Chapter 150

Matt

The panic was so bad, I almost couldn’t breathe.

She was gone.

I searched for her in the woods, running with my nose pressed to the ground. I’d searched for her on foot at first, yelling her name. Jack went in the opposite direction, a desperate, panicked gleam in his eyes. That was an hour ago.

I’d shifted at some point, backtracking to the house to start there. Her scent lay embedded in the grass until it disappeared into the woods, where it suddenly ended. I pawed at the ground and whined. There was another scent intertwined with hers, and the hairs on my back pricked up.

I followed the new scent all the way to the road, where it was replaced with the sharp bite of gasoline. It disappeared after that.

I ran back to the house, howling. Jack met me there, crashing through the trees. “Celeste?” he called, looking around. His eyes landed on me. I shifted back, gritting my teeth.

“Did you find her?” he asked.

I shook my head. I was so mad that I could barely get the words out. “Alyx took her. I followed their scents all the way to the road. He must have had a car or something hidden.”

Jack just stared at me.

“I don’t know how he found us here. I don’t know where he took her.”

“Fuck!” Jack shouted. His face was bright red. “This is your fault,” he said, jabbing a finger at me.

“I didn’t know this would happen!” I shouted back. “What the fuck Jack? Did you know she was a wolf this whole time?”

“It wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t have been one if you hadn’t…”

I gave him an incredulous look. “You didn't think to maybe tell one of us?” The night I spent with Celeste felt so far away now. Everything was amazing until suddenly Jack was bursting into our room, and Celeste was looking at me with eyes I knew all too well. Gold eyes.

“Fuck you!” he spat. He laughed at me, shoving me hard to the ground. He had to know I could beat him easily if I wanted to, but that didn’t stop him. His fist connected with my jaw, and the back of my head hit the ground hard. “You slept with my sister.” He punched me again. “And now she’s fucking gone.”

I let him hit me one more time before I flipped him over and punched him in the face. “Got off me,” he grunted when I pinned him down. He suddenly seemed to realize that I was naked. “Jesus, put that thing away.”

“Are you going to stop hitting me?”

“No,” he snarled. “You deserve worse.” He struggled to get out of my grip, but I was stronger than him. Much stronger.

“I know you hate me, and you hate wolves, but we have important things to do. We need to find Celeste.”

He grunted and tried to get me off him again. I pressed my fingers into his wrists. A slight twist, and they’d both be broken. He grew still beneath me.

“You’re an asshole,” I growled. “But if you still care about your sister, even a little, then you need to help me find her. I need to get her back.”

He let out a heavy breath. “Obviously, I’m going to help her.”

I gave him a warning look before I pushed myself to my feet. He lay there for a moment longer, taking deep breaths, then got to his feet.

“Put on some pants,” he said.

I rolled my eyes and led the way back up the deck stairs. I’d shredded my clothes in the last change.

Jack followed me up to my bedroom, where I pulled on some jeans and a sweater. I threw my leather jacket over my shoulders and turned on my phone. There were two missed calls from Enzo, and an angry text.

“You stole Nina’s phone?” I asked, eyeing Jack.

He shrugged. “So what? I needed to find you two before you did something stupid.”

“Good job,” I mumbled.

“My cousin has it.”

“It’s her personal phone,” I replied. “Your cousin won’t find anything interesting on it.”

“Whatever.”

I dialed Enzo’s number. It connected seconds later. “Matt, what the hell?”

“Enzo,” I said, cutting him off. “I need your help.”

“What happened?” he asked, clearly hearing the note of panic in my voice. I didn’t want to think of Celeste alone with Alyx, but all I could see was her on the dark bench, trapped beneath his hands.

“Alyx took Celeste. She’s…” I swallowed hard. “Enzo, she turned. She’s a wolf.”

“How is that even possible?”

“I don't know, but that doesn’t matter right now. Alyx took her. He must have followed us here. We need to shut this place down immediately, and I need to know the locations of any known Crescent bases. Even the deactivated ones.”

“Why?”

“I think Alyx might be a Crescent wolf,” I admitted. “Why else would he wait for her to turn before taking her? This must have something to do with them.”

“And they know about the safe house?”

“Yeah, not so safe anymore.”

“Okay, we’ll send people up there to clear it out.” He muttered something to someone under his breath, Nina probably. A minute later, she was on the phone.

“I’ll send all the details to your phone,” she said. “Matt, it’s possible they took her somewhere we don’t know about.”

“I think they took her to their Alpha.”

She sighed. “They shouldn’t even have an Alpha. We disbanded them.”

“Clearly not. Just send the locations over. I’ll keep in touch.”

I hung up before she could respond. Jack was standing in the far corner, giving the bed a dangerous look that he quickly turned on me.

“You can beat me up later,” I said. “Right now, we have to get moving.”

He didn’t answer, but when I left the room, he followed me. He didn’t even try to push me down the stairs, though I could feel his gaze burning into my back and knew he was considering it. His car was parked at the end of the driveway, but we took mine instead.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“There’s this old Crescent hideout,” I said. Nina had sent a list, and I picked the most recognizable one. “Their Alpha had his home there, back during the war. It was their primary base. We disbanded it.”

“So, why would they be there?”

“It’s the ancestral seat,” I replied. “I think they’ve taken it back.”

“You guys haven’t kept an eye on it?”

“We have cameras set up, but it’s possible they’ve found a way around that. Like your family, the Schreibers have teams of scientists. At least they did. Who knows if they're really there, but that’s where we're starting. It’s the last place they should be.”

“They seem like the type to be where they shouldn’t be.”

I nodded. “They’re bad people, Jack. All we’ve been trying to do since the war is protect the humans from them.”

“Sure.”

“It’s our job.”

“You’re no saint Matt.”

I gave him a sideways look. “That’s rich coming from the Schreibers. Tell me, what are your orders exactly? Am I going to find myself with a silver knife in the back?”

Jack clenched his jaw and turned to look out the window. I could see his reflection in the glass, and his face was pale.

“You’re supposed to kill me, aren’t you?”

I couldn’t help the pang of hurt I felt when he didn’t immediately contradict me.

“I need you to help me find my sister,” he said.

“Oh good,” I muttered, turning away from him. “That’s comforting.”