Surrogate for My Brother-in-law - Chapter 82: Chapter 82

Leo
“We need to start searching while the trail is fresh,” Leo declared.
Ethan nodded. “I’ll question my wolves, see if any of them heard or saw anything useful.”
“I’ll shift and see if I can’t follow their trail,” Leo said. He paused. “Keep Tessa with you until I’m done.”
“Sure, but why?” Ethan asked.
“My wolf will want to comfort her instead of hunt.”
“Ah, right,” Ethan said. “My wolf is of course utterly indifferent to her pain.”
Leo winced. “I didn’t mean to imply you don’t care. I meant, you’ll be in human form.”
Ethan nodded. “And your wolf will be in control. I get it, man, I was just yanking your tail.”
Leo huffed, and stepped away to gain enough room to change to wolf.
Leo shifted to his wolf form. He needed the wolf's sharper senses. The attackers must have left a trail, and his wolf form would allow him to follow it.
The world greyed out as the wolf’s eyes replaced the human. Sounds took on a new depth. And smells went from background detail to sharp, all consuming focus.
Leo started in the nursery. He didn’t need to collect Sable’s scent. He knew it like he knew his own. But she was carried, so only the faintest trace of her presence flitted through the air.
He needed her captors’ scents. He circled the nursery, separating the expected scents from the strangers.
He found Tessa’s scent easily. It filled the room and touched every surface. Her mother’s scent was nearly as pervasive.
The smell of the human’s blood made Leo’s wolf snarl. His wolf liked Tessa’s mother. it did not like that she had been hurt.
Ethan’s scent was present, but faint. It wasn’t a surprise. It was his manor, and he loved pups.
Even though Tessa’s baby wasn’t his, he’d still check in on her to be sure she had everything she needed. He’d volunteer for night feedings and diaper duty, too. He doted on his siblings’ children.
If Tessa chose him, Leo would make sure Ethan still got to see the baby as often as he wanted. He could be an honorary uncle. Ethan would do the same for Leo if their positions were reversed.
Those scents didn’t matter. They were familiar and expected. Leo needed to find strange scents, the ones that were fresh and did not belong.
He found several new scents. Six distinct wolf scents. Melinda’s information was good.
He found the scent that mixed with Sable’s. That one was most likely the one who’d carried her out of the nursery.
He followed the scent out of the room and down the hallway. Other wolves, Ethan’s and his own, saw him and jumped out of the way. They knew what a tracking wolf looked like, and knew better than to interrupt.
The scent led down the stairs and through several shattered doors. The kidnappers had run straight through the house and right out the front door. They had stepped over Ethan’s injured siblings.
Outside, Leo followed the trail across the porch and down the path to the driveway. He expected to lose the scent as they entered a vehicle, but he’d be able to track the particular mix of fuel and paint of the vehicle.
His paw skidded on a pile of powder. He glanced down, and his world exploded.
As a pup, Leo had once been sprayed in the face by a skunk. He’d been nose blind for days. Another time, he’d broken a bottle of cayenne pepper on the stove. This smell was worse than both of those combined.
It was pervasive and all consuming. The smell was sharp and rancid and cloying.
The powder filled his nose. His eyes watered and he pawed at his face, whining in pain.
He had to shift back. He couldn’t take it. He couldn’t breathe!
His wolf rolled and writhed in the grass. Leo wrenched control away so that he could force the shift back to human. He scrambled to his feet, trying desperately to get away from that powder.
He heard footsteps and turned, still half blind and panicked. He snarled, expecting an ambush.
“Leo?” The voice was familiar, safe. It was Tessa. He couldn’t see her or smell her, but his wolf knew.
“Powder,” he gasped. “Trap!”
He heard a curse. Ethan’s voice. The other alpha barked orders, warned off the other wolves.
Tessa guided Ethan back into the house. She gently washed the powder off of his face.
“Strip,” she ordered briskly. “You got it on your clothes.”
Leo obeyed, glad his shirt was buttoned on not a pull over. He didn’t hesitate to drop the pants, too. Nudity had never bothered him and anyway, Tessa had seen him already.
“Burn these,” Tessa ordered someone, before returning to Leo’s side.
“Hold your breath,” she said, “I have to be sure I got it all.”
Cold water was poured over his burning face. Leo gasped at the temperature and then whined in relief.
“Get him in the shower,” Ethan ordered. “And yourself, too. We don’t need our best healer incapacitated.”
“Right,” Tessa said.
She guided Leo into the nearest guest shower, and shoved him into the stall before stripping and joining him.
In other circumstances, he’d have been overjoyed to be standing naked under the water with her. As it was, he just appreciated having extra hands available to get all of that burning, stinking powder off of him.
Once they were clean, Leo and Tessa ended up bundled in fluffy robes in Ethan’s sitting room.
“Okay, so the Rogues expected us to track them,” Ethan said, “and set a nasty little trap. We’re lucky you tripped it, Leo.”
“I feel so fortunate,” Leo drawled.
“Well, yeah, but a weaker wolf might’ve been knocked out,” Ethan said. “And they might’ve lost use of their senses for a long time, if not permanently.”
Leo, remembering what it had felt like to be suddenly struck blind, winced.
“Yeah, better it was me,” he agreed.
“This was a targeted attack,” Tessa said. “I think Leo was meant to spring the trap.”
“Why do you say that?” Leo asked.
“You’re the strongest wolf here. And they stole your pup. Of course you’re the one who would try to track them.”
“That does make sense,” Ethan said. “It’s him or me, either way they hit an alpha and break their trail.”
“There’s more to it, though,” Tessa said. “I was talking to Lee, and looking through my patient files.”
“Yeah?” Leo asked.
“Leo, every wolf who’s been attacked recently was part of a pack allied to you,” Tessa said. “Most of them were directly involved in your fight against the Rogue King.”
Ethan looked through the notes Tessa held out, and handed them over to Leo.
“I think she’s right,” Ethan said. “The most vicious attacks happened to wolves that were there the day you took out the king. And here, and here,” he held up two case files, “there were other wolves who were out alone, and easier to get to, but they ignored them.”
“They chose riskier targets to get at wolves close to me,” Leo said. “I’m the target.”
“Looks that way,” Ethan said. “It makes sense. You did kill the last Rogue King. Taking you out would prove the new King is strong enough to lead where his predecessor failed.”
“How much strength does it take to hold a baby hostage?” Tessa asked. “This new Rogue King is a coward.”
“He’s going to be a dead coward as soon as I get my hands on him,” Leo vowed.