Page 34 of Omega's Triplets

“They’re okay. They’re inside.” She took a shuddery breath. “The omega’s gone.”

“What?”

“She must have run away!” Amy wailed. “I know I was supposed to be watching her, but I didn’t really think she’d try to run! Doesn’t she know the Death Fangs are still looking for her?”

She didn’t know, actually. Or, if she did, she certainly had no idea of the extent and determination of their search party. Jamie had told his brothers what he’d heard at the bar last night, but they’d collectively agreed not to tell Maddy what they’d learned. “It would only scare her,” Jamie had said, and Mark and Harley had felt the same way. It felt good to come to a consensus on something. It seemed as though they might be on the road to healing the rift between them.

But now, apparently, they had a whole new problem.

He led Amy back inside and poured her a glass of water. “Are the others out looking for her?” he asked.

“You’re the first to come home.”

He nodded. “Stay here,” he said. “Keep Piper and Reese in the house.Watchthem, Amy.”

“I—I will. Are you going out to find her?”

“Yes.” He just hoped the Death Fangs wouldn’t find her first. She couldn’t have gotten far, he reasoned. And it wasn’t likely that the Death Fangs were anywhere nearby. There were a lot of places for them to look. They’d probably never find the Hell’s Wolves. Everything was probably going to be fine.

Still, the thought of their omega out there on her own—his heart hammered. She had a big mouth, but she wasn’t used to being alone. She probably didn’t have the slightest idea how to fend for herself.

God, he hoped she’d be all right.

He slipped behind the tree line, undressed quickly, and let the raw instinct of the wolf fill him. He reached out with his unusually sharp sense of smell, scenting the air, trying to remember the smell of Maddy. He’d sat beside her on her bed, breathed the same air as she had—

There.

He was off, paws eating up the ground, moving toward that smell. As he ran, he became aware that he was also going toward the river, and he picked up his pace. He couldn’t quite articulate his thoughts when he was in this form, but he felt a sense of fear and urgency. The river wasn’t safe for someone who didn’t know its rips and currents well.

He burst into the clearing where the river ran and stopped short.

There was no one here.

But it was immediately apparent that someonehadbeen here, and not that long ago.

There were footprints along the bank, and some of them were muddy. Someone had been in the water and come back out. He examined them, trying to figure out what the person had done next. He lowered his muzzle to the ground and sniffed at them.

Here was a scuffed patch of earth. The footprints got lost here, as though someone had trodden over the same area, back and forth. Or had there been two people?

A fight?

Fear filled Harley, driving him away from his animal self and back toward his rational mind. The next moment, he knelt in the dirt, his fingers tracing over the rough area, trying to determine what had happened.

A bare footprint.

A bare footprint in the middle of the woods almost certainly meant a shifter.

Oh, God. The Death Fangs.

Harley got to his feet and ran. He stopped only briefly to pull his pants back on when he reached the pile of clothes he’d left behind the first tree. He scooped up the rest of his things and ran for the house.

Jamie was coming down the porch stairs, and he crossed the yard to Harley. “What’s going on?” he asked urgently. “Did you find her?”

“Amy told you?”

Jamie nodded.

“She was down by the river,” Harley said. “But she’s not there now. I think someone else found her there.”

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