“He wouldn’t do that. It’s what they said down at the station too, but I know him. He wouldn’t do that,” Taryn said into her phone. She pulled a cigarette out of her pack with shaky fingers and reached for her lighter. I watched as she flicked it with her thumb to no avail. “Damn it, I’ve already told you! He’s gone! Something happened to him!”

I slowed my walk so I could listen to her conversation. The knots in my stomach doubled in size. Was her boyfriend, Glenn, the wolf I’d heard in the woods last Friday night? Was the blood I’d seen his?

Taryn thought something had happened to him. While I wasn’t one hundred percent sure the two situations were related, I had a gut feeling they might be.

“Yeah well, my gut is telling me something is wrong, Candace. Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me to listen to my intuition? Pretty damn ironic that now I am and you’re telling me I’m wrong, that I’m overreacting. Screw you,” Taryn grumbled before she hung up.

Candace was her older sister. She’d practically raised her when their mother committed suicide after finding out what their father and they were. Apparently, some people could handle the supernatural world better than others could. Candace and Taryn’s mother hadn’t been one of them. Their dad died shortly after. Everyone said it was from a broken heart. I believed it. I’d seen the effects of one firsthand. Some days I was surprised Dad was still alive.

“Hey, Taryn,” I said when she didn’t seem to notice me. She flinched at the sound of my voice. “Um…Are you okay?”

“No.” She shook her head and took a long drag off her cigarette. “I’m so far from okay it’s not even funny.”

When she shifted her full attention to me, I could see how distraught she was. Taryn was only two years older than I was, but as I stared at her, it seemed as though she had a decade on me. Her eyes were hollowed out and her body looked frail and bony. She reminded me of a junkie. One an officer would show pictures to teens of to help stop them from doing drugs. It was sad really, because I could remember a time when she was beautiful. Her hair hadn’t always been banana yellow from bad box dye jobs, and her face wasn’t always so worn with worry.

Life had aged Taryn, and as she sat in a crappy fold-up chair, puffing away on her cigarette, I knew it wasn’t done yet.

Especially not if what I thought might have happened to Glenn was true.

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked, even though I knew there was probably nothing.

“Not unless you’ve seen Glenn.” Her dark brown eyes lifted to lock with mine.

“Sorry. I haven’t seen him. What happened? Did you two get in a fight?”

I prayed she would tell me that was all it was, the two of them had gotten into an argument and he’d taken off like I knew he’d done in the past. I prayed she’d tell me the last time she saw him was last night.

From the disheveled state she was in, I knew my prayers wouldn’t be answered.

“We did,” she muttered. Fat tears trickled down her cheeks, and she covered her mouth with her other hand, trying to keep her sobs to a minimum. “The last thing I said to him was to go to hell.”

“I’m sure he knows you didn’t mean it.” I pushed the stroller to where she was sitting and popped the brakes on just in case the twins became wiggly, and then I situated myself in the foldout chair beside her. My butt nearly fell through the woven slats making up the bottom. One or more of them were broken. “When did you guys fight? Last night?”

She shook her head as another sob wracked her body. It was another minute or two before she could speak. “No, Friday night. He’s been gone since Friday night.”

My heart dropped to my stomach, and icy tingles spread outward from my chest. Glenn had been the wolf in the woods. That meant the blood I’d found was most likely his, too.

“We were arguing over something stupid. We’d both been drinking, which made it escalate quicker than it normally would. I said a few things I shouldn’t. He started to leave because of it, and I took his truck keys.” She pulled in a deep breath and put out her cigarette on the concrete slab we were sitting on. I glanced at Glenn’s truck. That was the only reason I thought he was still here. “He shifted and bolted for the damn woods as soon as he saw me pocket his keys. I should’ve gone after him, but I was so ticked off I couldn’t stand to be around him for another second. When he didn’t come home Friday night, I thought it was for the best. I thought we both needed some time apart. Time to cool off. When he didn’t come home Saturday night either, I started to get a worried. When Sunday came around and there was still no sign of him, I went down to the police station to file a missing person report after trying everyone I could think of who might have seen him and not having any luck.”

“What did the police say?”

“Nothing,” she scoffed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told them we’d been arguing the night he left. If I’d left that part out, they might have taken the situation more serious. All they told me was that he’d come back once he’d cooled off enough.”

“Maybe he will,” I said, hoping to refresh any hope she might have had when they’d said it.

“I don’t know, Mina. I really feel like something horrible happened to him. I know y’all think we fight all the time, and I’m not going to lie and say we don’t, but this isn’t like him. Glenn wouldn’t leave like this and not come back. If anything, he would’ve at least come back for his truck. You know that hunk of junk is his baby,” she said as she reached for another cigarette seconds after snuffing out the first.

Glenn did love his truck. He worked on at every weekend. It had definitely seen better days, but at least it ran. To him, that was all that mattered.

“I know,” I said. Farah wiggled in her sleep, and I knew it was because the stroller had come to a standstill. If I didn’t get up and start moving them around, the twins were bound to wake. Catnaps only made them grouchy. “Have you talked to anyone else?” I stood and walked to the stroller. I released the brake and moved it back and forth as I stayed in place, staring at Taryn.

“Of course I have. Everyone I thought he might have talked to by now or could be staying with. No one has heard from him. No one has seen him.” She took another drag off her cigarette and exhaled the smoke upward so it wouldn’t go in the twins’ faces. I didn’t think it mattered where she blew her smoke. I could still smell the cigarette from here. It saturated the air around us. “I don’t know what to do. I love him, Mina. If something happened to him…”

“Nothing happened to him.” I wasn’t sure why the words spurred from my mouth, especially considering the things I knew. “Everything will be okay. He’ll come back. You have to stay positive.”

“It’s hard to stay positive when no one believes me. You’re the first person who’s actually heard me out. Candace didn’t even want to hear it. She doesn’t think we’re good together. If you ask me though, I think she’s jealous of our relationship.”

I didn’t think that was it. I just thought Candace wanted better for her sister. She wanted more than this trailer park for her. She wanted more than Mirror Lake.

Candace had gotten out of town the second Taryn graduated high school, and she never looked back. She left the pack. She left her hometown. She left her sister. I liked to think it was because she moved on to bigger and better things, but I couldn’t imagine leaving behind my own family for selfish gain.

Farah stirred in her seat again. Her tiny legs extended, kicking her brother in the process. He stirred as well, and I debated reaching for the lavender spray Gran had given me. Maybe a squirt on their T-shirts would make them sleep a little longer.

I couldn’t bring myself to do it, though.

“I should get going,” I said as a rocked the stroller a little harder. “I’m pretty sure these two are about to wake up, and when they do, you can bet they’ll want something to eat.” Their appetites never ceased to amaze me.

“You’re probably right about that.” Taryn’s gaze drifted to the twins. “It’s fine. I think I’m going to take a trip to the woods to see if I can find Glenn anyway.”

“No!” I shouted, startling her. Taryn didn’t need to go into the woods. If she did, she might find the area of blood I’d found. In her frame of mind, it might be best if she didn’t see that. “Trekking through the woods by yourself isn’t smart. You know what my Gran always says.”

“I know, but sitting here doing nothing isn’t smart either. What if something happened to him out there? What if he’s hurt? I should be out there looking for him since nobody else gives a damn or believes me.” Her words were harsh and sharp. I let her tone wash over me, knowing I would feel exactly the way she did if the shoe were on the other foot. On the other hand, I didn’t blame anyone for not believing her. Taryn and Glenn were always fighting about something. They were the most on-again, off-again couple I’d ever known. “Westley didn’t even want to hear it, and he’s our damn Alpha.”

What could I say that would keep her out of the woods?

I didn’t want to give her any information until I had something concrete, but I had to give her something to keep her away from the place Glenn was probably attacked and abducted.

I tried to think of something, but nothing would come. Farah started to whine. Her chubby arms flailed about. Rocking the stroller back and forth wasn’t working. Farah needed to feel the bumping of the gravel. Either that or she needed her diaper changed.

Taryn’s cell rang. She glanced at the screen with wild hope festering in her eyes, but the second she processed the name and number it died. “It’s my sister. I should probably take this.”

“That’s fine. Like I said, the twins are going to be hungry little beasts when they wake. I’ll ask around, though, see if anyone has seen Glenn for you. Let them know you haven’t seen him since Friday night.”

“Get back with me if you learn anything, please,” she pleaded.

“I will.”

Taryn pressed a button on her cell and answered her sister’s call. “Calling to apologize?”

I couldn’t hear her sister’s reply, but whatever it was, it made Taryn cry again.

“I’d love for you to come. I need you here. Thank you,” she said.

My heart warmed. Candace was coming for a visit. Maybe she wasn’t as cold-hearted and selfish as I’d once thought.

I started toward Felicia’s place. Sweat beaded across my brow. Maybe the twins were waking up because it was so humid out already. AC might calm them down.

A car cruised past me, kicking up dust from the gravel. I glanced over my shoulder, checking for more traffic and caught sight of Eli’s new place.

I really needed to talk to him.

I spun the stroller around and headed toward his trailer. Taryn was still on the phone with her sister when I passed. I wondered when Candace would be able to get here and what she’d tell Taryn they should do since the police didn’t seem to be offering any help.

Eli’s truck wasn’t there when I rounded his place. Disappointment crashed through me. I’d been hoping he’d be home so I could fill him in on everything I’d learned, along with my new theory on who I’d seen in the woods. I fished my cell out of my back pocket and scrolled through my contacts until I found his name. A new text came through from Alec before I could tap on Eli’s name.

Got any plans for the night? I was thinking we could try that movie thing again.

It was Alec. Crap. I couldn’t go to the movies with him tonight. There was too much going on here. Too much I needed to fill Eli in on.

Hey, sorry but I can’t. I promised my Gran I’d help her with something. – Mina

I hated lying to Alec, but I didn’t have a choice. Not if I wanted to meet up with Eli later tonight to discuss what I’d found out. It would be strictly pack business this time. No moonshine. No helping with his projects around the trailer.

At least that was what I was telling myself to make me feel less guilty.

Okay. Maybe later this week, then. I want to see you.

My heart pitter-pattered faster in my chest. I wanted to see Alec, too. Sunday seemed forever ago.

I want to see you, too. Later this week we can hang out for sure. – Mina

Regardless of what happened with this whole Glenn thing, I definitely needed to carve out time for Alec. I craved the normalcy of his presence and his sweet southern manners.

I switched gears and opened up a new message by tapping on Eli’s name.

Hey, I need to talk to you. Are you working? – Mina

When Eli didn’t respond as quickly as I would’ve liked, I turned the stroller around and headed back to Felisha’s place. Farah was totally awake and Fletcher wasn’t far behind. He kept grunting. Either he was slowly waking or taking a dump. Either was plausible.

When I reached Felicia’s trailer and bent to scoop Farah out of the stroller, my cell chimed with a new text. I ignored it and got the twins out. Once I made it inside and settled them on the beanbag chair they seemed to adore, I reached for my phone. It was from Eli.

Of course, I’m a workin’ man. What do we need to talk about?

Remember when I told you what I saw in the woods Sunday? – Mina

Yeah.

Well, I think it has something to do with Glenn. Can we meet up tonight sometime so I can fill you in on everything I learned today? – Mina

Sure. I should be done with this landscaping job around six. Then I have to head to the bar to help Eddie restock the shelves. We had an order come in today.

Dang, he was busy. I knew he worked hard, but I didn’t realize he worked that hard.

How long will that take you? – Mina

Not long. I should be home before nine.

I’ll meet you at your place, then. – Mina

You bringing dinner, or should I?

I scoffed. Who said anything about food?

I’m not bringing you anything. – Mina

Don’t worry, seeing you after a long day of work will be enough.

My thumbs hovered over the keys of my phone as I debated on how I should respond. In the end, I decided not to say anything. I chose to ignore the way Eli’s words made me feel, too. However, I couldn’t ignore the fact I’d turned down a movie with Alec to spend time with Eli instead.

Pack business. That’s all it was. Right?