The Alpha Twins Mate

Chapter Eleven

Jack

I tried to relax as Hunter galloped through the forest, he knew exactly where he was going and seemed to be just as concerned as I was. Every time I thought about Lola being hurt he had let out a quiet whine in my head.

Jacob's wolf Ash, followed closely behind Hunter and in less than half an hour I could see we were approaching the edge of the forest.

Hunter slowed and then stopped right before the forest broke into the street where I had left Lola.

" Is this it?" Jacob mindlinked me.

" Yeah, third house along."

Hunter flattened himself to the ground as much as he could and crept from the forest towards the Bensons' house. We were on high alert for any humans that might be out at this late hour.

Ash stayed behind, partly acting as a lookout and partly because it didn't make sense to have two wolves creeping around a residential area.

Hunter reached the house without incident and began to anxiously sniff the air.

" Can you pick up Lola's scent?" I asked him.

" It is very faint but it's there."

" Which way?"

" The forest".

Dread filled my veins my fears confirmed.

Why would Lola have gone that way if she wasn't confused?

" What is it? Can Hunter not get her scent?" Jacob asked me as we headed back in his direction.

" She went into the forest."

" She did?"

As soon as Hunter reached Ash, both began to run again, I stayed silent letting Hunter focus, the last thing I wanted now was for him to lose the trial.

" This can't be right," I said to Jacob through the mindlink. After we had been running deeper and deeper into the forest.

" Why would she have come this far. If she was hurt and confused she would never have got this far." I continued.

" There's a cottage this way." He told me.

" What? This deep in the forest? How do you know that?" I quizzed him.

" Ash found it tonight when we were out for a run, just before I came home. He..."

Jacob trialled off.

" He what?"

Jacob hesitated.

" He stopped in a clearing, there was a cottage there. He was whining towards it and then he let out a pained howl."

" Why would he do any of that?"

" I don't know he wouldn't tell me."

Before I could ask any more questions, I saw the clearing he was talking about up ahead.

" Is this it?" I asked Hunter.

" The trail goes into that cottage." He told me.

I took back control and shifted back into my human form. I didn't need to look to know Jacob was doing the same thing.

" Is this where she lives?" He asked me.

" Hunter said she went inside."

" This is where Ash came earlier too. Why would he do that?" Jacob said more to himself than me.

" I don't know, but this is a weird place for a human to live."

He nodded next to me.

I stood staring at the house trying to work out our next move.

Lola clearly didn't want me to know she lived here and I couldn't exactly go and knock on the door now. It was gone midnight for a start and hardly an appropriate time to be banging on someone's door. Plus how was I supposed to explain finding her house, out here in the middle of nowhere?

Then, there was the fact that both Jacob and I were completely naked.

" What now?" Jacob interrupted my musings.

I stared at the cottage, it was in complete darkness, except from the faint glow of a TV coming from one of the ground floor windows.

" We haven't come all this way to look for her and then leave without checking she is ok." I said.

" Sure, but it's too late to go knocking on the door." He said echoing my thoughts.

" I know but it doesn't seem like there is anyone awake. We can at least have a quick look through the window and check she isn't lying hurt inside."

Jacob nodded but stayed back as I began to tiptoe forwards.

As I got closer and loud snore escaped from the only open window. I crept towards it and peering inside I could see in the light of the TV, the shape of a middle aged man asleep on the couch. As I continued to look through the window, I could see a large amount of empty beer bottles discarded on the floor and table around him. I realised he was probably passed out drunk and I felt deep sympathy for Lola. If this was really her home it didn't seem like a happy one.

" Any sign of her" Jacob asked through the mindlink.

" No just some older guy, seems a waster. Passed out."

" Fuck."

" Yeah, no wonder she didn't want me to know where she really lived. She is probably ashamed and embarrassed about him."

I wondered if it was her dad or some other relative.

I stepped back from the window and made my way around the rest of the ground floor peering in each window as I went but I couldn't see Lola anywhere.

I was about to give up and come back tomorrow when it was daylight and I was actually clothed and had had time to think of a good reason as to how I had found her well hidden home when I spotted a ladder propped up against a wall.

I grabbed it and moved it into position below one of the upper floor windows and climbed up.

The window was open slightly and as I reached the top and peered inside, anger surged through me. Lola was curled up in the fetal position on a tiny mattress on the floor. The room was empty except for a broken phone on the floor and a chair propped up against the door, in a clear attempt to barricade herself in. The only other item of furniture was a small chest of drawers that couldn't have fit more than a couple of outfits inside.

Was this what she meant earlier when she said everyone hurts her? Does that drunk downstairs hurt her.

Hunter came forward for a second and let out a growl.

I panicked as I watched Lola shoot up out of bed at the sound. She looked around the room terrified.

Before she could spot me looking through her window, I quickly descended the ladder and ran back round the house to Jacob.

" So did you see her is she there?" He asked.

I nodded and told him everything that I had seen.

He looked as angry as I felt.

" We can't leave her here" I told him.

" No, but we can't do anything about it tonight. You can talk to her tomorrow at school. You never know it might not be as bad as it seems."

I didn't want to leave but I knew he was right. Going in there now was not going to help at all.

I shifted silently and let Hunter run back to the packhouse.

Resolute that tomorrow I would help Lola in any way I could.