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“Anything you want me to know?” I ask him as he slams the door shut.

“Not a thing,” he says.

I give him a long look, but his expression remains neutral.

Shaking my head, I walk toward the shop. “I could do with some candy. How about you?”

He makes a sound of assent.

A bell jingles as we enter the store, and a quick sweep of the interior reveals we’re the only customers inside. Perfect. Just the same grizzled man who peered out at me from the window, and a tiny shop jam packed with snacks, sodas, and candy.

I head to the front of the store as my dad wanders toward the refrigerator cabinet near the back, smiling at the man behind the counter. “Afternoon.”

He nods, and I feel him watching me as I take my time picking out a candy bar I neither need nor want.

When I place a bar on the counter, he’s still eyeing me curiously from behind the counter. “So, you’re here to join that little community they’re building outside town?”

I blink. “Community?”

He makes a sound at the back of his throat that could mean anything.

But the little community just outside of town sounds an awful lot like it could be a pack of shifters. Living on the outskirts and trying not to attract too much attention from the locals is exactly the sort of thing we like to do.

Given this might be the very information we’re here to discover, I grab a couple more candy bars and toss them on the counter. “I’m just passing through. What kind of community?”

The man shrugs as he rings up my candy bars. “Who knows? But they pay their way and they keep to themselves, so at least there’s that. And they seem to be hard workers.”

“Why would you think that?” my dad asks, placing a four pack of beer on the counter.

I raise my eyebrow at him.

Beer?

When we’re here on a rescue mission to save Aerin and he thinks now is the time to pick up a four pack?

His lip quirks in a half smile as he shrugs.

“They built a house a few months back and they’re busy with a couple more. Not sure how many plan to live there,” the man says.

“Just outside town?” I press.

The last time I was here, I was leaving my pack behind. It took hours to get to town, and I walked fast, half-afraid someone would come after me and try to stop me. Not that anyone seemed to care when I left, but I didn’t want to risk anyone dragging me back for any reason.

The man points his chin west. “That direction.”

So someoneishere rebuilding on the old Raleigh property. Which means Aerin and the other kidnapped omegas are here.

Relief makes my shoulders slump to know we didn’t just spend hours on the road, only to get to the wrong place and have to turn around and go back.

“Was there anything else?” the man asks.

Smiling, I shake my head as I hand over my credit card. “Just this. Thanks.”

He bags everything up and Dad takes the bag before I can.

We’re both silent as we leave the store, waiting until we’re back in the car to talk.

“So, we were right. The Raleighs are back. It has to be them rebuilding,” I say.

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