Page 72 of Hunted

“Because?”

“I have a feeling they’re not just going to be watching the house out there.” She waggles her eyebrows suggestively.

I laugh. “Chris?I doubt it.”

He’s found love with Zoe, who is on the path to recovering from her broken mate bond with her former mate. I wasn’t able to use my omega gift to help her heal as I’d wanted to. It had hurt, knowing that with barely any effort, I could have taken away all the pain in her heart. But talking with her had been surprising.

I’ve learned the power of helping another heal through sharing my own pain.

For the longest time, Chris was worried Zoe would struggle to see this place as home, but I think he’s started to accept that she’s happy here in Winter Lake, and with him. I hadn’t thought Chris was the romantic type. He’s too quiet for that. But with Zoe? I might see them sharing a kiss out there.

I’m turning to ask Helena something when two things happen almost at once.

Outside, a wolf howls and a woman screams.

A door slams open and glass smashes. Frominsidethe house.

My omega powers might not be working now, but I’m still a wolf, and my nose works just fine. The scent of blood in the air warns something tonight has just gone very wrong.

24

MACK

Someone grips my arm and yanks me back before I can slam through the spiked pieces of wood inches from my face.

Bennett releases me and shakes his head. “I know you said you had enough of being Alpha, but that doesn’t mean I want the job.”

I snort and lift my head, sniffing. “The wolf?”

“Colton and Warren went after him.”

“What about Penny and Tina?” I ask, shrugging off my near miss.

That was an ambush I should have seen coming. It’s not like Aerin hadn’t warned me she had a bad feeling.

Bennett points back the way we came. “Keeping an eye on our flank.”

Two female wolves bounce toward us.

I meet their eyes one at a time. “Keep alert for ambushes. Where there’s one, there’s likely another.”

Penny rolls her eyes.

I disregard her attitude and drop into a crouch as I shift. Bennett does the same and we continue through the forest. Onour way, we skirt around no less than three suspicious looking piles of leaves.

Whoever covered up the holes I imagine are beneath them didn’t try nearly as hard to make them look convincing as the hole I stepped into. Why can be a question for when we catch up to the wolf with a distracting scent.

In the distance, a wolf yelps in pain and we pick up the pace as Penny and Tina continue to trail us, alert for any attacks that might come from behind us.

We run for another five minutes, then find Colton and Warren, still in their wolf forms, pinning down a lean brown wolf.

All this shifting is exhausting, but whoever this wolf is can give us answers to questions, and I need to be human for that.

When I shift, Bennett does as well, though he grabs my arm and stops me before I can approach the snarling wolf.

“What distracted you?” Bennett asks. “You should have seen that trap with your eyes closed. Why did you miss it?”

I pull my gaze from the wolf who, at our approach, has ramped up his attempts to break free. But between Colton and Warren, both big wolves, he isn’t going anywhere.

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