Quest (Shifter Island Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

went to the park and sat on a bench, watching people walk past, some of them just wandering, some with an obvious destination in mind. That made him wish he had something in mind, some plan. Some magic spell that would locate Allison for him.
    Maybe this whole journey was foolish. Aaron might be right; Allison might well be married now. She might be somewhere that he wouldn’t be able to find even if he spent the rest of his life searching.
    No , he told himself.
    The gods had meant for them to be together. The gods would help him find her.
    The park still had a working water fountain, so he spent a couple of minutes drinking his fill, trying to wash away the disappointment that had grown like a cluster of weeds inside his chest.
    That was all it was, he told himself—just disappointment. Part of him had hoped that he would find her right away, that she’d be at the marina waiting for him, or that her name would be listed somewhere that was easy to find, and he was simply disappointed that that hadn’t happened.
    As he stepped away from the fountain with water dripping from his chin, he thought of something his mother had told him many times. Anything worth having is worth working for—and worth fighting to keep.
    She was a wise female, his mother. Even now that he was grown, she still knew what to say to encourage and comfort him, to keep him going when he’d become confused and discouraged.
    But when he’d told her that he needed to leave the island, she’d said nothing.
    Maybe there was nothing to say.
    He lifted a hand to wipe the water off his chin and almost stumbled as the wolf inside him surged against its walls. Normally, the animal would rest when Luca was tired. At this point in the afternoon, it should have been eager to sleep—but it wasn’t. It wanted its mate.
    Wanted Luca to find her, claim her. It had waited long enough.
    But how?
    Among so many people? In a land as enormous as this?
    On the island, it was never difficult to find another member of the pack. Yes, there were places to hide, but it was almost impossible to reach them without leaving a trail for the rest of the pack to follow. Luca and Aaron had tried many times as youngsters to find a hiding place that was truly a secret, that couldn’t be tracked down by their parents or their teachers or their playmates, but they’d never succeeded. They were young; they had always left clues.
    Had Allison not left a single clue?
    He walked around and around the park until people began to look at him with concern, and he supposed he had been muttering to himself. That wouldn’t do; it might prompt one of the humans to call the police.
    He stopped long enough to pull a comb from his pack of supplies, then used his reflection in a window to comb his hair neatly and tidy his clothes. His Involvement had taught him how he should look and act to avoid attention, and he called on those lessons now. He needed to look like one of them . Someone who could fade into the crowd, at least until he decided what he should do next.
    He was hungry again, so he found a quiet place at the base of a tree and ate some of the food his mother had packed for him, then returned to the fountain and drank a little more water.
    The whole time, the wolf paced restlessly, whining from deep inside its chest.
    Tonight he was sure the wolf would insist on coming out so that it could sit in the moonlight and howl, calling out to the rest of its kind how lost and in pain it was. Four years ago, it had tried its best to convince Luca to steal Allison away—to ignore what she said she wanted in favor of the bond they all felt growing between them.
    Because it was a bond. It was their true nature telling them that they were meant to be together, no matter what they needed to give up.
    But Luca had listened to Allison, not the wolf.
    Now? The longer he stood here, the deeper and more agonizing the pain became. It was a fire deep inside his gut, threatening to burn him up and turn him