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No, Ididn’tremember because my brain is like jelly and I forgot.

Moses called a couple of days ago saying the Dacres were having some kind of battle. None of us knew what was going on. Maybe Bree and Shane fighting to control the pack after they learned Bree killed Iain, their beloved previous Alpha, and Shane’s father. Or maybe it was something else.

They’d been watching their borders to ensure the fighting didn’t spill over from Dacres territory into Boone territory.

Now Aerin is gone.

Bennett is right. Even if Moses wanted to help Aerin, he couldn’t leave them now when he’s in charge of security.

“So what the hell is happening there if Shane was just here kidnapping Aerin? Who is leading the Dacres?” I ask.

Bennett shrugs. “Bree, maybe. Or trying and failing if all that fighting is still going on.”

She will succeed or someone will kill her and another dominant alpha will take over the pack, probably re-naming the pack since a Dacre has always led it.

But I don’t care about what’s going on in Minnesota right now.

I sigh. “He hung up on me the second I’d finished telling him something that I ask myself why I even bothered to.”

“He’s her dad. You thought he needed to know. That’s why you told him.”

I muffle a yawn and cross my arms as I think. “I’m starting to think we should have kept Lester alive. He might have told us something useful.”

“Doubt it.” Bennett sounds thoughtful. “Lester seemed like a martyr. He’d have done something that made us kill him before too long.”

“But he could have told us where they’d take Aerin,” I remind him.

That’s the reason we’re still here in Winter Lake. Shane won’t be stupid enough to stick around here. Shane would have floored it the second he got Aerin into his car, and that’s the problem. He had a fancy sports car, Aerin said, and those things can go fast.

He could literally be anywhere now.

Shane isn’t with his pack. He seems to have left it, and probably some time ago if he’s now involved with the re-emergence of the Raleigh Pack.

So, wherever Shane is has to be somewhere that there wasn’t an established pack already, and I can’t think where that would be. It took us a long time to find Winter Lake and settle here, and the only reason no pack had already claimed this place was because it’s a retirement town with very little to do. Not all shifters want to live somewhere remote, but we do.

Bennett shrugs again. “Possibly. Or Lester lied and led us on a goose chase. Do you know what happened to the Raleigh survivors?”

I shake my head. “Before Colton turned up, I thought I was the only one. Then my dad walked into my kitchen and I knew I wasn’t.”

He still refuses to talk about where he went after he turned his back on the Raleighs—or even why he did it—and I’ve stopped asking. When my dad wants to remain tight-lipped, there’s no getting him to talk.

“So we’re going to Michigan.”

Looks like.

“Right now, it’s all we have. But I have my doubts we’ll find anything there. The Raleighs destroyed the house when they were fighting over who would lead after my dad walked away. Parts of it were already burning before I’d even left the town. There’s nothing there and no pack would want to re-build on the site of what happened there. You know how superstitious some of our kind tend to be.”

“The Raleigh survivorscouldhave rebuilt,” Bennett suggests.

I look at him. “Someone would notice a new pack springing up where the Raleighs had perished. And news would spread.”

“Ifthey went looking in Karson. But who would think to go looking for the Raleighs when everyone knows they all died years ago?”

I’m pondering his question when a speeding car yanks my focus toward the side of the house. No one speeds in Winter Lake.

“Does that car sound like it’s headed this way?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

Bennett straightens and walks around the side of the house. “It does, because it is.”

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