CHARLES WAS DEEP into his work. Brother Wolf loved the hunt even when it was on computers instead of in flesh and blood. Both of them could smell their prey, weak and quivering just out of their reach. So the first knock on the door elicited no more than a growl of annoyance.

It was Brother Wolf who noticed something was wrong the second time the knock came. Even buried in the endgame of his hunt, his senses were still on alert, and they told Brother Wolf that the smart FBI lady, the smart FBI man who tried very hard to be underestimated, the fae whose daughter had been hurt, and the local Alpha were knocking on his door - and they were all supposed to be with his mate, who was not here.

Anna. Charles reached for her, but he couldn't touch her through their bond, not even through their pack bond. With his help, his ghosts had well and truly isolated him.

Enraged and terrified for Anna in equal measures, he opened the door knowing his eyes were showing Brother Wolf. "Where's Anna?" he growled.

Isaac was supposed to make sure no one hurt her while Charles worked. The temptation to blame the Olde Towne Alpha rose and was banished. Anna was Charles's; she was his to protect and he had failed. Brother Wolf wanted to charge into the night and kill until they found her; Charles held him back with the knowledge that there were better ways to find Anna faster - and that blood would flow when he did.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Isaac said. "She went to the ladies' room and never came back. You two are mated, right? Can you tell where she is?"

Charles tried again. Right there and then, with the others still standing in the doorway, he tried again to open up the bonds he'd closed to protect her.

Nothing. He tried harder, tried until it hurt worse than the change. He growled and tried again - and felt the ghosts who haunted him howl in triumph. He turned and walked almost blindly until he stared into the big mirror in the bedroom. The ghosts were unrecognizable, having melted into one creature with fifty mouths and twenty hands that were busily tying the ribbon of his bond into knots.

We can kill her no matter how you try to protect her, it told him, its voices high and vicious. Your fault, your fault we died, your fault she dies. One voice started laughing, and then the others continued until there was an unholy cacophony in his head.

There was a drip of blood leaking out of Charles's nose and the whites of his eyes were pink from broken blood vessels - it made his yellow eyes look particularly bizarre.

"Did you try to track her?" he asked Isaac, as Charles continued to stare into the mirror, his voice so low and rough he didn't recognize it as his own. He stuffed his rage into a small icy place and promised it release if it would let him work right now. He would be cold and controlled until he found where they had stashed his Anna - and then he'd take them down into small, bite-sized chunks.

"Yes," the Olde Towne Alpha said. Charles turned away from the mirror to find Isaac watching him warily from the relative safety of the living room as he continued to explain. "I trailed her into the ladies' room and out again. Then she walked about two feet the wrong way if she intended to go back into the party - which she did, because she'd ordered another round of fish and chips according to the waitress who delivered it - and then her scent trail just ends. Like Otten's did."

Isaac must be a good tracker. It was unusual for a wolf that new to be able to trail that well, even in wolf form. No matter how good he was, Charles was better.

The computer hadn't confirmed his guesses yet, but he was only waiting for the final nail. He considered going after the people he had decided were behind the killings - but if he was wrong, it meant Anna would stay in her kidnappers' hands while he chased down the wrong trail. And then there was the problem that the people he was looking at had nearly Bran's resources and he would need -

"What's wrong with him?" Leslie asked in a quiet voice that nonetheless interrupted his thoughts. "Why is he bleeding like that? Do you see his eyes? They weren't like that when he opened the door."

"I don't have a clue," Isaac said in a calm voice. "Look, you two, you don't stand a chance if he loses it. You stay out here, back, out of the way - keep your guns out and watch. If he looks like he is headed your way, just shoot - and make sure your shot counts. If he's the wolf I think he is, he'd rather be dead than have you become collateral damage. And if he's far enough gone that he's taking out civilians, he's not going to be much help to Anna anyway."

"Civilians?" said the male FBI officer, sounding offended. Brother Wolf might have known his name, if he had cared. But his mate was missing and he cared for nothing and no one except for that.

Isaac ignored him - maybe he'd fallen for that tired, worn-looking mien, but Brother Wolf knew better. He recognized a fellow predator in the male FBI agent, even though Goldstein - the name rose up when he called for it - Goldstein was no threat to anything Charles cared about.

"Humans are civilians here," said Charles. To himself he sounded calm. "And you might listen to Isaac, though I don't think I'm far enough gone to hurt our allies. Isaac, I should be able to find her - but I'm not going to be able to use our link tonight." His throat shut down as Brother Wolf fought to the surface in a panic at Charles's admission.

Anna was missing. Anna was in the hands of the people who'd hurt the little dancer. His Anna who'd already survived so much - he'd sworn nothing like that would ever happen to her again when she was theirs. And they had failed, Brother Wolf and Charles, two souls sharing one skin...They had failed their mate.

Charles convinced Brother Wolf that they had a better chance of finding Anna in man-shape rather than as wolf, but it took more willpower than he knew he had to do it.

"He can't find her?" Leslie asked.

"I told you it wasn't a sure thing," Isaac told her. "The mating bond is a very personal thing."

Isaac was doing a good job of keeping his Alpha nature tamped down; his voice was soft and nonthreatening. Brother Wolf liked Isaac, but just now would not be a good time to interest him in proving who was more dominant. People got killed in fights like that - and Brother Wolf was craving violence just now.

"You also said if it didn't work, we might be in serious trouble," said the tough little dancer's fae father. "Because there isn't a person in this city more dangerous than a wolf whose mate is in danger. Are we in serious trouble?"