“I’m coming,” Ox said, and we felt the pull of our Alpha. “I’m coming for all of you. Do what you can. But if it’s too much, you run. I don’t care what happens to the town. You take the people and you run.”
The screen went dark.
“Fuck,” Joe snarled. “Kelly, get on the—yes. Now. Robbie, go outside. Get as many people together as you can. And if anyone gives you shit, you tell them you’re speaking for me. I’ll be out there in a minute.”
“But—”
“Go.”
We heard them running.
Joe said, “Mom.”
“I’m here,” she
said quietly.
“I can’t lose him,” he whispered. He sounded like a little boy again, telling us about a boy he’d found on a dirt road in the middle of the woods.
“You won’t,” she said. “Get home.”
“I love you.”
“We love you too. We’ll see you soon.” She disconnected the call. She stared down at the screen a moment before shaking her head. When she looked up at us, her eyes were orange. “We’re not going to let this happen. Whatever comes, we face it, and we face it together. We—” She stopped.
“What?” I asked.
Mom looked from the door back to me. “Where’s Gavin?”
I whirled around.
He was gone.
I TORE THROUGH THE HOUSE, shouting his name.
He didn’t answer.
I flew into our room, the door slamming against the wall. On the bed underneath a stone wolf that had once belonged to my mother was a note written in familiar block letters, two words that screamed at me.
I’M SORRY.
I whirled around, running from the room and back down the stairs.
Mark was on the first floor, eyes wide. “What’s wrong now?”
I ignored him, bursting from the house. I jumped off the porch and landed on the ground, looking around, listening to the sounds of the forest. “Come on,” I muttered. “Come on. Come on.”
There. Behind the blue house. A rapid heartbeat.
I ran toward it.
I rounded the house and skidded to a stop.
In the trees near the blue house, I saw a flash of color.
A timber wolf running through the trees.
My fangs descended.