"Why don't you know where she is?" Ellison asked Andrea.

"She was gone when we woke up," Andrea said. "Or at least when I checked on her. I was up early, with Kenny, and I heard the back door close."

Which explained why Ellison hadn't seen Maria go. Or else she'd left while Ellison had been in the shower. s.h.i.t.

"Did you call her?" Ellison demanded.

"Of course I did," Andrea said. "No answer. Left a voice mail."

Ellison didn't need to ask Andrea for Maria's number. He'd memorized it a while back. "And you don't have any idea where she went?"

Sean stepped in front of Andrea, though the deadly look had faded from his eyes. "Come in and have pancakes, Ellison. I'll make some with pecans. Your favorite."

They were trying to placate him. Calm the wolf down.

Kenny was looking at Ellison with round gray eyes, his mouth working on one fist. Shifters of crossed species were born in human form and revealed their Shifter form when they were about two or three. Sean was Feline, Andrea Lupine-Kenny could go either way. From his eyes though, Ellison would bet wolf.

"Thanks, but I'll pa.s.s," Ellison said. "Where was Maria planning to go? She say anything to you last night?"

"We don't keep her prisoner," Andrea returned, irritated. "She comes and goes when she wants, wherever she wants. She doesn't have to check with us."

The reasonable part of Ellison knew Andrea was right, but the Shifter part of him didn't give a c.r.a.p.

"She needs to check in when Shifters are threatening to start their own personal breeding projects with her. Tell you what-she can come and live in my house. I'll look out for her better."

Sean's expression hardened. "Not gonna happen."

Liam's stipulation when Maria had come to Shiftertown was that, while she could take a room with whomever she chose, she couldn't live in the house of an unmated male, for obvious reasons. She'd lived for a time in Liam's house with Connor there, because he hadn't made his Transition yet, and the mating need hadn't yet manifested in him.

But once Tiger had moved in last November, Maria had to vacate. She'd moved in with Andrea and Sean, Dylan and Glory without fuss, understanding, she said.

That Andrea didn't know where she'd gone bothered Ellison a lot.

"She needs looking after," Ellison growled. "If y'all can't do it, we need to find someone who can."

He swung around and walked off the porch, not slowing down. "Where are you going?" Andrea called worriedly behind him.

"To look for her. Where'd you think?"

The scenario in his head went like this-Maria gets up early, deciding to find Connor and study for her SATs with him. She walks out the back door, and Broderick is lying in wait. Ellison is in the shower, and Broderick drags her off.

Anything human in Ellison disappeared. He'd already claimed Maria, in his head and in his heart. He'd held off, because Dylan had explained exactly what had happened to her down in Mexico. Give her time, Dylan had said. Liam, Sean, and I will protect her until she's ready.

Ellison was ready. He'd kill Broderick and bounce his head down the sidewalk if the Lupine had touched Maria. Ellison's Collar sparked with his adrenaline, warning him to calm down, but Ellison told his Collar to take a flying leap.

Broderick lived two blocks over and two blocks down. A short distance for wolves who were used to patrolling vast tracts of territory.

Ellison approached the two-story bungalow that housed Broderick, his mother, aunt, and three brothers. Youngest brother was on the porch shoveling food from a plate into his mouth but was on his feet by the time Ellison reached the front steps.

"Stay right there, wolf," the brother, Mason, said.

"Get Broderick out here so I can rip his head off."

Mason set down his plate of eggs and Texas toast and stood up squarely. He was the youngest brother, but he was bigger than any of the others in Broderick's house, probably why they had him stand guard.

"Brod!" Mason yelled over his shoulder. "That dumb-a.s.s Lupine is here."

"I heard him." Broderick came out the door to flank his brother. He folded his arms, the pair of them glaring down at Ellison with identical stares. "What? It's early. Why aren't you holed up with your crazy sister?"

"Where is she?"

Broderick didn't move. "You mean Maria? Not here. Why?"

Ellison leaned toward Broderick and inhaled, too far gone in rage to care that it wasn't good Shifter etiquette to obviously check someone's scent to determine whether he was lying. Especially not on that rival Shifter's territory with his little brother ready to rub Ellison's face into the sidewalk.

Ellison didn't smell a lie on Broderick, but he didn't smell Maria on him either. He caught the brief scent of her from last night, when Broderick had tried to mark her and claim her, but nothing more than that. Scents had layers, fading with time and how many showers the Shifter had taken. Broderick hadn't bathed since last night, but his clothes were clean and contained no scent of Maria.

"What did you do, lose her?" Broderick asked. "Doesn't she live across the street from you?"

"Screw you." Maria wasn't here. If she had been, even if they'd locked her in the most protected part of their bas.e.m.e.nt, Ellison would have scented her and found her.

Ellison spun away from the porch and started down the street again, worry piling on worry. The sky was blue, the sun bright, another beautiful day in Austin. The sunlight would sparkle in Maria's dark hair, dance on her smile.

Footsteps sounded beside him, and then Ellison got a full dose of Broderick's unwashed scent. "So where is she?"

"Would I be here ready to kill you if I knew?"

Broderick didn't answer, but he didn't leave either. "I'm coming with you," he said.

"The f.u.c.k you are."

"You aren't doing a very good job of finding her, are you? Two heads better than one."

"But I want your head on the ground," Ellison growled.

"That's where I want yours. But we find Maria first. Sure she's not with one of the Morrisseys?"

"No. And they don't seem worried."

"f.u.c.ked-up Feline b.a.s.t.a.r.ds."

Ellison ignored Broderick the best he could as he made his way back to Liam's house. Connor and Tiger were still bent over Dylan's truck.

Ellison stopped outside the property line and hauled Broderick back before the man could run up to Connor, likely to close his hand around Connor's neck and demand the cub to tell what he knew.

If Broderick did that, he'd lose his arm, because Tiger was already straightening up from behind the hood and glaring at them with those weird eyes of his. Tiger, though only adopted into Liam's family and clan, was seriously protective of Connor.

Tiger hadn't been born of Shifter parents-he'd been bred in a research facility and raised in a cage by human scientists for about forty years. They'd been trying to create a super-Shifter-one who was better, stronger, faster, and all that s.h.i.t, than your average Shifter. They were trying to do what the Fae had done a couple thousand years ago, except without the magic and possibly not the maniacal laughter. The single-minded cruelty had been there, though.

The result was Tiger-superstrong, barely controlled, and not happy with people who messed with Connor. He wore a Collar, but Ellison was one of the few who knew the Collar was fake. Liam had tried to put a real one on Tiger and it hadn't worked, so a fake one had to do for now.

The man didn't have a name, either. Tiger didn't know what it was-the humans who'd created him had called him Twenty-Three. The woman who'd rescued him had decreed that Tiger could pick his own name, but so far, he hadn't. So everyone called him Tiger.

Tiger wasn't growling, but he didn't need to. The stare from the yellow eyes was enough.

"Connor," Ellison said.

"Yep?" Connor answered, wiping his hands.

"You take Maria somewhere this morning?"

"Nope. But if you're asking if I've seen her, I did. She came out the back door bright and early, said hi to me, said she was going to help Ronan look after Olaf, and said to tell you she could hear you snoring all the way across the street."

Broderick made a sound that was a cross between a snort and a laugh. Tiger said nothing at all.

"d.a.m.n it." Common sense told Ellison he was running around Shiftertown making an idiot of himself, but his hackles still wouldn't go down. Something was wrong-didn't matter if he didn't know what. Didn't matter that everyone else was being logical and unworried.

"Thanks, Connor," he managed to say. "If she comes back, tell her to stay put, will you?"

"Sure thing."

Tiger's gaze remained fixed, the big man with his mixed black and orange hair focused in silence on Ellison.

"We go to Ronan's then?" Broderick asked.

"I'll go to Ronan's. You go home."

"Like I'm letting a Lupine from another pack tell me what to do. I don't like wolves from my own pack telling me what to do."

Annoying a.s.shole. Ellison tried to ignore him as he plotted a course for Ronan's, and started between the houses to get to the common.

"I will come with you."

Tiger stepped into their path before Ellison saw the guy move. He was about three inches taller than Ellison, as big as a bear Shifter. He'd be great to have on hand if Ellison needed help with a fight. On the other hand, Tiger was unpredictable, stronger than any Shifter he knew, and not quite stable in the head.

"You need to take care of Connor," Ellison said.

Tiger remained in place, a wall Ellison wasn't going to get around. "I will come with you."

"It's all right," Connor said, more to Tiger than Ellison. "I'll be fine."

Tiger nodded once and turned away, starting off in the direction of Ronan's.

Connor stepped to Ellison and spoke in a low voice. "Keep an eye on him. Tiger, I mean. He's usually fine, but when he gets upset . . ."

"Yeah, I know what he does. I'm having a great morning-my girl's missing, and now I'm babysitting a crazy Shifter and a wolf from a rival pack."

"Tiger's not crazy," Connor said. "Just . . . intense."

"Intense. Right."

The way Tiger turned around and stared back at them told Ellison he'd heard every word.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of him." Ellison growled again, ruffled Connor's hair, and walked rapidly after Tiger and Broderick.

One of the foster kids at Ronan's-Cherie-told them that Maria had come for Olaf early and the two had gone off together. Cherie was a cub going on twenty-one, with brown and lighter brown hair that marked her as a grizzly. She was yawning, the only one at Ronan's house, and barely awake. Ronan had asked Maria to look after Olaf today, Cherie explained, while everyone else was out. Maria had seemed happy to.

Cherie looked annoyed to be roused out of her sleep-in, but bears were like that. They loved their sleep.

"Where did she take him?" Ellison asked.

"Walking." She shrugged. "I don't know. Maria's trustworthy, and Olaf likes her. They'll be fine." Cherie looked over the three male Shifters as though they didn't impress her, named a park outside Shiftertown where Olaf liked to go, and retreated with a decisive bang of the door.

The park wasn't far, a good brisk walk out the other side of Shiftertown and down a few streets. The roads were quiet here, with little traffic. No drivers to stare at Ellison, Broderick, and the giant Tiger with his orange and black hair bringing up the rear.

The park lay vast, green, and open, the eastern edge of it running up to a little ridge full of dense trees. A few joggers shuffled around the paths, but kids had already gone to school, and most adults to work. One or two moms pushed kids in strollers, but the park was largely empty.

No sign of Maria's dark hair and lovely body, no woman tugging a ten-year-old boy with white hair with her along the paths.

Ellison made for the ridge on the other side. Something pulled him that way, a sense of wrongness. He walked faster and faster, running by the time he took a path that led over a stream, up some stone steps, into the woods that led up the side of the hill.

Tiger heard her first. He grabbed Ellison by the shoulder and silently pointed a broad finger into deeper shadows, where the hill climbed high.

Ellison let Tiger, with his better hearing and sight, lead. Tiger moved noiselessly, fading into the woods like smoke. If Ellison hadn't kept a sharp eye on him, he'd have quickly lost him.

"Olaf!" Maria's voice came to them before they'd walked another twenty yards. "Olaf!"

The word had an echoing quality, as though she'd gone into a cavern or tunnel. Ellison jogged to catch up with Tiger, who quietly led him down another little hill into a tiny valley.

The valley ran between the ridge and another hill on the other side. On top of the second hill was a road shielded by a concrete barrier. Cars raced along it, the drivers paying no attention to what was below them.

A wide culvert opened under the road. Maria stood a few feet inside it, hands around her mouth, calling desperately for Olaf.

Chapter Five.

Maria peered into the darkness, straining to see Olaf. She'd taken two steps into the chilly culvert into which he'd disappeared before she'd frozen, unable to move.

The press of the concrete walls, the cold dampness, the dank smell, very like that in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the warehouse in which she'd been kept, triggered memories too powerful to stop. Her heart constricted, her throat working while she fought down the screams.

Only Olaf's little growls-telling her he'd shifted into his polar bear cub-kept her from running out, back into the sunshine, back to Shiftertown.