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Aerin.

I slam the car door closed and walk inside, saying nothing. Today I feel worn down, slow, and like an old man. Maybe it’s shock. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. Could even be exhaustion from the multiple shifts I did last night.

They move aside as I walk into the kitchen, pour myself a glass of water, and only distantly notice the tea stains on the floor, a broken chair in one corner, and that the dining table is slightly wobbly.

I sip from my glass of water as I think. I’m exhausted, running on maybe three hours of sleep, but I’m not putting my head down until I have Aerin back in my arms.

“Shane took Aerin, so he’s mixed up in this,” I say. “And I have no clue where to even start looking for her.”

Bennett and Clary, who quietly followed me into the kitchen, take a seat at the wobbly dining table.

“What are the odds the Dacre Pack forced him out after Bree killed his dad and he found himself a new pack?” Bennett asks.

I look at him. “The Raleigh Pack is dead. They don’t exist anymore. How did Shane discover something no one knew?”

Silence reigns for two beats.

“Maybe they went looking for him?” Clary suggests.

Bennett must have filled Clary in on our run in with Lester, one of my former Raleigh packmates, who we confronted in the forest near the Winter Lake Hotel. It was a distraction so Shane could hit the house and grab Aerin.

He has his own pack, so he’s only here to find Leah, his missing mate. After that, he’ll be returning to his home in New Mexico.

“You think they’re using Shane to get what they want?” Because it’s what I think.

Everyone knows Shane was Aerin’s fated mate. That she ran from him, rejected him, and built a new life for herself here, in Winter Lake with me. They know this because Aerin is the daughter of one of the most well-respected Alpha’s in the country: Douglas Boone from the Boone Pack.

I try to keep focused on just getting Aerin back, but I keep thinking of everything she told me about her life with Shane and how unhappy she was because of how he treated her.

Aerin is now back in the hands of her abusive former mate.

I promised her she would always be safe with me. And I didn’t just fail Aerin. I failed Thumper as well.

“Mack?” Bennett prompts.

I clear my throat. “So it looks like the Raleigh Pack is back, or at least we need to act like they’re back, and they’re grabbing omegas to make a new name for themselves. We need to figure out where they are.”

“And go after them.” Clary sits up in his seat, eager.

Bennett bounces his gaze from me to Clary and adds, in a lower voice, “We have to be careful about how we get them back because it sounds like they have more hostages than just Aerin and Leah.”

Shane has gotten himself wrapped up with the Raleighs, somehow. Lester is dead, and I didn’t get the impression hewas the one in charge of everything that’s happened last night. I don’t believe for one moment he set up the distraction in town.

Someone dug pits in the ground, covered them with leaves, and I nearly fell into one of them. Which reminds me…

“We need to clear up that mess back in the forest near the hotel,” I tell Bennett.

Getting Aerin back is a priority, but we don’t need the inhabitants of this town stumbling over a bunch of dead wolves in the forest and potentially killing themselves by falling into one of those pits with wooden stakes.

Bennett nods. “Colton, Penny, Warren and Tina can go bury the bodies and do something about those pits so a hiker doesn’t fall into them.”

“Even just removing the stakes and burying the bodies will be enough. People can wonder about the pits, but at least no one will die falling into one of them.” I push my chair back from the table.

“When do we go after them?” Clary is still eager.

“After I’ve checked on my pack.”

“But—”

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