Showered, blood no longer clung to my skin, but the remnants of Sam still hugged my body, her scent, her fear and her pain. Nowhere near the stage of sleep, I left my room and wanders around the rented cabin. All thoughts aimed at Sam I ran straight into my amused Alpha. Stiffening from the impact and the utter hate I had for him, I excused myself and stepped out of his path.

A few feet past him, Elijah called out, "Joseph why don't' you go for a run or find a bitch to use up all that pent up energy," he said laughing as he walked away.

Without a second thought, I made my way to the door, racing outside and headed for the trees. Staying in my human form I ran and ran. All thoughts turning back to Sam and what happened, I was halfway to Sam's town before he realized. All our conversations came flooding back, her smile, the way she tried to convince me to leave, the way she put me first, worrying what trouble I would get into if she refused to do what I was commanded to do even with everything that she was going through. The favour she asked of me, telling her friends she loved them when she was gone.

Stopping in mid stride, I went back and thought of everything my Alpha had ordered and what he didn't. A smile spread across my face, I could do something and it was not against my Alpha's orders. Getting a sense where I was, I ran faster than I had ever ran in human form.

* * *
J.B.

Surprised to see Dmitri at the bar tonight and happy he came in to do the paperwork, I quickly had him leave as soon as he was done. The bar was losing money, the morale, naturally low since Sam's disappearance, the pack, and pride out all hours looking for her and with his mood, he was scaring out the humans.

Four pack brothers were having a beer waiting for me to finish closing the bar. Doors locked, customers gone, As soon as I was done doing the nightly close we would be heading out to do our nightly check around the town. Every night we hoped to come across something that was out of the ordinary. Anything that could lead us to Sam. The full moon just around the corner, and with it being the Hunter's moon the second most intense moon in the year, tempers were high and extreme. My brothers were drinking their beers in quiet, the thunderous knock that came from the front door made us all jump. Oh yeah we were tense.

All on alert, my brothers followed me and we headed to the door; smelling the air, my hackles go up at the scent of a non-pack wolf on the other side of the door. A nod from the others that they too could only scent one wolf, I took the chance and open the door. Standing there flush was a well-built, tallest wolf and human for that matters I had ever seen face-to-face. To look at him, he seemed like a badass, shaved head, tattoos covered his arms and the sneer on his face, but looking into his eyes gave a whole other story. At first glance they looked cold and the colour of coal, looking that extra second longer there was a softness to them.

Staring each other up before I said anything the wolf said, "I need to speak to your Alpha it's a matter of life and death."

I moved away from the door letting the new wolf come in, as soon as he enter me and my brothers had him surrounded and lead him to one of the back booths. "What do you want with our Alpha?" I asked. I knew it wasn't a coincidence that a wolf we didn't know came looking for Jack, but I had to make sure.

The new wolf looked really nervous and anxious, "It has to do with Sam," he said, sitting up straighter looking him right in the eye.

Even though it should not have surprise me, hearing Sam's name caught me off guard. Enough time wasted and we weren't sure how much time she had left, the ones closer to her swore she was still alive, I reached for the phone and called my Alpha.