“Harper, answer your damn phone,” I mutter as her phone rings and then goes to voicemail. I look around my bedroom, settling on the glass of blood on the side table, and feeling my teeth respond. I down the drink as I wait for the stupid beep. I run my hand through my hair, not even knowing what to say. I’ve already left her ten messages.
“I don’t know where you are, but I know you didn’t come home after the party. I called Skye, who said you walked off. I’m getting worried now. Call me back,” I say and put the phone down. I first went to her foster parents this morning, and her foster mom said she moved out. I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her. Harper wouldn’t just disappear like that without saying something to me. Plus, she has nowhere to go. I walk out of my bedroom, stopping when I see my sister Belle talking to my other sister Light in the corridor. Belle is kneeling down, as Light is only eight and tiny. Both my sisters have the same colour blonde hair, like mine, and pale skin. Both very pretty and I know I will have trouble protecting Light when she is as old as Belle and has men chasing after her. Luckily for my dad and me, Belle isn’t interested in dating and turns every man down. It’s almost funny to see the same reaction from every guy.
“What was the bad dream about?” Belle asks Light.
“Wolves. A wolf bit a girl and then there was a war. A bad war, and you-” Light starts. As I step closer, she stops talking, giving me a sad little smile. I don’t know what to say to her; Belle is the best with her, out of all of us. Light isn’t my biological sister but she is a vampire, and she lives in our coven as my parents adopted her as a baby when she had no one left. The ten blue stars in a circle mark in the middle of her forehead puts her at risk.
“It’s just a dream, it's not real,” Belle tells her and then stands up. “Why don’t we go and make some of that fried chicken you like?”
“Okay,” Light replies, and they walk down the stairs. I try to ring Harper once again as I let myself out of the house and get into my SUV. I hate that I can’t be with her at night; not until I’d explained everything, and now this happens. It would freak her out to see my extended sharp teeth and glowing purple eyes. She is human, after all.
“Where are you going?” Belle asks, stopping next to my window, having run impossibly fast to the side of my Land Rover. I roll my window down, and she leans in, her long blonde hair sweeping the ledge. Her eyes, the same colour as mine, are hard to look at. She knows I’m worried.
“To find Harper. She isn’t answering her phone, and that’s not like her,” I say.
“The human,” Belle tuts. Belle hates humans, and wolves and well, everyone that isn’t her. Except for Light, who grows at a normal human rate until she turns eighteen and has made Belle fall in love with her. I want to blame Belle and tell her to be less harsh to people, but she had a bad past.
“She is my destined mate, Belle. Mine. I knew it was her when I first saw her, but I was more certain than ever yesterday, on her eighteenth birthday. What went from a slight desire, and a need to be close to her and protect her, turned to actual pain in my chest from being away from her. I will go mad if I lose her now, I can’t,” I reply.
“Okay, okay, chill…but I still think you can do better than her,” she says, and stands up as I glare at her.
“You have never met your mate. You wouldn’t be able to understand,” I tell her, and she just shakes her head at me. Belle is my sister, but there are one hundred years between us, which makes her think she knows everything. Belle doesn’t know anything about Harper because she never tried to get to know her. I haven’t even told Harper about my siblings yet because I know she would want to meet them, and they wouldn’t behave.
“One more thing. There were rogue hunters in town last night,” she says, and I groan. That’s not a good sign. If hunters were here, then a rogue would have been in town. Rogues have no control of their wolves; they are basically wild animals. It's like a vampire who doesn’t feed for three weeks – they go feral, attacking anything or anyone. I drive to where the party in the woods took place the night before, parking next to the bottles of beer and rubbish that is surrounding a deserted campfire. It takes me a few minutes to track Harper's scent, and I run fast through the woods towards where the scent is strongest. I stop when I see the blood; there’s so much blood. I can smell that’s it's not all Harper’s, that some of it belongs to a wolf. The rogue must have attacked her, but I don’t see her or her body anywhere, and I feel sick as I pull my phone out.
“Dad, I need your help. I need you to use your powers to find Harper,” I beg. My dad can track anyone, and he only needs to meet them once. My father is an exception to the rules, a turned vampire with a gift. He once worked for the vampire royal family; now, he is retired, in a way. Or retired to protect Light, as he was the one who found her on the doorsteps of the royal castle as a newborn baby.
“Harper?” he asks, knowing I would never ask him for anything unless I had no choice.
“Yes, I think she’s hurt,” I say.
“I can see her in a car, with wolves. The wolves have a bag that says the Forest pack on it,” my dad says eventually. “Be careful, the wolves won’t give her up easily,” he warns.
“Thank you,” I reply, and end the call before he can try to convince me not to go after her. I run back to my car as I search the pack on the supernaturals website, and see that it’s a large pack in Ireland.
“Seems like I’m rescuing my destined mate from some wolves,” I mutter, as I get in the car and start the engine.