Passion

Calum paused when the voicemail came on. Devin was probably busy with his mate, again. He grinned, “Guess you’re busy with…royal mating…stuff.” He chuckled. “I’m at the bottom of some mountain, in the middle of the back-country nowhere—even more than your camp nowhere kind of deal. I’ve tracked my missing clan members to here.” He glanced up the incline to the dense, foliage-covered mountain. “I’ll let you know when I find out more.” He hung up and sighed. Maybe being away right now was a good thing. With Devin newly mated and Kelsey coming home to Gage…it was going to be messy with a whole lot of true-mate issues that Calum didn’t have, couldn’t relate to, and hoped he’d never have to go through himself. His responsibilities with the alliance didn’t leave him time for those distractions.

Turning off his phone, he stuffed it into the waterproof bag and sealed it, then jammed it into his pack. Normally he didn’t take his phone with him, but this was an unknown area and knowing he’d have it, just in case, made him feel better. The challenge would be not to lose his pack, as he’d been known to do occasionally.

The small village he’d stopped at had warned him away from coming here, despite confirming they’d seen the men from his clan in the photos he’d shown. They’d said there was bad juju on this mountain, and few ever came down off it. Calum wasn’t sure about the juju garbage, but if there was even a small chance of the males from his clan being on this mountain, he was going up to find them.

That little village was on the strange side. The way the people watched him gave him the creeps. He wondered if they could smell an outside shifter in their territory, but he picked up no scents that led him to believe there were any shifters among them. He may be paranoid, and they could only be watchful of strangers. With the missing males from his clan, and Tomas’ association taking females from other clans, he was allowed to suspect everyone of nefarious intentions. If anyone had a problem with his suspicious nature, they could eat dirt as far as he was concerned.

It had taken him over an hour to get this far up with his car. He was definitely considering getting a truck when he got back. His car hadn’t been much good for off-roading. He looked around the area he’d parked. It may have, at one time, been a parking area or rest stop, but it was long deserted, overgrown and ignored. If anyone managed to get up here on the not-really-a-road trail he’d taken, they were more than welcome to break into his car. Locking it, he tucked the keys behind the front tire’s rim. He’d learned a long time ago to never take keys on trips into the great wilderness. Losing your clothes or pack was almost always a certainty, losing your keys left you trapped.

He looked back down the way he’d come again before turning toward the incline. “This should be fun.” He sighed and started climbing.

His senses were on overload, so many scents, all familiar, but not, at the same time. He took his time moving through the thick vegetation, checking for anything that might set off his animal instincts. His cat was already on full alert, which wasn’t necessarily unusual, but it made him more aware of what was around him, and a little jittery as well. As soon as he found something to follow, he’d shift and let his animal side take over the tracking.