Chapter 24

Idiot, idiot, idiot, Blaire growled at herself as she sat in the sun trying to dry herself. Akira…she needed him like he was a part of her body, a major part. What would've happened if Charles hadn't run out of the woods and stopped them? Would they be making love? Her face burned at the possibility at the images that cascaded through her mind at the possibility. Muscles in her stomach clenched tightly as she'd never felt for any other male. What do I do? she fretted nervously in her mind.

Her face flamed as her wolf sent her images of what she wanted to do to him. "Wolf," she complained as she kept filtering in the images. Her widened my eyes at one of her images and grumbled with the reddest blush ever "I'm not that flexible." She seemed to mentally laugh and grin. She rolled her eyes and rolled onto her back.

–To see someone standing above her. She screamed but it was too late; he swam down to his knees above her and clapped a cloth over her mouth. His hand kept the cloth to her mouth and his other trapped both her wrists above her head. She screamed again but then the void that was closing in on the corners of her eyesight swallowed her whole.

Akira…she whispered in her mind before she lost the ability to think.

Akira felt the disturbance bing and ricochet off his bond with Blaire like a bullet. He wheezed and fell to his knees holding his head between his hands. He distantly heard Charles yelling at him and even felt him shaking the mess out him, but his mind was on the disturbance; something was wrong with Blaire. She was in trouble. She needed him.

"Akira!" Charles shouted, shaking his young relative with excess force he knew that was a bit too much but he couldn't stop, he was worried; Akira looked as if he was breaking right in front of him. "Akira, talk to me! Are you alright?" Akira's shaking finally seemed to calm but when he raised his gaze to his the young wolf's were in no way focused and calm like they usually were, they were hazed and wild.

"Blaire…" he whispered. That one word and Charles understood everything. Blaire was in danger.

The mug he was holding slipped through Bran's fingers as he felt Akira's distress in the pack. He could already tell what must've happened for his young wolf to be so deeply destroyed so he didn't bother to answer his son's call. He ran out of the house and dialed Anna.

"Bran?" Anna answered.

"Blaire's been taken," he said immediately. He didn't waste time with any pleasantries. She gasped and he ran faster to where he could follow her scent. He didn't even whirl when he shut the phone and Asil ran up to his right. He nodded at Asil who shifted and Bran continued the trial. No one took those who were his and Blaire helping his wolf and her uncompleted but still present mating bond with Akira made her all but connected in his personal web of family interlocked within his web of wolves in his pack. She was a part of his pack even if she wasn't really in it yet. He had to find her, his beast, for once, roared its agreement with him; it wanted to save the young girl, she was like his…ice pack and daughter, almost like a rope in an endless sea. The thing, the one thing calmed his blood, but it only calmed it, it didn't stop it, he was still a beast, even if he was calmed, nothing could stop it, however that was where Leah came in.

Right now though, he had to save his young friend's and young relative's mate's life. He growled and pushed on. He had a hard time keeping up with her after her and Akira's scents disappeared into the pool –and didn't that just raise all types of questions? –but his accurate guessing of Blaire led him to the right spot, a clearing in the grassy plains that thrived in his territory. He caught another unfamiliar scent and growled ferociously.

Closing his eyes he swallowed some air and raised his head in an emergency call howl, the eerie beauty of it would reach to all the wolves presently in his territory. Answering calls came from all around including Asil's call. Bran stood in the clearing as wolves and man bursted out from the greenery and plains around him.

"We have a girl to find," he told them. "She's very important and a part of our pack. Her scent is here, and so's the scent of the perpetrator that took her. Find them both. Now!" The wolves and males all nodded and searched without hesitation. They were his wolves; of course they'd follow his orders without hesitation.

Akira followed the beacon that was fueled by his mating bond that held true although it was incomplete. Charles and Asil flanked him as well as Bran and another wolf that he believed was named Tom. Angus was traveling through the trees alongside others of his pack. Dylan followed suit in his wolf form that Akira was surprised to find was a dark blue,the same color as a dark night and a blackish blue ink pen and as silky as silk itself.

They were going to get Blaire back. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And he'd make absolutely sure of it. Even if it killed him.

Blaire couldn't move, she groaned aloud and groaned even louder as she felt her head spin. Her eyes blearily opened for a minute-

To show her nothing but darkness, there was something tieing her wrists together. She took a deep breath trying to calm the panic in her heart and kept telling herself to calm down.

"Calm down," her wolf whispered. "You're not a scared child anymore." She drew on her wolf's as well her own strength as she tried to find out where she was. She felt her body swinging and knew that her wrists were chained to some kind of roof of this dark room. She gritted her teeth at the panic that wanted to overwhelm her and took deep breaths and forced her self to make her eyes adjust to the dark room. Once they did she looked down-

And nearly bit her tongue; it seemed that she was dangling over at least a good five feet off the ground. She looked up and saw that it wasn't a roof over her that was holding her chains that wrapped around her wrists, no, the chains were locked tightly around a pipe. A pipe that allowed a semi-truck to release air in its horn-she was in the back of a semi, and it was taking her somewhere. Her heart thudded faster as she felt the tell-tale signs of the semi shifting from the paved road to the bumpy dirt road-they were obviously taking no chances. Panic started to bloom but she had to regain her wit to stay alive now.

I need to get Akira, she thought. Almost immediately she felt her wolf step into action. Stay strong, she told herself, swinging slightly. Starting to hum a soft tune that Akira had taught her she started to swing forward, a plan appearing in her mind. She had to stay alive long enough for Akira and Bran as well as Charles and Dylan to come. They would come, she was sure of it, she just had to stay alive long enough for that. She wasn't backing down without a fight.

For him, I'll fight, she thought, picturing Akira and his laughing when she had told him about her trip to the mall with Anna, he'd brought them sodas as they talked and laughed. With determination she swung herself farther with more force. "For him," she whispered, forcing the sway farther. "I'll risk everything." She then grabbed on to the top of the pole as she finally swung high enough that she could twist her body in a way that was pure werewolf. She grabbed onto the pipe and crouched on it. "I'm not giving up now," she growled, starting to pull on the chains and slowly but surely work them. "Not when I've finally found him."

Akira felt his mate bond snap even more into place and swayed on his feet at the sudden feelings overwhelming him. It was like being blind sighted by bat; happiness and sadness, pain and euphoria, passion and wariness, fire and ice. He gasped and felt Charles shake him once again but he wasn't in his right state of mind. The mate bond between him and Blaire felt more powerful. It felt like it could cut through steel without a scratch. He felt woozy but elevated, like he was high.

"What's wrong with him?" Bran asked, walking through the circle gathered around a glazed looking Akira. Akira seemed to look up at him but Bran could tell he wasn't fully in his right mind. "Akira?" he asked just as the young wolf shot up.

"I know where she is!" he shouted. "But who's ever got her is on the move and they're not stopping." He immediately started for his car and Bran and the others were forced to follow.

"Let's go!" Dylan yelled, sliding into Akira's shot gun. Akira looked at him with an arched eyebrow but Dylan merely stared back with a dominant light in his eyes. Bran thought they were going to get into a brawl-Akira was never challenged-but then Akira surprisingly submitted and blew out a breath and walked over and entered the driver's side of the car, leaving everyone gaping after him in utter disbelief.

"Come on! We've gotta go save my sister!" Dylan yelled just as Akira's Camry revved out of it's spot and started down the road at suicidal speeds. Bran hurriedly hoped in his car, Asil beside him, and pulled on his sunglasses as he hit the gas and sped after Akira, muttering something about teen drivers. Asil smiled and knew Bran was joking. It was time to save one of thier own, now.

"Hang in there, Blaire," he whispered and floored the gas pedal.