“Judith, your son will die if you don’t get him out of here.”
She recoiled, but the fog in her eyes began to clear. She steeled herself, automatically reaching for the keys and William at the same time. She undid his bindings while I helped the other three. “You follow her,” I told them. “She’ll keep you safe. You don’t stop until you’re at the garage and lock the doors behind you.”
I hoped the wards would be enough. They had to be. We had no other choice.
Judith picked up William, who clung to her, arms around her neck. I pushed the keys into her hands, even as the Omegas began to growl. She turned back to me, and said, “Thank you, thank you, we’ll—watch out!”
I was slammed into the ground by something heavy that landed atop me, crying out as pain lanced across my back where four sets of claws dug in. I had a mouthful of dirt as the wolf on my back growled near my ear.
The weight suddenly was lifted off me, and the wolf yelped in pain.
I was pulled up, hands on either arm. A woman was on my left (Megan?), a man on my right (Gerald, I thought his name was Gerald). Another man stood in front of me, breathing heavily, my crowbar in his hands. His name was Adam, and he worked at the hardware store, a kind man with terrible acne scars.
He said, “Holy fucking shit.”
I stumbled forward, grabbing the crowbar from him. “Thank you.”
He nodded at me, eyes wide.
“Ox!” Gordo shouted. “You need to get them moving. Now. Osmond’s gone, and I don’t know where he is.”
I spat onto the road, blood and dirt mixed together. “Go,” I snapped at them. “Get out of here. Hurry!”
They didn’t wait for me to tell them again. They pushed each other toward the truck even as there was another low growl from behind me.
I turned.
Richard Collins was full wolf, snout bloody, nose split. He pushed himself up on four legs, eyes violet, lips curling up around his fangs. He pulled himself to his full height, smaller than Joe and Thomas had ever been, but still a big fucking wolf.
“Omega
,” I said. I wasn’t surprised at that. He was too far gone into his wolf to be anything but.
He snarled at me.
I took a step back, tightening my grip on the crowbar.
He coiled down, preparing to jump.
Then, a wolfsong rolled over us, echoing as loud as it’d ever been. It was howled with rage and terror.
It was the song of an Alpha.
“No,” I whispered.
He’d found us. Already.
I couldn’t let this happen. Joe couldn’t be here. Not when there was the chance that Richard would hurt him. Would take him away from the pack. A pack needed an Alpha to survive, so they wouldn’t become Omegas. Thomas had been our Alpha. Then Joe after Thomas’s death. Then me, because of necessity.
But Joe had come back.
And he was the true Bennett Alpha.
They needed him.
And I had to make sure he survived.
I looked back at Richard, who’d been distracted by the call of the Alpha.