Page 70 of Cold Moon

And I wanted to find the omega I’d take as my mate, if he wanted me.

I’d never get the chance to ask if we didn’t hurry, and though Aspen was already speeding, I wanted him to go faster. Hell, I wanted to jump out of the car and sprint at the edge of the road on four legs until I found Skye.

At the hospital, Colt, Linden, and another man in a white coat were already outside.

I got out of the car as soon as it stopped. “Anything?”

Linden gave a tiny shake of his head. “Archer is... stable, but we don’t know where Skye was taken.”

My stomach gave an awful, uneasy clench. What if we could never find him? I gasped in air, desperate for the scent of him.

Suddenly, Colt was there, right in front of me, face hard and intense. He had the same stubborn, steady presence he had in the forest the night I’d helped Brook. He held the tops of my arms. He wasn’t Skye, but he was still an omega, and right then, he was way calmer than I was. The effect was grounding. I looked down into his blue eyes, so much darker than Skye’s own bright gaze, and scowled.

“You should shift,” he said.

I’d expected him to tell me to calm down, clear my head, but I didn’t know what my wolf could do on four legs that I couldn’t do on two. At least now, I could think logically. I glanced at the alpha, but he was simply watching his mate, a frown on his face.

He wasn’t interrupting, because omegas had a voice in his pack, and Colt was trying to tell me something important. Skye would’ve given me hell if I’d brushed Colt off, as he should’ve.

My attention refocused on him, and his lips twitched knowingly.

“Why?”

“You love Skye?” he asked.

My fingertips had gone icy. I nodded. There was no doubt in my mind. If I lost him, the world and all the fragile hope I’d pieced together since the Groves picked me up off the forest floor and stitched me back together would shatter.

“And you have a sense, right, that he’s your mate? In here.” He tapped his fingers against my solar plexus. “He’s yours and you’re his?”

“Yeah.” This was all some kind of magical, fated-mate fantasy that I’d never believed in. I’d wanted to boil the need alphas felt for omegas down to science—pheromones or hormones or selfish indulgence and want.

But the look in Colt’s eyes told me that there was something more. What I felt for Skye wasn’t chemical or selfish. I wanted to give him the world, build a place for the both of us. I needed him, yes, but in my soul. That wild part of me that he soothed wasn’t evil like I’d always thought, but it did need him.

“Then trust your wolf,” Colt said. “You can find him.”

“Like you found me?” Linden asked, blinking wide eyes. Doctor Grove must’ve leaned on science and logic too.

And Brook and Aspen? Well, their hands were already locked together tight. This was a bond they’d felt and acknowledged, that’d gotten Brook through trauma and brought Aspen Grove home.

And it’d bring Skye home too, because I was an alpha and a werewolf and there was more to me than base, awful instinct.

Colt turned a gorgeous smile on his mate. “Oh, no. That was because you smelled like wool in the heat of summer. Stands out anywhere,” he teased.

Already, I was shedding my clothes, kicking off my shoes. If trusting my wolf would bring me to Skye, it was time to give in.

I should have known Colt was right. The second my paws touched the ground, I felt a shiver through my bones, like frost sweeping through my marrow. It was a spear of ice that melted almost immediately, spreading warmth through my limbs. My chest was full. My nose flared. There was Skye, at the edges of my consciousness, calling me across miles.

Aspen shifted beside me. Linden and Brook grabbed our clothes off the ground and headed for Aspen’s car. But me and Aspen, we were going on foot, my wolf ready to sprint along country highways after my mate, as long as it took to find him.

40

Skye

Block the door. Yes, that was a good idea. I scanned the now-bright room, and my eyes locked on the huge old-fashioned dresser. That might help. Maybe.

I leapt off the bed, and sure enough, the thing didn’t want to move for me when I pushed at it. I took a deep breath, braced myself, and pushed as hard as I could. It took me a few minutes to get it to the door, and sort of wedge it in front. The knob was in the way of pushing it flush against the door, but maybe it would at least slow him down for a minute if he came back.

Archer’s phone rang where I’d left it on the bed, and I almost didn’t answer it. What if it was his grandfather? What if it was someone I didn’t know, and they wanted to talk to a man who was in the middle of maybe bleeding to death?

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