Chapter Fourteen
Rafe
"You know you could've ridden, Rafe. Fugly isn't your idea of traveling in style."
"He's not that bad, Colby," I disagreed lightly, pulling into an open parking spot next to Clint's truck in front of the Coruscation pack house. "He's kind of grown on me. Besides, it's just not the same without you next to me, baby."
"Bastard," Colby sniffed, shoving my shoulder. "You know you're not supposed to say sweet shit like that. It makes me cry."
I snickered. "Oh, please. You cry at everything now," I teased lightly. "The other day you teared up watching that cooking show."
Colby glared at me. "They were chopping onions. Fuck off."
That just made me laugh. "Baby, you know that's not how onions work, right?"
His pregnancy hormones back under control, Colby snorted and flipped me off.
"Not nice, Daddy." Leia's reprimand finished on a yawn.
"Finally awake back there, huh, princess?" I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw her stretching. "You hungry?"
The responding images of hamburgers, chicken fingers, and ice cream flashed through my mind on fast forward before stopping on an image of a large jackrabbit roasting on a spit over a fire. I laughed when Colby clucked disapprovingly.
"Leia, honey, you know it's not polite to hunt on other packs' property."
"Uncle Clint will let me," she said confidently.
"Yeah, he will, " I agreed with a laugh. After all, nobody seemed to be able to tell our little girl no. "Still, even if you catch one, we'd have to skin it and roast it and all that takes time." I had to smother another laugh at her disappointed groan. "So maybe we can just have something out of the snack box and then have rabbit for dinner."
"I guess." I didn't have to check to know she was pouting.
"Good girl." I swung out of the van and pulled the slider open. Leia had already unbuckled the car seat harness and I caught her as she jumped, swinging her up to perch on my shoulder. Walking around to the passenger seat, I held my other hand out to my Omega and steadied him as he climbed down but didn't make a big deal about it. I'd noticed that the further along Colby got, the more cautious he became. It was a far cry from his fuck you and double fuck your rules attitude that he'd carried through Leia's pregnancy. Knowing that he still blamed himself for her disabilities, the change in him chafed at me, but I couldn't find a way to broach the subject.
"Come on, Papa," Leia whined, tugging at my hair. "I wanna go play!"
Once I was sure Colby was steady on his feet, I scooped her down and set her on the ground. "Okay, princess, but no hunting, got it?"
"Yes, papa," Leia chimed dutifully before scampering off, her dark-blond braid bouncing as she ran.
As we often did, Colby and I watched in amazement as our blind daughter managed to skirt the obstacles around her at top speed, only stumbling once before she reached the Warrior Course that Clint had built for the pups to play on. I could see Adrian and Eric – Clint and Trevor's twins – already clamoring around on it. She was perfectly safe with them to watch over her.
"You ready to go in?"
Colby nodded, removing a manila envelope from the dash of the van. "I've got the records right here and I texted Zade when we started up the drive. They should be waiting for us."
Sure enough, Clint ushered us into his office where Zade, Levi, Harley, and Colt sat around a small conference table. After closing the door behind us, Clint dropped into the vacant chair by his twin brother, leaving the two chairs at the end of the table for Colby and me.
We did the quick, polite greeting thing and then I moved straight to business.
"Harley?" I waited for him to raise his eyes from the table. "Did Zade tell you why we're here?"
He shook his head, his eyes flitting to Zade and then back to me.
"Okay. When you were missing, we searched your room looking for information." I waited for his reaction. It was just a shrug acknowledging my words. "We found this." I held up the purple tablet computer. Harley stared at it blankly with no sign of recognition. "There are several apps on here with dating profiles in your name."
That got his attention, but he still only seemed surprised, not worried or guilty.
"Do you remember any of that?"
"No, sir," Harley's voice was quiet and strong. "I don't."
"Okay. Colby is going to show you some emails and I need you to tell me if anything triggers a memory, okay?"
The Omega nodded and Colby began to pass him papers one by one. Other than a wicked blush as he read the more x-rated missives, Harley didn't respond. Not until Colby reached the second from last paper, that was. As soon as Harley glanced at the profile picture at the top of the printout, he began to shake violently.
"You know him, Harley?" Zade asked, placing a gentle hand on Harley's shoulder.
"I..I don't think so," Harley denied in a halting voice. "That is, I don't but for some reason, he makes me uncomfortable."
Uncomfortable? The kid was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. I nodded to Zade and he patted the boy's shoulder.
"Okay. I think that's all for now," Zade said gently. "Why don't you go get some rest?"
With Harley safely on the other side of the door, Colby snorted. "That's the one, all right."
"What do we know about him?" I asked.
Colby shrugged. "Pretty much zilch. He sent a dozen steamy direct messages suggesting that he and Harley get together, but his last known address was an Omega house on the East Coast. We'll need to send a crew for recon."
"I can do it." Colt volunteered. "I'm going to be heading that way in a couple of days." He shot a sideways glance at his brother. "Assuming you can spare me."
Clint just nodded.
I didn't ask why he was traveling to the coast. Hell, I didn't need to. Everyone was aware that Colt's mate had up and taken off a while back and he was still determined to hunt her down. If he was hitting the trail, it meant he'd been turned onto a scent.
"That'll work," I agreed. While Colt – and Clint and Trevor, for that matter – weren't COPSD members, they'd lent a hand more times than I could count, and I knew the werewolf could handle himself. "Send up a smoke signal if there's as much as a hair out of place on his head."
Colt nodded and I sighed, more than a little relieved. The last thing I'd wanted to do was head out on recon with my Omega due any day.
Colt caught my eye and winked, telling me he'd known exactly how I felt. Werewolves get a pretty bad rap, but they're some of the most loyal friends a shifter can have.