“Where are we going?” I asked.
She glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “I’m not sure yet. I put the coordinates in my GPS so we’ll know soon.”
Not that it mattered. I didn’t have much time left.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Adam
Jason jumped in the passenger side just as I cranked the wheel and fired the truck up the dirt road.
“What the hell is going on, Adam?”
I kept my eyes on the road, gripping the wheel so tight I thought I might crack it. I briefly considered a lie, but Malcolm knew I was leaving. No reason to keep everyone in the dark anymore. “I found my mate.” That stunned Jason silent. Then I said, “And she was driving my Jeep.”
He was quiet until we got on the highway, then he pulled out his cell phone and called Logan to find out where exactly he found the Jeep. When I pulled up behind Chaney, Lana’s scent was thick, and panic coursed through me. I couldn’t lose her. No way. Not when we were so close to forever.
I got out of the car and peered inside the Jeep. Her laptop and a small handbag were lying on the floor of the passenger side. That ruled out a robbery.
Jason walked up behind me and froze. “Jaguars have been here.”
I nodded, and resisted telling him I was in love with one of them. Instead I followed Lana’s scent away from the Jeep. At the edge of the asphalt, I picked up another female jaguar’s scent.
Sasha.
One more step and I found a drop of blood in the dust. I wiped my fingers into it and lifted my hand to my nose. My lungs constricted on the scent. It was Lana’s blood.
But one drop wasn’t a mortal wound. She had to be alive.
I rushed back to the truck, with Jason close behind.
“They must have left in another car,” he said.
I nodded, accelerating back onto the highway. “Looks that way.”
“So we won’t be able to follow their trail.” He glanced up at the sky. “Plus, we’re going to change soon.”
My eyes cut over to him. “I’m going to find her.” I looked back at the road. “Call Malcolm and tell him…” Shit, what could I tell him? I’d just told him I was leaving the Pack for a jaguar. I swallowed the lump in my throat and passed an RV. He was still my father, and I’d always be his son. “Just tell him I need him. And I hope he’ll be ready with the Pack to help me.”
Jason nodded and made a call while I tried to figure out where Sasha might take Lana. She wanted to give her over to Nero so she’d have to leave town. The airport it was.
I pulled into the terminal, rolling down the windows and breathing in all the exhaust fumes and aftershaves and perfumes, searching for any sign of Lana.
“Why are we at the airport?” Jason asked.
“Just a hunch. Help me search for jaguar scents.”
Jason nodded and leaned toward his open window. After trolling slowly past the terminals, I drove around and headed up the parking structure. The tires squealed as I made the tight turns. When I was nearing the top floor, a black Mercedes came careening around the corner and nearly hit us. I slammed on the horn and kept circling until we reached the roof.
Sebastian stood up top. Alone, like a dark sentinel. I stopped the truck and flew out of the cab. He didn’t move or try to defend himself when I grabbed his shirt and got in his face.
“Where is Lana?” I growled.
“I told you not to leave her alone, wolf. Now your mistake could cost her life.”
I punched him in the mouth, grateful to see blood bloom on his lower lip. He smiled, revealing bloodstained teeth. “If you are through being an animal, perhaps we can help one another.”
Jason came up beside us, looking at each of us before he spoke. “Adam, are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
“This is Sebastian. He’s going to take me to my mate. Now. Aren’t you, Sebastian?”
The jaguar raised his arrogant brow and yanked my hands off of his shirt. “Your mate? Does she know?”
“Fuck you.” I shoved him backward. It was too tempting to have him so close to me when I wanted to rip his head off so badly I could taste it. “Sasha’s got Lana.”
He wiped his lip and nodded. “Yes, she does. She’s meeting with Nero for a trade.”
“Where?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know exactly.”
My head felt like it was going to explode. I signaled Jason back to the truck. “Fine. I’ll find her myself.”
Sebastian pulled something out of his pocket. “I can probably find her a little bit more easily since I put a tracking device on Sasha’s rental car.”
With my keen wolf hearing, I caught every word and looked back at Sebastian. “Get in the truck. You navigate.”
His lip was starting to swell, making his smile crooked. Without a sound he was past us and in the back of the truck.
Sebastian was focused on his tracker while I maneuvered Jason’s truck out of the parking structure. When we hit the highway, I heard Sebastian yell through the back window. “Keep heading north. I think she’s going to the Lake.”
I glanced over at Jason as the speedometer edged past eighty miles per hour. His eyes narrowed, but he kept his voice low and even. “Since when do we work with jaguars? Ever occur to you that this guy could be leading us right into an ambush? Think, Adam.”
Keeping my eyes on the road, I did my best to keep my voice down. “The jaguars are coming from a place called Nero. They’re breeding and training assassins for hire, and if I don’t get to Lana first, I’ll never see her again. If I have to work with a jaguar to find her then that’s what I’ll do. I don’t expect you to understand. I do expect you to call the Pack and let Malcolm know we’re headed toward Lake Tahoe.”
“This is insane,” Jason grumbled, but he made the call. I nodded and focused on the road.
Jason finally slipped his phone back in his pocket. “Jared is getting everyone together, then they’ll head up to the Lake. We can change up there tonight.”
“Thanks, Jason,” I said without making eye contact. Right now the only thing I could concentrate on was the vision of Lana’s smile in my head. Everything about her taunted me as I pushed the truck faster. I could see her looking up at me when she told me she loved me. I could hear her laughter and see her dark eyes flash at me when Aren had been impersonating me the first time they met. Dammit, I could even smell her hair. I gripped the wheel tighter. I had to believe we’d get there in time. We had to.
“This is the exit,” Sebastian shouted from the back of the truck.
Once we were on the main road around the lake I slowed down, breathing in the scents, praying I’d pick up Lana’s. From the back of the pick-up, Sebastian kept watch on his tracker. This time he leaned up into the window, keeping his voice soft.
“They’re close by, wolf. Do not go gentle into that good night.”
“What the hell? Isn’t that the line from a Rodney Dangerfield movie? What does that have to do with anything?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Uneducated wolves. It’s one of the finest villanelle poems ever written, by Dylan Thomas.” When Sebastian saw that didn’t explain anything, he shook his head. “It means do not give up. Don’t lose hope.”
My nerves were wrapped so tight I could explode at any second. Some jaguar reciting poetry was not helping. “Just tell me which way to go, Shakespeare.”
“I would pull over here. We should go on foot. Otherwise Sasha will hear us coming.”
Jason shot me a silent don’t-do-this-Adam look, but I parked anyway. When I turned off the key I handed the key ring to Jason. “Stay here and wait for the others.”