Nico jabbed a finger at Sebastian. “Search the name.”
I twisted my hands together as Sebastian searched on his phone. A few seconds later, his face broke into a massive smile.
“Resorito’s Restaurant. Only one in the whole country from the looks of it.”
“Where?” I asked, my voice trembling with nerves and excitement.
“Looks like right outside Chicago.” Sebastian’s voice was almost vibrating with happiness. I had to admit; I felt a similar wave of satisfaction. It was a tiny win, but it was still a win.
Nico nodded. “Okay. Let’s see if we can do some research and find out how many of those billboards they have and where they are. We should be able to narrow down the location pretty quickly.”
Within fifteen minutes, they’d found a street-view picture of the billboard. It had the same pine tree in it that was in the photo. There was only one house at the correct angle for it to be visible through the basement window. We’d found them! I sighed in relief.
Nico gave my thigh a reassuring squeeze. A glance over at Sebastian made the smile on my face fade a bit. He wasn’t looking at me. In fact, he seemed to be actively trying to ignore me, and it had been going on ever since we found out Abi had been taken. I knew he felt guilty about it, but the way he’d completely cut me off irritated me. We’d been becoming friends, now I had to feel the loss of a new friend along with the loss of my family and the woman who was the closest thing I had to a sibling. As much as I didn’t want to, I could feel my heart begin to harden toward him.
The guys went through the same process with Abi’s picture, and within the hour, we’d pinpointed her location as well. Hers had been more difficult. Instead of a window, there was a mirror behind her that reflected a window. Outside was a set of street signs. The image was incredibly blurry, but Felipe was able to enhance it enough for us to find the intersection. Again, only one house had a window that faced those signs. Even though it had all been done on the computer, we all looked exhausted by the end. Felipe and Sebastian had left not long after to help Luis recon the houses. Felipe gave me a quick hug goodbye, and Sebastian mumbled a departing word before ducking out the door without even making eye contact.
I got up and went to the kitchen sink, sighing heavily. Everything hurt-literally my entire body. As I leaned over the kitchen sink, Nico stepped over and started rubbing knots out of my shoulders. My groans and moans could have been misconstrued as sounds of pleasure. Instead, they were the grunts of a woman who felt like her whole body had been run through a meat grinder and then glued back together.
“Oh shit, right there,” I hissed.
Nico dug his thumb into a spot below my shoulder blade. “It’s your body getting used to the change. It’ll take some time for you to get used to it.”
“Christ, does it go away? Or do I learn to live with the pain?”
“It goes away. The first week or so is the worst. Honestly, the pain will probably go away faster once you shift.”
It had been two days since Nico had claimed me. Even though my wolf was incredibly strong, I still hadn’t shifted yet. She was right there under the surface, but for some reason, the wolf wouldn’t come out. I wasn’t sure what else I needed to do to bring her out. We’d all thought that when Nico claimed me, it would be pretty immediate. Now, I could do nothing but sit and wait. It was frustrating.
“When do you think that will be?” I asked.
Nico sighed. “Well, I’m not sure. I think you may need a little more time. The wolf probably needs to adjust to the change the same way you are.”
That wasn’t the answer I’d been hoping for. I couldn’t worry about it too much, though. It would happen when it happened. Nothing else we did would speed it up. The other thing that had my attention was the change that had come over Nico. Ever since he’d claimed me, things had been different with him. It wasn’t anything bad, but there was something about the way he carried himself, his natural aura, and his confidence. All of it was… more intense. I’d discussed it with his friends, and they’d noticed it too.
It started the morning after my claiming. He didn’t actually act any differently, it was just that even his presence was more demanding. I found myself fighting the desire to submit to him. I wasn’t a submissive person by nature, so the feeling I was fighting whenever I was around Nico was strange. I’d learned enough about how powerful an alpha could be and knew that when they finally paired up with a fated mate, they became even stronger. A chosen mate could increase strength, but a fated mate? It was beyond anything I’d anticipated. I’d even watched Luis and Sebastian when they were around him. They bowed their heads in respect, but it seemed to be subconsciously like a physical force was emanating out of Nico and forcing us into submission.
The weirdest part was that it was kind of pleasurable. My body seemed to crave to submit to an alpha. There was probably some ingrained part of our DNA that desired a strong alpha to lead us, to take care of us, and to intimidate our enemies. If that was what he was going for, then he was doing a damn good job of it.
Nico sighed. “Okay, my fingers are going numb. Is that any better?” he asked.
“Much better. Thanks,” I said.
As much as I wanted to be excited about the developments of the day, I couldn’t muster that emotion within me. Instead, the all-too-familiar anger started to boil up inside me again. The rage reared its ugly head anytime I thought about the royals. My imagination always took over, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the awful things they were doing to my parents and Abi. My wolf bared her teeth; she was as pissed off as I was. A growl erupted from my throat.
Nico raised an eyebrow at me, and my cheeks flamed. I slapped my hands down on the island. “I’m sorry. It makes me so mad, though.”
Nico wrapped me in a hug from behind. “I know. I’d be acting the exact same way if this were happening to my family. There’s nothing wrong with being angry.”
“Those assholes. If they were here right now…” I growled again and clenched my eyes shut.
Nico kissed the side of my head. “It’s okay. But, Maddy…”
“Huh?”
“You’re gonna ruin the marble if you aren’t careful.”
I glanced down. My nails had turned to claws and were digging furrows in the stone of the counter. “Shit, sorry.” I took a few deep breaths and watched as my claws morphed back into nails.
“You’re really getting those partial shifts figured out,” Nico said with approval.
“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes. “Now, if I could only figure out how to shift completely.”
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