Chapter 12
Jackson pulled into the parking lot at Cam’s diner and rolled down his window. Though he just wanted to get back to Hayley’s, Calder had flagged him down. As much as he had wanted to, he couldn’t ignore the Alpha and drive right past him, in a hurry to get home to his mate.
“Thanks for stopping. I wanted to warn you that Trevor and his band of merry fuckfaces were spotted near the edge of town, and Sherry was with them. We ran them off, but that was earlier this morning. They’ve been testing the boundaries lately. They are after something, but I don’t know what.” Calder ran his fingers over his chin, deep in thought.
“What the fuck are they doing? Why would they keep trying to breach our territory? What do they have to gain from it? Trevor knows he can’t take our pack down. We’re too strong for that.”
“I don’t know. I hope we can catch one of them and get them to spill the beans.”
A cold chill ran through Jackson’s body, making his skin tingle and his muscles tense. His stomach churned with queasiness. His breath hitched in his chest, his heart pounding loud and fast in his ears. He could hear the blood rushing through his veins, the sound growing louder and more chaotic as panic set in.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“I—I don’t know. I just had this horrible feeling. Like something was seriously wrong. I can’t shake it.” Jackson tried to explain while fighting the various feelings bombarding his senses.
“Where’s Hayley?” Calder asked.
“She was on her way home.” Anger surged through Jackson. It was so damn strong he white-knuckled the steering wheel.
“I need you to focus, Jack. Focus on your connection to Hayley.”
“I don’t know how.” Panic consumed Jackson. Something was wrong with Hayley. The minute Calder mentioned her name, it was like a little lightbulb lit up above his head. Everything he had been feeling. It wasn’t his emotions. It wasn’t his feelings. It was Hayley. She was in trouble.
“Jack, calm down for a minute. If you want to help your mate, we have to figure out where she is. The only way for us to do that is for you to focus on your mating connection. Let your wolf find his mate, Jack.”
“Okay.” Jackson sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heart. “You need to find Hayley.” He closed his eyes and spoke the words in his mind to his wolf. His beast was already on high alert, distressed by the emotions running through their body.
“She’s at her house. Surrounded by a group who wish her harm.”
“She’s at her house. My wolf said she’s surrounded by those who wish her harm.”
Calder jumped in the passenger side of Jack’s truck. “Let’s go.” He slammed the door shut and pulled his phone from his shirt pocket. His fingers flew across the screen, sending a volley of texts to a few of the pack enforcers.
Jackson slammed his truck into drive and put the pedal to the metal, needing to get to his mate.
“This has to be Sherry and her goons,” Calder growled. “I chased her out of Cam’s with what I thought was a stern warning that if she kept her shit up, she wouldn’t like the consequences.”
“If it’s Sherry, Trevor is bound to be with her. That means Sherry told him about Hayley. He’s the one who hunted and killed her family.”
“Fuck!” Calder growled. “I promised her we’d protect her. I told her that she was safe here. I will kill every one of those motherfuckers!”
Jackson couldn’t think about how much danger Hayley was in. If he did, he’d wolf out and have no way to drive his truck. Though his wolf could run fast, he wasn’t high-speed in a vehicle fast. He sped through the town until he hit the outskirts when he floored it. The needle pegged, indicating his old truck was at its top speed.
“Hang on, baby. I’m on my way,” he whispered through their mating connection.
“Jack!”Hayley’s voice filled his mind. “Stay away! There’s too many here for you to take on!”
“I think I just spoke to Hayley through the mating connection.” The words tumbled from Jack’s mouth. He wasn’t quite sure if he’d actually heard her or if it was nothing more than a hallucination. “Is that even possible?”
“Yes. Daisy and I do it all the time. It’s stronger, though, when there’s an emergency. What did she say?” Calder asked.
“That there were too many people for me to take on. She told me to stay away.” Just hearing her voice in his head, set Jack off. The rage consuming him was all his.
“It’s gotta’ be Trevor and his asshats from Red Fang. I will kill that motherfucker and everyone with him. It’s something I should have done long ago when they started coming around looking for trouble. But I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to show them that we’re a strong pack. That we are nothing like the pack Griffin ran.”
“I get it. I should’ve never left Hayley alone—knowing Sherry was threatening her. I just figured Sherry would have gotten the picture, you know?”
“I do. We’re almost there. The enforcers are a few minutes behind us, but I’m sure we can hold our own until they arrive.”
“Fuck!” Jack cursed as a wave of Hayley’s pain washed over him. Forced to slow as he rounded the last bend before her house, he punched it once again, knowing he was running out of time to help his mate.