The Tracker's Rage (Mate Tracker #3) - Ingrid Seymour Page 0,32

line for a condo—not without first building a comfortable financial cushion. If only I were as sensible as my older sister.

After a quick lunch from the pizzeria across the street, we headed out to Damien’s place. As I was locking the door to our office, my senses spiked with awareness, freezing me on the spot.

“What’s the matter?” Rosalina asked.

“I don’t know.” I turned the key and glanced around, trying to see what might have caused my sudden alertness, but the street was unusually empty, with only a couple of guys walking on the opposite sidewalk headed for Cup o’ Java.

I shook my head. “I guess it’s nothing. My senses have been a bit hyperactive. I think my wolf is still settling in.”

“Whatever spell Damien put on you, it must’ve been a humdinger.”

We were walking toward my Camaro when the rumble of an engine came around the corner. I immediately recognized it as Jake’s Harley. I glanced in the direction of the sound, and as I laid eyes on him, my hypersensitive senses settled down, going back to a comfortable level.

What the hell?

“Was he the reason you were acting so weird?” Rosalina asked, putting two and two together.

“I think so.”

“Like you knew he was coming? Like you have spidey sense?”

“I really didn’t know he was near, but maybe I should have. Let’s get out of here.” I didn’t want to talk to Jake. It was too hard to be around him. Plus, we had somewhere to be.

Unfortunately, he caught sight of us before we made it to the car and sped his bike in our direction. Damn, if only Eric had taught me how to teleport already. Jake came to a stop, kicked out the stand, got off, and strolled resolutely toward us.

“It was him,” he said between clenched teeth. “The other wolf at the warehouse, it was Stephen. You were right.” He halted in front of me, and I could feel his anger rippling from his body like an energy field. “The fucking bastard. I should kill him.”

My eyes darted all around, worried someone might hear him. “Calm down, and don’t do anything stupid.”

“How are you so sure?” Rosalina asked.

“I called Kaden, our friend in New Orleans. He sent me this picture.” He pulled out his phone and retrieved the photograph of a snarling wolf standing on top of an unmade bed, a woman wrapped in the sheets like a burrito, looking terrified. The wolf had reddish fur and glowing blue eyes. It was of medium size, only slightly bigger than Eric’s wolf.

“Kaden snapped this picture during a drunken party they had,” Jake explained. “They were wasted on this drug called grim shaggy or some crap like that, and Stephen decided to shift and scare all the women at the party. He thought it was funny.”

That sounded like something College Stephen would’ve done. Supposedly, he’d been a party animal then, but when I’d met him, all of his friends seemed to think he was reformed. But maybe he hadn’t been. Maybe, it had all been a front for his father’s sake.

Jake put away his phone, his fists clenching and unclenching as he worked through his anger and disappointment.

“I’m sorry,” I said, realizing that this discovery pained him.

He had considered Stephen his friend. When Stephen had gone missing, Jake had moved heaven and earth to find him, had even convinced me to help, pushing aside his personal goal of staying away from me. And arguably, Jake’s life had taken a turn for the worse since then, much like mine. Maybe we both had Stephen to blame for our current misery, and for the shithole St. Louis was turning into.

Witchlights! Did Stephen really want a war? Or was he only rebelling against Ulfen?

“How were we so wrong about his character?” I asked. “He must be rotten to the core.”

“I can’t believe I wasted my time worrying about him,” Jake said, his nostrils flaring as anger continued to ripple through him. “I thought I was saving him, and all along I was helping his twisted scheme. I even dragged you into all of this. Toni, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Rosalina said. “You were just trying to do good.”

Jake shook his head. “I should have seen through him.”

“He fooled all of us,” I said. “Rosalina’s right. It isn’t your fault.”

“We have to stop him,” he said, taking a deep breath as his disappointment turned to resolve. “The influx of rhabo into the city hasn’t let up and more vampires are dying every day.