Page 72 of Dawn of the Pack

“Tomorrow night,” I reply confidently. “Billy said Nielsen’s almost had it with Derrek being unable to shift, and he won’t let him live if he doesn’t. We can’t afford to wait any longer. My plan is for all of us to roll into Montrose about ten minutes to midnight. It’s only a couple of minutes in a car to get through the town and turn on the drive to Nielsen’s house; I suspect that’s where we’ll encounter our first resistance, and at that point, it’ll be midnight and we can shift.”

“That doesn’t exactly give us much time to recruit volunteers. How were you planning on spreading the word?”

“Well, we’re the midnight wolves of smoky falls, right? So I’m going to tell the pack at the run tonight, and let them know to spread the word.”

LANDON

After how she reacted to the call from Billy, and then how she hid the rest of the day, I was honestly relieved to see my mate march down the stairs energetically and start barking orders.

But despite my confidence in her abilities as an alpha, this plan of hers scares the shit out of me.

It goes against every instinct in my body to know she’s going to run straight into danger and challenge an absolute psychopath to a fight. Jared said she barely kept that low-ranking female at bay, and it’s a safe assumption that Nielsen will be a good deal tougher.

If he weren’t, he wouldn’t still be the alpha.

And as we trudged into the trees last night and stood beside Lily while she made her announcement, I could see discomfort and concern in the way the pack moved and their eyes darted around. Lily refused to order them to do this; she wanted them to choose on their own, and she said as much. I hope with every fiber of my being that she’s instilled the confidence they were missing back in this pack. It’ll be a real blow if only a handful of people show up.

This morning, following the announcement, we all kick it into high gear. Dom reached out to his contacts in Montrose and let them know the plan. He says he’s not sure how they took it but he hopes they’ll join us when the time comes, or at the very least not stand in our way. They agreed to think about it and that’s all the promise we receive.

So now it’s seven pm and we’re waiting outside the community center to see how many people turn up for this little road trip. It’s absolutely freezing out, so we’re sitting in our cars with the engines running. Maxwell volunteered to drive the four of us, since he plans to take part in the attack, anyway. Most of the household staff volunteered, including Mrs. Dowling and Mr. Carson. Thankfully, Lily found a way to ask the older staff to stay back while making it sound incredibly important—yet another example of how adept she is as an alpha.

So we have a handful of vehicles rumbling in the darkness and exhaling steady streams of ghostly exhaust in the parking lot lights. I glance aside at Lily and she’s staring out her window, knee twitching while she chews her nails.

I reach a hand across the seat to save her poor fingers. “It’ll be alright,” I try to sound confident. “They’ll come.”

She squeezes my hand and smiles back at me gratefully. “I know. And even if it’s not a lot, it’ll work. I just can’t help wondering what it means if no one comes.”

“Nothing, because they’re going to show up.” Jared leans forward from the third row and rests his chin on the back of our seat. “It’s barely after seven and you gave them until seven twenty. Don’t work yourself up for no reason, gorgeous. If you need a distraction, I have some jokes-”

“NO!” The three of us thunder at him simultaneously, and Milo bursts out laughing. “I told you, man, you’re wearing out your welcome with those jokes. Not every occasion is a laughing matter.”

“Says the hyena,” Jared grumbles.

“I’m just not in the mood for jokes right now, handsome. I’m sorry.” Lily pats Jared’s cheek with one hand, and his disgruntled expression melts immediately.

We go back to waiting in silence, and Lily checks the time on her phone every thirty seconds.

After another long stretch of nothing, she sighs. “Surely someone would be here by now, wouldn’t they? I mean, it’s only five minutes before we’re supposed to roll out.”

I’m actually getting nervous myself, but my mate doesn’t need my doubts right now. “They’ll show, Lily. They’re your pack, and they love you.”

She nods in agreement, but her lips thin as her eyes scan the side streets around the parking lot.

“There’s someone!” Jared practically shouts in my ear, and we track the single vehicle as it turns into the lot and heads straight for us.

No one says anything, but we’re all thinking it: Just one car?

The SUV pulls alongside Maxwell, who lowers his window while the passenger in the other vehicle does the same.

“Hey guys!” Amber’s voice sings out through the car. “Everyone’s already lined up and ready to go on main, just waiting for you to lead us!”

My heart jumps… how many people is ‘everyone’?

“Everyone?” Lily asks, echoing my thoughts as she leans forward to talk.

“Yeah, pretty much the whole town showed, like, mega early. It was too many cars to fit the lot and more just kept coming, so we told everyone to line up or we’d never get out of here on time. I suppose we should have said something, sorry. We just wanted to be ready.”

“That’s… wow, Amber, that’s great, thank you.”

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