CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Austin woke with a jolt, knowing instinctively something was wrong even before he slung his arm over where Sheena should have been and found the sheets cold and empty.
“Shit.”
Being so eager to get on his pants and find his phone at the same time, he nearly cracked his head open on the nightstand.
“Slow down. Come on. Think. Think.” He took a deep breath and fastened his jeans before dialing Blue. As the line rang on the other end, he did a fruitless search of the suite, already knowing he wasn’t going to find her.
He knew her habits now, though—knew that when she got squirrely, she was going to run, even when staying put made more sense. Just like the last time, she’d left everything behind. Her bag was still there. The book she’d purchased at the airport. Even her purse.
“Yeah?” Blue said when he finally answered his phone.
“I don’t know where Sheena is.” The words slipped out without even the littlest bit of tact, and Austin couldn’t bring himself to care. He had to make Blue grasp the urgency of the matter, and fast.
“What do you mean? She’s gone, dude? You seriously don’t know where she is?”
Austin glanced at the clock and let out a humorless laugh. Two o’ fucking clock. She’d killed the alarm, and he’d slept through everything. “I mean I woke up from a nap two minutes ago, and she’s gone. You must think I’m an idiot, right? I had one job, that should have been easy, and she slipped out.”
“Okay, so you took a nap. What happened before that?”
“We—”
“Give me the rated-G stuff.”
Oh.
Austin grimaced. It was probably a good thing Blue had interrupted. Of course, he knew gentlemen didn’t kiss and tell, but sometimes his good manners weren’t as quick as his bad ones.
“We were…talking about routines and stuff like that. Bedtimes. She seemed distracted, and I reckon if I noticed how out of it she was, she must have been really out of it. Moods seemed all over the place. Different than she was a few weeks ago. It took me a while to notice because I thought she was yelling at me, but she was talking to herself a lot. Shouting things.”
Blue muttered something so blasphemous under his breath that Austin’s gut flip-flopped with fear for his continued existence on the mortal plane. “Listen,” Blue said a moment later. “It’s not your fault. If you’re her mate, which you may well be, she’ll settle down in time. The agitation will ease off, and she’ll be able to feed off your emotions a little more. Keep touching her. Touch makes a difference.”
“Hey. I’ll hold her until I stop drawing breath if it’ll help, but right now, I’m not worried about in time,” Austin snapped as he checked the bathroom. She wasn’t there, but once more, she’d left behind yet another scene that resembled a struggle. There was hair everywhere—straight honey-colored hair that was wet and looked to have been hastily clawed out. Some of the hanks had been chopped short, and they were frayed at the ends.
What did she do?
“I’m not worried about in time,” Austin repeated, slapping the light switch on his way out. “I’m worried about right now. She just up and left. You say I’m her mate, whatever that means, so why wouldn’t she stay put?”
“If I don’t sound too worried, it’s because things are getting under control here.”
“Fuck there, dude. She’s not in Maria. At least not yet.”
“Did she take your truck?”
Austin gave the top of the dresser a cursory search and swore under his breath. “Shit. She took the valet slip with her.”
“So she probably didn’t intend to leave on four legs. Count that as good news. If you can’t find her around the resort, call me back, and I’ll see if I can send a couple of the ladies up to root her out. Just chill out, okay? We’ve got everything under control. Also, Kenny and Lance are pros at tracking stray Coyotes. We will find her. Take a deep breath, let it out, and go about this methodically, okay?”
What may have technically have been a question sounded a lot like an order to Austin, and he found himself doing exactly what the Coyote alpha had said. Breathe in. Breathe out.
He got moving.
I’ll find her.
“You gotta tell me what to tell her if I find her.”
“Just tell her we’ve got everything under control and that she might feel better soon. Whatever you do, don’t make her feel like the problem’s all in her head. Coyotes tend to be a little more susceptible to gaslighting for some reason.”
“Gaslighting? What’s that?”
“Hard to explain. It’s a kind of psychological manipulation. Lots of alphas use it.”
“Do you?” Austin shouted.
“What the hell do you take me for? No.” Blue said no with so much indignation that any skepticism Austin had got knocked back quick. He’d never before been so relieved to get scolded about an assumption. “Listen, Sacramento’s bleeding Coyotes right now because they’re trying to get out before the other shoe drops. We’re trying to collect all the ones who want to relocate. Alphas never give up pack members without good reason, because they rely on them for steady income. The fact Bruno gave them a reprieve of twenty-four hours means he needs to shrink the amount of available evidence quickly.”
“Evidence of what?” Austin splashed some water on his face then reached for the room key.
“That Coyote mess he made. I don’t know how much Karen told you, but long story short, Bruno’s responsible for a lot of people going missing. They go missing because he wants to add personnel to his pack, and he has his lieutenants turn them. The victims think they can’t tell anyone, which is mostly true. Sometimes, their families see them around town and realize they’re alive and they try to approach them, and all the Coyotes can do is run away. The families eventually give up, thinking the abductees just didn’t want to be associated with them anymore. It’s sad, but it happens, you know? People quit their families for a lot of reasons.”
“Yeah,” Austin murmured. He’d certainly thought of quitting his too many times to count. They drove him nuts, but they were doing their best. Deep down, he knew that.
“Sheena’s mom made a list of every single person in the pack who got turned, and slipped it to that librarian with their addresses. Cops started investigating that, and one of the Cougars we sent up there to spy last week caught wind. We called on the shifters we know in federal law enforcement, and they managed to elbow in on the case before the local cops could muddle things up. I’ve never heard of an alpha pulling some shit like that, and to think that I nearly married into that…” He let out a quiet growl. “Anyway. Doesn’t matter. I’ll explain everything to Sheena when you find her. Hold on a sec.” Blue muffled the phone, but Austin could still hear his shout of, “Hey, Lance? Be careful flying up to Vegas. Remember what happened last time.”
“As if I could forget,” Lance responded.
To Austin, Blue said, “Just find her. Drag her back to the room kicking and screaming if you have to, and put her on the phone when you get her.”
“This can’t keep happening. If she’s going to keep running off like this—”
“Then, what? You don’t want her?”
“Of course I want her, but look, I’m trying to help her for the both of us and I’m getting all these mixed signals. My mother started drilling into me from the time I turned nine to respect people’s boundaries, and I feel like I’m doing everything wrong and need to step away. But that’s not right, is it? Nothing makes sense.”
“Who said it was supposed to make sense?”
“What?” Too anxious to wait for the elevator, Austin pounded down the stairs and blew through the door on ground level. She would have gone straight to the valet stand and not through the lobby.
“I said, who said it was supposed to make sense?”
“Shouldn’t it?” Austin flagged down a valet who was occupying himself by skipping stones in the nearby pond. “People should know what to expect from relationships. She should know I’m putting my all into this for a damn good reason.”
“Human people, yeah. Human relationships unfold in particular ways and have certain expectations, but she’s not quite human anymore. If you’re going to love her, you have to keep in mind that she’s not going to think like you.”
“No one thinks like me.” To the valet, Austin said, “Did a pretty lady in a purple sweatshirt come blazing through here?”
“Yeah, about an hour ago. I got her the truck, but then she seemed to think better of it. Good thing, too. She was wobbling a bit. I thought maybe she’d started drinking early.”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“She asked if we had an airport shuttle.” The valet shrugged. “Sorry, man. That’s all I know.”
“She might have tried to go home,” Blue said. “After all, that’s where her mother is.”
“Would she have flown into a different airport than Sacramento? She’s gotta realize Bruno’s got his guys on the lookout for her.”
“I didn’t fly…anywhere,” came a quiet voice behind him.
Austin whipped his body around so fast that he could hardly see straight, but he could verify without a doubt that that whisper belonged to his runaway.
She looked wild. Disheveled. Her clothes were dirty, feet bare, hair matted. Brow furrowed with confusion.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you can’t walk around here like that,” the valet started. “You’ve got to—”
Austin shushed him and wagged his finger in warning. The guy was so stunned he just stood there staring with his mouth open.
Sometimes, rudeness had its benefits.
“What’s happening?” Blue asked.
Austin had forgotten he was on the phone. He cleared his throat, never taking his gaze from Sheena. “Uh. She’s here. She looks like she doesn’t know where she is.”
“Her instincts are scrambled.” Blue made a quiet growling noise and sighed. “I think Bruno probably tried to subdue her and did it badly. What a mess.”
“You think that’s what it is?” If that was true, then the messy bits were fixable. There’d be one fewer variable in the experiment of Austin and Sheena, and that meant the results would be more predictable. He needed that. He needed to know that him and her together would end in something that would last.
“Yeah. Hand the phone to her. Get her back to the room before folks start asking questions, okay?”
“I can do that.”
“Tell me you’re sure, Austin. She needs someone familiar and steady for the next little bit. If you’re not—”
“I hear you loud and clear,” Austin interjected. “I didn’t understand before, but I understand now.”
“Good. Make sure you do.”
Chastened, Austin got her moving.
He waved over his shoulder at the valet and called out to the young man, “Just jet lag. Nothing to worry about.”
The man made a face. “If that’s jet lag, I’m never flying anywhere.”
“Probably not a bad idea. Just stay on the ground. Safer down here.”
When they were out of earshot, Austin covered the phone mic with his thumb and whispered to Sheena, “You all right?”
Her face crumpled, lip quivering. “No.”
“I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you. You know that?”
Her brow creased deeper. No response.
“Okay,” he said, putting the phone in her hand. “That’s all right. I’m not always good at knowing things right away, either. For the longest time, I always had someone helping me, even if I didn’t want them to. I’m glad for it now, because I’ll know how to help you.”
“Why? What do you want?”
“I just want you to be with me. That’s all.” He nudged her into the stairwell and kept his hand pressed to her back until he was satisfied she could climb on her own. “Let me be your mate.”
“But why do I get one? I’m nobody.”
“Your daddy tell you that?”
She didn’t respond.
He hated that dude. His mother had always told him he was someone, and that was why she pushed him so hard.
He was going to have to send her a card or something.
“Well, shit,” he told Sheena. “I’m nobody, too, and what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” she admitted after a few beats of silence. “You’re…normal. I miss that.”
He wanted to stop her right there and hug her until she wasn’t so confused anymore, but he wanted to get her behind closed doors so they could be messy in peace. Still, he paused long enough to help her put the phone to her ear. “Talk to your alpha. He’ll get you sorted. I promise.”