Her Knotty List (MVP: Most Valuable Pack Book 4)

WHERE ARE YOU

Please come back.

Lucy, I’ve been out driving all night and so have the rest of the guys.

This is really bad.

Do you think she might be with my buddy Gunnar?

Yes! Does Emma know him?

I’ve been driving all night by the time Theo calls me.

I pull off the highway I’ve been driving up and down for hours, searching for any trace of the silver sedan I lost. Sighing, I rest my forehead on the steering wheel and smash the button to answer the call.

“Yeah?”

My friend’s voice is a frantic croak. “Gunnar! Is Emma with you? We’ve been looking for her all night, and then Smith noticed you were gone, too. Do you have her?”

I look around at all the bleak white-and-gray winter. “No. I saw her leave the venue and tried to go after her, but I lost her in the storm. Did you see my texts?”

I’ve written and called a few times, making sure they all knew what had happened. Theo must not have noticed, though, because he curses, and I hear him fumble with his phone. “No. Fuck. Sorry. We’re all freaking the fuck out. My phone’s been going off like crazy since we realized she left back around midnight.”

Midnight? The hell? “She left way before that,” I growl. “How did no one notice? Not even her pack?”

Theo pauses. “There was… an incident. We thought she would be hiding somewhere in the house or on the property. We didn’t find her note until midnight.”

I’m relieved she left an explanation. “What does it say?”

He’s unnaturally quiet for a long beat. “It’s an apology. For leaving.”

Damn. Something really bad must have happened.

“I know,” he rasps, reading my silence. “Now these assholes are saying they don’t want an unstable omega. They’re asking us to pay them back for their ‘expenses’ for the wedding. Not sure what the hell they mean since I paid for all this shit, but… It’s fucked. Wait. Did you say you’ve been driving around looking for her?”

He sounds so incredulous; I’m insulted. “Of course I am!” I snap. “What—was I just supposed to let her run off alone? In a storm? In the mountains?”

“Good point,” he mumbles. “You should come back and get some sleep, though, Gunn. There’s no point in you getting into an accident because you fell asleep at the wheel.”

I blow out another breath, knowing he has a point. “Okay. I’ll circle back and be there soon.” A feeling I remember but haven’t felt in a while seethes in my stomach. Pity. “We’ll find her, man.”

He doesn’t sound convinced, even as he agrees, “Yeah. Of course. Lucy is almost here. I’m sure she’ll have some idea where Em went.”

Lucy.

My blood hums at the thought of her big jade eyes and angelic curls. Am I really going to give up on finding her sister for her?

Then again, I’m not sure I can stay away now that I know she’ll be at the estate house.

“Okay. I’m on my way.”

The call clicks off and I roll my shoulders, glancing out my frosted window at the looming shadow of the mountain beside me. Emma wouldn’t have gone up there, right? Unless she got turned around…

Theo said she was really upset. I suppose it’s possible.

With Lucy’s face in my mind, I blink exhaustion from my eyes and turn my Jeep around. I’ll go up the mountain, make sure Emma isn’t there, then I’ll go back and do everything I can to comfort the sweet omega I made a horrible first impression with.

Who knows—maybe she won’t mind that I’m not in a pack. Maybe she’ll have others in mind, and we can make our own pack.

Holy shit. Was that a hopeful thought?

I’m so tired, I’m losing my mind.

I follow an off-branch of the main highway, winding my car up the side of the steep mountain. It takes me twenty minutes to clear the first third of the behemoth, where the road suddenly veers into a sharp incline.

And there, buried in a snowbank, is a little silver sedan.

FUCK.

I leap out of the car and wade through snow up to my knees, fighting my way to the car. Noting that it’s empty, aside from a familiar purple suitcase in the backseat.

Fuck, fuck, FUCK.

This was her car. And she’s gone.

I wrestle her bag out. My mind reels and I go for my phone, only to realize it’s sitting in my cup holder. My eyes leap around the snow surrounding the car, trying to make sense of the tracks. They’re pretty fresh—the fine powder falling from the sky hasn’t obscured them yet.

It looks like three sets of men’s shoes. Two on the passenger’s side and one here, where the driver’s window has been smashed in.

Shit. Did someone find her here and take her?

I note the other tracks, then. A set of thick truck tires that seem to have taken off with our runaway bride.

I don’t even think. The next thing I know, I’m back in my car, following the swerving tracks further up the mountain.