Savage Smoke Read Free Page A

Panting, ire rising, her emotions pushed outward. She heard the whoosh-pump of blood rushing inside her veins, whips of heat singed across her skin, prickling along her spine. A tremor launched from her toes up, and then Trevor’s eyes met hers. The understanding in his expression arrested the tide of frustration. Someone finally heard her. Trevor.
    “Chance swears he watched his brother fall from a cliff to his death.” Trevor came around the table, stopping beside Olivia. He brushed his hair back and stared at her with glowing silver-blue eyes. Olivia sensed his calming energy soothing her. “He hit rocks and ledges all the way down the cliff face and landed in a raging river hundreds of feet below. Chance watched his brother’s body go underwater and never surface. Apparently search parties looked for months up and down the river, but to no avail, they never found his brother, Savage.”
    “What do you think, Trevor? You know Chance best. Has he said anything this past month acknowledging Smoke as his brother, Savage?” Olivia inexplicably relaxed every part of her body at peace. Trevor looked past her; his eyes lacked the wild luster she remembered when he and Lindsey were together.
    Olivia had listened to Chance speak of Trevor often, as close friends would. Trevor wasn’t the same Lycan since Lindsey had been abducted. Chance feared the friend he knew as Trevor may never be retrieved. Chance often referred to his own father as becoming a shell of a man after the death of Chance’s mother, his father’s primal-mate. Even though Lindsey wasn’t dead, it must feel like death to Trevor. Olivia missed her friend and wanted her back as bad as Trevor should.
    Lindsey supposedly belonged to Smoke now, according to emotions and feelings Olivia sensed from Trevor, but Olivia knew it wasn’t the truth of it. Lindsey had fallen in love with Trevor, wildly, deeply, and she’d never willingly choose Smoke.
    Olivia sighed when Trevor remained silent, and she pictured him doing the same thing with Lindsey, simply giving up. What made Trevor give up on Lindsey so easily?
    “We should get busy finding Smoke,” Damen broke in. “Let’s get some satellite pictures of the area around Rutskin, Wyoming. You know the type of buildings they called home in Minnesota. It might be more rustic. I can picture him living in cave dwellings out there. Only the weather this time of year would be harsh, even for a wolf. And if they took human females with them, they’d have to accommodate them somewhere, keep them warm.”
    “We could set up a stake-out at the post office.” Jasmine’s fingers tapped away on her keyboard, eyes glued toward the screen as she spoke.
    “Not sure when his next delivery will be. I think songbird set him up with a year’s supply because Linden didn’t want Smoke showing up at the lab unannounced.”
    “Oh my wolfen damn toes!” Jasmine’s back straightened and she spun her chair around staring wide-eyed at the group. “It just now occurred to me. The Westlyn pack lost their Alpha. Normally that wouldn’t send a signal. From my understanding their Alpha wasn’t a good leader. I figured the pack got sick of their fearless leader’s friggin’ orgies, never taking a mate, but sharing everyone else’s females. I would have sewed him up nice and tight, my damn knee jammed into his junk.”
    “Babes, calm yourself.” Dir stooped down and kissed the top of her head. “Stay on task for us. What about the Westlyn pack?”
    Jasmine exhaled a giant breath and closed her eyes a moment. Dir rubbed her shoulder, she opened her eyes, pressed her lips tight, and then her body softened, relaxing. “The thing is, the Westlyn pack has all the comforts of home for a rogue pack, and they are located in the vicinity of Rutskin, a few miles north over the state line. That take-over happened around the same time Smoke vanished from our radar, and I never put it together until now.”
    “It sounds like a