Derek
He still couldn't believe Kyra had agreed to come with him. If it wasn't for Jesse's disappearance, he would be absolutely ecstatic to get to spend a few days on a Caribbean island with her.
On the island, he wasn’t going to announce that they were looking for Jesse. He was going to try and be a bit more subtle about that. He told Kyra what he was thinking, and she agreed.
As soon as they stepped off the plane, he was hit with the fresh salty air. It was so different from the bracing Alaskan air, and he’d missed it. He just wished they were there for a better reason.
They took a taxi into the heart of the city. The city was alive with colors, the scent of food cooking and people walking everywhere. Music drifted out and most everyone had on shorts and bright t-shirts, or thin cotton dresses, although quite a few had on swimsuits. The contrast between Port de France and Anchorage was striking.
Derek kept expecting Jesse to come strolling up to him and hand him a Pâtés Créoles and a glass of rum.
That didn’t happen.
He didn’t feel any shifters at all. “Do you feel anything?” he asked Kyra. “Anything at all? Shifters of any type?”
She took a moment to concentrate. “No. I don’t.” She peered up at him. “I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t mean he’s not here.” He drew himself up. “Let’s walk around and then get something to eat. Maybe someone will have seen him. When he travels, he loves getting to know the residents. He avoids most of the touristy spots.”
She linked her arm through his. For the first time in his life, he understood why shifters got so attached to their mates. Having her unwavering support was addicting. Just knowing that she was there for him… He didn’t even have words for it. He felt bad for all the times he’d mocked the other shifters in the pack for being so caught up in what their mates said or did.
She wasn’t even his mate, and he still felt that way.
Could she be your mate?
It was too early to tell. He had felt that instant connection to her, and of course, he was attracted to her. He could barely keep his hands off of her. He was on this island to look for his friend, and all he could think about was slowly stripping her dress off so that he could get her naked on the moonlit beach.
They walked the streets, admiring the bustle of local life. They stopped at a street vendor and had a delicious meal. They both liked the pork dish best.
After they finished eating, Derek pulled out his phone. He showed a picture of Jesse to the vendor. "Have you seen him? We’re supposed to meet up to go fishing but I think he lost his phone,” Derek said in English. He repeated a few of the phrases in French, but he couldn’t put an entire sentence together. The vendor seemed to understand him.
He didn't want to alarm anyone by mentioning that Jesse was missing or make the residents think the authorities could end up involved.
He didn’t want to spook anyone, and besides, there would be no authorities involved, at all, ever. Where wolf shifters were concerned, they handled their business themselves. If they needed outside help, they had a few key people inside every branch of government. But that was only a last resort when all other measures had failed.
The owner spoke English back to them. "I have seen him before. But it has been a few months."
Derek thanked him, and they hit the streets again.
"I should've asked you if you speak French,” he said to Kyra. “I speak Spanish and a few people speak that here too, but most everyone speaks French or Martiniquan Creole, which I haven’t attempted.”
"I do speak French, but it's textbook French that I learned in London, with a few trips to Paris to practice. I’m not sure if the people here could understand me, even if I brushed up.”
He kissed her on the top of the head. “I bet they’d understand you just fine.”
They continued their day, wandering through the open-air markets. Kyra bought a straw hat and took the opportunity to speak to the owner of the stall. Once again, the owner recognized Jesse but had not seen him in months.
They went to a boat rental company, a bar, a snorkeling equipment outfitter, and finally a hotel. The answer was the same everywhere – Jesse was familiar to them, just as Derek had suspected, but he was not currently on the island. Had this been a waste of time?
They'd spokento too many people, in too many locations, for it to be a cover up. And they were all human, and unlikely to be able to harm Jesse, without specialized knowledge or training. Derek had never even heard a whisper about hunters – the kind who hunted supernatural beings – being anywhere near the Caribbean.
Hunters probably weren’t in the Caribbean, because very few supernatural creatures were in the Caribbean. For his part, most wolf packs didn’t like feeling hemmed in. They liked being in a place like Alaska, where the land stretched out for miles. He knew from his brother Simon that bear clans felt the same way. And for traditional packs, they disregarded the boundaries of countries, so all of Canada and the Americas were available to them.
He still had not detected one whiff of a shifter or any other type of supernatural creature on the island.
So Jesse was not in Port de France. Was he somewhere else on the island? Where the fuck was he? Was he in some kind of trouble?
"We’re in the capital city and it's also the largest," Kyra said. "Is there any chance he might've picked a more secluded location? Was he trying to hide? What if he's trying to hide – even from you?”