Locke Down

Chapter 28

Locke's POV

Nearly two months have gone by since Laurel told me about her experience in the woods. I've pressured Dex to continue searching the boarder on clues about who or what it could be, but he's being run around in circles. More scouts and manpower have been sent to patrol the edges, looking for anything that might be out of the ordinary, yet no one seems to come to any answers. Just more questions.

I feel more agitated about the situation day by day and even more protective over her. There's been a yearning desire for her to be within arms reach at all times and never let her leave the house, but I know I can't do that to her. It'll make her miserable and probably hate me. The only thing that's helped is the fact that I know she's still close since she spends majority of her time working in the lab and trying to figure out what got put into her system.

Thankfully there hasn't been another episode, but it's been oddly quiet around here lately and I'm just waiting for the ball to drop. The scent of her wolf has come back over the last few weeks, and while she seems to think everything is back to normal because of it, I'm not so sure. I'm pretty confident that whatever it was had linked her to the Wendigo and she still is. We can't let our guard down. The fact that she's more relaxed about everything has put me on the edge. It's been irritating her that she hasn't been able to replicate exactly what the Wendigo used to mask her scent, but she's also been aggravated that I ask about her progress so much.

I walk over to the adjacent building to see Laurel and what's she's been up to today, but am met with Connor instead. He's sitting at a large table in the middle of the room looking at some papers and gives me an uneasy glance when he looks up. I head to Laurel's lab but the room is empty when I open the door.

"Connor." I say lowly.

"Sir?"

"Where is she?"

"Who?" He tries to play it off, but I can hear the hint of nervousness in his voice.

"You know who." I say a little too aggressively.

He's not the keeper of her, nor do I expect him to be, but I can already tell something is going on I'm not going to like.

"I- uh- think she's with Dex." His eyes shift towards the door as though he's considering bolting.

I step in front of it and stare him down.

"And where is he?" I try to keep my voice level.

"I'm not sure." He begins to fidget and I think this is the first time I've seen him so rattled.

Yup, something I'm definitely not going to like.

"Connor." I warn.

I can feel the air around us getting thick as a bead of sweat forms on his forehead. It's obvious he's conflicted on what to do, and if it wasn't for the fact that Laurel is the one involved, I'd feel bad for the situation Dex has put him in.

"They should be back at any minute." He tries to evade the question.

"Back from where?"

His eyes shoot left, then right, and I can feel my self control slipping. I lift a chair that's across the room and send it flying, splintering into pieces as it comes in contact with the wall just next to him.

"Theywentsearchingtheboarder." He says fast.

I let out a roar of disapproval, not believing what I just heard. That after everything that's happened, Dex would bring her along for the hunt and she would willing go. I have no clue what they were thinking, but if she doesn't come back safe, I might just kill my best friend. Hell, I might kill him regardless.