Derek
For three days, Derek spent all of his free time looking for Jesse, and so did Roman. Kyra helped as often as she could.
Roman also sent out as many pack members as he could spare. But finally three days in, he said they had to stop the search. Derek knew it was coming. He could tell from the look on his brother’s face when Roman called him into his cabin. "I need to talk to you,” Roman said.
“Is it about Jesse? Did you find him?" He braced himself for bad news.
"No. I didn't find him," Roman said. "But I can't spare anymore of our people. I can make sure that all of your work is reassigned so you can keep looking though." Roman looked down. "I'm sorry. I know how close you are. We all care about Jesse."
Derek hated it. But he understood, he really did. Jesse was prone to flights of fancy, and he followed the road wherever it led. That frustrated the rest of the pack frequently.
But Derek believed that they all cared about him. And he appreciated Roman making sure that Derek himself could continue the search. "I understand. I do appreciate you making sure I can keep looking. I'm going to spend another week if that's okay. There's one place left I have to look."
"Out of the country?"
"Yes. He loved Martinique. Are you okay if I go there?" Derek asked.
"Yes. Just keep me updated. Do you need any of the pack’s reserve money?"
"No. I'm good,” Derek said.
Since they’d moved to Anchorage, quite a few of the shifters had taken outside jobs. Since Derek ran the pack full time alongside Roman, his jobs were few and far between, but he still loved the old-fashioned work of splitting logs, so he did it when he could. It was easy for him, and not physically taxing, and it was a job that needed doing, especially for humans in the winter in Alaska.
Many families had wood burning stoves to supplement their heat, and he was happy to help out. If a family couldn’t pay, he donated. But plenty of them could, and he’d even gotten some heavy payments from some of the wealthy people with the big wooden lodges.
And he kept all of that money and invested it. Five years before, when they first moved, he’d taken the few thousand dollars he had saved and invested it in stocks. He didn’t do a lot of trading, but he left his money where it was, and now it was enough to cover any travel expenses.
“Okay, let me know if that changes. Since Jesse is a member of this pack and you’re leaving to look for him, then you can consider the plane tickets a pack expense if you want to."
Then Roman hugged him and left to go back to Everleigh and his pups.
Just as she had for the past few days, Kyra showed up at lunch.
He couldn't explain how good it felt to see her face. They’d barely had any time together, thanks to Jesse’s disappearance, and he was grateful at how chill she had been. He still hadn't gotten to take her on a real date, but in some ways dealing with this crisis had brought them closer together than just the usual series of typical dates would have. Not that he knew much about dating typically. He usually kept his trysts short and sweet.
But he wanted more with Kyra.
Could he ask her to go to Martinique with him? If the pack was covering his plane ticket, then he could cover hers. On a whim, he asked her.
"I'm going to Martinique. It's Jesse's favorite place, and I'm hoping he's down there just blowing off steam. He did that every now and then. He’d get into a weird headspace and just take off without a word to anyone."
"So what makes this time different?" she asked. “If he’s done this before?”
"Because he'd always answered his phone before. And he’d leave me a note or some kind of message, at least a day or two in, if not right away. I just have a bad feeling this time."
She put her small hand on his forearm. “I'm sorry."
"I know. That’s why I’m worried. Would you want to go with me? There's no pressure obviously, but the invitation is there, and I'd love to have your company if you can get away."
Her mouth dropped open. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. And I would be covering the expenses, so don't worry about that."
"Let me look at my calendar.” She peered down at her phone for a moment and then she looked up. "If you really want me to go, I can go. I'd be honored to help you look for your friend some more."
He grabbed her and held her tight, wrapping his arms around her. "Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me.”