Abandoned and Unseen (Branded Packs #2)(13)

“I get it,” he finally said as he led her back to her place. “We’ll all get the hang of this. Of course, when we do, the humans will probably change something else.” He was trying to keep her mind off the terror of what could be wrong, but he could tell it wasn’t working. Her eyes were wide, but she was trying to track the boys, as well.

As far as he could tell, however, the kids hadn’t been this way early that morning. He could be wrong though since they may have come another way to sneak out of the house. Only he didn’t think the boys were that undisciplined to break the rules so soon after getting into trouble in the first place. That was what worried him. They might be little and want to explore, but they wouldn’t risk the wrath of their mother the day after getting reprimanded.

The scent of an adult bear filtered through the air, and Cole looked over at Anya’s brother. The man wore an old pair of sweats and a shirt he’d put on inside out, probably changing in a hurry to begin the hunt. It was early enough in the morning that most everyone would be asleep. Cole would wake them up in a heartbeat though if he needed the den on full alert.

“You find them?” Oliver asked, his brows drawn.

Cole shook his head. “I’m going to try and see if I can pick up any new scents around the house. We’ll find them.”

“There isn’t another option,” Anya said softly.

Oliver glanced between them, his gaze falling to Cole and Anya’s clasped hands. Anya let go as if she’d been burned, and Cole tried not to take offense. There were more important things to think about.

Cole left the two siblings to search on their own as he lowered his head and made his way around to the back of the building. If he remembered correctly, the bedrooms were on this side, and that’s where he needed to start. As soon as he found the open window, he frowned.

Something was off about it, but he wasn’t sure what. He inhaled deeply, letting each and every scent around him coat his senses. He closed his eyes, trying to unweave and disregard the scents that wouldn’t help him on his hunt. Not all shifters could do this so precisely, but that was why he was the Tracker. There was something…off about one of the scents. It smelled like a shifter, but he couldn’t quite place it. He opened his eyes as he scented the boys. It was strong here, meaning the boys had been outside this morning and had used this window to get out. Only their scents weren’t on the window itself.

Owen and Lucas hadn’t opened the window on their own.

Fuck.

He lowered his head, inhaled around the wooden panes surrounding the glass and cursed.

“What is it?” Anya asked.

He’d noticed that she’d come around to the back end of the house, but he’d been focused on his scenting instead of acknowledging her.

“Someone opened this window from the outside and carried the boys out of it.” He turned to her, his cat raging at him, wanting a fight. “Whoever it was carried each boy, one at a time, then put them in a bag or something because their scent isn’t directly on the ground beneath the window.”

Anya growled, low, deadly. “A bag? Someone kidnapped my cubs and put them in a bag?”

He held up his hands, praying she wouldn’t swipe at him. She curled her hands at her sides, and he knew she was struggling to control her bear. The bear wanted to shift and rip anyone in her way to shreds, and he didn’t blame her, but that wouldn’t help anyone right then.

“You good?” he asked after she took a few deep breaths.

“Nothing is good about this,” she snapped. Her nostrils flared, but she gave him a tight nod. “But I’m not going to gut you or shift right now.”

“Good to know,” he said lightly. “I’m going to shift to my cat now and see if I can follow the man’s scent.”

“It’s a man?”

“I think so,” he said. “I also think the guy masked his scent somehow because I can’t get a lead on exactly what he is. The scent is heavier here as if he just randomly popped up into existence at your window. Since that’s impossible, I think he covered his trail to get here, and after a while, it wore off or something. Once I shift to my cat, I might get a better handle on it.” He met her gaze. “That’s also why you couldn’t scent him in the room with the boys.” She hadn’t said as much, but she would have told him if she’d scented another in that room.

Her lips thinned and she gave him a tight nod.

He let out a breath then unzipped his pants. He hadn’t bothered to button them when he’d run to the door at her knocking. He also hadn’t bothered with underwear. Her gaze fell on his cock as he stripped down, but she didn’t say anything. He could scent her arousal even through her pain and rage and it killed him. It wasn’t the first time he’d scented it, but he pushed it aside as he had before. His dick filled and stood at attention in her presence as it usually did, but he ignored it. This wasn’t the time to worry about attraction and his dick’s feelings.

He quickly shifted to his cat, the familiar burn and ache not cooling his libido. He rolled his shoulders then started to track. Anya and Oliver kept a good distance between themselves and him, and he was grateful for that. They’d interfere, and he couldn’t allow that to happen, not when Lucas’s and Owen’s lives were at stake.

In his jaguar form, each scent was intensified. The world around him felt as if each trail of forest, man, and shifter were a tactile disarray that he would now be able to unfold and unravel if he truly focused. His sight was crisper, his hearing even more sensitive. He could feel the brush between his toes, and knew the pads of his feet picked up on even the barest trace of disturbance in the ground. If he let his cat take over, he knew he’d be fully immersed in all of his senses. However, it was the man within that made him who he was. Without both halves of the whole, he wouldn’t be Cole.