Chapter 8

The bright sun shining into Mimi's bedroom woke her up. She squinted and looked around before seeing the time. The alarm clock on the nightstand read almost 10 a.m., which was much later than she usually woke up. Krista always woke her around 7:30 a.m. for breakfast. Then, after they ate, Krista helped her dress and get ready for the day. 

"Krista?" Mimi called out. She hoped that Krista could hear her through the closed bedroom door and answer. If she was in the kitchen, she might not hear because Mimi's bedroom was on the opposite end of the house from the kitchen, where her granddaughter would most likely be. "Krista, sweetheart. Where are you?"

Mimi struggled to sit up on the side of her bed. The stroke had caused paralysis on the left side of her body. She was improving, but the progress was slow, and it still affected her abilities. Mimi took her cane from where it leaned against the nightstand. She struggled to her feet and shuffled to the closed bedroom door. The smell of blood drifted in as soon as she opened the door.

"Krista!" Mimi yelled as loudly as she could. The stroke had affected her sense of smell, but she could still tell it was Krista's. She might have smelled the blood of a second person, but Krista's blood overpowered it. As she made her way down the hallway, she prayed to the moon goddess that Krista was fine. She had probably just cut her hand in the kitchen and was attending to it, she reasoned as she struggled toward the kitchen. "Krista! Sweetheart, please answer me!"

Mimi leaned on the walls and furniture as much as she could for support, but her strength gave out by the time she reached the living room. She collapsed into a chair, trying to catch her breath as she reached for the telephone on the table beside her. The table beside the old landline phone held a list of numbers, including the Alpha, Luna, and the pack house. She didn't want to bother the Alpha, but everything in her was screaming that something was terribly wrong. Mimi dialed his number and waited for him to answer. To her relief, it only rang once before Alpha Harrison answered.

"Mimi? What do I owe the privilege of this call?" Harrison asked in a chipper tone.

"Something's wrong," Mimi said as her eyes welled with tears. "Krista didn't wake me up this morning. I keep calling for her, but she isn't answering. I made it to the living room, but I had to sit down so I couldn't look for her. I can smell her blood, and I'm pretty sure there is someone else's too. Something happened. Please help me," Mimi pleaded.

"I'm sending people to you now, and I will be right there. Are you safe? Do you need to go to the hospital?" Harrison asked.

"I'm not hurt. I need Krista, and I need her to be OK," Mimi replied.

"I'm sure she's OK. She might have just stepped outside," Harrison said, trying to keep Mimi from thinking the worst. "Mimi, Liam is almost there. Is the door locked? If it is, he will take it down, and we will fix it later today. Do not try to get up and open the door. We do not want you to fall. OK?"

"OK," Mimi agreed as she waited. 

Moments later, the front door rattled. Mimi braced herself for it to be knocked down and splinters to fly everywhere. To her surprise, she heard the lock click as someone used a key. Liam, the pack's Delta, stepped inside cautiously as he scanned the room, smiling at her when his eyes fell on her.

"Are you alright, Mimi? Do I need to have an ambulance pick you up?" Liam asked, continuing to scan the room as he sniffed the air.

"I'm fine. Find Krista," Mimi insisted. 

Liam gave her a curt nod as he followed the scent of Krista's blood into the kitchen. He entered carefully so he would not disturb anything that might be evidence if a crime had been committed. The scene in the kitchen disturbed him. At first glance, nothing appeared to be disturbed. The only things that gave away that something had happened were a spot of blood on the floor that was about the size of the palm of his hand, a spattering of blood droplets near the puddle of blood, and the back door being unlatched but pulled shut.

"Krista isn't here," Liam called to Mimi. 

"Then where is she?" Mimi asked desperately as Alpha Harrison and Luna Nyla entered the house.

"We're going to find out," Liam said. Liam turned to address Harrison and said, "Krista is not inside the house. There is some of her blood on the kitchen floor, but there is little else to show anything is out of the ordinary."

"Something is wrong. Krista would not leave me here by myself like this. She was planning on running some errands today, but she would never leave without waking me up and making sure I was settled before she did it," Mimi said.

"I've got scouts outside looking for her," Liam said, trying to help Mimi stay calm. 

"Do you see anything that is out of place, Mimi?" Harrison asked as Nyla knelt beside Mimi to comfort her.

"No. It looks like it did before Krista helped me to bed last night. She always helps me to bed and then washes the dishes and cleans the kitchen before she goes to bed," Mimi said. "Then, she always wakes me up for breakfast and helps me get to the table. This morning I woke up just a few minutes before I called you. I just knew something was wrong."

"And nothing was different last night? She didn't get any calls or messages that were unusual, or that she seemed to become upset or nervous about?" Harrison asked.

"Not that I saw," Mimi replied, shaking her head. 

"Alpha," Liam said quietly as he motioned for Harrison to follow him. They walked through the kitchen, careful to avoid the pool of blood and the droplets on the floor before going out the back door, still ajar from the night before. "Rick is on his way to us now with what he's found so far."

"We both know Krista did not willingly walk away from this house and her grandmother," Harrison sighed as they stopped under a tree in the backyard.

"Yeah," Liam said as he ran his hand through his hair. "I know. Krista is new, but have you heard of anyone having a problem with her?"

"No one except her ex, but he is a thousand miles from here, or he is supposed to be.. Everyone in the pack who had said anything to me has been positive and happy to have her join the pack. Krista was willing to drop everything and come here to take care of Granny Mimi. That says a lot about her character," Harrison said as a werewolf came loping up to them. 

The werewolf shifted and went to a small box on a post near the tree that looked like a cabinet. He removed a pair of shorts and pulled them on, then walked over to where Liam and Harrison were waiting.

"Please tell me you have good news, Rick," Harrison said to the man.

"I wish I could. I can't track her scent. I'm not sure how they did it, but somehow they contained Krista's scent. What I can tell you is that they came out that back door, got into a vehicle, and drove right out of the pack through the main entrance," Rick said.

Harrison's heart sank. Every entrance into the pack used to have heavy iron gates that stayed closed and were guarded at all times. Harrison had always hated that growing up in the pack. It felt like a prison to him, especially when he was a boy. When he had taken over the pack, he ordered the gates to be opened and left open, so pack members could come and go as they pleased. It had lifted everyone's spirits, but now that decision was coming back to bite him. 

As the pack Delta, Liam took over, giving Rick his orders. "Rick, I need you to go over all the surveillance video you can get your hands on for the last twenty-four hours. I want a list of every vehicle that was in the pack. We need to find Krista, and we need to do it soon. That blood on the kitchen floor might be only a drop in the bucket of what she's lost."

"I'm on it," Rick said with a sharp nod. "I'll have some of the guys keep scouring the area. We might get lucky, and someone might be able to pick up a scent or find a witness or something."

"Thank you, Rick," Harrison said.

Rick gave another nod before he stripped out of his shorts and shifted into his wolf. He picked up the shorts, held them in his mouth, and darted off toward the security building, where he could start going over the security footage.

"I'm going to call Denny," Harrison said. "We might not need him, but the faster he gets here and gets started, the better the chance of getting Krista back home. I will need you to dig up everything you can on Krista's ex. Part of the reason she came here was to get away from him."

"I already started," Liam said with a hint of a grin. "I was there when Krista told you about him. I thought having a good file on him might be useful."

"Thanks," Harrison said as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and looked at it before turning his attention back to Liam. "Collect evidence and whatever you need to do. I am going to call Hayden and then Nyla, and I am going to stay here with Mimi while we find someone to fill in for Krista until we can bring her home."

"Eddie is bringing a car and the collection kits. I will wait for him out front, and we will do our best not to bother Mimi. Oh, and if she says anything about me using a key to come into her house, remind her that after she had her stroke, we rekeyed her house and have keys in case she has an emergency. She looked a little worried about it when I walked in."

"I'll remind her if she brings it up," Harrison said. 

"I'll let you know what we find," Liam said as he turned and walked around the house to meet Eddie.

Harrison let out a sigh as he looked down at the phone in his hand. The last time he had spoken to his brother, Hayden had been preparing for a mission. Harrison hoped he had finished that job and would be free to help. If Krista's ex-boyfriend did take her, Hayden might be the only one who could bring her home.