Page 75 of Pack Larsen

Gritting my teeth and breathing through my nose, I try to calm myself before answering. “If you hear from her, can you tell her… I don’t know, just ask her to call us or something? Please?”

“I’ll let her know, man,” he says before he ends the call, and I drop my hand as I focus on Munro’s conversation with Juniper.

“Please, Juno. I just want to know that she’s alright,” Munro pleads, and I step close enough to hear Juno’s response from the other end of the line. “She doesn’t want to be found, Ro. I’m not telling you where she is. She’s safe, though. She just needs to get her head on straight. She’s hurt right now.”

“It’s not what she thinks!” Munro snaps, losing his patience with his best friend for the first time since they met. “Juno, we need to talk to her. To explain. Don’t make me go through a whole fucking weekend without her when I only just got her.”

Juno sighs, and I hear the reluctance in her voice, “She asked me not to say anything, Ro. I don’t want to betray that trust. Don’t make me do that to her, too, when she already feels like she’s been betrayed.”

“Fuck!” Munro shouts, hanging up the call before he says something he might regret later. Pressing his cell into his forehead, his jaw clenching tightly, he says, “She knows where Silver is but won’t tell us where. Said she needs space.”

“Will the guys know?” Haze wonders, sneakily suggesting we go around the omega and ask her pack. I mean, I’m sure they would understand if it were them and Juno, right?

Munro destroys the spark of hope that comes with that thought as quickly as it comes. “They won’t tell us. Silver swore them all to secrecy, and Juno doesn’t want to break that trust when she’s already hurting.”

Rage growls. Full on, chest rumbling, growls. He looks as stressed as I feel, and when he turns to face me, he speaks through gritted teeth, “Alek?”

I shake my head, only to pause as my mind runs over the very brief conversation, only to realize the big beefy Viking bastard didn’t ask if everything was okay, didn’t sound in the least bit worried about his cousin.

“That fucker,” I grunt, dialing Alek’s number instead of answering Rage.

“Yo, again,” he greets, and I want to strangle the dick through the phone for being so nonchalant.

“Please, put her on the phone, man,” I blurt, gripping my hair tightly.

Alek pauses for a long moment, and I hear a whisper of a sound. A mere hint of a feminine voice, and that cements it for me. Alek is harboring his cousin and is lying to me about it like the protective big brother she thinks of him as.

“I don’t know what you’re talking—” he begins.

“I know she’s there. I just heard her,” I interrupt, scoffing. “I know how much you love her, and you didn’t sound concerned at all when I asked if you’d seen her. She’s with you, and I want to talk to her.”

Alek sighs long and hard down the phone before muttering, “Hold on.”

My hopes go soaring through the damn ceiling as I wait for him to pass the phone to Silver, only to come crashing right back down to the earth with all of the force of a fallen meteor when Alek’s voice reaches my ears again.

“Look, she doesn’t want to talk right now, okay?” he starts, and I hear the protective steak in his voice, telling me I’m on thin ice, along with my brothers. “She’s hurt, her head is a mess, and I don’t think anything productive will happen while she’s in this state.”

“I just want to explain to her what happened. She thinks we—”

“I know what she thinks. She told me while she sobbed in Lazarus’s arms like I’ve never seen before,” Alek interrupts sternly, and I sigh and hang my head, ignoring the probing looks of my pack. “What the hell were you assholes thinking?”

“We didn’t go there for money,” I sigh again, staring at the floor like it holds all the answers to my problems. “We went to warn Cynthia.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Alek blurts, genuinely sounding confused and shocked enough that he doesn’t sound like he’s about to tear me a new asshole for a miscommunication. “You were warning that bitch? Explain.”

So, I do. I explain every fucking detail to the guy, leaving nothing out, all the while the guys are standing around me with questions in their eyes and a fierce need to get Silver back.

“Do you get it now? We weren’t there for anything other than making sure Cynthia fucked all the way off and left Silver in peace. That’s all,” I urge, voice pleading for him to believe us.

Alek groans before he starts laughing. And laughing, and laughing, and fucking laughing. I’m actually pissed when he gets his shit together enough to say, “Man, what a shit-show.”

“You’re telling me,” I snap.

He chuckles.

Munro curses up a storm.

Pace steals my phone. Good, because I was about to say some shit to the guy I was going to regret later when Silver realized we didn’t betray her.

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