They had been Victor’s right-hand men, outside of his beta, and Torin had continued the same tradition.

“What is this about?” Jos asked as he leaned toward us, the lights above reflecting off the dirty blond of his hair, which was shaved close to his head.

“I’d like to know that as well,” Hench said shortly. He didn’t lean forward or otherwise engage; the icy blue of his eyes was the same blue of his wolf, which looked like a snow-white husky when he shifted. His hair was just as white, falling to his shoulders, and I always considered him the most beautiful wolf in our pack. His human side was a right old fuckhead, though.

“Simone is missing,” I said bluntly. “At some point just after the stasis was lifted, Simone left her house and hasn’t been seen since.”

Torin, Jos, and Hench, in near unison, nailed the Lewisons with a glare. “You lodged her as being on vacation,” Jos said, pulling out his phone. “I know because I’ve been asking you for weekly updates, and you’ve been logging her itinerary.”

He spun the device around to show what looked like a GPS map with flashing red dots. I figured that these were supposed to mark out Simone’s planned route.

This was the point when Mika paled, her gorgeous brown skin drawn as she sank lower, seemingly defeated. The silence in the room extended, no one willing to be the first to break it.

“We were protecting our daughter. Our family,” Gerad finally said, wrapping his arm around his mate. “I figured I could track her down and get her back here before she was punished for leaving the pack without permission. Simone has never done anything like this before, and with no real money or resources, how far could she have gone?”

A sound of annoyance escaped me, drawing attention away from the Lewisons. “What if she didn’t run away? What if she was taken, and all of this time you wasted in hiding the truth is what screws up our chances of tracking her down? In the end, you wanted to save your family name, and in doing so, you might have lost your damn daughter.”

I was mad. Not just mad but scared, and heartbroken, and lost. Mostly scared, if I was being honest. If anything happened to my best friend, especially if she was in this situation because of me, I would never recover.