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AERIN

Iget halfway down the road before I have to stop. Tears fill my eyes and I can’t see.

Sniffing, I drag my sleeve across my eyes, move to press on the accelerator, then scream as I slam on the brakes.

Slowly, I loosen my death grip on the steering wheel as the man I was not expecting stalks around the side of my car and pulls the door open, sighing when he sees me.

“My boy did exactly what I think he did, didn’t he?”

I look Mack’s dad in the eye, and I burst into tears. Then I remember what he thought of omegas when we first met. “If you even think of accusing me of being weak, I’ll?—”

He unbuckles my seatbelt, helps me out of the car, and pulls me into the most unexpected hug I think I’ve ever had in my life.

“You’re not weak, Aerin.”

“I just left him behind,” I say as my eyes burn. “I should have made him come with me.”

Connall blows out a sigh. “Mack, for all his quiet ways, is and always has been surprisingly stubborn. Come on, let’s get you to the house.”

I frown at him. “What house?”

He blinks in surprise. “Mack didn’t tell you?”

I shake my head. “He said we would talk, but now I realize he only really wanted one thing from me.”

“And that thing was?”

“Me safe.”

Connall nods. “That sounds like Mack. Come on now. Let’s get to the others.”

I’m still confused about the house and this talk of others, so I can only assume he means the rest of the Winter Lake Pack and maybe Ivy, since he’s now living in Virginia with her. If he’s here in Michigan, then she will be as well.

He helps me into the passenger seat because getting into and out of a car while heavily pregnant requires two people.

“Did he tell you anything?” Connall asks as he resumes driving.

I shake my head. “Just that I should be safe if I drove for a bit. That someone would come to me.” I consider his strange response that hadn’t made much sense a few minutes ago, but now it makes perfect sense. “I guess that means he must have known you would be here to meet me.”

Before he’s finished parking in front of an ordinary suburban style home, the door is swinging open, and I was right to think the Winter Lake Pack was here.

So is Ivy. And so, to my surprise, is my dad.

“Dad!” I open the car door, move to get out, and nearly fall on my face.

He helps me out.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Given he dropped everything to come to Winter Lake when he heard you were missing, I’d say he wanted to get you back as much as we did,” Bennett says.

I give Bennett a quick hug, and turn to my dad, surprised. The Boone Pack is everything to him. All my life I’ve come second, and now suddenly he’s putting me first?

“You dropped everything? For me?” I stare at him.

He shrugs, though his tone is almost embarrassed when he says, “The pack will manage without me for a couple of days. I gather that mate of yours handed himself in to take your place?”

I start to defend Mack.

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