Page 59 of Found

Dad shakes his head. “Thought as much. You picked a good one, Aerin.”

“We have to get him back,” I say. “We can’t leave him there.”

“Inside now,” Ivy says. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

We gather at the dining table in the kitchen.

No sooner am I seated than Ivy is throwing a blanket over my shoulders. And even though I’m not cold, I wrap the blanket tighter around myself because it smells like Mack.

“When was the last time you ate?” she asks.

“Uh…” The meal Mack brought for us, but when I try to remember how long that was, I can’t remember.

“I thought so. You look like you’re starving.” Ivy walks over to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and peering inside. “I’ll throw something together.”

I don’t think I look like I’m starving. I feel like I’m in shock.

“Mack agreed to stay there if they let you go, didn’t he?” Clary, the shifter from New Mexico, who had turned up in Winter Lake, looking for his omega mate, asks.

He hasn’t joined us at the table.

He stands a little apart, hands stuffed in his pockets, beside the doorway.

I nod. “Mack, for all he’s the most mellow guy I’ve ever met in my life, is surprisingly stubborn about some things.”

Notably, keeping me safe.

Connall hums in agreement, and narrows his eyes at Ivy. “You knew he was going, didn’t you?”

Ivy is busy cracking eggs into a white bowl. “He was going to sneak out regardless of what I said or did. You saw how quiet he was when we were eating dinner.”

No one looks surprised by what Mack did, and truthfully, neither am I. I wanted to argue with him, to tell him that there had to be a better alternative, but Mack isn’t stupid. He wouldn’t have done what he had if there was another way. And Mack is Mack. He would absolutely be the sort of person to sacrifice himself for others.

“Did he have any orders?” Bennett asks.

I shake my head. “Not particularly. But I don’t think there’s a way he could have told me without worrying about someone overhearing. I told him I knew the omegas were there, and he said I had to leave. He would figure out a way to get them out.”

Clary straightens. “Did you see Leah?”

Nodding, I smile at him, relieved I have some good news for him. “I told her you’d come to Winter Lake looking for her and that you would find her.”

He swallows hard. “Did she look okay? They haven’t?—”

“No,” I softly interrupt him. “I don’t think anyone hurt her. She and the other omegas didn’t look like they’d been mistreated.”

Something sizzles and I glance over at the stove.

Ivy is making an omelet it looks like, and from the smell of sharp cheese and salty ham, my grumbling stomach can’t wait for it.

Connall sets a bottle of water down in front of me and I smile gratefully. “Thanks.”

“So my son is going to find a way to break the omegas out?” Connall asks.

I twist the lid off the bottle. “He said he would, but I don’t think he could do it alone. That house was full of Raleighs.”

“How full?” Colton asks.

Penny smiles tiredly at me, and I return her smile. She’s usually a ball of energy, but the last couple of days must have been exhausting for them. I missed most of the car ride to Michigan after Shane knocked me out, but from their tired faces, they’re all functioning on minimal amounts of sleep.

---