Page 24 of Saved By the Wolf
Having found Rich’s picture on the hospital site with no problem, we knew he’d be coming out of or into the building at some point. We waited for what seemed like an eternity before spotting him walking out of the main entrance. He had a bag in hand and was heading in our direction. He was of a bigger build than I expected, and the way he walked had a certain familiarity to it.
A growl at my back had me turning. Jacob was leaning out the side window in the back and sniffing the air. “What is it?” I asked him.
“It’s him.”
I felt like snarling. “We can see that. Are all of you ready to grab him?”
Jacob let out another growl. “Stay put! We can’t go out and grab him.”
I whirled on him. “What do you mean? This is the guy who hurt Jill! I’m going to—”
“You don’t recognize his smell?” Jacob demanded.
By this time, Bruno had also sniffed the air and was looking at Jacob with incredulous eyes. “You really think it’s him?”
“Who?!” I slammed my hands on the dashboard. “He’s going to be gone by the time you all decide to help me. Who’s the eldest here, anyways?!”
“You are, but we’re also your family, and I say we tell Dad. You’re going to need reinforcements,” Jacob said.
“Duck!” Bruno cried, pressing my head down hard as we all lowered our heads below the windshield.
“What the heck are you doing? Let me go!” I snarled.
But Bruno ignored me, only letting me go after peering out the window again.
“What in the world was that for?” I yelled at him.
“I think he saw us,” Jacob said.
“There’s no way, unless he’s a wolf as well, and you still haven’t told me who he is!” I snapped at him.
I was ready to pull my brothers apart when Jacob said, “It’s Pac.”
“What about Pac?” I snapped. “He was banished years ago.”
“That man, Rich, is Pac,” Jacob now said slowly.
“How would you know that?”
“I remember from when Sandy was with him. We would all smell like sweat and dirt, but he always smelled of gardenias. How can you not smell him?”
I closed my eyes and willed my heartrate to slow down. If what Jacob said was true, my anger was getting the better of me and blocking more of my senses than I cared to admit.
“You guys used to tell me Mom hated him, but Dad loved him. Are you sure it’s the same Pac?” Bruno said, leaning his head out to see where Rich—or Pac—was going.
I growled, hitting the steering wheel. All I wanted to do was go out, grab Rich, and pummel him till he understood that he could never harm Jill again. But if this really was Pac, there was more at play here than we thought.
I tightened my fists but couldn’t deny that we needed to look into this further. I couldn’t put Jill in more danger; I needed to know what was really going on. “All right, but you better be right about this Jacob or Dad will have our hides. Follow him to see where he lives. Bruno, notify Dad.”
* * *
“Luc, she’s been putting up a fight. She says she needs to go to work or she’ll lose her job,” Brent warned as I stepped up to the front door of my apartment. “Plus, I’m starting to wonder if the missing keys have something to do with all this too.”
“I’ll talk to her,” I said gruffly. “And you know Miti can’t control when she shifts anymore. When she does, she goes missing for days on end and can’t remember a thing. She probably took the keys with her. I’m sure it’s unrelated.” I didn’t wait for Brent to respond before I stomped into my apartment.
I stopped in my tracks when I spotted Jill sitting on the couch. She was staring right at me as if steeling herself to talk to me.
Fire was burning inside of me. Couldn’t she tell I was worried, and that staying here was for her own good? I was about to tell her as much when Becca came storming up behind me and almost knocked me over.