Wild and Free

Chapter Chapter Twenty-two



(Mason’s POV)

It’s amazing how composed a person can seem, their entire life, but one thing can happen to make them change entirely.

Riley had always been the most composed, selfless, respectful person I’d ever known, always making sure there wasn’t some other option before resorting to violence. Not once had I seen him raise his voice at anyone without probable cause and even though on the battlefield he was a ruthless warrior, he would never have the stomach or heart to torture someone or sentence them to death like an Alpha has to. Riley was a good person, through and through, and having Cassie in his life just made it better for him.

But the guy standing in front of me in that moment, wasn’t Riley.

Greyson and I literally dragged his thrashing body away from the group of people in the lobby and into the nearest empty room. That room just happened to be my Father’s office.

I used all my strength to keep his arms restrained but one slipped past my grip and unfortunately landed a nice painful sounding punch on Greyson’s right cheek. He groaned and stumbled back on impact. I felt bad for Greyson but the shock in that moment gave me the opportunity I needed to pin our psychotic friend to the ground.

It took a while but slowly, Riley calmed down. All of us were breathing heavily and I was still holding my friend by his throat to the floor. Our clothes were still soaking wet and despite the help of being warmer than the average human would normally be, we still shivered from the cold of them clinging to our skin.

Once I was sure Riley wouldn’t knock the living daylights out of me, I released him. I got to my feet but he remained in a broken heap on the floor.

“I’m sorry Grey,” he muttered.

Greyson glanced at me. It was so like Riley to think about someone else in such a tough situation. We knew he hadn’t meant to hurt Greyson but we couldn’t do anything to stop him from feeling bad. His mind wasn’t his in the moment.

“I have to get him back,” Riley said, forcing himself off the floor and turning himself toward the door.

Greyson and I stepped forward and pushed him back. He looked at us like we were crazy but we knew that we couldn’t let him leave.

“No you’re going to stay here,” I told him, guiding him to the large brown leather couch in the sitting area of the office.

“To hell I am!” He yelled. “You think I’m just going to sit here in your dad’s office and let some idiots put in their half assed attempts at finding him? He’s my brother!”

“I know that! But if you go out there now, you’re going to rip someone’s head off or do something else you’ll regret,” I explained in a stern voice. I wondered if that was how parents scolded their kids.

“Bullshit. You think that I would waste my time on some random people that get in the way? Hell no. I need to find Ben.”

To say I was a bit taken aback with his response would be an understatement. The guy I knew always listened to reason whether he believed it was true or not. And Riley almost never cursed, let alone twice in a single statement.

I shook my head, “I’m sorry but I can’t let you leave.”

“Both of them are probably miles away by now if not dead and your men are still looking on the grounds!” He yelled, the anger and frustration evident in his tone.

“Would you think about this straight?” I asked him. “Ben isn’t the only one missing. Beta William and his family are probably freaking out just as much if not more. You can’t just go barreling into the forest without thinking first.”

“I don’t see why me going out there wouldn’t benefit his family too, especially if I found them,” he replied stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes, “Then think about it this way,” I said, “Ben and Chris aren’t dumb kids they wouldn’t get separated from their group without a reason. Don’t you think that reason might be dangerous? We can’t have you going missing too.”

“Just listen to him Riles, Mason’s right,” Greyson said, rubbing his cheek that had turned a nice pink color. “You and your wolf aren’t in a position to be making decisions.”

He opened his mouth to argue something else but I spoke first.

“Just let me go and see for myself what everyone’s doing okay?” I reasoned. “I’ll check and make sure that they’ve searched every inch of the grounds before I tell the to check the forest. I’ll also go into town and grab Cassie.”

“You’re kidding, you’re going to bring her here?” Greyson asked, wearing a shocked expression that mirrored Riley’s.

I shrugged, “She’s his mate, she’d have to come here at some point. And we’re obviously not doing the best job at controlling him so maybe she’ll have better luck,” I explained. I glanced over at Riley who sat on the couch, his face buried in his hands.

Greyson looked at him hesitantly too and look uneasy but agreed to the plan, “Just be careful. Maybe get Holden and Kenzie too, it might not be the best timing but I think she should tell your father.”

“I can’t make her do anything but I can try,” I sighed. “Should I tell Auden too?”

He nodded, “I feel like she has a right to know. But I don’t know what you would tell everyone if you brought her here. Maybe it’s not the best idea.”

“She knows this town better than anyone, even the forest, I’m sure she could help,” I said.

“Maybe just ask her if she could help in the search?” He suggested. “Maybe there’s some spots in the woods that she would think they might go.”

I nodded, “Don’t let him out of your sight.,l I gestured toward Riley who I was sure was about to either pass out or fall asleep from exhaustion. I could never imagine how he felt. The situation had to be extremely overwhelming for him.

Ben was, obviously, Riley’s younger brother. Their parents were trackers for our pack so they were often away from the territory on projects. So that almost all the time left Riley home to take care of Ben. The two of them were extremely close as a result.

Riley and his brother looked so similar, it was kind of scary. The got their light brown hair from their mother but inherited the warm brown eyes from their father.

Don’t get me wrong, Mrs. and Mr. Anderson were nice people, and they loved their children, they just weren’t around as often as they probably should with a nine year old son. Riley knew this. They both did. And as sad as it was, his parents weren’t really around for the majority of his childhood, and they were repeating their mistake by skipping Ben’s. And now he was missing.

Riley’s situation and Auden’s, though both very different, made me thankful to have my father and my sister.

Before I went off to town to get Cassie and speak to Auden, I stopped by Kenzie’s room.

“Did you hear?” she asked the second she opened her door.

I nodded and she stepped aside so as to let me in.

“Is Riley okay? What about William?” she she went on worriedly.

“I haven’t seen William yet but Riley’s in rough shape,” I told her, looking out the big bay window in the corner of her room.

She looked down solemnly, “Father told me to stay in my room until dinner but I got a vision and I was getting restless.

My ears perked up at this, “What was it? Did you see the boys? Are they okay?”

“I don’t know exactly…” she trailed off, playing with the end of her dark brown braid. “They’re alive, I know that for sure. But one of them looked like they were injured.”

I rubbed my chin, thinking, “Well I guess that it’s better than being dead.”

She nodded in agreement, “But there was something else,” she bit her lip, not meeting my gaze.

I narrowed my eyes and stepped toward her, ducking my head to get her to look at me, “Kenz, what did you see?” I nearly demanded.

“They weren’t alone,” she mumbled. “There was another wolf with them.”

“Who was it,”

She shook her head, “Why does it matter! They’re safe-”

“Mackenzie, what are you not telling me? If there’s someone with them then they might be in danger! Knowing who that person is is more important than anything!” I exasperated.

“It was the black wolf!” she yelled. “It was the freaking black she-wolf okay?”

I stared at her in disbelief, “You can’t be serious.”

She nodded solemnly. I raked my hands through my hair furiously.

“Oh god we’ve got to find them,” I muttered.

“She wasn’t hurting them though!” Kenzie said, grabbing my arm, taking my hand in hers. “And they didn’t seem scared either. I don’t think that she was a threat to them.”

“Are you forgetting what she did to Riley and I? And she got away with nothing but a scratch on her leg,” I reminded her. “You think that she would be any different with them?”

“They are just kids,” she pointed out, “Even if she was the most merciless wolf ever, she would at least hesitate with them. We have to keep that in mind and just have faith that there is a person in her.”

Her brown eyes were begging, pleading me not to make any rash decisions. I couldn’t help but think if that was how I’d looked at Riley not ten minutes before.

I sighed and held back a groan, “Fine. I give her the benefit of the doubt that she won’t hurt them,” Kenzie relaxed but I held up a finger. “For now. But I have to go get Cassie and see if she can calm down Riley.”

She knit her brows, “You’re bringing her here?”

“Riley was going to have to bring her here eventually,” I said with a nod.

“Do you think that I should tell Father about Holden too?” she asked hesitantly.

I shrugged, “I don’t know I mean it might be a good time but he also might be pretty stressed about the boys and the pack being in chaos.”

She thought about it for a moment.

I couldn’t imagine being in her position. I mean, telling our father that she had found her mate was a big deal, let alone telling him that Holden was human.

Human mates, while they weren’t very common, often made it difficult to integrate them into a pack. No, we weren’t like vampires or anything where we ‘bit’ a human and they just magically become like us. You can’t just become a werewolf, it doesn’t work that way. Sure mates, after marked, can inherit certain capabilities that they did not possess before, but they didn’t change into a different creature.

Nevertheless, having a human mate was very different than a mate of your own species.

“I’m going to tell him,” she decided, straightening up a little. “It’s been weeks since I found out, Father’s bound to have noticed something different as it is. I just hope it doesn’t make everything worse.”

I shook my head, “Holden’s a trustworthy guy. And I’m sure once he learns that you and Riley and I all trust him, he will too.”

She gave me a small smile before grabbing her jacket and our car keys so we could head out.

~*~

“I knew something was wrong, I just knew it,” Cassie mumbled, pacing back and forth on the front porch of her house.

We arrived a couple minutes before and explained what had happened. The rain poured outside the cover over the porch and pelted the roof of the car.

Cassie was very different than her best friend, to say the least. Auden would never freak out after hearing that kind of news, whereas Cassie looked about an inch away from tears.

But part of me understood why. Not that I would really understand the mate bond, but I had an idea of what they would feel like.

When one was in pain or under stress, their mate could feel it. Maybe not if one was being stabbed or something, no it was just that sort of sensation that the other was going through pain. So while Riley was freaking out over his brother, and fighting us to try and get to him, it was no surprise that Cassie felt that he was under that kind of stress.

“I have to go to him. Please, bring me to him-”

I put my hand out to stop her, “Just wait a second. There’s a few things we have to warn you about and a few stops we have to make on the way,” I told her.

“Warn me? About what?” she asked, worry written on her features.

“The people of our pack are used to humans living around them but never interacting,” I began. “Most have never even spoken to one so you have to understand that they might not all be so welcoming to you as we have, even if you aren’t staying forever.”

She nodded, “I get that okay. Now can we go?”

I rolled my eyes at her impatience but nodded and we stepped out into the rain. I opened the passenger door of the car for her and she stepped inside, taking a moment to greet Kenzie and Holden who sat in the backseat, hands clasped together.

“So you’re sure we won’t get attacked the second we step out of the car?” Holden asked as I pulled out of Cassie’s driveway. I made my way onto one of the roads I remember walking on late at night when Auden took me to her apartment.

“It’s about a forty-three percent chance that they won’t rip your arms off,” I said, looking at him in the rearview mirror with a smirk.

He swallowed, “That’s…”

“Not forty-two percent?” Kenzie asked optimistically, squeezing her mate’s hand. He just groaned, making the rest of us laugh.

“Hey Kenz did you call Auden yet? Just to let her know we’re coming?” I asked my sister.

“Wait she’s coming too? I thought that no one could know that you guys told us?” Cassie asked, looking between me and Kenzie.

“They can’t. You guys are just exceptions because you were going to have to come at some point,” I explained.

“Then why are we going to her apartment?” she asked.

“We want to ask her if she would know anywhere that the boys might hide in the forest. She seemed to really know her way around the other week,” Kenzie answered.

I couldn’t tell why, but at pretty much the same moment, both Holden and Cassie’s heartbeats sped up. Perhaps I just hadn’t been paying attention but I made a note of it anyway.

“So you called her?” I asked Kenzie again.

She nodded, “No answer.”

Cassie knit her brows next to me, “That’s so unlike her, she always answers her phone.”

“Feel free to try too,” Kenzie suggested to her. “I’d feel bad if we just showed up at her house without her knowing.”

Cassie nodded and got out her phone, clicking on her friend’s name before putting it to her ear. I heard it ring three… four...five times and then it went to voicemail. She took the device away and looked down at it worriedly.

“I don’t understand,”

“Don’t worry we’re almost there anyway,” i informed her as we pulled into the fair sized parking lot of the blue eyed girl’s apartment strip.

There were two cars in the lot but neither that I recognized. For the first time I seemed to acknowledge the fact that Auden was forced to walk everywhere. I guess having to pay for food and bills didn’t leave much for a car.

I parked the car and unbuckled my seat belt, hearing the sound of all other three belts unbuckling around me as well.

“We’re all going in?” I asked, looking at each of them.

The nodded and I just shrugged, opening my door and dashing out through the rain, to the staircase that led up to the second floor of the building. I got to her door first, the others a step behind me.

I knocked but the door opened inward under the touch, creaking on its hinges.

The four of us all exchanged a glance before I pushed the door all the way open and stepping inside.

The place was freezing cold, just as it was the first time I’d been there.

“Auden?” Cassie called.

There was no answer. Just silence, and that was the strange part.

Cassie ran toward Auden’s bedroom door, Kenzie following behind her.

“Hello?” Holden yelled, once again not earning an answer.

The four of us checked the entire apartment, which did not take long seeing as how tiny it was.

“Now I’m getting worried,” Cassie bit her lip, her arms folded tightly over her chest.

“Maybe she’s at the diner?” Kenz suggested.

Holden shook his head, “Even if she was, she’d answer her phone.”

“What if it ran out of battery or something,” I proposed.

“Auden’s the kind of person that never lets it run out. Plus, she knows mine runs out all the time so she bought one for behind the counter so anyone can use it,” Cassie explained.

I rubbed my hands together, thinking of something else, “Could she be at school? I know sometimes she has things for her art class and you know how obsessive she gets-”

“She wouldn’t do that!” Cassie burst out, covering her face with her hands. “The teacher Mr. Green gave her a key to the room so she could do that if she even needed to.”

She stepped over to the small table by the door. The table had a dish on it in the shape of a painting palette. Very Auden. Cassie picked up a key with a paintbrush keychain attached to it.

“If she went to school she would’ve brought it. She obviously didn’t so where is she? Where would she go!”

My twin stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the blonde comfortingly. It didn’t seem to help much, and when something on the table caught her eye, she seemed to freak out even more.

She picked up the small chain from the worn wooden surface and dangled it in the air, so careful not to drop it it was as if she thought it was made of dynamite.

Holden looked at the necklace with wide eyes, “Okay if that’s here and she’s not, then something is definitely wrong,” he pointed at the backward crescent charm with a slightly shaky finger.

Cassie let out a stifled cry and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Okay, I think we need to get you back to the pack house. Riley’s stress is probably feeding off of yours and I can only hope that Greyson is still at least conscious when we get there,” I said. “Just hang in there Cassie. We’ll find her.”

She looked up at me, her eyes brimmed with tears, “Promise?”

“Promise,”

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

Anyway, yes, yes more drama. This thing with the boys is suspenseful for the characters but not necessarily supposed to be a huge plot thing in the story despite the fact that the situation stretches over more than a few chapters. It is just adding on to things for later so please don’t get mad if there is more drama sooner than most would like.

Hope you enjoyed!

As always, comment, don’t hate, and read on!

~your Cheshire Cat loving friend


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