A/N: Trigger warning for violence, blood and gore
Jan pulled his straight-backed chair closer to Ethan's bed as Major Owens cleared her throat.
She stepped forward, pulling a tablet from under one arm. "This is what we have so far, Alpha. At 0400hrs today, two search squads set off on the trail of Cody and Damien. The first tracking on foot. From the prints at the scene, they determined we were dealing with at least six wolves. They also picked up a witch's scent about a mile south of that location, but it's unclear if she's involved in the kidnapping or her presence was a mere coincidence."
Owens glanced at the Vanguard commander, who inserted. "There're no scheduled witch visits on record. But Alpha Ryden had representatives of the neighboring coven over for talks a few weeks ago. I've already sent warriors to enquire if one of them had possibly overstayed their visit. I'm waiting for updates as we speak."
"In the meantime," Major Owens picked up after him. "The squad will keep following that trail. The second hunting party is acting on a tip we obtained, thanks to the good detective work of Calvin's men. Security cameras at a nearby dealership caught a white, unmarked van speeding away from the scene around the time of the attack. Lights off. No plate. No tags. Doing 70 an hour on a winding back road. That street leads to the highway heading southwest."
She flipped over the tablet, showing a zoomed-in map of the roads running out of the territory into Pennsylvania. A red dot hovered above the national forest beyond the pack border. "The marker shows the last known location of the van... It was seen getting off this ramp. There ain't much in the closest town; mostly warehouses and truck stops-"
Jan's eyes narrowed sharply as he leaned forward for a better look. "Is that Allegheny forest?"
Owen paused, gaze focusing on him. "Yeah. Why?"
The frown deepened on Jan's face. "It may be a coincidence, but Ivan's team investigated a missing vampire case some weeks ago, and the name came up."
"Did they find anything?" Hope brightened Ethan's face in a way that cut through Jan because he did not have any good news for him.
"I'm sorry, Ethan," he murmured, squeezing the wolf's larger hand. "With everything going on, it slipped off my radar, and I didn't follow up. Let me call Ivan now to see what he knows."
He drew the phone from his pocket as he started to rise, but Ethan held on to his arm, tacitly asking him to stay.
Jan obliged.
Seconds later, the Russian grumbled his usual greeting over the phone. "Jan."
"Ivan, you're on speaker," the blond man warned in Russian before switching to English. "Remember that missing vampire you were looking into? Where did you say he was taken to?"
"Shit! I completely forgot about it. It was a warehouse in some Pennsylvanian forest. What's the name? Allegra? Allergy? Hold on. Lester sent the report...." Ivan's voice lowered to a distracted mumbling punctuated by a furious clicking on a keyboard.
Then, silence.
"Ivan? Ivan!"
"Moy brat. Is Zyga or Jeb there with you? And Ethan?"
"Jeb's looking after his mate, but Ethan and Zyga are here." Now, Jan was worried. Like him, Ivan avoided the annoying tracker unless he absolutely had to. And right now, Jan's mind was racing to figure out why his brother would willingly seek him out.
"Get on a video call. I think they might want to see this," was Ivan's only explanation before the line cut.
Seven pairs of eyes sought him, but Jan could only shrug his shoulders at the unasked questions swimming in them.
YOU ARE READING
Blooded Mate
Fantasy[[MATURE CONTENT]] Pack, family, mate. Loyalty, respect, honor. These are the words that form the foundation of the wolf society. At six years old, Ethan had to choose between his Alpha title and his survival on the night of his father's death. As a...
