SWNOVELS Chapter 33 - Stone (Part 1)
Stone groaned as pain seized his chest. He leaned against the brick wall of a building in an alley downtown and squeezed his eyes shut as the bittersweet ache dulled.
She’s still alive.
It was the first indication of her existence in the last six hours. She must have woke up and was scared. It would have felt different if she had been in any sort of physical pain. He prayed for the hundredth time to the Goddess that she was okay.
He sent out a mental message to everyone, to give them hope that all was not lost yet.
[Don’t worry, Alpha,] Alistair said. [We’ll bring her home tonight, even if we have to kill a hundred of those bloodsuckers to get to her.]
[Any chance of focusing in on her location?] Gunner asked.
Stone pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to dig into his mind and search for a thread of connection with her. Gavin managed to break into her mind in order to help Gwen, but he had the benefit of touch and a vessel to act through. This was different and far beyond normal pre-mating capabilities.
Still, there was no harm in trying. He had an emotional connection with her already, perhaps he’d be able to push the barriers and make a mental one as well?
Focusing on the thread that coiled around his heart, he gasped as the pain intensified.
Maybe digging deeper into her emotion wasn’t the best move to make?
[All I can get is an intensified feeling of her emotions, but I’ll keep trying,] Stone told Gunner. [It’s better than nothing.]
At least he would have some idea of how she was doing.
[Keep trying,] Gunner said. [Everything is connected.]
He nodded to himself, knowing that what Gunner said was true. Everything was connected.
Luckily, her emotions had subsided a bit at the moment, but he needed to keep a move on if he ever hoped to find her. He continued to play with the coil of emotion, drawing it from his heart and bending it, feeling it tug on other parts of his body—pinching up his left shoulder and twisting down his bicep.
With nothing else to go by, he continued his trek down the alley, sniffing for her scent or any of the three human scents they had managed to pick up outside the back door of the café.
After wandering around for hours and finding nothing, the werewolves were getting restless. Alpha Colten of the North Fang Pack kept calling Stone for updates on his search but every time, he got a negative growl in response.
The discovery that Stone’s mate was human, didn’t go well. Growled threats laced with hostility greeted Stone and Hector before Gunner and Alistair arrived, while Gavin stayed at the pack house to protect Gwen.
After a few threats, a chokehold on the werewolf alpha, and some more threats, they finally set out on the hunt for Aubree with the reluctant and skeptical werewolves.
They would have to make amends with them later.
[Alpha, I picked up on something interesting,] Alistair said half an hour later.
Stone’s heart leaped. [Location?]
[The old mill ruins next to the Saint Anthony Falls.]
That was a few miles away.
[Do you need back-up?] Stone asked as he spun around and ran down the alley as fast as his muscles would take him before he reached the street. He continued to march at a quick pace, weaving around pedestrians and crossing through an intersection that was jammed up with traffic.
[No idea, Alpha.]
[Fill Gunner in, and when we get there, we’ll see if we need to alert Hector and the werewolves,] Stone said.
[You got it. How far are ya?]
Stone rounded a corner and nearly bumped into a middle-aged man in the crowd approaching the crosswalk. His sharp reflexes enabled him to swerve around him effortlessly, but not before catching the glare the man sent. Stone ignored him, having more important matters on his mind.
[I’ll be there in a few minutes,] he said.
As soon as he broke through the swarms of traffic and pedestrians with the Stone Arch Bridge in sight, he broke into a jog—or what would look like a sprint for a human—and hurried as slowly as he could muster.
The rush of running water from the Saint Anthony Falls filled his senses as he looked around for Alistair. The freshwater smell floating up in the air from the falls yards away made it difficult to pick up on Alistair’s scent.
[Where are you?] he asked as he was about to walk under the old brick archway of the bridge. A loud whistle to his right caught his attention and he spun around to find its source.
[The ruins, Alpha. Down here.]
Stone looked over the railing and saw Alistair standing in the middle of the old mill.
Limestone lined with old bricks erected the bank of the Mississippi River and under him as well. The mill had been built in the nineteenth century and these two brick walls were all that remained of what was once the small fort-turned-town back in the early days of their arrival.
The area was fenced to keep the locals and curious tourists from wandering too close to what was left of the old structure and causing more damage. It was a small piece of history that everyone enjoyed, though none more than the lycans, who lived during the times when the old mill stood strong and functional.
The smell of the freshwater cleared his head from the downtown scents of litter, gasoline, and various foods cooking in restaurants.
He looked around him before climbing over the fence and jumping down to the first slab of limestone on the structure. Piles of uneven brick and limestone littered the corner of the ruins under him. It had to be at least a twelve-foot drop, and although he noticed that he could follow the ridge of the wall he stood on to the open corner that ended under the bridge, where the ground sloped around it, he jumped anyway and landed with a thump on the brick ground a few yards from Alistair.
“Ah, you took the short-cut, just like me. I knew you would.” Alistair walked up to Stone’s side and clasped him on the shoulder.
“No time for the scenic route,” Stone said. “Show me what you found.”
“This takes me back, ja?” Alistair said as he moved over to Stone’s left, where there was an arched sewer grate. Ankle-deep water stood still at the opening. “Like looking back in time, only these are the haunted remains of what was the foundation of our great big city.”
Stone didn’t have time, nor the patience, to appreciate the ruins, and he let out a low growl in warning.
Without so much as cracking a smile, Alistair flicked his wrist out and held his hand up to Stone’s face. A thread of long, golden hair wound around his finger. Stone didn’t have to ask for a closer inspection of it; he knew it was Aubree’s.
His eyes narrowed at Alistair. “Where did you find it?”
Alistair was all business and matter-of-fact. “Caught on the fence here,” he said, pointing to the fence that wound around the ruins.
“We’ve inspected these ruins numerous times over the decades and found nothing. What makes you question them now?” Stone asked, although he had no doubt in his mind that finding Aubree’s hair meant that she had been through here recently.
Taking his shoes off, Alistair walked into the stagnant water and up to the arched sewer gate. Stone could see the lock hanging there and Alistair flicked it with his finger.
“Gate’s unlocked. It was always locked in the past.”
Stone nodded before taking his own shoes off and stepping into the water.
[Gunner, we’re investigating the old mill ruins. Guard it,] Stone said as Alistair slipped through the iron gate.
He called Hector and filled him in, requesting that he patrol the area for potential threats while he and Alistair inspected the underground passageway.
Darkness enveloped them like a cold, wet glove as they slipped soundlessly into the tunnel. Water dripped along the old brick walls around them as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. The stench of stale water, dirt, feces, urine, and gasoline clung to the air. They pulled their shirts over their noses, but it was futile. The stench was overwhelming, but they pressed forward through the tunnel as it slowly inclined upward and opened up to the main underground sewer system to the downtown core.
A small ledge ran on both sides of the tunnel as it narrowed and they had to hunch forward. Rats scurried along its slimy, feces-encrusted surface, making it look more dangerous to trek on. They shifted their feet into their enormous claw-like paws for better grip on the slimy bricks underfoot, their movements stirring up the water and the fumes underneath to rise up.
Alistair swore in Stone’s head. [I can’t breathe in here.]
Stone grunted and pressed forward.
More tunnels opened up on both sides of them, left and right, with more tunnels opening up down each of those.
Which way should they go?
The stench of the sewer water blocked their ability to pick up Aubree’s scent or the humans that brought her here. Noise from the city overhead echoed in the dank, thick air of the tunnel, making it impossible to catch the slightest sounds of anything else beyond the walls or down other tunnels.
It was a maze that they walked blindly down, and Stone’s chest tightened in fear.
What if they couldn’t find Aubree?