and tried to wait patiently. However, when he came back down without Jenny in tow, I raised my eyebrow.
“What?” I asked. “Is she…”
“She's not there,” he said.
“Excuse me?” I asked. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Jacob said as the three of us began to look around. Matthew chuckled, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I knocked him in the face.
He screamed as I heard his nose crunch. I guess one hit was enough after all.
The house was big, but it wasn’t so big that it took us long to sweep it.
“She's not here,” Jacob concluded.
“What?” Frances said. “She has to be here. She…”
“She’s not here,” Jacob said. “Did any of you lock the doors before we left?”
All of us went to each other and then shook our heads. I couldn't believe that we had been so stupid. Matthew would have probably laughed if he wasn’t still gushing blood.
“No,” I said. “Where could she have gone? Do you think that someone...do you think there were more wolves?”
“Matthew.” Frances didn’t care if there was blood everywhere. “Were there more wolves?”
He didn’t move.
“Matthew!” Frances demanded. “Were there more wolves?”
Again, he didn’t say anything and Frances shook him.
“If you don't tell me,” he said, “I swear, I will find a way to make sure you never speak again.”
“No,” Matthew finally spoke. “No, there were no more wolves.”
“Maybe she just left?” I asked, and Jacob sighed.
“What do you think the chances of that are? If she didn’t leave all this time?”
“I think they are pretty high,” I said. “She didn’t know that she had been kidnapped before. Now, she knows, and she was very angry...and this was her first opportunity to leave.”
“But where would she go?” Frances asked. “She doesn’t know anyone else.”
I paused.
“She does know one other person,” I said. “She’s gotten pretty close to Anna.”
“You think she'd run to Anna and Nick?” Jacob asked. “Nick would turn her around and tell her to come right back here.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe he’d wait for us to come to him.”
“We can’t all go,” Jacob said, and I glared at him.
“Jeez, for once, just forget about the business,” I said. “Do you want to find her or not?”
“Yes,” Jacob said. “Of course I do.”
“So it’s settled,” Frances said. “We’re going to go to Nick’s.”
“What if she is not there?” Jacob said. “We could at least call and—”
“No, if she finds out, she will run,” I said. “We have to go.”
“I see,” Jacob said. “So you think that we just pick up and turn to Nick?”
“I think that’s the best idea,” I said. “Frances? Do you agree?”
“Yeah,” Frances said. “But what do we do with Matthew?”
“I think we could tie him up,” I grinned. “Until we get back.”
“That could be days,” Matthew said. “You can’t—”
“You think the wolves would pay for you, then?” I asked. He paused.
“No,” he said. “They don’t want me.”
“Well then,” I said with a grin. “I guess it's settled.”
“My family would pay for me, though,” he said.
“Your family?” I asked. “Are they not wolves?”
“No,” he hung his head. “I was raised with humans.”
“Wow,” I said. “I never would have thought that.”
“There’ no shame in it,” Jacob said. “The shame comes from the fact that you have somehow managed to disgrace both types of your family. The wolves are ashamed of you for treating your mate that way, and the humans are ashamed of you for treating your girlfriend that way.”
In a flash, I realized that we were not that different at all.
Of course, none of that mattered if we couldn’t find harmony out of this situation. At the moment, harmony meant finding Jenny.
Chapter Twenty
Jacob
I was someone who preferred to know exactly what they walked into. I preferred to know that we were going to get there, and Jenny was going to be there. Preferably, I would also know that she was willing to come back with us. However, I took Johnathan's point that she might run if she knew that we were coming. I did not want her to do that. I wanted her to at least hear us out before she ran away.
I was also wrestling with the fact that she may hear us out and still leave. But if she left, I supposed that was what if had to be.
I would just curl up and die without her, but that was her choice. These last few weeks had been very stressful, knowing that we couldn’t tell her the truth. That was probably the worst: living a lie. I didn’t think