Chapter twenty-one
"I wish I could have gone with Tuffie to get her check-up,” Kal said with a pout as they watched from the front porch as the SWAT SUV drove down the driveway.
Alex, one of Mike’s pack mates, had come to pick Tuffie up a few minutes ago to take her to her appointment, something her son was very bummed about.
“She’s going to be so scared getting those shots without someone there to hold her paw. ”
“I promise Tuffie will be fine,” Lark said with a smile. “Alex’s wife is Tuffie’s vet. She’ll take good care of her. Tuffie will be back before you know it.”
That seemed to mollify Kal a little, and he nodded as they walked back into the house. They found Jasper and Everett in the kitchen talking about doing extra security sweeps around the perimeter while Mike and the others were out.
“Hey, kid,” Jasper said. “Want to go on the perimeter sweep with us?”
“Can we go around the pond on the back of the property?” Kal asked eagerly. “I want to check out all the buildings hidden in the trees out there. I can kinda see them from my bedroom, and I bet they’d be fun to explore.”
Lark wasn’t thrilled at any of that, but Jasper gave her a reassuring smile. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
Although she started to rethink that when Kal asked her brothers if he could carry a weapon, too. She stared daggers at her brothers, silently letting them know that wasn’t going to happen.
The moment the three of them left, Lark’s head went in a dark direction, unable to think about anything but Mike and the raid at the warehouse. They were sure to already be in the middle of that by now. How long before she heard from him?
“Mike and his pack mates will be okay,” her mom said, walking into the kitchen with Violet, as if she’d known Lark was about to start spinning. “They’ll call soon and tell us they got Roman.”
Lark prayed that was true.
Violet grabbed three bottles of iced tea from the fridge, handing them out as they all gathered around the island.
“So, now that you and Mike are back together, will you and Kal stay here in Dallas, or will Mike move to Washington State?” her mother asked.
Lark opened her mouth to answer, only to close it again when she realized she wasn’t sure.
“Actually, I haven’t thought about where we’d live,” she admitted.
“There’s no rush to decide,” her mom told her gently, giving her an understanding smile. “We have Roman to deal with, and these people from Sentinel. Then the three of you can sit down and figure out what’s best for all of you.”
What’s best for all of you.
Her mom made it sound so simple.
“If we stay here, we won’t get to see you guys as much,” Lark murmured sadly.
“Honey, we’re only as far away as a FaceTime call or plane ride,” her mother said.
Lark nodded. They’d done a lot of FaceTiming when she’d lived in Dallas the first time. “That’s true.”
“Do you think Mike would move to Washington State if you asked him?” Violet asked.
Lark didn’t even have to think about it. “I know he would. But if we move back to Washington State, that’d mean Mike would have to leave his pack, and I don’t know if I want to ask that of him.”
“Then don’t,” her sister said. “Move here instead.”
Lark looked at her mother. “Would you be okay with that?”
Whatever decision she made, someone was going to be on the losing end here, be it her pack or Mike’s. Staying in Dallas was what she wanted, though. She only hoped her family understood.
Her mom smiled and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “We just want the three of you to be happy, honey. If staying here does that, then your father and I support you.”
Blinking back tears, Lark hugged her mom, both of them laughing when Violet joined in for a group hug.
“You’re going to need a house with a guest room, though,” her mom said. “Because your father and I plan on coming to visit often.”
“Me, too!” Violet said.
Lark laughed, wiping happy tears from her face as she stepped back. “Deal.”
They were still talking about moving all her stuff and Kal’s there—along with Nugget, of course! —when Hale and her father hurried into the kitchen, Mike’s pack mate carrying one of the assault rifles SWAT used.
“We have multiple hits on the motion sensors along the south and west perimeters,” Hale said to them even as he covered the bud in his left ear with his hand, listening to the radio.
“And we have a camera visual on at least a dozen heavily armed men moving through woods to the south of the house. We have no idea yet if they’re Roman’s men or Sentinel’s. ”
Lark’s stomach lurched, fear making her heart suddenly beat out of control. The outbuildings Kal wanted to explore were in that direction.
“My brothers said something about doing a perimeter sweep of that area,” she said. “Kal went, too.”
Hale muttered a curse and spoke into the radio, even as her mom and sister began to panic. Lark was right there with them.
“Everett, it’s Hale,” Mike’s pack mate said into the radio. “Do you copy?”
“Copy,” Everett said. “What’s up?”
Hale quickly filled her brothers in on the situation, telling them to stay at the maintenance shed where they were and that he was going out there to give them some extra security back to the house.
“I’m going with you,” Lark told him firmly.
“Violet and I will go, too,” her mom said.
“No!” Lark said. “It’s too dangerous.”
She was already out of her mind with worry about Kal and her brothers. She didn’t want her mother, father, and sister out there, too.
Her mom opened her mouth to argue, but her dad interrupted.
“Lark’s right. If those men are from Sentinel, we should be able to hold our own, but if they’re Roman’s supernaturals, we’re outnumbered and probably outmatched. It’s too dangerous for you and Violet.”
Lark took her mother’s hands in hers. “Please, Mom. Let us go find Kal before whoever’s out there does. I can’t risk him being taken again. I just can’t.”
Her mother still looked like she wanted to insist on going, but finally nodded. “Please be careful.”
“I will.”
Hale seemed as relieved as Lark when her mother acquiesced. “Corbin, I know you want to come with us, but I think it’s better if you stay here with your wife and daughter in case someone gets past us and into the house. Lock yourself in the panic room.”
Her father was clearly torn, but nodded.
Lark gave her parents and Violet a quick hug, then hurried out the back door with Hale.
“Do you know how to use a gun?” he asked.
She nodded. It was another one of those things her dad had insisted she and her siblings learn. “Yes.”
Hale dropped to one knee, lifting the leg of his jeans to reveal a small handgun secured to his ankle.
“This is a small-frame automatic,” he said, pulling the top slide of the weapon back and loading the first round into the chamber as he stood.
“It’s lightweight, holds ten bullets, and has no manual safety.
” He handed her the weapon. “Stick close to me, and don’t do anything dangerous.
Mike will have my head if I let you or Kal get hurt. ”
Lark made sure to point the weapon in a safe direction with her finger off the trigger as she followed Hale toward the trees to the south of the mansion.
As they moved, his phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out, holding it to his ear.
She only half listened to the conversation, focusing more on what sounds might be coming from the woods, straining to hear boots crunching through dead leaves and pine needles.
“That was Gage letting me know they’re on their way back. Roman and his men weren’t at the paint factory,” Hale told her after he’d hung up. “Sentinel was, though. They said someone inside the police department tipped them off that Mike would be there.”
“Are Mike and everyone else okay?” she asked. “Who tipped them off?”
“Yeah, everyone’s good. And they think it was Wayne.”
Lark wondered why Wayne would betray them, but the answer to that could wait. Right now, she was interested in more important things.
“If Sentinel was at the paint factory, that must mean Roman and his supernaturals are the ones who are here,” she said.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Hale agreed before relaying that information to everyone else over the radio.
“You and your pack have gone up against these supernaturals twice now,” Lark said when he was done. “Do you think my pack can hold off a dozen of them?”
“We’d better hope so,” Hale muttered. “Because Mike and the others won’t be getting here for ten or fifteen minutes. Until then, we’re on our own.”
As they made their way through the woods, worry gnawed at Lark like a living thing as she thought of the danger all of them were in right now, her imagination coming up with dozens of horrible things that could happen, each one worse than the last.
A little way through the trees, Lark caught sight of where the largest of the outbuildings stood.
She remembered Mike mentioning it was where the maintenance equipment for the property was stored.
Painted red to look like a barn, with a slate roof, the building had to be the fanciest, most expensive-looking storage shed she’d ever seen.
But when your house costs at least five million dollars, she supposed you couldn’t cheap out on the rest of the place.
She and Hale had just reached the door when gunfire erupted from deeper in the woods to the south, making her jump, and she snapped her head around to look in that direction.
“Some of your pack has engaged with half a dozen supernaturals about a quarter mile from here,” Hale murmured, holding one hand up to the bud in his ear. “They’re trying to slow them down until we get Kal back to the house.”
The door to the building opened, making Lark jump all over again. Fortunately, she was aware enough to keep her handgun pointed in a safe direction.
Jasper stepped back as Hale urged her inside, then followed.
Lark looked around the huge building, her heart starting to beat again when she caught sight of Kal and Everett on the far side of the room next to a big mower with huge wheels on the back. She ran across the room to her son, putting her free arm around him.
“If Roman’s supernaturals are on the property, then he’s probably here, too, which means he’s coming for Kal, Lark, or both.
Oh, and that intel Wayne gave us on Roman’s hideout was bogus.
It was a setup to lure Mike and the others into a fight with Chapman and Sentinel, so if you see Wayne around, act accordingly. ”
“We need to get Kal back to the house,” Lark said.
“Agreed,” Hale said.
“And once we get there, we’ll grab Mom, Dad, and Violet and get out of here,” Everett said.
Lark was all in on getting as far away from Roman as possible, but couldn’t deny the unsettling sensation it left in her stomach. “What about you guys and the rest of our pack? Won’t you be heavily outnumbered?”
“We just need to hold out until Mike and my pack mates get here,” Hale said.
Hale looked like he was bracing for an argument, and normally, he’d have to. But when it came to getting Kal to safety, Lark would do whatever she had to do.
“We need to get moving,” Everett said firmly, his head cocked to the side as he clearly heard something that concerned him. “Before we get trapped in here.”
Everett and Jasper pulled their handguns and moved out of the building first, Lark and Kal next, Hale bringing up the rear with his assault rifle.
She heard boots crunching through the dead pine needles somewhere nearby.
At least the breeze was in the right direction to keep their scents from reaching the bad guys.
Assuming they had to worry about any of them possessing an enhanced sense of smell.
“Lark, if anything goes sideways between here and the house, the three of us will hang back and provide cover while you get Kal out of here,” Hale said.
“I want to stay back and help!” Kal practically shouted.
Lark quickly shushed him with a finger to her lips. “Indoor voice. And no, you aren’t.”
Jasper crouched down in front of Kal. “I know you don’t like this, kid, but right now, all that matters is that we get you to safety. You need to help us do that, okay?”
From the stubborn look on his face, Kal clearly didn’t like it, but he nodded anyway. “Okay. But you guys have to promise to be careful.”
“We’ll be careful. Promise,” Jasper said, giving Kal’s shoulder a squeeze before falling into step beside Everett as they moved through the woods back toward the house.
The wind carried a variety of chemical odors in their direction as they made their way through the trees, swirling around and making it hard to figure out exactly where the smells were coming from. All she could say for sure was that they were close.
Lark heard the rapid thud of boots even before she caught the shift in scent. She snapped her head around to see three men in dark clothing and carrying short machine guns running straight at them.
She spun around and lifted her gun, not sure she’d be able to hit anything with how fast the supernaturals were moving, when the thud of footsteps from the left made her whirl around that way.
Two more supernaturals were coming from that direction, running so fast they were kicking up dirt and pine needles.
Gunfire erupted all around, making Lark flinch, and she reached out to tug Kal closer. Before she could steady her other hand to shoot at the supernatural closest to them, Hale appeared at her side, his hand firm on her shoulder.
“Take Kal and go. Now!” he said with a gentle but insistent nudge. “Head for the house. If you run into trouble, find a place to hide until we come for you.”
She had time to see Jasper and Everett running out of ammo, then their clothes shredding in a burst of tiny pieces as they both shifted in a heartbeat and charged at three of the supernaturals.
With a growl and a partial shift that had his fangs and claws extending, Hale moved to intercept the other two.
Resisting the urge to help, Lark tightened her grip on Kal’s hand, then turned and ran as fast as she could. Her son ran with her, his legs a blur as he sought to keep up as they ran toward the house.