Chapter 34 #2
Tears stream down my face. Some of my pack survived.
“When we got separated… I was so scared, Ronin. I made it to the pack, but they were all…” I don’t want to remember the images, let alone speak the words.
When he takes the box of filters I’m still holding and sets them down on a garbage can, I know I don’t have to say anything. He knows what I’m thinking.
“I’m sorry your parents and brothers did not survive.”
It’s the blow I knew was coming, but that doesn’t make it easier to hear. My knees buckle, and he catches me.
“I can’t believe I actually found you. Come, Lina, we have a long journey ahead of us.”
“You have the truck?” The terror of that moment, the tree crashing down on our truck returns with a vengeance and I start to shake all over again.
“No, that’s still sitting under that branch that fell it. We’re on foot.”
“Who’s we?”
“Saber, Henry, and a few others. We’ve been following up on every lead. When I heard rumors of a blonde-haired shifter rescued by one of the packs in this region, I headed south. Something told me it was you.” His smile fills his face, a huge comfort right now.
“Damien Black’s pack rescued me.”
“I’ll thank them at the next opportunity. Are you ready to go?”
“Go? Go where?”
“Our new home.” He hesitates. “It’s best if I don’t say the location out loud, in case anyone’s listening. We relocated the pack. We couldn’t take the chance the WSSO would find us again. No one knows our location and we have to keep it that way.”
“Understood.”
“Ready to go?”
“I can’t. I mean, not yet. Or… I don’t know. I have to speak with Garrett.”
“Garrett? Who’s that?”
“The shifter who rescued me from the WSSO.”
Ronin doesn’t ask any questions about my time in captivity, or what’s happened to me since then. I get it, this isn’t the place, in the middle of a human town where anyone could be linked to the WSSO.
“We’ll let his pack know, so they’ll know you’re safe, with pack.”
“Good. Let’s go find Pryce. He’s the shifter I rode to town with. You can tell him the new location and he’ll relay a message to Damien.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“You can trust them.”
“Do you trust them? With your life, Lina?”
“I do. Especially Garrett. This is important, Ronin. They’ll organize search parties and…Damn, Garrett will go nuts if I just disappear.”
Ronin’s lips thin. “Why does the shifter who rescued you have any interest in where you’re going?”
“Because we’re—” I halt myself as those dark blue eyes drill through me. This is not information I should blurt out, especially to Ronin.”
Anger seeps into Ronin’s expression. “We’re leaving, now.” He motions down the alley that leads away from town.
“Pryce is just down Main Street. It’ll take no more than five minutes to find him.”
“He’s not from our pack.”
“You can trust him.”
“I don’t trust anyone.”
My wolf’s hackles start to rise. “Including me?”
When Ronin hesitates answering, my wolf claws me, something she rarely does. A warning.
Fuck… I’d almost forgotten about our alpha’s decree. If I go back… No, I’m not giving Garrett up. But I need to see who survived.
“I think maybe I should rejoin the pack later, Ronin. I have all these supplies I’m buying for Damien’s pack and—”
“Someone else will get their supplies.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
“You’re putting us all at risk with your defiance, Lina.”
“My defiance?” I practically squeal the question. “You’re being unreasonable. It’s bad enough you refuse to give me time to go back to Damien’s pack and say my good-byes. I’m not leaving without at least telling Pryce.”
“I said we’d inform his pack.”
He’s pushing, keeping me from thinking straight. He’ll say anything to get me out of here faster, including lying about contacting Damien’s pack.
“I’m returning to Damien Black’s pack. You can either come with me, and I’ll introduce you to Damien, or you can leave without me. Be smart and take the introduction, Ronin. It’s a good pack to ally with.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m rendezvousing with Saber in a few hours.”
“You can be late. It’s just Saber, the only shifter who can’t tell time by the sun.”
“Is this what this new pack taught you? How to be flippant and disrespectful?”
That shuts me up for a minute. My sarcasm and attitude… that’s nothing I learned from Damien’s pack. That’s all me.
“Look, Lina—”
“No, you look, Ronin. I’m not just going to disappear. If you have to meet Saber then find your way to Damien’s pack after. If that’s not an option, give me the location of our new pack and I’ll follow when I’m ready.”
Saying ‘new pack’ sounds so wrong. Oh, how I want to see everyone from home who survived, to have that intimate connection to shifters I grew up with, to a pack that’s mine, one that accepts me as is, a pack where I don’t have to figure out how to fit in.
I already fit, because I’m a part of them. Always have been and always will be.
But I’m a part of Garrett, too. And he’s a part of me. I won’t just walk away from him.
Ronin’s lips curl downward. He’s not our alpha, but he’s in the alpha line, and not used to being refused, especially by me.
“I can’t risk our pack. If you return to Black’s pack to say your good-byes, they could follow you. They have very good trackers.”
“I know.” Though I’m surprised he does. That’s not information you pick up when casually asking around for information on a blonde-haired shifter.
“How exactly did you find me?”
“I have a contact in the area. That’s all you need to know.”
My heart and wolf are split down the middle. Home. Or Garrett. I shouldn’t have to choose between the two. At least not without talking to Garrett.
I square my shoulders. “Which will it be, Ronin? Are you coming with me to Damien’s pack, or giving me the new location of our pack so I can travel there later, with Garrett?”
“No outsiders allowed.” His tone carries that note of finality that always frustrated the hell out of me. Good thing I’m no longer that compliant shifter.
“That means we go to Damien’s pack,” I say, even though he no longer appears to be listening. “Let me finish getting the supplies I came in here for.”
As I turn to grab the filter from the garbage can, Ronin’s hand covers my mouth.
I flail, trying to break free of his hold, but he lifts me off the ground.
My kicking and muffled screams don’t slow him as he whisks me down the alley where I see another shifter I know from home.
Lars, a guard and very deadly shifter. The type that if we’d had more like him, the WSSO wouldn’t have wiped out my pack.
All I need is one chance to howl for Pryce. He said he’d hear me…
“Problem?” Lars asks as Ronin hands me over to him like I’m a sack of flour. Lars’s hand seamlessly slides over my mouth, keeping me silent as Ronin removes his hand and fishes out a set of car keys.
I bite Lars’s hand. “Fuck, Angelina…”
Before I can howl, something sharp pinches my arm. My wolf’s the first to collapse, then I follow, but I never hit the ground. Lars lifts me and slides me into a car.
“Don’t worry, Lina, you’re safe with us,” Ronin says as my eyes close, wondering if I’ll ever see Garrett again.