Page 68 of Hunted

Bennett pulls up behind them and cuts the engine.

“I do believe him, but the sneaking around for days means I’m more comfortable with him out of Winter Lake than in it,” he says.

Agreed.

When my phone vibrates, I pull it out of my pocket. It’s a text from Warren wanting to know what the plan is.

I take a second to consider my options.

Ordinarily, I’d start a hunt, but I can’t help but wonder what the purpose of this is.

“I don’t like this,” I say, staring into the forest at the back of the hotel.

All the hotel’s lights are off, but I have a feeling Sara Meacham, the owner and manager, is probably lying in bed, wondering at the strange noises she heard in the forest.

“It feels like a trap,” Bennett says quietly.

It does.

Aerin isn’t even here, and she thought so too.

I’d been planning on leaving without waking Aerin, hoping whatever wild animal Sara had heard outside the hotel would be a small thing to deal with.

So I’d stepped outside of our room and called everyone to make sure no one was alone just in case this was a trap.

Everyone was downstairs, and I’d been about to kiss Aerin’s hair before I left her, not wanting to wake her when she’d mumbled something.

She’d been quietly ordering someone to share with their little brother, and I can only imagine she had been dreaming of our future. Not just Thumper and me, but of the child we will have next. A little boy, it sounded like.

She’d smiled so sweetly and so lovingly before she said she’d loved me.

I’d known I couldn’t just leave her without telling her where I was going and why. So I’d woken her. And now here I am, getting the sense I’m about to step into a trap.

Aerin won’t sleep. She was too worried. She’ll wait for me to come home, and it won’t matter how long I’m gone. When I come back, she’ll be in the dining room or the den with the others, cradling a mug of hot tea to soothe her.

“She’ll be okay,” Bennett says.

“Aerin was sure this was going to be a trap. She didn’t want me to go.” I pause. “If anyone other than Aerin was the one saying that, I’d shake it off as just worry. But…”

“She’s an omega, and she has gifts and sight that none of the rest of us do,” Bennett concludes.

She does, even though right now her powers aren’t working. Her gift is innate.

My phone vibrates again. This time it’s Colton.

I shoot off a couple of responses and watch as their car doors open.

“Let’s see what this wolf wants and send him on his way,” I say.

“Lets.” Bennett swings his door open and steps out as I tuck my cell phone in the center console so I won’t lose it when I strip and shift to hunt out this wolf.

It’s the middle of the night, so all the roads are empty and every light in all the stores further down are off. Everyone will be sleeping in Winter Lake tonight. Everyone but the people causing trouble in the forest behind the hotel.

We quietly close our car doors and leave our vehicles behind us, walking away from the road and down into the public forest that makes up a large part of Winter Lake. There’s trouble here tonight. I can’t smell it yet, see it, or hear it, but trouble has come to Winter Lake and I intend to stamp it out.

Aerin is fine, I tell myself for the fifth time since I left the house. She’s safe, surrounded by pack, not in any danger. Yet, she’s all I can think about.

“For the first time, I think I’d prefer not to be Alpha,” I say quietly. “I just want to be Aerin’s mate. No responsibility for anyone else. No duty. Just to provide for her and give her a reason to smile each day. That’s it.”

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