Alpha Pack 4 - Hunters Heart (5 page)

find the biologist.”

Nick shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. We’ll stay out of

their way, but it won’t hurt for us to keep an eye out for the

missing couple while we’re looking for Miss Bradford.

We’ll definitely have to be cautious about shifting with

extra people combing the forest. Don’t let out your wolf,

or panther,” he said, nodding to Kalen, “unless absolutely

necessary.”

“Are we taking a Huey?” Aric asked, gesturing to the

big helicopter.

“Yes,” Nick confirmed. “If we find the woman, we’ll

need to get her back here as fast as possible because she’s

gravely injured.”

Aric frowned. “Why not just let the humans take her in?

Ryon said it would take the rescue team too long to

mobilize, but considering that they’re already out there,

wouldn’t that make more sense?”

Ryon opened his mouth to protest, but Nick beat him to

the punch. “Are you questioning my orders?”

The redhead blinked. “No, sir. Just asking.”

“Good. Trust me when I say it has to happen this way.”

“Yes, sir,” he drawled. “You’re the PreCog.”

“Smart of you to remember. You’ll pilot, take Micah

and the medical team with you. There’s a sufficient place

to land about a mile from where Miss Bradford last made

camp. The medical team will hike with us. You and Micah

stay with the copter unless you hear different.”

Aric didn’t look pleased to be left out of the search, but

he didn’t argue. Maybe he figured he’d pushed Nick

enough. “Will do.”

The commander handed Aric the coordinates, then

addressed the group. “Ryon, Jax, Kalen, A.J., Rowan,

Hammer, and I will take the two new Range Rovers.

We’ll park as close as we can to the landing site and hike

to her last camp, then go from there. Any questions?”

After so many years together, they knew the drill. Even

the two relative newbies, Kalen, their Sorcerer/panther

shifter, and A.J. Stone, a human who’d once been a police

officer and was a damned fine sniper, pulled their weight

as though they’d been with the Pack forever. They all

moved like the proverbial well-oiled machine.

They loaded into the vehicles, Ryon behind the wheel of

one of the Rovers. He watched as the blades of the Huey

started to whirl, and the roof of the hangar began to slowly

slide open to allow it to take off. When it lifted from the

ground, the noise was deafening. The sight never failed to

awe him. Aric could pilot almost anything with an engine

and, being a Telekinetic, plenty of objects that didn’t to

boot.

After the copter cleared the building and swept away,

the roof began to close. Ryon took the lead, driving out of

the hangar and onto the private road leading from the

compound. They’d have a couple of security gates to pass

through, their property being restricted to outsiders, and

then they’d take one of the main roads normally used only

by park officials. Beside him, Nick punched the

campsite’s coordinates into the GPS.

The drive took almost half an hour. Too long. Inside

him, his wolf paced anxiously, straining to get on with the

hunt for the woman. Daria. With difficulty, he shut off the

questions churning in his mind because the answers didn’t

matter right now.

“I wish Zan and Phoenix had been able to come along,”

Jax said from the back.

Ryon glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Me, too. It

sucks that they’re out of commission.”

“Yeah. But hopefully they’ll be good as new when they

get back from their vacations.”

Zander Cole was a black wolf, the team’s Healer, and

also Jax’s best friend. Zan was sorely missed as a friend,

but more than that, his skills were often crucial in the field

when they incurred severe injuries. But Zan had been

badly hurt himself a few weeks ago, when the Unseelie

king Malik had tried to destroy them all. Kalen had

unleashed the full fury of his Sorcerer’s power, killing

Malik, but Zan sustained a head injury in the blast that had

left him deaf and suffering from terrible headaches as a

result.

After that horrible nightmare, Nick had granted them all

well-earned vacation time and they’d spent the past few

weeks rotating out so they weren’t all absent at once.

Soon, Zan and Phoenix would return and all would get

back to normal—whatever
normal
meant to them.

Using the rangers’ service road, Ryon managed to get

them all the way to the flat clearing where the Huey rested.

Once they’d parked a safe distance from the copter, they

unloaded the backs of the Rovers and divided among

themselves the packs that contained rescue equipment such

as harnesses, ropes, pulleys, and a carrying basket for the

injured party. There was a bunch of other stuff they might

not need, but it was best to be prepared.

He saw Mac, Melina, and Noah jump from the copter

and shoulder their backpacks filled with first-aid supplies.

The trio joined them and waited for Nick’s instructions.

“We’ll stay together until we reach Miss Bradford’s

last camp. Then we’ll fan out and do a sweep in the

direction of her next site. She told Ryon she was pushed

into a ravine, which means she went off the trail at some

point. Stay sharp. You all know what signs to look for.”

He paused. “And one other thing—be alert for whoever,

or whatever, attacked the victim. We don’t want any more

nasty surprises. Christ knows we’ve had enough of those,”

he muttered, gesturing for them to move out.

Ryon couldn’t agree more. All of his senses were wide

open as they walked, scanning the area for anything that

didn’t belong. Especially the damned ghosts, who never

left him alone and yet were strangely absent today. Could

be that no one had died in this area in the past few years, if

ever, but that typically didn’t make a difference. Spirits

were drawn to him and would travel from far and wide to

try to communicate with him.

He should be glad they were making themselves scarce,

but he wasn’t. There was a weird vibe in the air. A

disturbance in the atmosphere that he couldn’t pinpoint. It

was a tangible feeling, not simply an intuition that

something was wrong. He and Nick were in the lead, so he

halted in his tracks and turned to the others. They stopped

and waited in question.

“Does anyone else feel that?”

After a few seconds of silence, Micah said, “I do.”

Nick glanced between them sharply. “Feel what?”

How to explain? “It’s like a vibration in the air. A

sound wave or something, only with no sound.”

Jax frowned. “That makes no sense.”

“This is going to sound bizarre, but . . .” Micah shifted,

looking uncomfortable. Then he pointed to the scarred side

of his face. “My skin is prickling, almost like I have ants

crawling on me. But just on this area of my face, nowhere

else.”

They stared at him, and Ryon’s unease intensified. He

couldn’t imagine what the hell that could mean, but it

probably wasn’t going to be good.

Nick looked to Ryon. “Do you sense an actual

presence? Are your spirits telling you anything?”

He gave a humorless laugh. “What spirits? I think they

all got the hell out of here and I don’t blame them. As far

as a presence, there’s something making the disturbance. I

just don’t know if it’s a living thing, or if there’s another

explanation.”

“All right. Let’s keep going.”

They started out again. Nick didn’t have to remind them

to stay sharp. Considering the weird vibe, plus the injured

biologist and missing campers, it was clear that something

bad was going on in their forest.

And the thought came unbidden that Malik was the last

creature to stalk it.

No
way
could that Unseelie asshole have risen from the

dead. Because that’s what he was—a deep-fried crispy

critter sent to hell, thanks to Kalen. Any alternative was

unthinkable.

Reaching the first campsite took longer than Ryon

would have liked. At least his head had cleared some on

the way and he was able to focus as they walked into the

deserted area. He looked around, disappointed.

“There’s not much to see,” he observed, digging the toe

of his boot into the cold, black ashes left from the fire.

“She was here, and then she left.”

“In a hurry, though. She left this behind.” Micah held up

a travel-sized bottle of whiskey that was three-quarters

full.

Jax smoothed his dark goatee thoughtfully. “You know

you’re booking out when you don’t notice you’ve left the

booze behind, or you do and don’t bother to go back for

it.”

Ryon walked over and took the bottle from Micah. “I

wonder if something scared her and she took off from

here. Maybe she was running from whoever pushed her

into the ravine.”

“Nah,” Jax said. “I think she was nervous at first,

cleared out in a hurry. If she ran from here she would’ve

left everything, not just the bottle.”

“True.” Holding the bottle up to his nose, Ryon sniffed.

A faint tinge of sweetness that didn’t belong to the liquor

inside teased his senses, and he unscrewed the lid. The

full bouquet of the whiskey was pleasant, though that

wasn’t what hit him the hardest.

She had touched the glass. It carried her rich and earthy

scent. How he knew it was hers when he had never

scented her before was an easy one to answer.

His wolf was going fucking berserk.

“You’ve got her scent?” Nick asked.

“Yeah.”

“Let me get a whiff.”

Nick took the bottle and sniffed it. Then inhaled again,

giving Ryon a bemused look. “I don’t smell anything but

whiskey. Wonder why you picked it up but I can’t.”

“Got no clue.” He had a feeling Nick did, though.

Damned if he was asking in front of his Pack brothers.

Nick waved a hand at the trail ahead. “We’ll keep going

and spread out some, but no farther than shouting distance.

If you pick up her scent again, let us know.”

Quickly, Ryon took the bottle back, screwed the lid on

again, and stuffed it into his pack. She’d want a nip, later.

Especially after she recovered enough to recount what had

scared her. Almost killed her.

He and Nick walked the center of the trail while the

others split off to the left and right of them, searching

deeper into the woods. Now and then, Ryon caught the

barest hint of her essence in the air, or on some brush. No

sign of her, however, or where she might have veered off

the path.

Until Micah called out from the left of the trail and

stepped from a copse of trees, waving an arm. “Hey! Over

here!”

Guys, Micah has something to the left of the trail
,

Ryon pushed into their heads. It was easier and more

efficient than yelling.

He and Nick struck out through the trees, hurrying, the

third group behind them. Micah disappeared briefly and he

worried they would lose him, but it wasn’t long before he

and Nick spotted Micah, Hammer, Mac, and Noah in an

area where the trees thinned a bit. Micah was agitated,

glancing their way, and then down at a lump on the ground.

Hammer was outwardly calm, his expression unreadable.

The first fact Ryon became aware of was the stench.

The putrid odor of death clogged his nostrils and

threatened to send up the meager contents of his stomach.

As he and Nick approached, he was damned grateful that

his breakfast had consisted of little more than dry toast and

some juice. Apparently, Mac, who was Kalen’s pregnant

mate, wasn’t so lucky.

“Excuse me,” she croaked. “I’m going to be sick.”

Ryon felt sorry for her. The doc was a pure

professional, but pregnant women sometimes couldn’t

handle certain sights and smells very well. Hell, he’d

almost been sick and he didn’t even have an excuse. Ryon

almost went after her, but Kalen showed up and

intercepted his pea green mate, leading her away from the

gruesome scene.

“Fuck me.” Noah breathed. “As a nurse I’ve seen plenty

of dead people, but nothing like this.”

Ryon nodded. “Me, neither. Christ.”

“Can’t tell if it was a man or a woman,” Jax observed.

He coughed, holding a hand over his face. Not that it

would help.

Rowan, Aric’s mate, had been quiet throughout the

search, until now. “Woman,” she said, pointing. “Look

how small the shoes are, and the laces are pink.”

Noah arched a brow. “That doesn’t mean anything.
I

have pink shoelaces.”

Ryon shot him a grin. “So it’s like
that
, is it? Shoulda

figured.” Noah winked at him and several of the guys

laughed. The exchange dispelled some of the depressing

atmosphere, but Nick wasn’t amused.

“Focus, idiots. We’ve got a murder here and two more

possible victims we need to find.”

Sobering, Ryon crouched near the body and studied it.

God, it was torn to pieces. Hardly recognizable as human,