Chapter 148 Chapter 148
They sat in a location where they could see in all directions and keep an eye on the women.
“Did Dev and Gage know they were sending you to fetch nine females?” There was no hint of humor in his tone.
Blair swished the cold coffee around in the cup before drinking the rest. He shook his head, “no. They were as surprised as I was.”
Calum said nothing for a few seconds. “You know the chances of any of their clan returning is pretty fucking low, right?”
Looking over to where Kobie was, he nodded, “Yeah.” He motioned to her with a jerk of his head. “Kobie thinks she’d know if her twin was dead though.”
Calum blew out a long breath. “It’s possible, stranger things have happened.” He looked all around them for a moment. “I made a quick call while Shae was getting everything ready.” He looked over at his mate, “Dev’s dad says it is part of the Tomas group that has been taking their clan members.”
“I figured as much. As soon as Fish told me they were being followed and saw it was nine females, my guts hardened.”
Calum nodded, “Yeah and we’re not in the clear yet.” He pointed in the direction they’d met up. “We’ll get down to the bottom and then stay there the night. We left some supplies down there hidden, but Jesse won’t be here with transportation until morning.” He looked at him and grinned, “but I thought you could use some backup before that.”
Blair shook his head and leaned on his knees, “yeah.” He rubbed a hand through his hair, “I’m so far out of my league here.” He shrugged, “I thought, yeah, go pick them up and drive them to another location.”
“Well, if they’d had all the facts, they would have sent someone else with you.” He paused and visibly inhaled, “Tomas has us running in so many directions right now, my gut says it’s on purpose, my head says it’s because he’s desperate.”
“So which is right?” Blair checked on the women again, his eyes lingering on Kobie longer than the rest.
“Both. He’s desperate, so he’s trying to keep us running in circles.” He gave him a steady look, “But you got them this far on your own, so no, you are not out of your league doing this.” Calum nodded slowly, “most would have tried to outrun them on the road, but you had the sense to throw several thousand trees in their path instead.”
Blair smirked, “and a few ravines.” He sobered quickly. “I was just trying to clear my head…”
“How’s that going?” His tone was serious.
Blair snorted softly, “I don’t even know anymore.” He looked back over at Kobie and Daisie standing there with her, “but I’ve been too busy to get hung up by it for the past few days.”
“Good.” Calum nodded his head once, “she’s someone else’s mate, you knew that going in and knew the eventual outcome.”
Blair nodded. None of it was wrong.
“Besides, I think you might have something new to contend with,” he made a point of turning his head and looking at Kobie slowly.
Blair gave him a blank look for thirty seconds. “Why?” He looked from Kobie back to Calum.
“I’m no expert, but her reaction to two women phoning you was a pretty good indicator.”
Blair snapped his head back to look at Kobie. She was smiling at something Shaelan said. “No, what? Do you think she was jealous? There’s nothing between us.” He knew that was a small lie. She was spectacular, and his cat was besotted with Kobie’s. He turned back to Calum, who just raised one eyebrow and looked at him. Blair shook his head, “you think it’s more?” Blair smirked at him, “I’d know, I would scent it—my cat would know.”
Cal crossed his arms over his chest and stared out into the trees. “Would you? Those perfumes or oils she’s wearing are pretty fucking strong. Lemon and something sweet…”
“She’s wearing perfume? Anyone that can shift knows that will mess with their animal form—” He blew out a breath, “she had me put this rank shit under my nose before they got to me so I couldn’t smell anything but that—a few of the girls are close to their…” Blair stood up and put his hands on his hips and stared down at the ground, “holy shit, Cal,” He looked at the big man, “she does this thing with rubbing alcohol to cover their tracks and it works—”
Calum stood up, “you think Tomas’ people know about it?”
“It’s the only thing that would explain why we always lose their scent.”
“Shit.” Calum pulled out his phone, then motioned to the others, “get everyone ready while I message Dev, we need to get moving. If they are following you, they could be here already.”
Nodding, Blair turned to go over to the others. Why would a shifter wear perfume? Was it another thing she used to keep people from scenting her cycles? No, then the others would be too, and he knew they weren’t.
Shaelan came over to him. She looked to Calum, “I know that look. What’s he plotting now?”
Blair grinned, “no plotting, more like answers to a problem we’ve been trying to solve for a while now.”
“What problem?” Kobie came over.
Blair motioned around them. “Not this one, another one we’ve been trying to figure out for a while.”
“With the missing women?” Shaelan asked.
Blair gave her a surprised look; the fact Calum had shared information told him that having a mate had changed the man he thought was unchangeable. “Yeah. We’ve tried tracking them and lost them in the middle of nowhere.” He gave Kobie a look, “I told him about you and the rubbing alcohol.”
She nodded. “It works better than anything else I’ve tried.”
“Did you discover it by trial and error?” Shaelan asked her.
Kobie shook her head, “no, one of the elders told me about it, so I tried it to see.”
Calum came over and looked around, no one was ready to go.
“Got distracted.” Blair said, then motioned to the others and spoke to Kobie, “we’re heading out.”
Calum looked at his mate, “I’ll shift along with Blair to track anyone else out there.”
Shaelan nodded, “at least I can wear the backpack on my back this time.” She gave him a soft look and went over to help the others get ready.
“I’m shifting too.” Kobie gave Calum a look, daring him to say otherwise.
Calum inclined his head.
When she walked away, Calum looked at Blair, a half-smirk on his face.
“Alpha’s daughter,” Blair said softly and then turned to go get his pack.
Kobie followed a good enough distance behind Blair that she could still scent everything around them as they went down to the bottom of the mountain. Reacting like she had when Daisie had told him who called wasn’t her best moment. If she hadn’t been in cat form, she would have handled it differently. She paused and looked behind them, then continued when she noticed nothing out of place. Who was she kidding, she would have reacted worse in a two-legged state, because at least as a cat she couldn’t say what she had been thinking?
Blair stopped and looked back at her. When he continued to stand there, she picked up the pace, so he’d start moving again. He waited until she was beside him to walk again.
What was she doing? Kobie didn’t know the man. She’d only just met him, and really, maybe this Kelsey and Layna were sisters or something. She’d overreacted, and it had happened before she could stop it. If she wasn’t exhausted, anxious, and worried, she was sure she’d have a better handle on her emotions. Or hoped she would.
She should just tell him what was going on. That would be the simplest solution. Tell him he was her mate and her cat had her doing things that were—unpredictable. If she could roll her eyes in cat form, she would have. Telling him was the worst possible thing she could do.
Calum came running past her so fast she startled. Stopping, she turned to see him running fast through the area to her right. She took in the scents and couldn’t smell anything off. Blair came over and bumped her with his shoulder, telling her to keep going and let Calum be Calum. Hesitantly, she turned and ran up to the front so she could watch in that direction.
She noticed Shae give her backpack to Torrey at the same time Franki was passing hers off to Nichelle. Both women were ready to shift now if necessary. Shaelan watched to her left, barely looking in front of her again. She wasn’t sure why her mate had taken off like that, but she would back him up if needed.
Pausing, she watched until Blair was in sight again. He didn’t seem stressed out that his friend had taken off. She just needed this to end. She’d never been so off her game as she had been in the last few days.
Shaelan motioned to go through a small pathway, so Kobie turned and lead the group that way. She could smell that Calum and his mate had been this way before and wondered if they’d found a good place to stop before coming to meet them. These people were very well organized. It was the only thing that made her feel better that her brother and father had set up this emergency plan without telling her.
She walked through a group of trees to see a hollowed-out area that wasn’t quite a cave about twenty feet ahead. It had a good place to sit on top to keep watch, and there was no way to get around it in any direction but head-on. Turning she glanced at Shaelan, who nodded. This is where they were staying until morning.