“I have no problem with starting as your friend—so long as we work up to what I want.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Whatever. So what is this place?” The main floor of the building was big enough to be an auditorium and two hallways led off it with offices on either side.
“This is our headquarters. We use it for larger meetings with the pack and to keep with what the other packs are doing. And down here,” he said, taking her by the hand and pulling her into a hallway, “we have our workout facilities, a medical facility, and offices.”
Lyonis led her into the healing ward first. The room was massive and looked like a hospital room complete with gurneys, a washroom, and medical equipment she couldn’t even name.
“Why do you need such an elaborate healing ward? This place looks like a mini-hospital.”
“It basically is. Being a shapeshifter doesn’t make you immune to death or pain. As I mentioned before, we’ve had some problems with the local humans in the past years. They know what we are and don’t like it, and of course there’s the occasional skirmish between members.”
“Not all of the humans hate you, I’m sure.”
He nodded. “That’s true, but some seem to hate us simply because we’re different. Just the way of life, I guess. Every now and then, we get illegal hunters on our land. They try to hunt us in animal forms. Man, woman, child, they can’t tell the difference and they don’t care.” Willow grimaced at the thought.
“Aren’t there any legal repercussions for these assholes?” He laughed at her and shut the hospital door behind them.
“Sadly, no. Right now there is no universal governing board for us. No separate government to join any of the packs, let alone the vampires and other beings. The human government’s motto seems to be to ignore us as much as possible.”
“But what about when they hurt one of you?”
He shrugged. “We’ve tried taking it to court before, but the human’s defensive is always that they thought they were shooting another animal, that they had no idea it was a shapeshifter.”
“But if they’re on your land...”
“I know. It’s a lie. They used to try to hunt us, but I’ve put a stop to it. It’s been years since anything like that has happened. I have trained guards, even cameras covering the edge of the property so we can see if anyone comes in. We’ve had to amp up security to keep everyone as safe as possible.”
Neither of them spoke as he led her deeper into the building and down several flights of stairs.
“This place didn’t look nearly so big from the outside,” Willow noted.
“That’s part of the design, and the defense of this building. Here is where our guards train. Other come here to work out, but mostly the guards use this.”
“What kind of training do they do?” He smiled at her as if he was pleased by her question. Shit, Willow thought. She wasn’t trying to make him think she was interested in any of this—even if she was. But it was too late, the question was out.
“Hand to hand combat, shifting while fighting, things like that.”
“Oh, that’s—” The sound of footsteps stopped her. Willow turned to see Thane and Jackie running into the room with a hard, worried look in their eyes. Lyonis tensed instantly.
“What’s wrong?”
“We found a piece of Stephanie’s clothes off the trail,” Thane said. He paused as if he didn’t want to say what he was about to. “There’s blood.”
“Show me, now!”
Willow jumped at the sound of Lyonis’ voice. She’d never heard him sound so angry. She hesitated as they all made for the doors, but then he turned back to her and nodded his head for her to join them. Willow followed; no matter how much her stomach and instincts told her not to. Stephanie was missing and now they’d found her blood. She couldn’t help the lost feeling inside her that kept telling her it was her fault.
They broke into a run outside of headquarters. As an avid runner, she was able to keep pace with them as they made for the surrounding forest line that cocooned the small town. She watched as pack members, walking by in their daily lives stopped and looked at them with alert eyes. Please don’t let her be dead.
It took nearly fifteen minutes for them to come to a stop. Willow didn’t know what she expected to see, but this wasn’t it. It just looked like a forest. The floor was covered in dark soil; leaves covered the ground with the oncoming of winter and trees stood tall and imposing. The wind blew and rustled the dry branches and blew back the hair from her face.
She was about to ask what blood, when she saw it. A piece of cloth hanging from a notch in a tree.
Lyonis went to it immediately. Knowing his senses, he’d probably noticed it right away while her untrained eyes had searched the area for anything unusual. Lyonis was stiff as he stopped before the white, torn cloth. He sniffed it and his frown grew graver.
He picked up the meager scrap and examined it. “It’s a piece of her sleeve. The McLannahans said she left in a white t-shirt. Three drops of blood are on it.”
Willow wrapped her arms around her stomach. She felt like she was intruding on something that she had no right to see. She kept her mouth closed as her gut rolled with worry. She wanted to ask questions but she knew they were all stupid, and no one had the answers to them.
“I want a search team sent out into town. Look over the whole state and get it done now! Find her.” Jackie and Thane nodded as if the task he’d set upon them wasn’t going to be difficult.
Lyonis folded the small cloth into a small square and gently tucked it into his pocket. He didn’t meet her eyes as he walked past her with heavy steps. Willow hesitated to go after him. Hell, she had no experience in this. What the hell was she supposed to do? She couldn’t comfort him.
Jackie came up to her. “Go to him.”
“I can’t.” Nothing she could say or do could bring back Stephanie or make this any better.
Jackie grasped her shoulder in a firm hand. “He needs you. Just go to him.”
Willow nodded as the harsh look on his face ran through her mind. Before she knew it she took one step after him then another, until soon she ran hard through the forest. Her heart hammered in a fast, scared rhythm. He would have to tell the parents what he’d found. She’d only met the girl once and Willow felt like her heart was on the edge of breaking. What would he be feeling? What about the family?
Willow burst through the trees and came to a staggering stop. Lyonis stood a short distance away, his eyes watching the dark, cloudy sky. He had the appearance of someone who was lost, but as Willow peered closer, she realized...it was anger. Deep, raging anger. Willow swallowed hard and slowly came up to him as if the smallest movement might set off that coiled anger inside him.
He didn’t yell at her; didn’t step away, so she slowly reached out and laid her hand on his chest. He looked down with a startled expression. Willow didn’t know what came over her, some undeniable need that she couldn’t ignore, and she wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself close.
He was stiff like a brick wall, hard and unmoving. She pressed her ear to his chest and could hear the fast rhythm of his heart. She stayed that way and simply held him.
It was several minutes before he reached and held her back.
Dammit. Draven couldn’t wait any longer while the couple comforted each other. He dissolved near them and coughed loudly. Willow and Lyonis broke away with a start.
“What do you want?” said Lyonis. Anger was in the Alpha’s eyes. Draven recognized that look; it was one he’d worn many times. It clearly stated: piss me off so we can fight. He might be happy to oblige the Alpha on any other occasion, if there wasn’t a more pressing matter.