Page 61 of Hunted

So that’s the thing he wanted to do on his drive to Winter Lake. He was on a fact find mission.

We again briefly look at each other.

A little more of my doubt about Clary fades, and I stop eyeing him with the wariness I was before. It sounds like he might be telling the truth.

“Do you or anyone else know who is behind it?” Aerin asks.

Clary shakes his head. “Definitely shifters, but no one recognized their faces or their scents. It took a while to even find that out. All the packs I visited were jumpy and thought I might have been involved.” He briefly laughs, and it’s a nervous sound. “If it wasn’t so important to find Leah, I wouldn’t have gone to them at all. I’m surprised they didn’t immediately kill me and ask questions later.”

That makes sense.

Someone takes their omega, or tries to, and shortly after, another unfamiliar shifter comes along asking questions about whether or not they had an omega missing.

I’m surprised he’s still alive.

“What about your Alpha?” Bennett asks, sitting back in his seat.

“We all tried to look for Leah, but we couldn’t track her,” Clary explains. “They didn’t just leave our town. They left our state.”

I read between the lines. “Your Alpha didn’t want to go after them.”

Clary sighs. “He wanted to. Jo is a good Alpha, but our pack is small. He didn’t think it was safe if we went up against a bigger pack. We would lose and we would die.”

So the Alpha decided the needs of the rest of the pack were more important than finding a missing omega. It must have been a terrible choice to make.

“That’s why you’re here,” I say.

He nods. “Jo gave me money and I call and check in with them. Wherever Leah is, I have to find her. I don’t care how long it takes.”

Months ago, someone took Aerin, and I didn’t even question not going after her. Clary sounds like he did the same thing.

I like this shifter a little more.

“How long have you been looking?” Bennett asks.

“Two weeks,” he says. “And I’ve still gotten nowhere.”

The timeline matches up with what was happening with the Lonergans. So a coordinated attack?

“What about the Boones?” Aerin asks. “Did you stop in Minnesota?”

Bennett snorts. “As if anyone is going to make the extremely short-sighted and suicidal mistake by wandering into Douglas Boone’s territory.”

“I’m not sure. I… like you said, didn’t want to put my neck out in case they decided to kill first and ask questions later, but I doubt they would have.” Clary focuses on Aerin. “Everyone knows you ran away from Shane and that you settled somewhere on the east coast. A remote retirement town. And that you can do things no other omega can.”

I wish I had killed Shane when I had a chance.

Letting him live after the Alpha challenge we fought, and I won, means I’ve exposed Aerin to more harm than if no one had known what she was capable of.

Clary continues, “To be honest, I was surprised to see you here and eating at the diner. I thought you would be?—”

“What do you mean, eating at the diner?” Bennett’s voice is gravel as he sits up in his seat.

Clary sits back and his gaze is nervy. “I just meant…”

Aerin is staring at Clary and she whispers. “You were in the dark blue car. You drove past when I was eating lunch with Penny. I saw you.”

I realize I made a mistake letting this shifter into our home. He might have been telling the truth about someone abducting his omega, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still be hiding something.

---