Chapter 9

Hayden was regretting his decision to camp out instead of getting a hotel. It had started to rain during the night, which led to the discovery that his tent rainfly was missing, and his tent leaked without it. That meant he packed everything in his SUV and slept in the back. Thankfully, the mat he slept on fit, so he was able to sleep in relative comfort, but he was not able to stretch out to his full height. That made him stiff and irritated.

He stretched and rolled onto his back. The sun was up, and the rain was still falling. The tapping sound on the vehicle seemed louder than it should. Hayden guessed it was because he was aggravated by the situation. He propped himself up on his elbow and sighed. He needed breakfast, and the protein bars and dehydrated meals in his pack were not going to cut it.

Hayden began to pack everything he could while he was still inside the vehicle. He would need to leave the rest until the rain stopped. The last thing he wanted was to be soaking wet on top of the stiffness from sleeping in his car. As he worked, his stomach growled, which only irritated him more. He pulled a bag of beef jerky out of one of his backpacks just as his phone rang. 

He retrieved his phone from the cupholder where it had been charging and looked at the screen. Hayden was surprised to see that it was his brother Harrison calling. He rarely called more than once a month, and now he was calling twice in a week. Hayden’s heart skipped a beat when he had the fleeting thought of something happening to his niece or nephew.

“Hello?” Hayden answered as calmly as he could.

“Hayden, are you on a case right now, or are you free to help with something?” Harrison asked.

“I’m free. What’s going on?” Hayden asked.

“We have a new pack member who is missing,” Harrison said with a heavy sigh.

“What makes you so sure that they didn’t head back to their old pack?” Hayden asked.

“Because she came here to take care of her elderly grandmother, who is recovering from a stroke. She also has an ex-boyfriend who she was trying to get away from. I swore her into the pack within twenty-four hours of her arrival. There was also a pool of her blood on her grandmother’s kitchen floor and blood droplets from a second person. Someone took her.”

“The ex-boyfriend probably. Sadly, I get calls about this kind of thing far more than I should,” Hayden said. “Do you know how the guy got into the pack?”

“Yeah. That’s my fault. When I took over, I opened the gates, and I have refused to close them. He drove right into the pack, took her, and drove right back out the main gate like he was supposed to,” Harrison said. Hayden could hear the sadness and regret in his brother’s voice as he continued, “I’m the Alpha. I am responsible for keeping my pack safe, and I failed. I need your help, little brother. You are the best, and we need to find Krista as quickly as we can. I’m worried about what her ex might do to her. That’s if he is the one who took her. It could have been rogues who masked their scent. We don’t know for sure who it was.”

“This isn’t your fault. Leaving the gates open usually makes little to no difference in the actual safety of the pack. If this were her ex-boyfriend, it would not have mattered if you had the gates closed, locked, and guards on them. He would have still gotten into the pack if he wanted to. If someone is determined, a locked gate won’t even slow them down,” Hayden told his brother. “Do me a favor, will you?”

“Yeah, sure. What is it?” 

“Have your Delta gather as much evidence and surveillance as he can. I’m in my car now, so I will be on my way as soon as I can pull onto the road. I’ll swing through a drive-through on the way there for breakfast, so I should be there in about an hour and a half. You said that the woman moved there to stay with her grandmother. How is she doing? Was she hurt when the woman was taken?”

“No. Grandma Mimi is fine. She is terrified for her granddaughter, but she’s unharmed. She didn’t even know anything happened. Her bedroom is the furthest point in the house away from the kitchen, and her bedroom door was closed overnight so Krista wouldn’t wake her as she tidied the house before she went to bed,” Harrison explained.

“Mimi? Our old teacher Mimi?” Hayden asked.

“Yeah. She had a stroke not long ago. It pretty much paralyzed her left side, but thankfully she has improved, even though she still needs a cane and tires quickly. It also affected her balance, sense of smell, and some other things. That is why her granddaughter moved. Getting away from her ex was just a bonus to moving to Blood Moon.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but I still need to talk to her when I arrive. Her granddaughter might have said something to her that is the key to finding her,” Hayden said. 

“I understand, and so will Mimi. Nyla and I will be with her until you arrive and possibly longer. We are trying to find someone who can stay with her until we find Krista,” Harrison said.

Hayden sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he said, “Harry, you know that when someone is taken, there is no guarantee they will be alive when I find them. I have never failed to find someone, but you know as well as I do that some were no longer alive when I did find them. I was able to bring them home to their families for closure, but that was all.”

“I know. Just do what you can do. I won’t blame you for how this turns out, and I will make sure that no one else blames you. The only one to blame is the person who took her, and I will make sure they are the only one who is blamed if this does not have a happy ending,” Harrison said.

“I know you will,” Hayden said with an explosive exhalation. “I’ll be there as soon as I can be.”

“Thanks, Denny. We’ll be waiting for you. You know where Mimi’s house is. It is the same one she had when we were kids,” Harrison replied.

“I’ll come straight there when I arrive. See you then,” Hayden said before ending the call.

Hayden did not bother to pack the rest of his stuff. He glanced out the back window and scowled at his tent that was still set up where he had abandoned it after the rain had started. He needed to replace it anyway, so leaving it where it sat was not a big loss. Right now, his concern was getting to Blood Moon as quickly as possible. The faster he got there, the faster he could find the woman and return her to her family.