Spirit Wolves - 10. Chapter 10

Sebastian woke before Reilly, having slept fitfully for a few hours, not really getting much rest. His mate was nestled in close, tucked into his embrace. He still had a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that in a few short days, Reilly had become such an important part of Sebastian’s very existence. He couldn’t imagine not having Reilly in his life.

It was early, the sky barely starting to lose its grip on the night. Instead of inky blackness outside his windows, it was a dark grayish-purple. Sebastian spooned Reilly close, listening to his even breathing as the night sky gradually gave way to the approaching daylight. Purple turned into various shades of blue and finally streaks of red, orange and pink heralded the arrival of the sun.

As the first rays shone through the windows, Reilly’s white-blonde locks glowed beautifully, reflecting the colors of the early dawn. Sebastian smiled and kissed his mate’s head. Reilly slowly stirred, his movements causing Sebastian’s cock to stir as well.

“Mmmmm, that feels good,” Reilly murmured as Sebastian slowly ground his burgeoning erection into Reilly’s delicious rump, which had been pressed up against his groin all night. Sebastian reached for the lube on the nightstand and still holding Reilly close, managed to coat his fingers and slide them into the crack, two fingers slipping seamlessly into tight heat.

‘Hell yes!’ Sebastian thought. There was no possible way, in any universe, where this sensation of pure bliss wasn’t perfection. Reilly was perfection. Sebastian’s wolf demanded his attention and he couldn’t stop himself from pulling his fingers out from the tight heat, making sure to rake the sensitive little nugget of nerves as he did, and replacing them with his now fully erect cock. Reilly’s ass pulled him in with excruciating pleasure. His wolf growled in contentment.

Reilly, now fully awake, and fully aware of every inch of Sebastian seated inside him, sighed with his own contentment. At this moment all that existed were the two of them, connected in the most intimate way possible.

Reilly arched his back, pushing his ass back as far as he could, snaring every last millimeter of Sebastian’s dick. Sebastian grunted and started to slowly hump his hips back and forth at a pace that felt oh so good. He could sense Reilly’s wolf whimpering and saw Reilly’s eyes squeeze shut, loving the electric jolts that were created every time Sebastian’s dick grazed his prostate.

Sebastian knew that they could probably keep up the pace he set for a very long time. Logically, they would need to cut things short in order to deal with the real world outside their door, but for now at least he was going to make sure they both enjoyed themselves for as long as they could.

Reilly caved first, needily he increased the pace at which he pushed back against Sebastian. This ignited Sebastian and his wolf demanded more. He grabbed a hold of Reilly and kept himself firmly encased in Reilly’s tight heat, rolling over onto his back. He steadied Reilly as the smaller man sat up and ground himself down onto the hot shaft, tightening his muscles to increase both their pleasure.

Reilly leaned forward and braced his hands on Sebastian’s thighs. Looking back over his shoulder, goosebumps broke out across his flesh as he watched Sebastian stare at where his cock disappeared into Reilly’s ass. Sebastian gripped his hips as Reilly slowly pulled himself up until just the tip of Sebastian’s cock remained in him, then slammed back down, eliciting grunts from both of them.

That did it. Sebastian started pumping into his mate with only one goal in mind. Reilly hung on, knowing that the ride was about to get wild. It didn’t take long for both men to build up to the point of no return. Sebastian gave a mighty thrust upward as Reilly’s ass clamped down tightly with the first spasm of his orgasm. His cock shot out ropes of cum at the same time that Sebastian let loose inside of him with his own rush of hot cum.

Sebastian couldn’t help but feel ridiculously proud of the fact that Reilly would be saturated with his scent. There would be no mistaking that they belonged to each other. They rode out the tremors that shook them and when they were done, Reilly slowly turned around, maneuvering himself so that he faced Sebastian, keeping the still hard cock lodged in his ass, not wanting to lose the connection. Reilly draped himself over his lover and inhaled his very essence. His wolf growled softly, happy to be marked with his mate’s scent.

All good things must come to an end. Sebastian’s erection abated and he slid out of Reilly, hugging his mate close. The soft light coming through the windows heralded the start of what they both knew was going to be a difficult day.

“Come on, as much as I want to stay here, we need to get going. The rest of the house will be up soon. I doubt if Michael or Lynn got much sleep last night. They’re going to need all the support we can give them,” Sebastian said.

Reilly nodded and slid off the bed first, leading the way to the shower. They got cleaned off and dressed quickly. They could smell food as soon as they stepped into the hallway. Sure enough, when they entered the kitchen, Rosalie and Lynn were tending to various items. Reilly gave Sebastian a quick kiss and immediately took over the griddle which was covered with half done pancakes. Rosalie smiled at him and set about making sure everything else was taken care of.

It wasn’t long before the other pack members started trickling in. Sebastian saw that Reilly kept a close watch on Lynn, concern etched on his face, evident in the furrows that had taken up residence on his forehead. Reilly guided her to a table with a few other pack members and made her a small plate of food, knowing that she probably didn’t have an appetite, but still needed to eat. Sebastian was proud of the way Reilly helped care for his pack.

Hunter and Kellan had shown up shortly after them. Kellan was helping to cook while Hunter shuttled platters of food as they were ready, out to where Rosalie had set up a buffet in the common area.

Shifters drifted in in small groups, all concerned about the welfare of Michael and Lynn. Sebastian made sure that Michael was taking care of himself and had something to eat as well.

When everyone had eaten or taken plates of food back to their cabins, most of the remaining pack members dispersed, knowing Sebastian would keep them informed when he had more information. A few stayed behind to clean up. Rosalie pushed Reilly and Kellan out of the kitchen, having recruited Kimberly and a couple of younger pack members to help.

Sebastian, Reilly, Hunter, Kellan along with Michael and Lynn convened in the common room to discuss the next steps.

“Hunter, who is the shifter you met at the airport? The one that you said was searching for their missing cub,” Sebastian asked.

“His name is Zev Clellan. His pack lives in Montana. From what he told me it’s a pretty big pack, but they’re spread out over a large area. Their pup disappeared on his way home from school a few months ago.”

“Will you call him and see if they’ve discovered anything or if they’ve heard of any new disappearances? I’ll call the Council and let them know what happened to Milo,” Sebastian said.

Hunter nodded. “Absolutely. We exchanged numbers, but I think they’re a couple of hours behind us so I’ll have to wait a little bit. It’s just past seven here, so I’ll call in about an hour and a half.”

“OK, in the meantime I think you and Kellan should take Michael and Lynn back to their house and help them gather up whatever they’ll need for the next several days.”

Sebastian looked to Michael and Lynn, “I’d like you two to stay here at the main house for the next few days, you need the support, and Rosalie would have my head on a platter if I let you go back to your house right now.”

Lynn's eyes teared up once more, obviously relieved that she didn’t have to face their home, knowing that reminders of Milo were in every room. Sebastian could picture their refrigerator which was plastered with his school artwork. Every room would have a reminder of him, a soccer ball or cleats left in the front hallway, a jacket thrown across a chair. His scent was ingrained in every room.

Michael, too, was grateful and expressed it out loud. “Thank you Sebastian. You’re right, we do appreciate the support.”

Rosalie entered the room, having left the teenagers to finish the clean up. Sebastian quickly caught her up and she readily agreed that having Michael and Lynn there was the right thing to do.

Sebastian excused himself and went into his office to call the Council. When he returned he focused on the group again, “Reilly, Hunter, Kellan, I think we should go through the past few days' camera footage with a fine tooth comb. I’m going to send some of it to Donovan as well. We need to see if there’s any more sightings of that cargo van. Maybe we can see who was driving.”

The three nodded and followed Sebastian to the surveillance room, leaving Rosalie to take care of Michael and Lynn.

Sebastian quickly took over the computer system, fingers flying over the keyboard as he sorted the footage by camera and time. He sent a file off to Donovan, who was waiting for it. Then it was down to business. Sebastian had Hunter and Kellan bring in a couple of extra chairs and it wasn’t long before each of them was parked in front of a monitor, watching the footage roll by.

Each monitor could be individually controlled and the footage could be screened at up to five times normal speed. Shifters had better eyesight than humans and all of them had no trouble sorting through the images that flew by. Sebastian had gone back 5 days on each of the cameras, so even at five times normal speed, it would take them a while to go through.

Before they knew it a couple of hours had passed. Sebastian paused the images and reminded Hunter that he needed to try to contact the shifter out in Colorado.

Hunter pulled out his phone and wasn’t surprised when he got voice mail. He left a message and also shot off a quick text asking Zev to call him back as soon as possible.

They continued watching the footage, barely looking up when Rosalie brought in sandwiches at lunchtime. Occasionally Sebastian got a text from Donovan with an update, still no hits from his camera. Other than the occasional bathroom break, all sets of eyes were glued to the screens, knowing that the very life of their missing pup was on the line.

They were nearly ten hours into their marathon viewing when Kellan cried out, “There it is!”

He clicked his mouse a few times and zeroed in on a white cargo van with the U-Haul logo. It had appeared on the road coming in from the west. The others stopped what they were doing to focus on the images on Kellan’s monitor.

They were disappointed when they weren’t able to get a good look at the driver’s face. He had pulled down the visor and he was also wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low over his brow. Sebastian captured a few still images and sent them to a separate file. He then focused on cueing up the other cameras to the same timeframe that the first image was captured.

Reilly’s monitor was switched over to the large screen so they could all watch. If the cargo van came in from the west then this should be the next camera to pick up the van. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the van showed up on the large screen. This time Sebastian was able to catch a decent profile shot, even though the man was still wearing the cap.

Reilly stared at the image on the screen, disbelief spreading its way across his expression. “Holy fuck! That’s Derek, one of my brothers,” he whispered.

All eyes turned to Reilly except Kellan’s, who was still fixated on the image. He was the next one to utter a curse as he realized Reilly was right. “Son of a bitch. How the hell does he have anything to do with this?”

Reilly shook his head, still confused. “I have no clue. This is so wrong. So help me I will kill him if he’s involved in this in any way.”

Sebastian looked at him intensely. “Are you positive that this is your brother?” he asked.

Reilly nodded and tears filled his eyes, “I’m so sorry Sebastian.”

Sebastian was quick to pull Reilly into his arms, “Sweetheart, you have nothing to be sorry for. This is all on your brother. But we will get to the bottom of this. I promise you.”

Just then Hunter’s phone rang. “It’s Zev,” he announced as he slid his finger across the screen to connect the call. “Hey Zev, thanks for calling me back. I’m putting you on speaker, my Alpha, his mate Reilly and my mate Kellan are here too.”

Once Hunter had the speaker on, Sebastian took charge. “Hello Zev, I’m Sebastian MacTire, Alpha of the Western Maryland pack. We understand from Hunter, that you had a pup go missing a while back and you’ve been trying to track down what may have happened to him?”

“Yes, Sir. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you, I’ve had a lot going on today,” Zev apologized. They all could hear some muffled noises in the background.

“It’s quite alright Zev, so can you tell us anything that you’ve found out? We had a pup go missing yesterday and we think we recognized who may have taken him,” Sebastian reported.

“Really? That’s great, more than anything we’ve discovered. Every lead we’ve traced has gone cold in Idaho. We know that the abducted pups are taken into Boise, but we can’t find anything on them from there. The Council hasn’t been much help either,” Zev added.

At the mention of Idaho, Sebastian looked at Reilly. His mate looked a little pale and Sebastian’s wolf nearly sprang to the surface. Pulling Reilly in close placated the beast.

“Can you hold on for a moment? I’d like my Alpha to hear what you’ve discovered,” Zev requested.

There was a minute or two of some more muffled noises coming from Zev’s end of the conversation and after a moment or two another voice chimed in.

“Mr. MacTire? This is Caleb Micco, Zev tells me that you had a pup abducted yesterday and you may know who took him?”

“Yes, my mate recognized the driver of a cargo van that we think was used as his brother. They’ve been estranged for a while, it’s a long story, but he’s certain that it’s him. Reilly is originally from Idaho. He’s been gone for over eight years, but he and his best friend are certain of who the driver is,” Sebastian replied.

“Does your mate have any clue how his brother is involved?”

Reilly shook his head and Kellan mirrored the gesture.

“Unfortunately, no. You say that you’ve been able to trace some of the missing pups to Boise? May I ask how?” Sebastian inquired.

Zev answered, “This morning we heard about a possible sighting and we finally got a couple of credible hits on some rather seedy websites that indicated they were in that area. We’re still working on trying to get further into the website. The trail goes cold from there though.”

A look passed between Reilly and Kellan, trepidation reflected their eyes. Kellan nodded nearly imperceptibly. Sebastian’s sharp gaze caught the exchange. He knew his mate well enough by now to know that Reilly was thinking they would have to go back to Idaho. Over his cold, dead body.

“Mr. Micco, would you send over the links to the websites Zev mentioned? I may be able to get a little further with them. Also, may we have permission to come to your territory? I think we need to discuss this in person and see where we need to go from there,” Sebastian requested.

“Please, it’s Caleb and yes, you have my permission to enter our territory. How many will be coming and when do you expect to arrive?”

Sebastian thought for a moment before he answered, “I’ll charter a flight for four of us the day after tomorrow, I need to secure my pack and make some arrangements. I think for now we should keep this on the downlow, the less people that know, the better off we may be. I have a funny feeling that the Council knows more than they are letting on. I don’t want to tip our hand and let them know what we’re planning. We should be there late morning or early in the afternoon. I’m assuming Great Falls is the closest airport to you?”

“Yes, Great Falls would be the closest. I’ll arrange for a vehicle to be at your disposal while you’re here. Zev will text you our address,” Caleb informed him.

Sebastian thanked him and after another few minutes they ended their conversation.

“Kellan, I think you need to contact your father. He needs to be warned that something is going on. If Derek is involved, you can bet that my father is probably behind it. Derek has a box of rocks for brains. I have a gut feeling that my father is somehow involved. I just can’t figure out how though,” Reilly said.

Kellan nodded.

Sebastian could read him pretty well and from what Reilly had explained, Kellan’s family was extremely important to him. He missed his dad and mom and often felt the emotional pain that came with knowing that he was missing some important years of his younger brothers and sister as they grew up. Reilly had told Sebastian that Jack Porter had assured Kellan that he would safeguard everyone. Kellan admitted that his dad would fight to the death to keep his mate and children safe.

Sebastian knew that if Kellan could give his father a slight advantage with a little forewarning, then some of the guilt he felt for not being close could be assuaged. He hated to see Kellan more emotionally torn apart because of his status as Lambda. After his loyalty to Reilly, family ties were the most important thing to him. The strain of not having contact for eight years must have weighed heavy on his heart.

“I can send an encrypted email. We set it up way back when we first fled. It will look like spam if anyone else sees it, but Dad will know it’s me sending it. He’ll call me on a burner phone when it’s safe to do so. I sure as hell hope it works like we wanted it to,” Kellan said wryly. “Knowing my Dad, he has an emergency escape plan for them in place.”

Sebastian acknowledged the stress that Kellan was under and reassured him, “Kellan, from everything you’ve told me, your father is a smart man. I’m sure he’s made plans to keep your mom and siblings safe in case of an emergency. Go ahead and send the email. He may be able to shed some light on what’s happening.”

Kellan nodded and took out his phone. Hunter hovered next to his mate, his wolf sensing its mate’s unease. Sebastian knew that Kellan was grateful for his presence.

When Kellan finished sending off the email, Sebastian took charge once again. “Hunter, call the charter company and set up a flight for us as early as possible for the day after tomorrow. With the time difference and flight time, plus the driving time from Great Falls, I’d like to get there before noon. Something inside me says there’s a lot more than meets the eye and we’re going to have to be on our toes to stay a step ahead of whoever is behind all of this. I just hope that we figure it out in time to save the pups. Reilly and Kellan, I need you two to write down any information about your original pack that you might think we may need. I need to know approximately how many are in the pack, the dynamics, the layout of the area, possible hiding places, anything, anything at all, no matter how insignificant it may seem.”

Sebastian looked up as Donovan came in the door. He quickly got him up to speed on what was going on. Donovan would be in charge of the pack while both he and Hunter were gone. Sebastian knew his pack physician was more than capable of taking care of everyone in their absence. Donovan assured him that between himself and Rosalie, the pack would be in good hands.

As a precaution Sebastian decided to raise the alert level within the pack. Similar to Homeland Security’s National Terrorism Advisory Alert System, but not as complex, Sebastian’s system only had three levels. Green indicated everything was normal, yellow indicated that caution was needed and red was basically the signal to evacuate the territory. He probably should have raised it right after Milo went missing, but with so many gathered at the house, it wasn’t a pressing issue. They had lived in an idyllic green level for quite some time now. Sebastian figured they were overdue for having things stirred up. He just wished it didn’t involve the abduction of one of their pups.

They busied themselves for the next couple of hours until exhaustion crept in and the weariness they all felt became overwhelming. Everyone had been awake for the better part of twenty-four hours, fifteen of them had been spent mind-numbingly looking through video footage. It was once again past midnight and they needed to rest. They wouldn’t do anyone a favor if they couldn’t function due to exhaustion. Rosalie had made sure they were fed throughout the day so the only thing they were in desperate need of was sleep.

Sebastian was relieved when he had been able to cancel the visit from the Council member, telling them that he had business matters to attend to and would reschedule. The secretary had assured him that the Council had more pressing issues to attend to and for him to call back when he was able to confirm a more convenient time. It concerned him slightly that the Council was so willing to put them off, but he couldn’t devote a single brain cell at the moment to mull it over.

Wearily, they stopped whatever it was that they were working on. Kellan and Hunter bade them goodnight and headed down the hallway toward their room. Donovan grabbed his jacket, once again assured Sebastian that he would take care of the pack while they were gone, and went back to his cabin for the night.

Sebastian pulled Reilly in close, needing to inhale his scent to soothe his wolf. As his wolf settled, he kissed his mate and led him down the hallway to their own room. It wasn’t long at all before they were under the covers, Reilly wrapped in Sebastian’s embrace, with sleep claiming both of them.