CHAPTER 40

JASMINES POV

My heart thudded as I started making my way back to the Alpha office. He chased after me and pulled me back.

“Think your actions through before jumping into them, Janine,” he warned, tightening his grip around my wrist.

I still couldn’t get my eyes off the door of his office. My dad was in there with a Seeker, how confident was the alpha to let just the two of them stay in there?

“We need to build trust to know before we strike. In the meantime, I want you all to find Caine. I know he’s still out there,” Alpha Morgan said, finally letting go of my hand. He crouched and unlocked the device on my ankle.

“You’re…free to go with them. Your father believes you won’t cause any harm, so I want to believe in that too. Dave will join you guys. Find my son and bring him home,” he said, holding my shoulder. He turned to Lucy who was whimpering on Imani’s shoulder.

“Hey, come here,” he said softly, taking her into his arms. “We’ll find him, okay? We’ll find him,” he consoled her. After a few seconds of giving us directions and strategies, Dave ran down and joined us.

“Take care of each other,” Alpha Morgan said, letting go of Lucy and holding Dave’s shoulder. We all left the office and headed for the car.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Imani hissed just as I was about to enter the car with them. She pushed my hand off the door but I pulled the handle back and leaned closer to her.

“This isn’t time to play crazy games, Imani. But if you want to, then we can…maybe I should throw the first card by telling Jojo about you and Harper,” I sneered, glaring into her eyes. The tension between us grew in the silence before Lucy broke it.

“She’s my friend, Imani. Let her in,” she said.

Harper drove us back to the woods, and we continued our search. I left them and headed in the direction where Caines’ scent was strongest. Lucy followed me but kept her distance. I knew what was coming next, but that wasn’t the time for that.

After minutes of calling and walking through the mud, she finally caught up with me.

“Hey, Jas,” she called under her breath. I contemplated stopping to listen to her but eventually halted. She took my hand and tried pulling me into a hug, but I pulled away.

“Don’t…don’t do that, Luce,”

“Okay I’m sorry,” she whined, following up as I continued the search. “It’s Caine we are talking about here, my boyfriend and possible husband. I just couldn’t sit and watch him kiss you,” she said.

I felt my heart fold jealously after her comment. Possible husband? I scoffed, trying to hide the way it made me feel until we finally arrived at a dead end on a cliff.

“Are you going to keep ignoring me?”

“No, Luce, I’m not,” I finally turned to her. “Caine is your boyfriend, I get it. But I am your best friend. I wasn’t the one who kissed him—or whatever that was. You saw it…yet you chose to pour all that anger on me,” I let out my pain.

For a second, I thought I saw guilt on her face. But then it vanished and was replaced by a chuckle. “You kissed a seeker,” she wheezed, bursting into laughter. I rolled my eyes, turning around to start heading back to the path which we came from.

Typical Lucy. Never apologizes…just uses memories or jokes to her past the apology thing and amend hurts. Talking to her or listening to her speak had taken me off the trail, and I didn’t realize it until we got to this dead end.

“Caine’s scent is coming from this way,” I said, heading towards some vines.

“Of course, you can smell him,” she murmured, clear enough to my hearing.

A gunshot was fired which sent us to our knees, crawling behind a tree.

“Where did that come from?” Lucy asked.

I was right. Caine wasn’t far away from us, and he wasn’t alone.

“He’s here. But I think he needs our help. The wolf hunter is after him,” I said. In a blink, the rest of the team were already racing towards the gunshot. Lucy and I sprang to our feet and started running ahead of them.

“Caine!” Lucy yelled, her voice echoing through the tall trees. The rest joined in calling him, while I stayed focused on his scent. We heard the gunshot again, twice this time.

“This way!” I redirected them, making a swift turn to the left. Soon, we could see Caine running towards us. That was him, the way his scent went ahead of him.

“Run! She’s coming!” Caine screamed. Instead, Lucy leaped into the air and shifted to her wolf. I doubt she was thinking when she did that because we were dealing with silver bullets here, not ordinary weapons.

She went over to Caine and pounced on the brown-haired hunter. Her growl was terrifying, sending chills down my spine. She was about to claw the life out of her when Harper interfered.

“Stop!” He yelled, racing past Caine and I. Spencer joined him, anxiety crawling up my skin as we watched in silence. Lucy was still on the girl, snarling aggressively.

“Lucy, stop!” Spencer said, his voice cracky.

Lucy shifted back to her human form and turned to them.

“She almost killed Caine!” She yelled. “And she’s a wolf-hunter, they’d do the same to us,” she added, the darkness clouding her eyes again. Her claws grew out, ready to strike the helpless hunter on the floor.

“She’s our sister!” Harper announced, his voice piercing through the thick of the woods. He and Spencer inched closer as Lucy slowly stepped aside. They crouched beside her and took her hands. “She’s our sister, Lucy,” Harper repeated, faintly.

********