Page 78 of Hunted

But we reach the cars with no trouble, and we all shift back to our human forms.

We should have kept Lester alive in case he knew something important, but I don’t care about information right now. I just care about what’s happening at the house.

We leave the hotel as we arrived minutes before. Warren and Tina are in one car. Penny and Colton in the other. Bennett and I get back into his car and I scramble to grab my cell phone. As we speed through the silent, sleeping town, the phone continues to ring in my ear.

It rings out.

I try again.

And again.

No one answers the phone.

There’s a sick churn in my gut that feels like panic, terror, and some unidentifiable thing that draws a cold sweat to the back of my neck.

Something is wrong. Badly wrong.

I’m getting ready to demand Bennett drive faster when suddenly, when I least expect it, the phone clicks in my ear.

“It’s Mack! Aerin? Helena? Adela?” I demand. “What’s happening?”

“Mack?” Adela sounds more shaken than I’ve ever heard her before. “I can’t… Gregory? Do you have it under control?”

Havewhatunder control?

“Give me five minutes!” Aerin’s grandfather calls back.

“Adela, what is it? What’s happened?”

The sound of her swallow is loud in my ear. “They attacked the house. Chris and Zoe were outside. Helena is trying to stop the bleeding. Zoe is okay, I think. But Chris…”

Bennett darts a rapid glance my way and puts his foot down on the gas. He was speeding before. I don’t want to know how fast we’re going now.

“And…” Adela stops.

“And what?” I prompt.

“The den is on fire. But Gregory is…”

What the fuck is going on?

“Chris is down and Helena is looking after him?” I ask.

“Yes, and I don’t know if he’s going to be okay. But Gregory and Jude are dealing with the fire. I think they’ve nearly got it out,” she says.

The house is coming into view, and I’m glad she warned me about the fire because it doesn’t look like Gregory nearly has it out.

Flames flicker in a downstairs window, too bright to be a lamp or the overhead light.

But there’s one name missing in all this.

I tighten my hold on the cell phone as I force myself to ask a question I’m terrified I already know the answer to.

“And Aerin? How is Aerin?”

The silence before she speaks makes me close my eyes and lean my head back in my seat.

“She’s gone. Isn’t she? They set this trap so they could take her?”

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