Thirty-one.

Elijah sighed, frustrated at himself. He had let his temper get the best of him and he knew it. Colt was his mate, even if she wasn't jumping into his arms at every opportunity the way he wished, she was beginning to relax around him more, and seemed to have accepted that they did have a bond in the first place. He wished he wasn't so impatient, that he could slow his desires down, but he struggled to mask his disappointment at being away from her. A disappointment that clearly turns into a ridiculous jealousy, of anyone else she is around other than him. He was thoroughly scolding himself as he walked back to the cabin, shuffling his feet while kicking the odd stone he came across along the track. He hadn't even known she would be in the bar at first, and it had killed him not to run straight to her, like his inner lupine side wished him to, when he had seen her. Although even on this front, if he were honest with himself, he had been hoping it would be a possibility, thst she would be there when he decided to leave for a drink.

When he arrived at the cabin, he opened the door carefully, not wanting to damage the repair he had made on the other side, and walked in to find Marcus on a call with Marissa. Marcus was sat, feet up completely relaxed on one of the couches, talking while eating chips from a bag, and Elijah couldn't help the touch of envy he felt at his Gamma's ease and comfort with his mate. He made a mental note to ask how he managed to maintain it while being apart from her though, maybe there wa some trick he was missing.

By passing the lover's private conversation, he went straight to the fridge and pulled out a couple of beers, having left the remainder of his earlier in the bar to sullenly walk home. He was thoroughly miserable and drank half of the first beer before he had even taken a step away from the fridge. It didn't help one bit, how beautiful he thought his mate looked earlier, as she chastised him then chased him away. Damn she was sexy when she was mad, he thought.

Elijah, took a deep breath and went through to the lounge area intending to sink into the couch and wallow in his own self pity.

Marcus nodded in thanks at the beer he was given, before he quickly finished his up his call, with a bit of concern etched across his face, at Elijah's suddenly sombre mood .

"What's up with you, Eli? That was a quick trip to the bar." he asked, perplexed at what had brought Elijah back only thirty minutes after he had left.

Elijah silently took a swig of his beer and turned to Marcus tilting his head before asking, "How do you do it? How are you ok being apart from Marissa, I just dont get it. I have barely known Colt for a week, and I feel like I'm going madder now than I was before. You and Marissa have been together for years, and you're totally fine. What am I doing wrong, Marcus?"

"Jeeze, Eli, is that what you think?" Marcus asked in shock "I am definitely not okay. She is on my mind every minute of every day, and it kills me not to be able to hold her." he sighed wistfully, "But, we talk and more obviously, we have actually mated. You and Colt haven't. Theoretically, someone else could take her..." Marcus was interrupted by Elijah's deafening growl. "Hold on, I'm not saying anyone will. Apart from anything else, if Colt could just be 'taken' I'm betting we wouldn't still be here right? Anyway as you just proved, it unsettles the male to have found his mate, but not have claimed her yet." he shrugged taking a swig of his beer, "There's nothing wrong with you."

Elijah nodded appreciating Marcus' advice. He felt incredibly lucky in his choice of friends, especially moments like these.

"Where's Zachary anyway?" he asked. "Running?"

"Yeah, he hates this time of year." Marcus nodded, sympathetically. "So, what happened at the bar?" he asked again, still curious as to what brought his Alpha back so soon.

"I got into an argument with Colt." he sagged. "She was having dinner with her friend, who if I'm honest, is obviously a good friend, but.." he trailed off.

"Her friend told you off didn't she? For causing trouble again?" Marcus guessed the outcome, with a half smile on his face. "Then Colt told you off for being aggressive towards her friend right?"

"Yeah, which is stupid. The woman's an elephant shifter for crying out loud. She could shift and kill me effortlessly, but I couldn't help it. At least I know Colt will be safe with her." he sighed, feeling thoroughly sorry for himself. "They have expensive taste too by the looks of it. They were drinking a very nice bottle of champagne, I mean a very nice one. Yet, here I am, jealous that Colt is experiencing a fucking alcoholic drink with someone else instead of me. Fuck! This is shit."

"Wait a minute." Marcus asked, "Colt is drinking tonight?" He was shocked.

"Yeah why?" Elijah asked, startled at Marcus' sudden shift to concern about Colt drinking.

"Isla called earlier, 'to check in', it seems she will be resuming an adoptive mother stance, over me. Anyway, that's not important, she said that she had taken Colt to the hospital this morning after a heavy sparring session...." Marcus began.

"Wait, do you know who she was sparring with? Colt refuses to tell me." Elijah interrupted, finally hoping ro get some satisfaction, for at least one of his unanswered questions.

"Yeah, her Dad. But, that's not the important bit here Elijah." Marcus tried to sway Elijah back on topic.

"Her Dad!!" he said shocked, it was the last name he expected to hear. "But, he beat the crap out if her. Why? Second to me he is supposed to be the most trustworthy at keeping her safe."

"Yeah, well from what Auntie Isla said, Uncle Kalvin is currently eating soup through a straw, thanks to his broken jaw. Any way Elijah.." Marcus tried to speak again.

"She broke his jaw?" Elijah spoke in shock, but with a brief smirk at Colt's ability all the same. "What kind of family is this?"

"For the love of my sanity Elijah, shut up and let me finish! " Marcus barked. When be recieved no response, bar the raising of an eyebrow he continued, "Colt was given very strong pain killers at the hospital. She isn't allowed alcohol! It can have deadly effects if mixed with opioids."

Finally the penny dropped for Elijah, and panic for his mate set in. "Why the hell didn't you say sooner!" He bellowed. "Never mind, let's go. Find Zachary, then meet me in the bar. I have a lion shifter to speak to."

Not hanging around to see of Marcus would follow his orders, Elijah was up and out of the front door, so fast he put the dent back into the drywall behind it.

------

Elijah made it back to the resort bar in under ten minutes, and was impatiently tapping his foot as his body vibrated with the desperate effort he was making, to not make another scene at Colt's place of work. But waiting for Felix to come over to 'serve' him, was agonisingly working on his last raw nerve.

Another bartender, human by the smell appeared. She was a beautiful woman and fluttering her eyes prettily at Elijah as she attempted to find out his order. "Hey Sugar," she started with an exaggerated Southern drawl.

"No." came the interrupting growl. "Not you. Him." He snarled pointing at Felix.

"Alrighty then." she said holding her hands up in submission, while backing away.

Elijah grunted his brief approval at her response, as she backed off to serve someone else. After what felt like an age to him, Felix came over.

"Back so soon? People will talk Mr. Lupus." Felix jokingly flirted.

"Don't. Just tell me where they are?" He demanded briskly.

"Oh, sorry. No can do." Felix shrugged. "Totally outside of my remit and I ain't taking the blame for you crashing their night twice. Anyway, I..."

"Damn it, Cat! I need to know where to find her." Elijah barked.

"Here, have a scotch it will help." Felix offered, going towards the bottles ar the back.

"No." Elijah growled menacingly in response. "She is in trouble! You have to tell me where to find her."

At this Felix froze, frowning as he turned back around. Davis who was on duty that night, had edged closer at Elijah getting worked up, in case he would need to step in, also came fully forward at this point. As well as the female bar tender who turned from fearful to concerned for her boss.

"What do you mean?" Felix asked his eyes narrowed accusingly.

"I mean I need to get to my mate. Colt's in trouble. She's been drinking, while on Opioids, for fuck sake! It could kill her!" he roared.

The barmaid dropped her glass, the sound of it shattering echoing throughout the room. Davis fully emersed in the conversation placed a hand on Elijah's shoulder briefly, to subtly warn him to calm down.

But Felix asked, "Colt wouldn't do that, she ain't that reckless. What makes you so sure, Wolf?" he was annoyed at the potential slander of his boss' reputation and instantly went into a defensive mode.

"Are you kidding me?" Elijah barked, visibly enraged by the suggestion he was making it up. "Well, we have both seen her drinking, and her Mom told her nephew, who happens to be my Gamma, that she was on them, you fucking moron! I wouldn't be here if there wasn't a fucking issue!"

"Shit! Does Becks know?" Felix asked shocked, he was completely taken aback, knowing Isla wouldn't lie about it, and joining the dots of how the news reached Elijah.

"I'm guessing, not. The way she chewed my hide for 'disrespecting' Colt, she's obviously protective." Elijah snorted. "Now, where has she gone."

"Look, if I knew I would tell you. But it's a girl's night so I'm reasonably out of the loop." came Felix's dejected response.

"Shit!" he growled, scrubbing his face and slamming his fists on the bar in frustration.

Davis, was wracking his brain trying to think of something to help started talking out his thought process. "There's three local towns, down the mountain with a night scene.They will be in one of them Mr. Lupus. We can organise a search team, there will be plenty of volunteers to help, she is important to all of us. Each group can pick a town and do a systematic sweep."

Elijah appraised the giant of a man beside him, and nodded along to his thought process. "Thank you, that's what we will have to do then."

"Wait! Davis." called the woman's voice from behind the bar, approaching the bear as she was too afraid to call out to Elijah himself.

"Yes Sandy?" said the bear looking kindly down on her. His soft spot for the lady shining through.

"Start in Merton Falls" she offered.

"Why?" barked Elijah, earning him a small growl from the bear beside him, when Sandy jumped in fright.

"Be...be...because, "she stuttered, "I..I.. It has a larger LGBTQ scene, most women who want a girl's night without being bothered by unwanted attention and come ons go there. There's three clubs and about a dozen bars. But most of the bars will be closed now, so I'd start at the clubs." she offered her information.

"Thank you." Elijah said with some hope shining in his eyes.

She nodded her head and scurried away to serve some more customers, with Davis' eyes looking after her longingly.

"The clubs are utter dives there Mr. Lupus, one even is literally called Dive. But they are friendly. Mercy on West Falls Street probably has the best music though. I would try there first." Felix suggested.

"Thank you. I will." Elijah called out as he ran out of the bar.

As he rounded the corner to the front of the Hotel, he spotted Zachary and Marcus hurriedly making their way inside.

"Let's go." he barked, and without question they about turned, all three of them heading for the SUV in the parking lot.

----

An hour later the three men exited the small club known as Mercy, having had no luck in finding Colt there. Moving on they found the next club after twenty minutes, it was tucked down an alleyway that smelled suspiciously of urine, and other bodily fluids they did not wish to dwell on.

"She's not in here." Zachary said in disgust as they waited in line. "There's just no way."

"We are checking." Elijah barked, struggling to hold himself back from barging through the line of people, and into the nameless club.

However, they were stunned when they eventually made it inside. The club interior looked as though it was the inside of a glitter ball, that had been thrown up on by a unicorn. Everything shined and sparkled. All white, silver and chrome coloured glitter, wherever they looked. Unfortunately though, no where that they surveyed was Colt to be seen.

Elijah turned after five minutes, and stormed back out to head to the river front where the last remaining club was to try, his hope starting to dwindle. When the three men approached the doors, the bright neon sign above them that read 'DIVE' was flickering wildly in it's attempt to stay alight. They approached the building and managed to pay their entry fee in without incident, as there was no line outside of customers waiting on entry. This fast track experience was just the beginning of their luck, because as soon as they were inside, by the cloak room Elijah started to feel excited. Breathing in deeply, he knew at last they had found her.

"She's here, come on." he said needlessly to the others, who had perfectly capable noses themselves, in so much as they recognised their Luna's scent as well.

Elijah opened the door to the main room of the club. It definitely suited it's name. This place was a mess. But right by the bar stood the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, dressed in black wet look leggings that looked like a second skin, tight round her ass while displaying her long toned legs. His eyes trailed upwards as he moved towards her, appreciating the deep green chiffon tank top showing off Colt's dainty waist and bare shoulders. His eyes were jerked from admiring the sway of her high pony tail bouncing around her shoulders, to her hand as she lifted a shot glass to her mouth and he just managed to reach her in time to remove it from her grasp.

"What the hell are you playing at woman?" he bellowed, loudly at her.