Simon's POV

We drove for a while and didn't find anything, or found too much. The town was mostly industrial so it was impossible to tell.

"They picked a good place to set up," I said. "This is impossible."

"It's not impossible," Nate said.

"What's your suggestion?" Derek growled.

"Let us out of this metal contraption and let us find her scent."

"They know what we look like though," Tori spoke up.

"So we split up," Nate said like it was obvious.

Derek pulled off to the side of the road, "Fine get out."

The werewolves got out, Sylvia flashed me an apologetic smile as she shut the door. Derek floored it away.

"How can they find her scent if she's been inside a building all this time?" I asked.

Derek shrugged, "Don't know. Don't care. I don't want to be around him any longer."

I didn't know what happened between the two but it was obviously bugging Derek. Or maybe he was just on edge cause we were so close to finally finding her. It's hard to tell with him sometimes.

"I don't know how much of a help I will be with all this," Tori admitted. "I'm not in the best shape."

"You don't need to be in good physical shape to use magic," Derek grunted.

Tori rolled her eyes, "But you kind of need to be in good health to get past guards. I'm sorry I'm not ultra werewolf powerful."

"If I bite you, you will be," Derek growled quietly.

"Don't you dare!" She shrieked.

"Shut it!" I said to both of them. "We do not need fighting right now. We need focus."

Third Person POV

Nate, Sylvia, and the third werewolf, Ron, got out of the car. It floored away.

"What did you do to him that he's so..." Sylvia couldn't put a finger on the right word to use.

"He said that the timing of our interactions were too convenient so I had my spell lifted."

Ron smiled at the thought of the new punk werewolf getting beaten up. He wasn't a fan of Derek so much.

"Remind me why we are helping this kid find his mate?" Ron asked.

"We aren't just finding her for him, these scientists have gone too far experimenting on grown people. We need to take her back and protect our bloodlines."

They started walking down the sidewalks, sniffing the air occasionally for familiar scents.

"Take her back?" Sylvia repeated. "You're not giving her back to your son?"

Nate snorted a laugh, "No, if we get to her first, she's coming with us. Learn the ways of her pack, her bloodline, before she decides if she wants to be with my son or not."

Sylvia rolled her eyes, "Is your spell wearing off? You're talking like a mad man. You can't have hostages, Nate."

"She's no hostage, she'd be free to leave anytime. I just want to give her the opportunity of learning her heritage."

"But not the boy?" Ron asked.

Nate shook his head, "I want little to nothing to do with that boy. He's caused tremendous issues."

Sylvia wanted to argue with Nate that taking his mate away, even if it were temporary, is causing issues too. But she kept her mouth shut, how were they supposed to find her anyway.

Time Skip

They had been walking around for a while now and caught nothing. None of them had contact information for the kids so they had no idea what the others were up to. They passed by a medical looking facility, chills ran up Sylvia's spine.

"I'm not liking the look of this place."

Nate veered off the sidewalk, "All the more reason to check it out then."

It was a two story building of white brick,, out front a stone sign read 'Private Medical Research Facility. No entry." The smell of sterile medical equipment radiated from it. The front door had a key card and three different kinds of locks on it. They rounded the corner of the building, not seeing any obvious security cameras. The side of the building was blank which gave them an even more eerie feeling. Not one window on either floor. What kind of rooms could you have that didn't need windows.

"Surgical rooms?" Sylvia suggested.

Nate and Ron shrugged, that seemed like too easy of an explanation if this really was the place.

They rounded the back, keeping close to trees and bushes. The blank wall continued halfway across the back of the building until a tall brick wall jutted out and back in.

"Some sort of courtyard," Nate said. He could smell the blacktop that had been laid down.

"Why would you close in a courtyard like that?" Ron asked.

"To keep someone in when they think they are outside," Nate answered.

On the corner of the wall was a security camera, but it was pointed inward at the courtyard. Nate pointed it out to them so they could be cautious in case it was a rotating camera. They approached the wall and searched for scents, hoping to come across Chloe's. Ron didn't know hers, he had not met her. But Nate and Sylvia knew it from their previous encounter.

They searched for several minutes and were about to give up when Nate picked up on something faint. It was an old old scent that would be washed away quickly by the next rainfall. It sort of smelled like Chloe's scent but he couldn't be sure. There was something more sour about it.

The other two noticed he picked up on something.

"What is it?"

"I've got something faint that could be her but I'm not sure, its different."

"If they've been experimenting on her successfully, her scent would be different," Sylvia pointed out.

Had they found where she was?