Page 98 of Fated to the Lone Shifter
My blood runs cold as the dispatcher’s voice crackles through the radio: structure fire, rural outskirts, 413 Range Road.
My parents’ house.
My mind blanks for half a second, then surges into action.
"Stay here," I snap at Marcus, already striding for my gear.
"The hell I will!" he shouts. "I’m coming. I can help. It's your parents, man."
I hesitate. Every instinct says he’s a liability, a ticking bomb. But he’s my best friend—or he was. And I need every capable hand I can get. The Bensons might be in danger. My truefamily.
"Fine. But you listen to every word I say, or I’ll tranq your ass myself. Got it?"
He nods, eyes wide, breathing hard.
I grab his turnout gear from the hook. "Let’s go."
Chapter thirty
Return of the Pack
SERA
The second I step outside the police station, the night hits me—cool, sharp, and crawling with unease. The streetlights buzz overhead, casting halos that feel too bright, too exposed. I reach for my phone and text Tori again.
Where are you?** ETA? They’re getting out.**
Her reply comes fast.
Already there. Same spot as before. Added a few extras. You’ll need them.
Good girl.
I hop in the car and head back to the fire station, prepared for a long night ahead.
Ever since Bode and his pack walked out of the police station, I’ve been on edge. I can feel the shift in the air, thick with anticipation. Not the good kind. The kind that makes your neck prickle and your magic rise before your brain catches up. Bode’s release on bail was a disaster in the making, and I knew it. We all did. So when I hear over the radio that his entire crew is packing up and peeling out of town in a caravan of blacked-out SUVs, I’m not surprised. But something inside me freezes anyway.
It’s a major violation of their bail agreement—but who’s going to stop them tonight?
A big part of me hopes they’ll vanish for good. Just drive off into the night and leave us the hell alone. But I’m not that naive. They have a pattern. Every full moon, they disappear. And when they do, people die. And this full moon, they have specific targets they want to take out.
The only good news this month is we’ve planted bugs in their vehicles—Ember and the FBI made sure of that. We’ll be watching them every step of the way. Hopefully, it’s enough of an advantage.
And still…
There’s a part of me that prays theydon’tget caught.
Because if they’re exposed—if the FBI makes our world public—it’ll mean the end of everything. For witches. For werewolves. For us.
My mind is buzzing with Bode’s expression—that flash of primal fury when he saw the three of us together. It wasn’t just possessiveness. It was recognition. Like some part of him had finally figured out that I wasn’t his. That I never had been. Just like Noah’s mother before me.
An internal voice shrieksBeware the betrayed alpha!
Agent Leighton had felt the wrath of a betrayed and cornered wolf. And now I had done a real number on the biggest and baddest of them all, Bode Lunaris. God, how I wished AgentLeighton was here to share his wisdom with me, although, in truth, only another supernatural stood a chance against Bode.
But Leighton’s instincts were always superior…unfortunately for him. If they hadn’t been, maybe he never would have ended up in Lolo in the first place. Or maybe he never would have traced the clues back to Bode and his pack, launching the arsons that had destroyed so many and so much.
Even so, those instincts were among the things I valued most about him—they were what set him apart and what first made me believe I could trust him. When I was getting my start, he was the one who gave me a shot. He saw me. Not the cover identity. Not the polished Bureau mask. Me.
