Page 70 of Hunted

There’s no sleeping until Mack is back, safe, and I know he’s okay.

After I get out of bed, I make a pit-stop at the bathroom, brushing my teeth and washing my face once I’ve used the toilet.

It’s still the middle of the night, yet I pulled on a pair of linen pants, a baggy T-shirt, and dressed as if it was the start of a new day and not 2 a.m.

The dream I had of a boy and girl haunts me as I stare at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I look tired. I don’t quite have bags under my eyes, but my skin is pale and there are lines of tension around my mouth.

“Please be okay, Mack,” I whisper.

My dad had, to my surprise, suggested I go back to Minnesota until we figured out what was going on. He seemed to think it was only a matter of time before someone tried to grab me, and I hadn’t been able to tell him that if someone did, they’d soon discover I’m an omega missing her powers. I’d refused my dad’s offer. Going back to the Boone Pack wasn’t an option.

“Winter Lake is home now,” I’d told Dad. “Whatever is happening right now won’t change that.”

His offer had surprised me. For the longest time, most of my childhood, actually, I hadn’t thought he cared about me at all. That he viewed me as a duty and nothing more.

But after Nolan Lonergan kidnapped me and Dad helped Mack find me, our relationship has changed. We’ll never be close. At least, I don’t think we will. But I call him once a week or so, and he calls me as well. Very rarely he mentions Mom, which is something he never used to do before.

“Aerin!” Adela calls up the stairs. “Do you want tea?”

No. I want Mack back. But since he’s out and I have no clue when he’s likely to be back, I will settle for tea. “Okay!” I call back.

I walk out of the bathroom, grip the balustrade as I make my way down the stairs and into a brightly lit entryway.

Everyone has settled in the dining room. That’s not really a surprise. That seems to be where we all drift to in times of trouble.

My grandparents already have white mugs of tea in front of them at the table. Helena is standing in front of the open refrigerator, peering in, and Adela is at the counter making more tea.

“Where are Chris and Zoe?” I ask as I walk in.

Helena twists from the refrigerator to smile at me. “Outside. They wanted to make sure there’s no one hanging around.”

I take a seat at the dining table as my grandparents smile at me. “Is it safe?”

“They said they’ll be fine,” my grandpa says, his forehead creased in a frown. “They—whoever they are—want omegas. But I just can’t understand why.”

“Alphas have always wanted omegas,” I say.

Adela places a mug of hot tea in front of me. “Alphas have always wanted omegas because we can hold a broken pack together. But this… snatching up omegas from packs across thecountry like this doesn’t make sense. They’re making enemies who will wipe them out as soon as everyone learns who is behind it.”

I wrap my hands around the mug as I study the map with brightly colored pins we left here before Mack and I went up to bed. Bennett stayed for a little longer before he left to go home to Helena.

“Bennett said he didn’t think Clary was involved, but I’m not so sure.” Helena closes the refrigerator door without taking anything from it, and leans against a counter with her arms crossed.

He must have told her everything when he went home.

“Clary?” my grandma asks.

I spend the next couple of minutes explaining what happened with Clary and soon wish I hadn’t been so forthcoming when Adela frowns at me.

“You had a nosebleed?”

“It wasn’t that bad,” I reassure her. “And it stopped soon after it started. I’m fine now.”

She gives me a probing look and I know getting out of this conversation is going to be a million times harder than when Mack pressed me to talk about it.

“I won’t try to do it again,” I promise her. “I was just frustrated.”

She takes a seat.

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