Chapter Fifty-Five

Damon

I watched Finley’s house for the rest of the night but she never came back. I continued to watch her house for the rest of that week and eventually I drifted off to sleep only to be tortured in my dreams. In the first dream she was straddling me, naked, as I held on to her hips. In a split second I was in the ocean looking back at her, then I was picking her up from the floor covered in blood, throwing her over my shoulder in a bar.

In yet another dream I told her I loved her as we held hands and walked into the Council building in New York, the dreams were random and there was no order to them. I dreamt about my hearing but in this dream Finley was there as I was sentenced.

In the last dream I had her pushed against a shower wall, her legs wrapped around me as my canines pushed into her shoulder and I marked her. I sat up straight in my bed as sweat covered my forehead and Axel growled in my head.

“She’s our bonded half,” he said as the memories he had stored flooded through me.

“She’s pregnant,” I said out loud.

“Our child,” Axel said angrily as I shot out of bed and raced down the stairs.

Her house was dark and her car still wasn’t there and I could feel the loss of her in my life. That empty void in my soul was Finley. The loss I couldn’t explain before now, it was all Finley. That’s why she smelled familiar, that’s why the baby smelled familiar, because it was mine. It was a mix of my scent and Finley’s scent together that made him.

“You’re an idiot!” Axel roared at me.

“You’re one too!” I yelled back.

“We need to find her,” he said as I walked across the street and tried her door once more.

It was locked and too quiet. I broke the handle and pushed the front door open and walked inside. Her scent was faint, she hadn’t been there all week and it felt almost suffocating. I took the stairs up to her bedroom and stopped in front of what used to be my room.

It took my breath away as I looked at the finished product. I hadn’t even helped, I had gotten so angry when Connor had tried to tell me the truth that I left and Connor had done all this for my child. The emotions were almost too much to handle.

“Get a grip,” Axel said as I turned to Finley’s room and switched the light on.

“She’s gone, Axel,” I said as I looked at the empty places in her open cupboard.

Her clothes were gone and so were a lot of random things from her room. The baby’s room was equally empty as I looked at it again. There were no clothes or blankets or diapers, just nothing. She was running and this time she was running from me.

“Someone has to know where she is, Connor, Archer or Kat,” Axel said as he growled again.

I pulled her front door closed behind me as I ran to my truck and raced down the street back to Newport and the clowder house. The patrol warriors let me through without any problems and I skidded to a halt in front of the house and barged inside. It was nearing four am as I stalked through the house and then hammered my fist on his door.

“Get out here!” I yelled and I heard footsteps.

“Damon?” he asked as he wiped a hand across his face.

“Where is she?” I asked him as Axel tried to push forward.

“Where is who?” he asked me.

“Stop covering, Connor, where’s Finley?” I yelled.

By this time I had attracted the attention of Archer and Kat and Jared as they all came down the hall from separate ends as I yelled and slammed my fist against the wall.

“Damon, what the hell is going on?” Jared asked me.

“I want to know where Finley is and Connor is covering like he has been this entire time!” I said.

“About what?” Jared asked me.

“She’s pregnant and I remember everything! Where’s Finley?” I yelled again.

“You remember?” Jared asked me.

“Yes, I remember everything and now Finley’s gone,” I said as I leaned against the wall.

Archer had his phone in his hand and he tried calling her number. It went straight to voicemail as everyone looked at him.

“I promise you, Damon, I don’t know where she is. The last time I saw or spoke to her was that day you were there,” he said to me.

“He’s telling the truth, Damon,” Jared said gently.

“I know!” I said angrily.

“Keeps going to voicemail, why would she leave and why wouldn’t she say she’s pregnant?” Archer asked.

“We had a misunderstanding, she’s running, Archer, I know she is. Where would she run to?” I asked him.

“I don’t know, I know she had a plan in place with Jackson, but I mean he’s dead,” he said.

“She’s been gone for six days now,” I said as I stalked down the stairs.

“Damon, we’ll find her, we’ll alert packs everywhere to keep an eye out for her, trace her phone to see where it was on last,” Jared said as he led me to the living room.

“She thinks I don’t remember her and I said terrible things to her. She probably hates me, but she’s alone and pregnant and….” I said as I stopped talking.

“We’ll find her,” Jared said as he pushed a glass into my hand and told me to drink.

Two days went by and then Archer’s phone rang. His face told me it was Finley as he stood up and answered the phone quickly and put it on speaker so we could all hear her.

“Finley, where the hell are you?” Archer asked her.

“Geez hi Archer, I’m well thanks, how are you?” she replied cocky as ever.

“This isn’t the time for games, you’re pregnant?” he asked her and I could almost hear her intake of breath.

“Connor has a big mouth,” she said and he laughed dryly.

“Where are you?” he asked her.

“I’m safe,” she said to him as a baby started crying in the background.

“Is that… did you already have the baby?” he asked her.

“Yes, he’s perfect,” I said and I knew she was smiling.

“He?” Archer asked her.

“I named him Griffin,” she said and my heart was beating so loudly I was sure she’d be able to hear it.

“Where are you? Damon’s going out of his mind with this baby story,” he said.

“Screw Damon!” she yelled angrily and I closed my eyes briefly. I had expected that.

“That’s exactly why I won’t tell you where I am, he can go to hell!” she said and the phone call was cut off.

“Call her back,” I said.

The phone rang twice before going over to voicemail and when he tried again it was off. He almost crushed his phone as his eyes flashed between blue and yellow and I could see he was near the point of losing control.

“Breathe through it,” I said to him as I held his gaze. His eyes went back to blue as he took deep breaths and I could feel Axel pushing me.

It had now been almost three weeks and Finley hadn’t called again. Archer tried to call her every day and he sent her numerous texts as well but everything remained unanswered. I was slowly busy losing my mind knowing that my son was out there somewhere.

“What about her friends?” Connor asked me one afternoon as we sat in the office with Jared.

The different packs, lairs and clowders hadn’t seen her and everybody in Vermont was looking for her. I had received a copy of Griffin’s birth certificate and she hadn’t even listed me as the father, it stated unknown and that infuriated me for some reason. She had registered him as Griffin Blake, I was beyond angry at this point.

“Fuck,” I said as I stood up.

“I’ll go with you,” Connor said as he followed me outside.

“No, this is my problem,” I said to him as I spun away from the clowder house and headed back to St Albans.

I drove the hour and a half back to the town and stopped in front of Harley’s house. I took a few deep breaths as Axel growled and threatened to kill anyone that refused to give us information about her. I knocked on the door twice before I heard footsteps.

“Oh geez, what the hell do you want?” Wells asked me as he opened the door.

“Where’s Finley?” I asked him as I pushed the door open and walked inside.

“She’s not here, asswipe,” he said to me and I turned to glare at him.

“Ubi est Finley?” I asked as my eyes glowed yellow and his eyes glazed over. I was using the full force of my Alpha aura to make him submit to me, not caring if it hurt him in the process.

“She’s in East Whiteland,” he said automatically.

“Oblivisci,” I said and pulled the door closed behind me.

I got back into the truck and called Jared as soon as I got on the highway. No wonder we couldn’t find her, she wasn’t in Vermont but in fucking Pennsylvania. I hadn’t thought that she’d go that far away, not from her home and friends but clearly I had underestimated her.

“Damon,” he answered.

“She’s in East Whiteland, Pennsylvania,” I said to him.

“They told you?” he asked me, surprise lacing his voice.

“Of course not,” I said and he cleared his throat.

“You shouldn’t go alone,” he said to me.

“Already on the highway, check to see if she’s listed anywhere, a rental or hotels, she’ll have to have a doctor there for Griffin, shots and so on, try all her aliases,” I said to him.

“Are you giving me orders?” Jared asked me as I growled.

“Just fucking do it,” I said.

“Aye aye captain,” he said and I ended the call as Axel laughed in my head.

We drove the six and a half hours straight through to East Whiteland and I hadn’t even bothered to check the pinging of my phone. I’d find her, no matter what. I’d never stop looking for her or my son and she’d better have a good explanation about why she ran.

“Take it easy Damon, you were pretty rough with her,” Axel said.

“I don’t care, Axel, that’s my son!” I said angrily.

“That she thinks you know nothing about,” he said, taking her side once again like he always did.

“I don’t care,” I said to him.