“You looked in the garage?” Brandt said, watching Barron’s gaze stop on the garage door.
“Turned on the light and glanced inside. There’s nothing there.”
“Let’s look again.”
Barron nodded and led the way. He opened the door and they stepped inside.
“Not even footprints out here. The guy obviously didn’t come out here.”
“At least not after he spilled the food,” Barron said.
They walked around the garage, looking down at the ground, up at the ceiling, looking for anything out of place. Brandt was examining the garage doors themselves for any sign of entry.
“That’s strange,” Barron said.
Brandt turned to see what he’d found.
Barron walked over to the shelves and pointed. “Why are there three shelves of frozen food sitting here defrosting?” he asked.
Brandt walked over to see for himself. “It’s still frozen and just showing signs of thawing.”
“So it hasn’t been out long.”
They turned and met each other’s stare. “The freezer!” they both shouted. They each turned in circles, looking this way and that.
“Where the hell is Hellen’s freezer?”, Barron demanded.
“Maybe here?” he asked, pulling the blanket off of what he’d thought was just more boxes or a work bench, to reveal a large, white deep freezer.
Barron grabbed its dented lid and despite its damaged hinges, forced it open, cracking the metal of the hinges in half.
The moment Barron raised it enough for him to see inside the freezer, he and Brandt both leaned closer to the small opening anxious to get a look inside.
A sound unlike anything Brandt had ever heard poured from Barron’s chest when he focused on what seemed like endless dark brown hair and ankles and feet so cold they were tinged blue.
“Get her out, get her out!” Brandt shouted, grabbing the freezer lid and helping to pry it open and keep it that way while Barron did his best to get Emmalyn out of the freezer.
“Is she alive?” Brandt asked impatiently.
“I don’t know,” Barron answered in a hoarse, broken voice, as he carefully lifted her head and gently rested it in the crook of his left arm while he reached into the freezer and slid his other arm beneath her legs. He lifted her partially out of the freezer, then adjusted his hold so her head was resting on his chest andhis arms were beneath her knees and behind her back. He held her tightly against his body as he rushed back into the house.
Brandt glanced down into the freezer to be sure nothing else demanded their attention, then let the lid drop as he scooped the blanket up off the cement floor and hurried off to follow Barron. “Be careful! Don’t fall in the food on the floor!” he called out.
Barron altered his steps just a bit to avoid the mess, and went directly into the living room.
Brandt hurriedly wrapped the blanket around Emmalyn’s body as best he could as Barron sank down to the floor and cradled her on his lap as he rocked her, sobbing mournfully.
“Barron! Barron, I need you to listen to me.”
Barron continued rocking and sobbing as his hand smoothed the blanket over Emmalyn’s head and shoulders.
“She needs to get warm, Barron. Take off your clothes!”
Barron didn’t give any indication that he’d heard Brandt.
Brandt grabbed the back of Barron’s shirt, tearing it from his body.
Barron growled and turned his icy gaze, so reminiscent of Delilah’s, on Brandt. This was not a good thing. Barron was a Bear shifter, like his father. His eyes were normally the color of his Bear, golden-brown, but when he was pushed to the point of losing control, he had the ability to breathe Dragon’s fire, like his mother. The ice blue eyes indicated he was about to lose control.
