The shop was dark, but I could feel them toward the back.
Their voices cut off as we rounded the corner. They looked at me as the wolves went and rubbed up against them.
Tanner tossed me my crowbar, careful to not let it touch Robbie, who had pressed his side against Tanner’s leg.
I caught it as Chris said, “We heard it. The howl. It was like….”
“In your head?”
They all nodded, looking relieved.
“You get used to it,” I said. “Mostly.”
“What happened?” Rico asked.
“Chris,” I said. “I need you to listen to me.
He frowned. “What… what happened?”
“Omegas,” I said. “Outside the wards.”
“They can’t get in, right?” Rico asked. “Why are we—”
“They have Jessie,” I said, not taking my eyes off of Chris.
He paled. “What?” he whispered.
“They made her call me.”
He took a step forward, stiff and radiating anger. “She’s alive?” he demanded.
“Yes.” And I thought she still would be. They needed leverage. We had nine minutes. Maybe ten. “I heard her voice.”
“What did she say?”
She’d screamed, but I didn’t need him to know that. “That they had her, and that their eyes were glowing.”
“Fuck,” Rico muttered.
“They took her,” Chris said to me.
“Yes.”
“And we’re going to get her back.”
“Yes.”
“Ox,” he said, and I put my hands on his shoulders, pressing my forehead to his. “She’s all I have. She’s not…. She’s my sister, Ox. They can’t do this to her.”
“We’ll get her,” I promised him. “We’ll bring her back, and they will regret the day they took her from us.”
He exhaled heavily and his shoulders trembled underneath my hands. But I could feel the moment he pushed it aside, the way he tensed and hardened. The way his eyes grew dark. The way he bared his teeth.
“They think,” I said, raising my voice so the others could hear, “that we’re nothing. That they can come here and take what they want. That we’re broken.”
The wolves growled and gnashed their teeth.
“We’re going to show them just how wrong they are.”