I feel all the blood drain from my face in panic. My mind scrambles, trying to think of a reason, but the one that comes out of my mouth is as weak as a day-old pup.
“B-because he’s too nice! He wouldn’t have saved me if he was bad like that, he would have let me die!”
“Maybe he saw the female heir to the Silver Dawn pack and thought he could taint her?” Jax says from behind me, his fingers digging into my shoulders possessively.
I squirm under his grip and he only squeezes tighter. I look to Cole for help but he’s looking at Jax with approval. I glance at Momma desperately, but her face is the picture of horror.
“That can never be allowed! The tainting of our line would be something we can never come back from!” She places her hand on her chest, between her breasts, and breathes sporadically as she panics. Turning, she looks up at the picture of her lost husband. “What have you left us with, Gabe? Please come home, please guide our paths! We need you, I can’t do it alone!”