Chapter Twelve
“What is he doing?” Nory asked, cupping her hot mug of coffee closer to her chest.
Delta came to stand beside her and crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head slightly. “I don’t know.”
Bridger was sitting in the middle of the yard in a lawn chair. Not once had he turned to look at them, but every muscle in his body seemed to be tensed.
“Where’s Liam, Delta?” Nory asked for the third time.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. Her eyes were full of worry as she stared out the window.
“Where’s Nate?” she asked.
Delta shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Nory huffed a breath of frustration and made her way into the kitchen.
She poured the last half of her coffee into the sink and rinsed the mug, then headed for the guest bedroom.
Liam had left her here with no explanation, and ignoring all of their plans for the day.
He’d left her stranded with no ride to town.
“What are you doing?” Delta asked, following her to the bedroom.
“I’m leaving. I should’ve known this was going to happen.”
“Wait, what was going to happen?” Delta asked.
“He’s freaking out. Oh my gosh. He’s freaking out,” she whispered again as the realization really hit her.
Last night had been such a huge deal to her, and she’d gone to sleep happier than she’d ever felt in her life, and now Liam was running. “Can you take me into town?” she asked, tears burning her eyes.
“I think you should stay here and wait for him,” Delta told her.
“So, we can do the whole break up talk? No thank you. We just met the other day. No harm, no foul. Everything is great. This is what boys do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“All the TV shows I’ve ever watched warned me this would happen!” she exclaimed.
Delta flinched, as if the pitch of Nory’s voice hurt her ears. “I don’t watch much TV.”
“You sleep with a man and then they ditch you,” Nory said, throwing her clothes into her duffle bag. “I need pants.”
“You’re wearing pants. Wait, you slept together?” Delta asked.
“Please don’t judge,” Nory said through a sob.
“I wouldn’t ever. I wouldn’t ever! That’s great, I think!”
“Delta, look around. He bolted.”
“Um, that’s not what is happening.”
“Then what else could it be? What could possibly drag him from here if he isn’t having regrets?”
“Jackson,” she whispered.
That name on Delta’s lips froze Nory into place. “W-what?”
“That guy who is messing with you. That’s all I can say.”
Nory’s mind raced. “Wait, what is he doing with Jackson? I had a plan. I am going to get away from him.”
Delta shook her head. “That’s not how we work,” she whispered on a breath.
Nory shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t. We had a plan.”
“You had a plan.”
“But…he said he was fine with it.”
Delta pursed her lips into a thin line.
“Why would he lie?”
“They were supposed to be back by now,” Delta said.
Chills rippled up the back of Nory’s neck. “When? When were they supposed to be here?”
“Before dawn. Nate said they would be back before you woke up.”
“And you stayed here to what?”
“Cover for them.” Delta wrung her hands in front of her. “Only if you woke up though.”
“Delta, it’s almost ten o’clock.”
She nodded and admitted low, “I’m worried.”
A flash of panic took her. What if they were in jail? Or what if Jackson killed them? He was crazy. Her throat was tightening up as she bolted from the bedroom and out to the living room. Delta was asking questions behind her, but she couldn’t understand her words over the roaring in her ears.
Bridger stood and rounded on her before she got to him.
“Go back inside,” he barked out.
“Where are they?”
“They’re where they are supposed to be.”
“Spare me the riddles, Bridger. What is happening?”
“Do you know something?” Delta asked.
He looked out at the road and then back to them. “I don’t know where they are, but I do know we should be concerned with this text I got earlier.”
“What text?” Delta asked, coming to stand beside Nory.
“Aro is heading this way.”
“Shhhit,” Delta hissed. She paced away and back, her hands linked behind her head. “Why didn’t you tell us? She can’t be here!” Delta gestured to Nory. “They’ll kill her.”
“No, they won’t,” Bridger said in a snarl.
“Yes, they will. You don’t understand the reach of the Elders way out here. They don’t just visit a Pack to say hello. They visit when some really bad shit is going down!” She bolted for the house so fast, she looked like a blur.
“Where are you going?” Nory called.
“To get your bag and to grab Nate’s truck keys!”
“It’s just Aro coming,” Bridger said. “It’s one versus many. Plus, he’s too smart to kill a human. You probably have family who will look for you. And friends. You’re good.”
Nory couldn’t help this unsettling feeling in her chest that something bad was happening. “What am I doing wrong? Why would this Aro person be upset that I’m here?”
“They’re trying to Arrange a pairing between our Alpha and an acceptable female.”
“An acceptable female,” she repeated.
“Not a human.”
“Right.” She couldn’t breathe. She’d been aware of this, but hearing that it was still an ongoing thing after what they had done last night had her feeling a panic attack coming on.
“Let’s go,” Delta uttered as she jogged past Nory on her way to Nate’s truck. She tossed the bag into the bed of the truck and scrambled inside.
“See you when I see you, Bridger,” she murmured.
He didn’t say anything back. He just watched her get into Nate’s truck. “Liam is not going to like this,” he called right before she shut the door.
Delta gunned it, spinning the back tires as she busted a quick U-turn. Nory didn’t miss it. Her hand was shaking as she reached over and turned down the volume to the blaring rock music that was playing on the stereo.
They made it to the first blind turn, but as Delta swung the truck to the right to follow the one lane road through a thicket of trees, she had to slam on the brakes to avoid catapulting into a white SUV.
The windows were tinted so dark, Nory couldn’t see who was behind the wheel.
“Oh my gosh,” Delta whispered in horror as she craned her neck to look past the vehicle. “It’s not just Aro.”
From here, Nory could see the sides of three more white SUVs behind the first one.
Someone jammed a finger out the window of the one they were nose-to-nose with and pointed back in the direction they’d come from.
A snarl rattled the air, and a heaviness settled onto Nory’s shoulders.
“Nory,” Delta said in a gravelly voice that sounded more demon than human. “Call Liam.”
“I’ve already tried—”
“Try again,” she said as she rested her arm on the back of Nory’s headrest and began maneuvering the truck backward in the direction they’d come from.
Body shaking, Nory did as Delta asked and connected a call to Liam.
No answer.
“Shoot,” she whispered. She connected another call to him.
Nothing.
She hung up before the voicemail came on and texted, Aro is here. Four SUVs that I can see. Trapped. Send.
“It’s going to be okay, Nory. All right?” Delta said in a calm, growly voice. “You just stay right with me, and don’t look anyone in the eyes. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes.”
“Tell me what I just said.”
“Don’t look them in the eyes.”
“No matter what. Only look at the ground, and keep your head tilted like this.” Delta cocked her head to the side.
“Okay.”
“Show me.”
Nory cast her gaze down and tilted her head to the right, just like Delta had showed her.
“Good. Try to call Liam again. Hey Siri? Call Nate.” Delta’s phone started ringing. It went to voicemail. “Nate, I need you. The Elders are here.”
She reversed the pickup all the way back up the road and over the small hill that led them back to the clearing. Bridger was standing at the mouth of the clearing and followed the truck to the house. Twice he cast a dark look at the white SUVs that were filtering into the yard.
“Bridger,” Delta said, panicked as he opened her door.
“I’ve already texted the guys. I heard them coming. Get out. Nory, don’t say a fuckin’ word. They can hear lies. If they ask about Liam, you go mute, do you understand?”
“Yes.” Eyes down. Head cocked to the side. No talking.
Liam, where are you? She couldn’t shake the feeling that something awful had happened to him.
Her throat was getting tight, and she tried to convince her nervous system to relax. She couldn’t have a panic attack right now!
Bridger stood in front of Nory and Delta as men piled out of the white SUVs. A quick headcount revealed twelve, and that was with the last two SUV’s staying inside.
Nory wrung her hands as a tall, silver-haired man approached with a strong, graceful gate that said he wasn’t human.
“Aro,” Bridger greeted him.
Aro huffed a harsh sound and shook his head. “Why is it that you in particular are always right in the middle of it?”
Bridger shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess.”
The empty smile faded from Aro’s lips, and his eyes flashed white as they landed on Nory.
With a gasp, she looked at the ground and exposed the side of her throat.
“Is this the human that has been causing all of the trouble?” Aro asked. His voice was so terrifying, it lifted the fine hairs on the back of her neck.
She grasped her hands in front of her and resisted the urge to run.
“Speak!” he barked, and she startled hard.
“She is my friend,” Delta said. “She spent the night. I’ve been lonely.” All true. Clever Delta.
“I know you aren’t stupid enough to build a friendship with a human. Look around you, girl. This is werewolf territory. There is no reason for a human to be here. And yet…I knew she would be here. I just felt it. I felt the betrayal.”
“Betrayal,” Bridger repeated. “What has Delta betrayed? Nothing. Not you or this Pack. She is allowed to have friends—”
“Enough! This human is not here for this she-wolf, and you know it. She is here with Liam. His Arrangement described her just as she is. Plain. Nothing special.”
It stung. It did. Nory had just had the most intimate night of her life with Liam, but his people thought she was nothing. And he was nowhere to be found.