Page 77 of Hunted

Helena follows us out as Shane pulls me around the side of the house. Then she halts there, her gaze bouncing from me to a truly awful sight at the bottom of the garden.

It’s a sight I wish I could unsee.

Chris is on his back, and he’s not moving. Zoe is on her side too, though I don’t smell as much blood coming from her as I do from Chris.

“No…” I whisper.

“Come.” Shane drags me around the side of the house.

Helena sprints down the garden, ripping her sweatshirt off and using it to stem the blood pumping from Chris’s throat.

“Do it,” Shane orders as he drags me along, forcing me into a run to keep up.

The man waiting beside the house sets a piece of white cloth on fire that he pulls from his pocket. He slams a fist into the den window and tosses the flaming cloth inside.

“No!” I scream.

Pain explodes in the back of my head, turning my vision black.

26

MACK

Idon’t have time to shift before a pack of wolves is on us.

Just like Lester warned, they don’t come after me. They barely even look at me. They lunge at Bennett, Warren, Colton, Tina, and Penny. But they’re my pack, so I leap into the fight to defend them.

Days ago, shifters were trying to grab omegas from Ivy’s pack. Now the same thing here.

Lester is still human, and when I spot him trying to slip away, I’m on him, pinning him to the ground with my hand wrapped around his throat.

I squeeze, so he knows I’m serious. “I’m like my dad in most ways. Not all, but some.” I let him see the fury of my wolf. “You came here intending harm to me and mine. Talk or you die slowly and you die painfully.”

“The Raleighs are back,” Lester gasps. “Omegas have powers we can use to make ourselves strong again. And wewill.”

I stare at him.

If he’s here leading us into an ambush, what’s happening at the house with Aerin?

And I don’t have my phone.

The fighting is ending around me when Lester kicks out. I release my hold on him as I fall, and as he lunges up and away, a familiar big, brown wolf leaps onto his back and takes him down before ripping out his throat.

Lester is dead.

The rest of the wolves who might or might not have been Raleighs are dead as well, and I know we shouldn’t be leaving the dead bodies where they lie, but something important is ricocheting through my brain. Something I should have thought about long before now.

They came here for Aerin and this was just a distraction to keep us busy so they could get her.

Bennett turns to look at me.

“We have to go back. Something is wrong. This was a trap. All of this was just a trap,” I say, already dropping into a crouch so I can do yet another shift.

This one comes slower, it takes serious effort, and it hurts.

Getting back to our cars takes an eternity.

I’m exhausted from all the shifting, then fighting, and finally the sprint back through the forest to our vehicles.

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