“We’ll split into three teams,” I announced, standing at the front of the room. “Team One, led by Dallas, will take the west side of the mountain and the loch. Team Two, led by Owen, will take the east side. I will lead Team Three along with Tamhas, and we will cover the south.”

I nodded to Ainsley, Leslie, Bonnie. “You three will take to the air and watch each team from above. At the first sight of danger or anything you believe we should be aware of, you will alert us.”

I touched two fingers to the earpiece already tucked into my ear. “We’ll stay in contact at all times. Keep the channel free of chatter.”

With that, we headed out, all of us dressed in clothing suited for hiking—boots, long-sleeved shirts, pants with pockets which carried water flasks, everything in dark colors. It would have been much easier to locate Keira if we could all fly, but none of us were of a mind to assist her while we were undressed and in our human forms.

“How much do you know about this Emelie?” I asked Tamhas as we entered the woods.

“Keira spoke of her quite a lot in the early days, while we still emailed. They’ve known each other since they were young children. Both of them were orphaned at a young age—though I suppose we know something of why Keira was,” he added.

A brief flash of guilt struck me. Yes. I knew of at least some of the reason why.

“They’ve been all but inseparable ever since. They passed in and out of the same group homes once or twice, attended the same school, kept in touch when the system separated them for one reason or another. They lived within walking distance in New York.”

“And Emelie supported herself through hacking?” There was no suppressing the distaste in my voice. I would never blame a woman for doing whatever it took to support herself, but her means of support had led to Keira finding our mountain.

And had brought Emelie to us, as well.

I could hardly be anything but disapproving.

“She’s quite talented at it,” Tamhas explained.

“I had guessed as much, seeing as how she found us when there was no end to the security measures in place to prevent such discovery.”

“Admit it. You feel a grudging sense of admiration toward her for being able to do it.”

“Do not speak for me.”

“She is the only person who had ever been able to track us in spite of the proxies in place—and it isn’t as though I’m the only one of the clan whoever sent an email or browsed on the internet. We might have been discovered at any point, but we were not.”

“She’s quite talented and intelligent. Your point has been well made,” I grumbled.

My dragon did not appreciate the fact that it was a woman who’d managed to best us. He did not adhere to anti-sexist thinking. A creature of ancient times.

“And a faithful friend,” Tamhas added, as though he had not already driven the point home. “She took quite a chance, coming out here to find her friend. She knows no one in Scotland. In fact, the impression I’ve received of the lass is that she is more than a bit anti-social. Her choice of occupation is not accidental. It allows her to work alone, away from the world.”

“I suppose we have that much in common, then,” I muttered. “Though we separate ourselves more by necessity than by choice.”

Dallas’s voice came through my earpiece. “Alan, come in.”

“Alan here.”

“We’re at the loch, planning to cover the banks before heading into the woods. All looks normal here.”

“And the same here, along the west face,” Owen reported.

None of this was a surprise. Keira would naturally go back to the place where she’d found Emelie’s bracelet, which would take her along a path heading south. Tamhas led the way to where the signs of struggle were spotted.

“Here,” he said, pointing to a clearing where one birch had fallen against another. “This is where the bracelet was, and as you can see, the leaves had all been brushed away as though someone slid through them.”

“Or crawled,” I murmured, turning in a slow circle to take in the scene. Not a pleasant image, but there was little else the scene before me brought to mind. Someone had taken Emelie by surprise. And she’d tried to get away.

“I doubt it was an animal,” I murmured to Tamhas as the rest of our team surveyed the area. “There would be blood.”

“This is true. And a bit of a relief.” Tamhas sniffed the air. “I pick up nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Nor do I,” I agreed.

Only the animal odors, bear dens far in the distance, faintly carried to my nostrils thanks to a breeze coming from the west. The bears were no threat to us, as there was a sort of understanding between our species. Even they understood the need to keep a wide berth while dealing with us.

“Footprints!” a voice cried out, turning our attention to where a trio of our kin stood. “Here. Three, perhaps four people.”

Sure enough, in the soft earth were prints made by flat-soled shoes. While I’d reminded myself time and again to keep an open mind, the memory of the flat-soled leather boots frequently worn by the Blood Moon Priestesses asserted itself.

It was them. They have interfered once again. My dragon had no interest in keeping an open mind, or in anything but exacting justice on those he perceived as threats. I was in agreement with him, no question, but rushing foolishly ahead would help no one.

We followed the prints as best we could, losing the trail at times but picking it up again. Mixed in with the flat footprints were those of a pair of hiking boots. “Keira,” Tamhas breathed.

“She was quicker at this than we were,” I had to admit before calling the other two teams in.

We waited for them to join us, with Tamhas chomping at the bit all the while. I understood his anxiousness to move on, but I wouldn’t face whatever it was we were about to meet before having the entire clan together.

With all of us in one place, including my sister Ainsley, Leslie, and Bonnie, we continued to follow the tracks left by what we could only assume were Priestesses.

“How long do you think they might have been living out here?” Bonnie asked no one in particular. “So close to us all this time.”

“Perhaps they only recently returned to the area,” Tamhas suggested.

“Yes, but to what purpose?” I could not trust the Priestesses, not for a moment. Not when they had betrayed us.

Not when they felt as though we had betrayed them.

“Their motivation might not have been nefarious,” Ainsley whispered. “You always believe the worst.”

Because I was aware of that which she had no knowledge of. If it meant shielding her from the truth, I would allow her to think the worst of me. Though I could not imagine coming face-to-face with any of them without the truth coming out.

The tracks ended in a small clearing. They simply vanished.

“No, no!” Tamhas snarled, looking this way and that. “It’s not possible. They cannot have disappeared. Keira could not have. They must have gone somewhere.”

Klaus joined him, and the pair continued their quest to pick up the trail.

Ainsley drew a deep breath, hands on her hips. We exchanged a concerned glance. There was no way Tamhas would ever give up searching for his mate, which was to be expected. Yet if the Priestesses were involved, there was no telling what we might have been up against.

“Hang on.” Bonnie took a few careful steps toward what appeared to be a vine-covered rock face. The ground was quite rocky where we had come to a stop, with random boulders appearing from time to time.

“What is it?” I asked, following her.

“Look.” She leaned in, close to the overlapping vines and branches. “There is something behind this. A cave.”

I did as she suggested, pulling a flashlight from one of my pants pockets as I did. When I shone the beam on the rock face, it ceased to be solid rock. It had never been solid at all. The branches and vines merely concealed the entrance to a cave.

I whistled for Tamhas and Klaus to join us, then showed them what Bonnie had discovered. With a finger to my lips, I gestured for the clan to come together and follow me.

“It can only be the Priestesses,” I whispered. “Only they would take such pains to conceal themselves.” With that in mind, I braced myself for what might await us.

We separated the camouflage, revealing the wide, deep tunnel which led to we knew not what.

It was time to once more meet with the Priestesses.