Page 15 of Watch Me

When Fin didn’t go on, I filled in the blanks. “Kono Dasan tried to stop them but they pinned him under his bike and got away.”

Fin nodded and finally looked back at the group. “We went to the hospital but just missed them. Their sister was there and said they were going to celebrate their dad dying and being the new Alphas.”

“Janessa?” Rowen asked. “She was a couple grades behind me and always way too smart for her family.”

“I heard she was off at college to be a doctor or something,” Cam added. They always knew the local gossip from the cafe. “Her family disowned her for leaving.”

“Well I exchanged numbers with her,” I told them. “She promised to text if she got wind of her brothers.”

“Well I guess we have our answer on what would happen when Jed died,” Rel commented. “They dance on his grave together.”

“Always so poetic,” I couldn’t help teasing my friend. The moment called for levity.

“I’m going out to Lakeland to look for her,” Fin said, his tone brokering no argument. “Someone should stay here to keep an eye on the house.”

He meant keep an eye on Gramps, but wasn’t going to say that and make the old alpha fight us on staying put. “I’ll come with you,” I volunteered. I didn’t care if he told me no, I was sticking to him until we found Channing and got her safely home. “We shouldn’t have anyone in the pack traveling alone right now.”

“Agreed.” Fin nodded but looked at his son. “Rowen, you and Cam stay here.”

“Of course,” Rowen agreed, taking Cam’s hand as they stood side-by-side with determined expressions. My friend couldn’t shift into a wolf—I’d only seen his octopus when we went swimming—but he was much stronger than your average man. And he’d want Cam safe too. “We have a change of clothes upstairs, so we won’t need to leave until this is resolved.”

“I’ll call into work,” Cam said, pulling out their phone and texting one-handed. “And someone needs to call Fowler and Riley.”

“Rel, can you check on Riley’s mom and call them?” I asked, thinking of the other non-shifter member of our pack. Patty didn’t have heats, but she lived alone down the road and Riley would kill us if his mom was hurt. “Maybe suggest she stay here as well?”

“I can do that,” Rel agreed, turning toward the door. “And then I’ll keep patrolling around the house.”

“Perfect,” I grabbed his upper arm and squeezed. Rel stopped moving and met my eyes. “Be safe.”

“Always am,” Rel replied with a crooked grin.

Fin stepped up beside me. “Retreat if anyone gets close, Aurelius. You understand?”

Rel nodded solemnly and left the house. Waving my goodbyes while Fin hugged Rowen and whispered something in his ear, we left the house together. Without a word, I took his offered helmet and hopped behind Fin on his bike.

He stopped at his house to grab a bag, but didn’t bother changing out of his garage jumpsuit. It would be an easy piece of clothing to carry when we shifted. We all had go-bags at our houses, and I assumed Fin’s had food and water along with clothes and straps to hold it in wolf form.

Fin handed me the bag to wear on my back and started his bike. We didn’t need to waste time going to my place to retrieve my bike when stashing one would be less work than trying to hide two of them. It had already been almost two hours and the sky was getting dark with the red and orange sunset.

We rode north along the lake to the casino where Channing had been snatched, then turned southwest toward Lakeland. It only took a few miles before the stench of the bears hit me. For some reason, a wolf-shifter omega smelled good to them, but the bears smelled terrible to us. Though I wasn’t sure I’d ever met an omega bear shifter.

Well, Janessa didn’t smell too bad. Earthy. Maybe it was the drugs and alcohol the other MacTaryns used that made them smell worse.

Tapping Fin’s shoulder, he nodded and sped up around a slow van. We were getting close to the turn off to the small town where the bears lived. Our town of Blue Lake had just over two-thousand residents, but Lakeland only had two-hundred. And half of them were related to the MacTaryns.

We wouldn’t be welcome, and I didn’t give a damn.

Chapter ten

Fin

Pullingoffinathicket at the edge of Lakeland, the smell of bears was strong. This side of the lake was boggy, but hotter and less green than our side. This resulted in them not drawing tourists. But I had the feeling they liked the isolation. Flags that didn’t overtly say they were racist bigots, but got the point across nonetheless, hung from poles on most of the mobile homes we passed.

The other reason they didn’t have camping or boating in Lakeland was that the MacTaryns owned most of the lakeside property. We couldn’t get close on our bikes without them noticing.

My main hope was that Janessa had been right, and the bears were getting wasted instead of patrolling or heavenforbid, hurting Channing. Plus, she wasn’t fully in heat yet, or she wouldn’t have driven to the clinic.

Ricky hopped off the back and helped me cover the shiny black and metal. It wasn’t a quiet bike, but it was better than if we’d taken Ricky’s Victory Highball with its loud Cobra pipe or fancy matte black and cream paint job. At least we’d be nearly silent when we shifted.