~

 

Jordan had already had one hell of a day of it, and she didn’t need Macy playing her particular brand of hide and seek in an attempt to top it all off.

She’d gone to her bedroom and found it empty. Then she scoured the upstairs of the house, fast and furiously, looking in cupboards until she was satisfied that she wasn’t there.

Now she was racing down the stairs like the hounds of hell were on her heels, and calling out her daughter’s name as she went. Macy wasn’t answering, and that wasn’t like her. She might not normally have spoken, but there was always a childish giggle to follow.

“What’s going on?” Jon demanded as he pushed up from the comfort of his favorite armchair and made his way towards the hallway.

“Macy’s not upstairs,” Jordan rushed out the words, but it was the look on her face that started her father to action.

“Check outside,” he instructed her as he set off on fast feet towards the back of the house.

Jordan has no qualms about doing as she was told. She raced towards the front door and yanked it open, praying that she’d find her daughter standing looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. But there was a whole big wide world outside the front door, and somewhere Macy was in it.

 

 

~

~

~

 

“Don’t give me that — you don’t give a flying fart about me finding my mate,” Harvey growled at the vampire.

“I’m not sure what gave you that idea…”

“You did.”

“I did. I gave you the impression that I don’t care about you finding your mate?” Owen’s eyebrows arched up towards his hairline as he offered Harvey a look of disbelief.

“Yes.”

“And I gave you the impression that I don’t care that you suddenly became a father to a little person?”

“Yes.”

Harvey tried to rein in his anger and look as bored as possible as he folded his large arms across his chest and his biceps doubled in size. Owen snorted his contempt for the man.

“Okay, I’ll wear it. How — exactly — did I do that?” Owen demanded.

“By being…” Harvey bit off his words, cocked his head to the right, and listened hard.

“Being?” Owen urged him to continue.

“Shut up!” Harvey growled.

“By being shut up. I’ve never heard that one before,” Owen said as he rolled his eyes. But then he heard it too — two voices, almost in unison, definitely desperate as they called Macy’s named.

Harvey was already moving off on fast feet back towards his mate’s house. Owen followed on behind him.

“Tell me that you took the child’s scent,” Harvey demanded back over his shoulder as the vampire kept pace with him.

“Riddle me this, bear-man, am I a vampire or am I a vampire?” Owen didn’t need an answer to that question, and Harvey didn’t give him one.

Harvey berated himself for walking away from Jordan’s house. He hadn’t left the property yet, and he hadn’t intended to, but if he’d stayed closer then there might not be a problem.

Jordan was still his mate. Macy was still his family, and whether Jordan or Jon liked it or not, he’d use everything at his disposal to find the child.

“You go left; I’ll go right — find her.”

 

~

~

~

 

Harvey believed that sometimes it was better for everyone if you didn’t advertise what you were doing. Some people didn’t want to be helped, and he doubted if this was one of those times — but he couldn’t take that chance.

He could hear Jordan still calling out for Macy, and his heart went out to her. The fact that he could offer her easy hope didn’t change his mind.

Even if she rejected his offer of help, he would still be doing it. But he had Macy’s scent on the breeze, and the one thing that Harvey knew for sure was that there was barely time to go back and ask for permission — not when the other scent in the air was from the clan.

Harvey could take anything that Jordan and her father threw at him. What he couldn’t take was anything happening to Macy at the hands of the clan.

He didn’t know if Owen had picked up Macy’s trail yet. He hadn’t seen the vampire since they’d parted ways and started the hunt for the little girl, but he had and he didn’t like where it was leading him.

The hunt for her was leading him through the woods towards clan territory. And whatever was waiting for him on the other side of the tree line would be better dealt with shifter to shifter.

 

~

~

~

 

“You!” Jordan exclaimed as the vampire appeared in front of her as if by magic, and his sudden appearance made her jump back a step in surprise.

“Relax, Mama bear,” Owen began to try to placate her but Jordan wasn’t interested.

“Where’s Macy?” She demanded, eyeing him with suspicion.

“Of course, let’s blame the vampire.” He rolled his eyes back in his head and gave a fake sigh.

“Fine, apologies, Macy’s missing. Have…”

“I know. Harvey knows too — he’ s hunting her…”

“Hunting her!” Jordan’s eyes widened as her pulse rate increased like a runaway steam train hurtling down the tracks, and Owen might have been amused at any other time but that one.

“My, how humans rush to judgment. Hunting — may be the wrong word,” Owen grinned.

“Then what’s the right word?” Jordan demanded. But she didn’t have time to wait around for the answer, and she sidestepped the man with a sideways glance to see what he would do.

“Tracking…” Owen offered. “Does that appease your sensibilities?”

“Well, it’s a hell of a lot better than hunting. But no matter what you call it if Harvey can find Macy I’d be grateful.” She said back over her shoulder, continuing on her search with the vampire right there behind her on her heels.

“Grateful?” Owen asked.

“You do the math.”

“Grateful enough to give Harvey another chance?” Owen asked, and that question made her snap her head around. Her eyes glared at him.

“What, do you run a dating agency that I don’t know about?” She tossed back at him and almost pitched headfirst towards the ground when the toe of her boot snagged on an exposed tree root.

Owen’s hands were on her arms stabilizing her before she even had a mind to know what was going on.

“Something like that.”

Jordan had been pulled up short. She turned to look at the vampire as the two of them stood in the middle of the woods, so close that a breeze couldn’t even get between them.

“Thanks for the catch — now, back off.”

“You’re not very trusting, are you?” Owen released his hands and took a step back as he held his palms up at his chest in surrender.

“I haven’t had a reason to be lately.”

“Hmm, interesting…”

“Please, don’t try to analyze me.”

“Don’t need to.” Owen reached up with one hand and tapped his index finger against his temple. “The mind is a wonderful thing.”

Jordan’s jaw dropped as she stared back at him in disbelief. She hadn’t known what she’d been thinking at the time, but she definitely couldn’t put her hand on her heart and say that it was all sweetness and light.

“That’s an invasion of privacy.”

“Somehow, I don’t think that will hold up in court.”

Owen lifted his hand and motioned for her to continue in the direction that he wanted her to go. Jordan didn’t pause for thought — not with Macy still out there and the vampire possibly able to find her.

But if she discovered that Macy was pulling a fast one and was back in the house hiding somewhere that she hadn’t been able to find her — oh boy, there was going to be trouble.