“Yeah.” Jaxson had to fight to rein in the smirk. “She’s a handful.” He’d actually had a handful of her, and his wolf wasn’t forgetting that any time soon. She was unpredictable, and she pissed him off with her recklessness, but damn, she had felt good when he had his paws on her. There were all kinds of smoldering hotness inside that short, voluptuous frame of hers, and he halfway hoped that, if they found Noah, she might be grateful the way Terra had been when they rescued her little sister Cassie. The crawling in his bed kind of grateful. Terra wasn’t his type, but Piper… Jace’s wolf surged up from the dark pit, making Jace suck in a breath. Then again, maybe not. His wolf wanted her in his bed even more than Jace. And that was flat dangerous.
Just one more thing his wolf would ruin for him.
Jace blew out the breath he’d been holding. “The thing is, I’m not entirely sure her brother’s actually missing. Have we started work on tracking down Agent Smith? I know you’ve been… busy… but I thought Jared was working intel on this last night. Do you know?”
“I’ll go boot him out of bed and get him down here. See what he’s got.” Jaxson trotted over to the stairs and headed up.
Olivia bit her lip and looked as anxious as Jace felt. He genuinely regretted intruding upon their happiness, but getting through this would require all of their pack working together—and probably pulling in help from the Wildings as well. Noah was part of their pack, after all. But all the local area packs looked to the River pack wolves for leadership on this kind of thing, given Riverwise was private security and almost all their pack had military backgrounds.
Olivia edged closer to him, anxiety deepening her frown. “I know you don’t trust witches, but I promise you, Jace, I love your brother like I’ve never loved any man on earth. Or shifter.”
Jace held up a hand and waved away her concern—she was half witch, and he generally despised the species, but he knew she was different. And she had saved Jaxson from his own dark secret, one Jace hadn’t even seen. “It’s obvious you make Jaxson happy. Not much I can object to with that. And the mating bond between the two of you makes the pack stronger. It’s all good, just took me by surprise is all. Besides, having a few allies in a certain powerful downtown Seattle coven might help us unravel this thing.” It hadn’t occurred to him before, but maybe Olivia’s family—the Damon coven—would be able to help them track down Noah. Or at least see if he truly was missing.
“Not sure the coven really wants to be involved in pack business.” Olivia grimaced. “But I’ll do anything I can to help.”
Jace gave her a sharp nod. He’d take help from the witches, if offered, but he certainly wasn’t going to go begging… and he really only trusted Olivia to have shifters’ best interests at heart.
Pounding footsteps down the stairs made him think Jaxson had managed to rouse Jared from his typical crashed-out state. The oldest River brother had his own nightmarish past, but he was better at working it out than Jace. And Jared wasn’t a danger to anyone. He could shift and let his wolf form run out all of his horror at the things that had happened and the things he had done. Jace didn’t have that luxury, not when there were people around who could be hurt by it. Which meant Jared paid his penance by hitting the mountains or the shooting range for endless hours, exhausting himself, and when he hit the sack, he hit it hard. Crashing like the dead man Jace suspected his brother longed to be.
Both his brothers lumbered into the kitchen with Daniel close behind.
“I figured if everyone was getting up…” Daniel shrugged.
Jace just nodded. Piper’s brother should be part of this conversation, anyway. Piper too, but Jace wasn’t quite ready to deal with her brand of Wilding insanity just yet. Better to have a plan first.
Jaxson hooked a thumb toward Jared. “Tell Jace what you were telling me.”
Their oldest brother was the largest among them, although none of the River brothers was exactly small. The shifter gene, plus their military training and staying in shape for their business, meant they were all pretty well bulked up. Jaxson was an ex-SEAL and Jace was a former Army medic, but Jared was all Marine. And it showed.
He ran a hand through his hair, which was mussed. His sleep must have been restless at some point, even if he slept like the dead. “I’ve been trying to access some of the local military information systems. Nothing classified, just poking around to see if anyone has heard of this Agent Smith. And I’ve uploaded a sketch to our office facial recognition software—it’s scanning some of the law enforcement and city-wide camera databases to see if we can track down who this guy really is. It’s only been a day since we kicked his ass, but he could have flown that little two-seater airplane anywhere. I kind of doubt we’ll get lucky and find him in Seattle.”