Page 94 of Baseball and Shifters

The locker room is a blur. Jerseys stripped off, cleats kicked away. None of us speak until we’re out the front gate, where Mom, Dad, the girls, and two uniformed campus guards are waiting.

“She’s not in her dorm, and she’s not in yours,” Dad tells us. “Security’s been alerted. We’ve got permission to initiate a softlockdown. No one in or out without clearance. Quiet, for now. We don’t want to start a panic.”

“Where do we start?” I ask, barely holding my voice steady.

“Between dorms,” Aubree answers. “She would’ve taken the usual path, maybe with your noses we can catch her trail.”

“You take the boys and start the search,” Mom directs at Dad. “The girls and I will go meet with the incoming search team.”

Liam doesn’t wait. He shifts mid-stride, bones snapping into the lean shape of his black wolf. His fur is slick with the sheen of adrenaline and his eyes glow faintly as he drops to all fours. He bolts toward the path, nose to the ground. We follow in tight formation as he bounds across the quad towards the dorm. He’s much faster on four legs than we are on two, by the time we catch up with him we find him nose to the ground just off the path between the dorm buildings. He snarls and bolts toward the edge of the woods before stopping abruptly, hackles raised, pawing at a spot in the dirt where the grass has been scuffed away.

Bas drops to a crouch beside him, fingers brushing the ground. His hazel eyes sweep the disturbed grass, expression tight and unreadable. A low growl rumbles in his throat like he’s already imagining tearing someone apart.

“There was a struggle here.”

“Look,” Lucas says, pointing. “Drag marks.”

The four of us fan out, moving carefully through the underbrush. The world narrows. No birdsong, no breeze, just the sound of breath and breaking branches.

“I’ve got something,” Liam growls, shifting back. He’s panting, his face pale. He holds something between his fingers, a scrap of cloth.

I take it from him, lifting it to my nose.

Fuck.

The scent is Rachel, sharp and sweet, but there’s something else. A chemical tang that makes my dragon recoil.

“Sedative,” I rasp. “Chloroform or something worse. That’s why the bond is so quiet.”

Bas’s fists clench at his sides. “They drugged her.”

Lucas lets out a shaky breath and scrubs a hand down his face. Liam is still crouched, his eyes flicking back and forth like he’s tracking ghosts. My pulse pounds so loud I can hear it in my ears. The trees feel like they’re closing in.

My vision edges with red. The urge to shift, to raze the woods, to hunt, is almost unbearable.

“We’re going to find her,” I say, looking each of them in the eye. “We’re not stopping until we do.”

She’s more than a mate. She’s our axis. The center of everything. Without her, our bond frays, our balance slips. I won’t let that happen. I can’t.

Because if we lose her, we don’t just lose our future. We lose ourselves.

“Someone took your mate, Derrick.” My father doesn’t raise his voice, doesn’t snarl. But the way he says it lands like a battle cry. “We’ll find her. No matter what it takes.” His voice holds the finality of a death sentence. He’s not just a father now. He’s a dragon on a mission. And if the universe dares stand in our way, it better start running.

My dragon roars inside me, and I nod once. “And if we don’t, we’ll burn this fucking place to the ground.”

Rachel

The world comes back in fragments, blurry shadows in a dark room, the smell of mildew and dust swirling in the air. I can’t remember what happened. The fog filling my head too strong to overcome.

I blink once, twice. My vision clears and I see an old, dilapidated wall. The wallpaper is yellowed and peeling, edges curled like pages in an old book. A single shaft of light filters through a broken slat in the boarded window, casting long, slanted shadows that stretch like claws across the floor.

Where the hell am I?

My cheek presses against something cold and dirty. My arms won’t move. Neither will my legs.

Ropes.

My heart jumps to my throat. I twist, trying to loosen the knots and failing.

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