Clarissa
The bed where I'd left her was empty, the blankets thrown aside. Signs of a hasty departure were everywhere. "Damn it, Lyla," I muttered. Why couldn't she have listened to me just this once?
A noise outside made me freeze. Voices, growing closer. Flashlights were cutting through the trees.
"—check the old groundskeeper's place."
"Alpha says she might be hiding nearby."
They'd found us. I needed to get out and find Lyla before they did. But where would she have gone in her condition?
I slipped out the back window just as the search party reached the front door. Crouching in the bushes, I watched as they broke in, their flashlights sweeping the insides of the shelter.
"It's empty," one of them called. "But the bed's been slept in. She was here."
"Spread out," ordered Nathan's assistant's voice. "She can't have gotten far in her condition."
