Heart of Ice

Chapter Fifty-Two

Song: If It's Not You- PRYVT

I slip out of mom and Cleo's grasp, frantically looking around the circle of our pack. "He was right beside me the whole time!" I screech, tugging my hair. "How did I not notice him missing? How the hell are we going to find him!?"

As I continue looking around the field, finding no sight of Hunter, the pack goes back and forth about him, also looking around for any glimpse of him.

"He couldn't have gone far. He was helping me when I was surrounded."

"He was also here after Demetrius was killed."

"Okay, but what about the last few minutes? Who was he with?"

I try to replay the final minutes of the battle in my mind. He was with me until I went to help mom and aunt Hazel. After that, I don't remember seeing him around me. Who had he gone to help? Why wasn't I remembering where he went to after we split apart?

The chatter of the rest of the pack dissipates into background noise as my mind goes further back to before I joined the fight, back to the last time I had seen Hunter at the house. I remember holding him tight in my arms, one hand gripping the hair at the nape of his neck as the other slipped the tracker under the fold of his turtle neck. That moment hits me hard as I come to a stop in the field and gasp. "Holy shit--"

"Watch your language," Mom and dad hiss at the same time, and I shoot them both a glare.

"If you'd let me finish, I know how we can find Hunter."

I immediately pull out my phone and open the tracker app, watching as it searches for a signal and then picks up his location. He's not too far away, and is luckily not moving. I begin running toward his direction, barely noticing as the rest of the pack follows closely behind me. Dad catches up to me, huffing as his feet hit the ground in a rhythm that matches mine. "Well, what is it?"

"I put a tracker on him to figure out where you guys went," I turn my phone toward dad, and he raises an eyebrow. "It's still on him. I know where he is!"

Dad shakes his head, but smiles nonetheless. "You're definitely my daughter."

As we continue running toward his location, I glance at dad. "Hey dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember that lesson you gave me on thinking with my head instead of my heart? You know, the whole 'don't focus on your emotions' speech?"

"I remember."

"That was a bullshit lesson."

He shakes his head again. "And there's where you are your mother's daughter."

I chuckle. "It probably wouldn't have gotten us to this point if I hadn't."

"You're right," Dad admits, which is something I've only ever heard out of my dad's mouth once, if that. "And I'm proud of you for deciding to go against my advice, just this once."

As we grow closer to Hunter's location, my eyes scan the area quickly, trying to find any part of him. I don't see him yet, but maybe I need to be closer to see him. As we come to a slow to where the tracker says he is, I stop in the middle of the woods, frowning as I sweep the area with my eyes once more, completely confused.

"I don't understand," My eyebrows scrunch as I stare at my phone, which clearly indicates that Hunter is where we are. "It says he's right here."

Brett comes up beside me, looking at my phone before he glances around the area, his hands on his hips. "Maybe it's a little off and we need to go further, or look around the area--"