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An unfamiliar shifter walks in carrying a wolf, which he also dumps and turns to leave.

“Who are you?” I ask him.

He glances at me. “Darryl. From Ohio.”

I blink at him. “Uh, and the reason you’re here?”

He glares at the dead wolf he just dropped. “Came to get our omega back. And kill the people who took her.”

He walks out and I twist back to my dad to find he’s left.

I discover him outside, gathering more bodies.

“Who are all these people, dad?”

“Who do you think? People who want revenge.”

The packs who had their omegas stolen.

“You convinced them to band together?”

“Not me.” My dad points his chin at Douglas, Aerin’s dad. “He did.”

I spot another unfamiliar shifter with a plastic container of gasoline that you’d use to fill up your tank if you ran out of gas on the side of the road, and I figure out how they intend to deal with all the dead Raleighs.

I don’t know how many are dead, or if any survived, but I can’t imagine many walked away from this.

Long minutes later, I stand beside my dad after we’ve dragged all the wolf bodies inside the half-built buildings.

The farmhouse is empty. I saw a handful of shifters walking out, saying there was no one in there.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to the farmhouse, and I don’t care. I’m ready to find Aerin and just go home.

But like everyone else, I stand on the front lawn and we watch those two half-built buildings stuffed full of dead wolves go up in smoke.

Then I turn to my dad. “Is Aerin here?”

He shakes his head. “Probably busy pacing a hole right through the floor. Come on, let’s get you back to your mate.”

The drive back to the rental takes minutes.

There are more cars parked out front than there are spaces for them, but then again, there were more shifters fighting at the Raleigh property than I’d ever seen, so they must have left most of their vehicles here.

I’m out of the car before my dad has finished parking with only one goal in mind.

Aerin must have the same thought as well, or she scented me before I scented her, because before I reach the door, it swings open and she stands in the doorway and looks at me like she can’t believe it’s really me.

“Mack?” She smiles, looking so beautiful my heart hurts.

I walk toward her, open my arms wide and draw her close, breathing in the scent of her skin. “Ready to go home, love?”

25

AERIN

TWO MONTHS LATER

It’s been two months since we came home to Winter Lake, from Karson, Michigan, and I’m in my favorite room in the house as Mack is mowing the grass in the garden.

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