Page 60 of Hunted

This is yet another sign that maybe it’s time we moved from this house. Every time something happens, it happens here, and it makes me feel like Aerin isn’t safe.

“I thought you could help,” Clary says, looking at Aerin. “I heard that…”

Aerin releases a long, heavy sigh as she massages her forehead. “Shane Dacre was telling everyone about how powerful I am?”

Clary nods.

I mentally curse Shane.

Aerin is still clutching the damp washcloth after wiping most of the blood from her face. She’s missed a few spots, but oncewe’ve found out exactly what Clary is doing here, and I’ve made sure he leaves, I’ll check Aerin over to make sure she’s okay. She has grass on her shirt, so she must have fallen, though she doesn’t look hurt. Her nosebleed has stopped, but it still troubles me.

Shifters don’t have nosebleeds for no reason. A hard punch in the face would do it, but if Clary didn’t touch her, then why was she bleeding?

I’d intended to rush through this interview so I can find out what happened to trigger her nosebleed, but the topic of missing mates doesn’t lend itself to rushing through it.

“Where are you from?” I ask.

“New Mexico.”

We all stare at him.

Winter Lake is on the east coast. I can see the sea from some parts of town. New Mexico is… hundreds of thousands of miles away. Practically on the west coast.

I don’t even want to know how many hours on the road that would be from here to there. And I assume he drove. Shifters and planes don’t mix. Something about being stuck in an airplane sitting shoulder to shoulder with so many regular humans, and so many smells, doesn’t appeal to us.

“You drove here?” I ask.

He nods. “I was going to fly, but there was some stuff I needed to find out on the way.”

“And you came all this way alone?” Bennett glances outside.

He’s been tense since we sat down, and I can’t blame him for it. I am as well. Did Clary come here alone? Is this an ambush, and he’s here to talk us into lowering our guards with a story he cooked up while the rest of his pack attacks?

I tell myself that can’t be the case. If Ivy and my dad hadn’t called and told us what they had, I wouldn’t believe a word of what Clary was saying.

“Is your mate an omega?” Aerin asks, and I know she must be thinking what I am.

Clary nods. “My pack wasn’t the first one or the last one that was hit,” he explains.

I frown. “What do you mean,hit?”

“After someone took Leah, I tried to find out why. Our neighbors were missing their omegas as well,” he explains.

We all glance at each other.

It looks like Ivy was right to be concerned.

I had thought—we had all thought—that this situation was because of Aerin. It made sense that someone would attack the Lonergan Pack located deep in rural Virginia. There is no other pack in the country with a greater number of omegas.

After we rescued Aerin from Nolan Lonergan, she told us that the pack was once a sanctuary for omegas.

Ivy and Aerin function as a link between the packs. It made sense that if someone went after Ivy’s pack, they’d maybe come after us. But this changes things.

If Clary, all the way from New Mexico, had someone kidnap his omega mate, then things are going on a larger scale than any of us was aware of before.

“How many packs were hit?” I ask.

“Every pack I passed through either had an omega missing or an attempt made to snatch them,” he says. “About ten. That’s just the ones who would talk to me.”

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