“Hey, have you guys seen Madison?” Alex and Danny had just gotten back from talking with the elder shifter, who had enlightening information to share with them.
“Nope.” Zach continued to massage Emily’s swollen feet as she lay back on the sofa with her feet propped up on his lap. “We just got back from visiting Maureen and Adam. Em had to pick up some new clothes that her aunt had bought for her.”
“Maybe she’s up in her room.” Emily opened one eye and looked at Alex and Danny. They seemed to be hurried to find Madison.
“I’ll run up and look.” Alex let go of Danny’s hand, then rushed quickly up the stairs. A minute later the group heard the thumping of her feet as she ran back down to the family room. “She’s not there.” Alex was a little out of breath from the sudden burst of exertion and also from the panic that she felt of Madison being gone.
Emily sat upright. “Zach, go and check outside while I check out the kitchen.” Zach helped her to stand upright and then rushed out through the sliding glass door that led out to the side garden. Emily waddled back to the kitchen with Danny and Alex in tow. Everything seemed to be in its proper place as they finally made their way down the hall and into the kitchen area. Zach coming back through the kitchen set of patio doors had each of them on alert. “Where’d you get that?” Emily pointed to the can of soda that Zach was carrying.
“I found it on the patio over by the pool.” Zach set the can down and looked around at the rest of the group. “Any ideas?” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what they thought.
“Maybe she just took a walk somewhere around the property.” Emily tried to make the best of the scenario.
“Yeah, maybe.” Alex knew that most likely wasn’t the case, but didn’t want to get Emily all in a panic mode. If that would happen, then that meant that what she had seen in her vision was happening quicker than expected.
“Where’s Madison?” Jacob ran back into the kitchen. He looked ragged and freaked out.
“We all just got back,” Zach answered his brother, who seemed like he was adamant about finding her.
“You all left her here all alone?” Jacob ran out the back doors and began to look around the garden, yelling for his mate.
“Did you get a sense of something?” Danny knew that the bond between Jacob and Madison was strong enough that he’d be able to pick up on any emotion that she had.
“I was running back here ‘cause I finally felt a sense of happiness come over her, then bam it was gone and a split second of being terrified overcame her…then that was it.” Jacob brushed the hair back off of his forehead and sat down on the lounge chair by the patio table. “Alex, any clue what happened?” He was pleading for her to have some kind of news.
“She didn’t go willingly.” Alex clutched the soda can that Zach had left on the counter. She was able to focus in, like the elder shifter had told her to do, and get some kind of visualization of what had happened. “She was thinking of you.” Alex looked over at Jacob, then squeezed her eyes shut once again to concentrate on the image. “And how you kissed her in the pool that night, then something came up behind her and everything went black. She dropped the soda can when someone took her.” Alex was happy that she was able to get an idea of what had happened, but got scared to death for Madison as this was not a good sign.
“Orfeo?” Zach knew that they would strike again. He and his callous followers always went after the mates, like they knew they couldn’t take on any of the shifters themselves. His father even said several months ago that they would target Madison since she was the weakest link.
“Brindle.” Jacob spewed her name like it burned his mouth to utter such an obscenity.
“I really don’t think Brindle did this. Madison would have been able to fight her off.” Zach disagreed with his brother’s selection of possible culprits. “We’re going to have to let Dad and the rest of the pack know.” Now that a possible kidnapping had taken place on their property, security would have to increase tenfold so that Alex and Emily would remain safe. As if the distraught thoughts had been passed along through the pack, Derek, Luke, and several other pack members that were trackers burst through the side gate in their wolf form. The squealing of tires could be heard racing down the driveway and everyone knew that it had to be Adam, along with Maureen. The pack retreated to the pool house and a minute later returned fully clothed. Adam and Maureen raced in through the kitchen and out through the patio doors at the same moment the pack assembled.
“Someone took Madison,” Alex revealed what everyone probably already knew. She just felt it was her duty since she was the one who was able to feel the actual instance of Madison being taken by whoever had come up behind her.
“Did you see who it was? Any inclination?” This was a serious matter for Derek. He was quite riled up that someone would come onto his property once again and commit an act against one of their mates. “Orfeo?” He glanced at his trackers, who were scouting around the premises. They all shook their heads no.
“I’m not getting a scent of anything.” Luke walked back over to where his alpha and sons were standing. “I can smell the girl right here,” he motioned to where they were all standing, “and then it’s like she just disappeared.”
“I don’t smell any of Orfeo’s family around.” Derek was just thankful they didn’t come upon a scene like the one that haunted him every day of his life. At least there wasn’t any blood spill or signs of harm being done to the enchantress.
“It has to be Brindle.” Jacob could feel it through his whole existence that Brindle was behind all of this. She would go to any length to make sure Madison was out of the picture for good.
“We can’t go around accusing anyone just yet, especially not the dark witches.” Derek knew his son could be right with his assumption, but he didn’t need to cause more strife with those who had no rules regarding what could and couldn’t be done. If they all remembered rightly, Cecilia had told them that those of the dark were teaming with Orfeo and his family. It could very well be that all of them were involved in this abduction. “We should all gather this evening and form a plan of where and when we’ll start tracking.”
A loud roar of frustration exploded from Jacob. He didn’t want to wait until later to start searching for his mate, by that time she could be…he didn’t want to finish his thought of the possibilities of what could happen to her between now and when they found her. He knew he had to find Brindle and stop her for good. “I’m going to kill her myself.” Without waiting for a response from anyone, Jacob shifted into his massive black wolf self. He took two long strides, leaped over the six-foot-high bushes surrounding the yard line, and disappeared from sight within ten seconds.
Derek tried to will him back through his alpha mental command, but Jacob was not submitting. He just hoped that his youngest son didn’t succeed with his mission until they could get all the facts needed concerning who’d done this. They didn’t need to give the side of darkness any more reason to come after any of their mates. “We’ll all meet back here in an hour.” He motioned for Luke to follow and walked into the house, leaving the rest of the group wondering what other kind of sinister acts could be heading their way.