“Erika, she’s not going to wait forever,” Jo said. Her voice was like bells, and it sounded as kind as her eyes looked. It was sweet and encouraging and full of mystery, and it washed away some of my unease by just hearing the sound. “It would be better if we had her support with this.”
Erika said nothing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and stuck my hands in my pockets, not because they were cold, but because I felt an unbelievable need to fidget.
“We didn’t say that anything was wrong,” Jo murmured in that sweet, bell-like tone, but this time it didn’t chase away the sense of foreboding that was starting to settle in my bones.
“You don’t need to say it,” I muttered. There were times, like this one in particular, that I hated being a werewolf. “I can smell your nerves. You all are on edge. Is it me? Am I that unapproachable? I know the males had issues at first, but I thought you all were okay with me.”
Erika groaned, and cut me a dirty look. “Sorry if I seem a little nervous, but the last time I stood in front of you like this you stripped me of my title.” She didn’t sound sorry, not even a little, and I really hadn’t expected it, but suddenly, I felt bad for her.
“I needed you, Erika,” I said, and shook my head. “I don’t know why, but I trusted you. God, I even liked you, and you lied to me.” I wanted to say so much more, but I didn’t. Now was definitely not the time, so instead I asked, “Who’s looking out for you today?”
“You mean who’s babysitting me, right?” Her tone was sarcastic and I gave her a look, one that clearly told her to cut it out. “Um, no one,” she continued, more cautiously. “With everything going on I guess you just forgot or whatever.”
Crap! I felt my eyes widen. How could I forget something like that?
I opened my mouth, about to apologize, when Erika said, “It’s okay. I’m good. The pack has mellowed out a lot since you and Aidan mated and I made some friends.”
“I can see that,” I said, not sure of what else to say. The truth? I was feeling crazy guilty. Erika might not have been someone I actually liked, but she was still part of the pack, and it was me who’d put her in a compromising position by stripping her of her title. There was no excuse for my forgetting to assign someone to watch out for her, even if she was trying to brush it off as if it weren’t a big deal.
“Erika came to us yesterday,” Jo offered, after a second of silence. “She had some ideas on this werecougar mess. Some really good ideas.”
“Oh, yeah?” I didn’t mean to sound dubious. Honestly, I didn’t. It just came out that way. I was sure that Erika could have good ideas. Really, I was. It was just, well, okay, maybe I was holding onto a little bit of a grudge.
Erika glanced vaguely in Mark’s direction, and then back to me. “Can you get rid of him for a few minutes?” Her voice was barely a whisper, and even with my sensitive ears I almost missed what she said.
My first thought was to say no, but my gut, well, it was telling me that I needed to hear her out. “Mark,” I called over my shoulder, “can you send someone to the store? Mom’s going to freak if she doesn’t get that stuff for breakfast.”
Mark didn’t look happy, but he did what I asked. With a jerk of his chin, he took off to the front of the house.
Once he was out of sight, I closed the ten-step distance between me and the females. When I stood in front of her, Erika offered a ghost of a smile and murmured, “Thank you.”
I offered up a smile of my own that I hoped looked somewhat sincere and questioned gently, “So what’s this idea?” Up close, I could see how tired she looked. Her eyes were ringed with gray shadows, and her complexion was paler than normal.
Erika hesitated for a second, took a deep breath, then blurted, “Well, yesterday when I was with Dom he made this comment about how he didn’t get why your dad hadn’t brought more women in for his pack yet and it got me thinking, maybe he hasn’t told them that they won’t be getting any of our wolves.”
“Okay,” I said. The sense of foreboding was coming back full force. “I’m not sure I like where you’re going with this.”
“Just hear her out, Jade,” Jo said, smiling. She looked sideways at Erika, raising her eyebrows. “Go on, doll. Tell her your idea.”
Erika closed her eyes, swallowed hard, and then opened them again. She looked a little surer of herself, and firmly she said, “I thought that if they were still waiting for us, then maybe we should go to them.”
“You want to go to them,” I stated, not sure I understood. I looked around from one to the other, and shook my head. They all seemed excited about this.
“I heard Beck talking last night,” Erika said, and made a face. “The children … the little girl. How old do you think she needs to be before they …” she broke off, swallowing hard and blinking fast. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this until then. Now I know I don’t have a choice. I have to help. And I will any way I can.”
“We’d make one hell of a distraction,” Stacy interjected. “Just picture the six us going in and shifting in front of all those men. I bet it would buy enough time for the team to get the kids out.”
Okay, I had to admit that it was actually a pretty good idea. The women could go in. Strut around a little after shifting. It would definitely cause a distraction. But, Jesus, they could get hurt, or worse, they could actually end up in those cages if anything went wrong.
“The team, Aidan, they won’t agree to this,” I said carefully, not wanting them to think I was blowing them off. “You all know that, right?”
“They will if you’re backing it,” Laura countered, and I thought that she was entirely wrong on that.
“I think you all believe I hold more power over those boys than I actually do,” I said, not unkindly, but with undeniable disbelief. “But,” I huffed out a breath, “let’s say you’re right, and I can convince them, which just to be clear, I’m not saying I will, how do you plan on getting out of there once you’re in?”
“The pack,” they chorused excitedly.
I looked at them closely. God, they were serious. “Not much of a plan there.”
“But it is,” said Whitney. “We’ll already be in there. When the team is done getting the kids out, the rest of the pack can move in with them. We can attack from both inside and out. It’s perfect.”
I settled my gaze on Erika. “Why are you doing this?”
“I screwed up,” she said simply. “You gave me a second chance and I want to prove that it wasn’t wasted.”
“Hey.” Mark rounded the corner of the house, and stalked over to us. He took one long look at me and asked, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, but I wasn’t. I felt sick. A little light-headed and nauseated and really, really tense, which I totally blamed on worrying about what was going to happen as the day progressed. And it didn’t help that I was starting to get a hunger headache. Maybe Mom was on to something with the frantic breakfast cooking.
Mark gave me one of those I know you’re lying looks, but thankfully he didn’t call me on it. “Aidan just called,” he said. “He’s on his way.” He looked around our little group and smiled wickedly, if not conspiratorially, and right then I had a sinking feeling that he’d overheard at least part of our conversation. He then confirmed it. “Just so you know, your idea is the best one I’ve heard yet.” There was a mix of amusement and awe in his voice. “If you’re sure about it, I’ll back you.”
“Mark,” I snapped. I really wasn’t sure that I wanted to encourage them in this plan. “They could get hurt.”
“Yep, but they could get hurt when we attack whether or not they act as a distraction,” Mark said, and turned back to the house.
No one noticed the sound of the footsteps clomping on the deck until it was too late.
CHAPTER 14
~ AIDAN ~
“This doesn’t feel like a good idea,” Dominic muttered again, looking out over the parking lot.
Looking back on it, I thought I prob
ably should have known that Dominic wouldn’t be fully onboard with my plan. I’d admit it; there were a few problems with the whole thing. The main one, and the one that I thought Dominic was probably having the biggest problem with, was that I planned on bringing the entire pack with us. That would leave Dog Mountain and the humans within it completely unprotected while we were gone, which might not be the best idea since Jeff had sent cougars into town twice within the last twenty-four hours. But I was taking precautions against another attack — sort of.
The second one was returning the two cougars from the diner still breathing. I knew that was a risk. It would give us two more to fight against, but really, it was the only idea I had to gain access to their location without starting an immediate war. We needed to get the kids safe first and my hope was that returning the dead with the living, would make us look like we were trying to achieve some sort of peace.
“Dom, Jeff sounded really off,” I said, looking over at him. “We need to act now.” Off didn’t really describe the desperation I’d heard in Jeff’s voice, but I was trying a different approach, one that I seriously hoped Dominic would get, because flat out telling him that Jeff was desperate hadn’t work.
Dominic shook his head in disagreement, and said nothing.
It had been about fifteen minutes since we’d made the calls for the pack to gather, and we were still waiting for a handful to arrive. Beck stood a good ten feet away from us, with Craig to his left. Pack members huddled around them, and Beck was talking to them; a pep talk of sorts, except, it really wasn’t all that peppy. It sounded more like a crash course on how to take someone down quickly. To him, efficiency seemed to be the key to killing, and the pack was eating it up, nodding and asking questions, seeking clarification on tactics. It was impressive and more than a little weird to see an enforcer dishing out the trade secrets, but damn, I was glad for it. Anything that could help prepare them, even if it might be a risk giving out those secrets, was worth it in my mind.
“What exactly is it that you don’t like about it?” The question came out more annoyed than I’d meant, but what Dominic didn’t seem to be getting was that I was also worried, really worried. Things could go wrong and I wasn’t naive enough to think that we could just charge in there, kill them all, and come out unscathed. Knowing that didn’t leave me with a good feeling and having him doubt my plan made it even worse. In fact, I was feeling pretty low.
“I don’t like any of it.” He made a harsh buzzer kind of sound, and his eyes drifted back to the pack. “Tell me you’ve at least run this by Jade and she’s all in on it.”
I drew in a deep breath and kicked at a random pebble. “Not yet,” I said, and yeah, I sounded just as guilty as I felt. “But she’ll be onboard.” Or at least I hoped she would be.
Dominic sighed and gave me a look. “Hope you’re right,” he said, and then he walked away.
I frowned and ran both hands through my hair, watching Dominic make his way over to Landon. He was off to the right, gathered under a large oak tree with two other pack members. They were huddled closely, listening intently as Landon prepped them on what they needed to accomplish.
As soon as the last few arrived, a scouting team, headed up by Landon, would take off, and the rest of us would head to my place to wait for their confirmation that all the cougars, or at least most of them, were at the hunting camp. I hated to waste the time, but I couldn’t take the entire pack away without making sure they were all there. It would be risky and way too reckless with Jeff acting so unstable. I’d figured he’d make a move once Jade and I were mated; I just never thought it would be something like this, something so erratic and unplanned. He’d never struck me as the desperate type. Clearly, I’d read him wrong. But then, with Jade’s freak-out yesterday, I guessed that was enough to push him over the edge. It was surely enough to make him aware that we’d never been playing into his game.
I took my phone out of my pocket and woke the screen. 10:05. It felt like it should have been a hell of a lot later. Only two hours ago we’d been sitting at the diner about to have breakfast and trying to figure out what to do with the team. Those two hours felt like a lifetime ago.
This is going to work, I thought. It has to work.
Fall in Dog Mountain really was beautiful. Even with most of the leaves fallen from the trees and scattered on the ground, the area was full of browns and greens, oranges and reds. Nature at its finest moment, I thought. The air was chilly, but warmer than first thing this morning. There was a good fall breeze pushing through the parking lot, and the sun was out full force, bringing out a shine in the thawing asphalt.
I looked back at my phone and scrolled through my contacts, looking for Mark’s number. When I found it, I thumbed the screen and brought it to my ear. He answered on the second ring and said, “Tell me you’re on your way here.”
I laughed once. “That doesn’t sound encouraging, Mark,” I said. “I was really hoping that it would be safe to show my face there by now.”
Mark made an exasperated sound. “Depends on what you mean by safe. Jade told Pam everything, and Pam deals with stress by cooking.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” And it didn’t, mainly because I was starving. Food would definitely be a good thing right now, and Pam’s cooking was amazing. Actually, hearing she was working out her issues by cooking was probably the best news I’d gotten all day.
“Dude, you’re going to need to buy another freezer for all the leftovers and you won’t have to cook for months.”
That made me laugh. Hard. “It can’t be that bad.”
“I’m not joking,” Mark said. “I just had to send the two guys that came with us to the store for more food. She’s cooked everything you had. And that’s not all. Erika showed up with five other females demanding to talk to Jade. She’s out back with them now.”
“Erika’s at my house with Jade.” It wasn’t really a question, more of a stunned statement.
“Yep, and those women are all hyped up about something.”
That scared me a little bit. Erika and hyped up wasn’t a good combination. Add Jade and Marcy and Pam, all totally stressed out, and then another five women to the mix, well, that sounded like a disaster just waiting to happen. And it was with that thought that I remembered that I never did ask Dominic about the way he’d been watching Erika at the funeral home yesterday.
“Who’s supposed to be watching her today?” I asked him, surprised that my voice sounded calm because I sure as hell wasn’t feeling it.
“Not sure,” Mark said. “Beck dropped her off at the headquarters this morning before going to meet you.”
My jaw clenched, and I felt a bud of anger bloom within me. “Let Jade know I’m leaving in a few, and Mark, the rest of the pack’s coming with me.”
“It’s happening now, then,” Mark said, in a frighteningly steady tone, not at all unnerved with the possibility of killing or being killed. But then, that was the enforcer mentality, protect the pack at all costs.
“Yep, I’ve got to go,” I said hastily, and hung up, because Landon was walking toward me and he didn’t look happy.
I studied Landon for a beat, trying and failing to get a read on exactly how unhappy he was, then I pushed off the wall and went to meet him. When we were a few feet apart, I jerked my chin and asked, “What’s up?”
In the next second, though, it became clear that he wasn’t unhappy — he was focused. “We’ve got to get moving,” he said, with false patience. “Where are the other pack members?”
“Seems Beck didn’t bother to make sure someone was here to take over the Erika watch before dropping her off this morning,” I said very quietly. Shit, I was already restless, so was my inner-wolf, and whatever crap Erika was pulling with running to my mate made it so, so much worse. I felt a growl building inside me, the beast clawing at my chest. Jade had enough on her plate dealing with her mom; she didn’t need Erika adding to it. “Erika brought them to see Jade.”
La
ndon considered my words and nodded, as if my house seemed like a perfectly reasonable place for them to be, and if Erika hadn’t been with them, it probably would have been. “What about Tommy?”
“Nothing yet,” I said and sighed. “Can’t keep waiting for him.”
“No, we can’t,” Landon agreed, but he sounded less than enthusiastic about it. “Would have been good to have him, though. Another trained enforcer ...” He shrugged. “He would have come in handy.”
He was right. He would have. I didn’t doubt that for a moment, but we couldn’t keep waiting. Jeff had already sent two groups of cougars into Dog Mountain since yesterday, and I doubted he’d stop until we’d killed his entire pack, or they killed us.
I was aware of Dominic coming up behind me, and by the anger I caught in his scent, I figured he was most likely glaring and shaking his head. Landon’s eyes slid past me to focus on him, and his fierce, focused expression faltered.
“You ready for this?” I asked him, drawing his attention away from Dominic.
Landon’s grin was tight and predatory, when he looked back at me. “Always,” he said, and I had no doubt he meant it.
CHAPTER 15
~ JADE ~
Mark was halfway across the backyard when the creaky front door opened. He seemed to hesitate in his step for a second, as if the sound caught him off guard, and it struck me as odd. We were expecting Aidan, and Mark had just sent someone to the store. People on the deck and the door opening didn’t seem odd to me, but his reaction to the sound had my inner-wolf doing backflips in my belly and the hair along my neck prickling my skin.
And that was when I realized that I hadn’t heard a vehicle, and it was at that moment that Mark started to run.