Jaxson (River Pack Wolves 1)(20)

“What is it?” Jaxson’s voice was flat and calm, completely in charge, as if he hadn’t just been caught making out.

For some reason, this flushed even more embarrassment through Olivia. She knew she was just some quick fling for him, but being thrust aside so obviously was… well, humiliating. She swallowed down the angry words that wanted to pop out and pretended to shuffle some papers on her desk. What was she doing, making out with her boss, anyway? Any fool knew that never worked out. Especially given the situation. She was impossibly stupid for even—

“Cassie Wilding is missing.” Jace’s voice cut through her barrage of thoughts.

Olivia looked up. “Wilding? Like the Wilding wolf pack?” She frowned and scoured her memory. She’d been focused on eligible mates for Jaxson, but the name did sound familiar.

Jace frowned at her, then strode the rest of the way into the room and dropped his voice when he reached his brother. “Maybe we should discuss this in private?” he asked quietly. He obviously meant Olivia.

She dropped her gaze to the floor. “I’ll just… see myself out.” She fumbled to grab her phone and wallet out of the drawer.

Jaxson took two quick steps to her side and stopped her with his hand on hers. She dragged her gaze up to meet his.

“This is a pack matter.” There was an apology on his face that he wasn’t speaking out loud. “But I’d like you to stay. You’re part of Riverwise now—you should know what’s going on.”

A pack matter. The politics between the packs had a heavy influence on Jaxson’s ideas of who to pick for a mate. That was the real reason why he wanted her to stay.

She nodded, short and fast, to show she understood. “I know how to keep my mouth shut.”

He gave her a small, approving smirk before turning back to his brother. “I’ll read Olivia in on this afterward, but first—what’s happened to Cassie?”

Jace had a deep frown for the whole interaction, but he quickly explained. “She was taken off the street. A white van just pulled up, and two men snatched her outside her school. She was staying late at some private academy the Wilding’s send their pups to—”

“Wait,” Olivia interrupted. “Pups? Is she a kid?” It was quickly coming back to her—there was a whole litter of young wolves in the Wilding pack.

Jaxson nodded to her. “Cassie is Terra Wilding’s younger sister. She’s about twelve.” He swung back to Jace. “How long ago?”

“Less than an hour.”

Jaxson scowled. “So you think she’s at the shelter.”

“She might be,” Jace said. “If we get there fast enough, we might be able to stop them…”

“…before they transport her away,” Jaxson finished.

“Exactly.” Jace grimaced in the direction of the doorway. Precious seconds were ticking away. “Jared’s back up in the mountains.”

“Dammit.” Jaxson curled up his fist and pressed it to his mouth for a moment. “All right, we’ll have to move without him.” His voice was back in full command mode. “We take whoever in the pack you can get hold of in the next five minutes. Then we move out. Time is against us.”

Jace nodded, already whipping his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll meet you downstairs in five. We’ll need supplies, too.”

“On it.” Jaxson turned to take Olivia by the shoulders as Jace raced from the room. “I’m sorry to drag you into this. But the Wildings may call while we’re out, and I need someone here to hold down the fort. Keep them calm. And reassure them we’re doing everything we can.”

She nodded quickly. “Fort-holding, phone-answering, and re-assuring. I can handle that. Only… what do I tell them? And shouldn’t we be calling the police or something?”

Jaxson took a deep breath and let out a slow, angry sigh. “The police aren’t much help to shifters, Olivia. I know that might not make any sense, but they figure it’s all turf wars and pack fights. And they stay out. Plus, once they know we’re shifters…”

“Oh. Right.” She knew about the laws regarding shifter registration. Once someone was a known shifter, they had to submit DNA samples in both shifter and human forms, in case they ever committed a crime. That way the police could tie them to the crime, even if they did it in shifter form. She’d never thought about it before, but it was pretty ridiculous to treat shifters that way—like they were sub-humans who were already criminals. But then she’d never kissed one before and realized just how human a shifter could be.