Hannah Pole - Song Of The Wolf

Not wanting to spend any more time here than was necessary, she walked straight into the main room of the building which held all of Dax’s computer equipment. There was a loud frantic beeping coming from the speakers, which did little more than irritate Tam as she searched for his ‘box of spare laptops’.

Christ that beeping was loud enough to wake the dead.

As she searched the house, she found herself processing the information she’d learnt over the last day. How had none of them thought of the Circle using boats before? Seriously, the submarine was a little farfetched but hell; Alison had been taken from the beach. The damn beach! How had they not thought of boats? At least they now had their own boat. They had of course taken the big black beasty from the mini-dock in Chatham and had driven the thing all the way back to Folkestone, where they had paid to dock it in the harbour in town.

Who knew Dax had known how to drive a boat? That man seemed to know everything. And have stupid equipment that just wouldn’t stop beeping.

She stamped her foot in frustration, searching frantically for the source of the noise. It was only then that she noticed the huge map pictured on one of the glass-panelled walls of the room. There was a giant red dot flashing in the centre of the map over the vast ocean. Now what the hell would that mean? It was literally bang smack in the middle of the North Sea, between Denmark and England.

The circle may have purchased an oilrig off the coast of England , her inner voice pointed out. Crap. Crap. Crap. There’s only one reason that one of Dax’s GPS dots would be showing up in the middle of the sea.

Alison.

With urgency heating her veins, Tam all but launched herself at the desk, fumbling with the drawer, where the hell were his laptops?

She literally turned Dax’s house upside down in a matter of seconds, finally coming across a metal trunk in the bedroom. All but ripping it open, she found about six laptops, neatly stacked in their cases in a row. She grabbed the first one she saw and tore out of the fortress. She didn’t even bother setting the alarms; surely this was more important than that damn male’s security.

Running as fast as her feet would carry her she thundered up to Julian’s mansion’s entrance. Sticking her head in the camera section so it could scan her retinas she cursed the lot of them for their stupid security. It really slowed you down when you were in a rush.

Crashing through the door, she all out ran into the clinic, shouting her heart out for everyone to get there.

“DAX! JULIAN!” she screamed, launching herself into the medical room Dax and Julian were in.

“Good Mother of the Earth, WHAT??” her Alpha barked, as she fell through the door.

“Dax… Open…” she heaved, out of breath from her frantic sprint up here.

“Alison…” she choked out.

“What?” Dax snapped the laptop open and hit a few keys and that damn beeping sounded out once more.

“Thank you, Maker! We’ve got her, Julian. That dot there is Alison’s chip,” Dax roared, shooting off the gurney he was sat on.

“Hell yes. Let’s get moving!” Julian barked, launching himself to his feet and clapping Tam on the back hard enough to wind her.

“Ready when you are, boss.” Leyth grinned from the doorway. Tam spun on her heels and gasped. There in the doorway was every damn wolf and shifter that lived on the land, including the Djinn and Minotaurs.

“We all came running when we heard you screaming like a little pup,” Jake shrugged.

“Well, let’s get going then!” Julian boomed, storming out of the clinic.

“Yes. Let’s go get our female.”

Dax held in a curse as he hefted himself onto the back of the giant black boat they’d confiscated from the Circle. The little dinghy they had rowed over in swayed violently as he pulled himself up from it, his shoulder screaming in agony with the motion. That damn bullet wound needed to hurry up and heal.

“You OK,man?” Leyth muttered from above him. The male obviously wanted to help him up but was smart enough not to offer.

“Yup,” Dax grunted, standing and subtly steadying himself using the railing that ran around the boat.

His gut did a little flip-flop as he stalked his way to the cabin. Thank Maker they’d actually done it – they’d found a signal on Alison’s chip. They were so close to finding her it was difficult not to do a little jump for joy. But not yet, they didn’t know what sort of state she was in – hell, if she was even alive. The chip would show up no matter the body’s state.

Telling his gut to cool it, he roared the boat’s engine to life and carefully guided it out of Folkestone’s harbour. It may be a giant black beast of a boat, but it was fast. The double engines did a fantastic job – and when they were finally out on the open blue sea, they picked up speed nicely.

“Raught,” Dax barked, glancing over his shoulder. The male in question sidled over, his silver hair gleaming furiously in the sunlight streaming through the cabin windows.

“What can I do for you, Dax?” The male’s throaty voice reverberated through the small room, bouncing off the walls.

“I need you to drive the boat while I look around for any tracking devices,” Dax mumbled. He hated asking the pack elder to do anything. That male was old, hundreds of years old in fact. He should be put on a throne, not asked favours. He cleared his throat. “If that’sOK.”

“Why, Dax, I think that’s the politest I’ve ever heard you!” The male’s silver eyes sparkled with amusement as they met Dax’s own almost black irises. “I’d be happy to help, though I must admit, I have no knowledge of boat driving. It’s not something I’ve ever felt the need to learn.”

Dax quickly took the male through the motions of boat driving. It was pretty simple: steering wheel to turn the boat, lever goes forward to speed up, back to slow down. Follow the GPS dot on the computer screen, any problems holler at him. To his credit Raught was a damn natural at anything driving-related. Actually he was a natural at almost anything. Being alive for hundreds of years would do that to a wolf.

Several minutes later, the male was guiding the boat full of wolves and shifters towards Alison at full throttle, and Dax was hastily searching the boat for any monitoring technology the Circle may have added.

The cabin was pretty empty. The steering system was basic and there had been no other equipment in the room. To be sure, Dax had ripped apart the control area, and searched through it. Still nothing.

There would be something here however; he had no doubt of that. It would take about forty minutes to get to the part of the ocean where Alison’s chip was showing up, even travelling as fast as they were. Boats were a notoriously slow form of travel.

“Guys,” he barked, as he made his way out of the small wooden cabin onto the main deck of the ship.

Each and every wolf and shifter that worked under Julian’s pack rule gathered around him, ready to take orders.– though they all looked a little green. Being at sea or in the sky truly didn’t fit well with wolves. They were hunters of the woods. All four paws, or two feet, were born and bred to be on the ground, not in the sky or in water. It went against every natural instinct they had.

It really was a testament to the bond of a pack that they were all willingly standing on something that by natural law would terrify them, to bring one of their own back.

“What is it, Dax?” Julian snapped, obviously annoyed with the silence.

“Right. We need to make sure the ship isn’t being tracked. I need all of you to scour the boat, top to bottom looking for any sort of technology that looks out of place. Looks recently added. Anything you can find. If you do find something, come and get me. Cool?” There was a sries of pale-faced nod’s as all of them set to work, searching the boat.