Elias had been convinced that the younger generations held the answer to the death of our species. He had come to the school to watch younger generations and foster connections between packs. He had spent most of his life moving through packs, studying them and observing. No one had ever questioned his origins since he claimed no official allegiance to any one pack.
Most considered him a lone wolf.
“Elias had been working with the Alpha here. Nikolai.” She paused. “That’s my … dad.”
“So, your dad is working with Norwood?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Nikolai has been working on the population issue for the last few years, I think. I don’t know exactly how it works, but the population here is doing better than in America. Elias wanted to use what Nikolai was doing back home.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “I’m not seeing why that’s a problem or why that means you’re currently an ocean away from me.”
“What Nikolai has done here, they use volunteers. Elias has been working with Norwood on the same type of program. But they’re doubling down to make sure their pack doesn’t lose numbers.”
“They kidnapped the women.” Not that the proof would do us much good now; there wasn’t a Council to take our findings to.
“And the girls from school,” she confirmed. “Dimitri isn’t sure why, but he plans to ask Elias when he wakes up.”
“Elias is with you?”
“Yeah.” Another heavy pause. “So is my uncle.”
I scowled into the phone. It was a miracle I hadn’t cracked it in half with how tight I was holding onto it. “Explains why we didn’t find his body. I thought … I thought he took you.”
“More like Dimitri took him,” she corrected with a weak laugh.
“Why?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” she replied. “But I don’t think it’s because he had extra room on the plane. Dimitri used some kind of drug to knock him out. He did the same thing to Elias.”
At least they were unconscious. That was something.
“And Tate,” she mumbled under her breath at the last second.
“What the—”
“Shh,” she hissed. “The last thing Dante or Ryder need to know is that Tate is currently drugged.”
I wiped a hand down my face and lowered my voice. “And why are so many people currently unconscious?”
“The blast knocked me out. Tate was awake. It was the only way Dimitri could get her to come, too. He knew Norwood was behind the explosion—he came to the cabin looking for you and Gabe to tell you he thought Norwood was planning something. He overheard Elias on the phone with Damien. We were on our way to find you and Tate ran into us. The explosion happened minutes later. I guess Dimitri thought he was protecting us.”
By taking my mate to the other side of the fucking world.
I definitely owed him a big thank you.
“Tate’s fine, Remy, I swear. She’s sleeping off the last of the drugs.” Skye released a shaky breath. “Mom told me about Luke. I don’t know how I’m going to tell her that her dad is gone.”
“We’ll delay the funeral until she gets back,” I told her quietly. “Until you’re both back.”
“They think the storm will clear in a few days, a week tops.”
An entire fucking week with Skye gone.
It sounded like my own personal circle of hell.
“It’s barely been two days since I’ve seen you, and I can’t stand it,” I told her. “A week is going to be torture.”
“I’ll talk to Nikolai and Dimitri. I can probably get my own phone and we can video chat. That’s something, right?”
I sighed, ducking my head at the hope and sadness in her voice. “Yeah, baby. We’ll make it work.”
“I miss you,” she added so softly I almost didn’t hear.
“I miss you more. Are you sure you’re okay?” Storm or not, if I sensed in any way that she wasn’t perfect, I would fly into the closest airport, shift, and run across Russia to find her.
“I’m okay,” she replied softly. “Maybe me being here is a good thing. I can find out what Elias knows. Mom said Norwood is causing problems? If I can figure out what they’re planning, it might help.”
The phone in my hand beeped and I glanced down at the low battery warning with a hiss. “Babe, your mom’s phone is dying.”
“It’s all right. I need to go see if Tate is awake yet. I don’t want her waking up with me not there. I’ll call you when I can, okay?”