“What about…”
Logan fell silent when my phone vibrated in my pocket.
“Is that the phone?” Logan asked.
A few weeks ago, Darian decided Omega Liberation Front business wasn’t safe on our personal lines anymore. He handed out special phones to each member to stay in contact with each other.
I gave him a grim nod and answered the phone.
“Talk to me.”
“We have him. Lee waltzed in here tonight,” Darian’s voice said. “Right up to the fucking gate. He said he needed help.”
“Is it a trap?” Ross’s voice chimed in.
A mumble of agreeance shot through the group call.
“No,” Wrynn said. “Jake’s double checking his tracks again, but nothing or no one followed him.”
I put the call on speaker phone, so Logan could hear.
“What about Jeb?” I asked once the speculation about Lee’s true intentions calmed down.
Logan squeezed my hand, but I barely registered it. My mind was still trying to catch up with Lee waltzing up to the front gate and asking for help. If it wasn’t a trap what had finally sent the omega vampire over the edge?
“Lee’s told us where he’s setting up his next camp. We need to move now.”
“Where’s Lee?” Logan asked.
“On his way home with Zack and Lucky.”
We all knew home meant Hemlock Mountain.
I ended the call. I’d catch up with the group by the gate in a few minutes.
“Go!” Logan stood up handshaking, but still smiling. “Go save the world!”
“Will you be okay? Do I need to take you to Gary’s first?” I asked him.
“No! There’s no time! Jeb will figure out Lee’s gone and not coming back, and he’ll move! He’ll know we’re onto him! I’ll stay here. Pregnant Foxes stay home. It’s what we do in my family. Don’t bother telling me to stay inside! I will!”
I pulled him in for a long-hard kiss to remind him of every promise I made to him since we met. Tonight, we’d send Jeb to the Other World and I’d make good on all of them.
“I love you,” I said when the kiss broke.
“I love you too! Be safe! Now go! Save the world so Zoey can see boybands and our baby will come into a peaceful world!”
***
“There’s been a breech at the south wall,” Darian’s radio said as I joined the others at the gate.
“Talk to me. What’s going on!” He growled into the radio.
“The Jenkins brothers,” a nervous guard answered.
“Who?” Darian growled.
“Leslie’s brothers,” I said before the guard could speak.
“Handle it then! Get them out of here! What the hell am I paying you for?” Darian growled into the radio and switched it off.
“We’ve got to get a move on it!” He howled to the group.
Others packed into SUVs, trucks, and cars. Darian really called out the hounds tonight, but Jake and I shifted leaving ahead on foot. Recon always fell to the trackers.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Logan
My heart raced against my ribs as Jessie walked out the door. It could all really end tonight. Jeb would be dead, and Lee was already safe. Our lives could be about something other than chasing down this damn vampire.
My phone rang.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, professor,” Leslie sobbed into the phone.
“It’s alright! They’re going to be fine!”
“No, my brothers are here! There’s a huge fight outside! Security is there, but I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to move home! I want to stay here with my mate! I’m expecting! They can’t really make me go home, can they?”
“Of course not,” I growled. “I’m on my way.”
I promised Jessie I’d stay inside since it was already dark out, but Leslie needed me. She was too young to deal with this all on her own.
“What about the curfew?”
“I’ll be careful,” I ended the call and grabbed my gun from out of the nightstand. I’d kept it clean and loaded since the night Jessie was shot. I wasn’t going to shoot Leslie’s brothers, but they might not be the only jackasses to visit Hemlock Academy tonight.
“Sorry, Alpha,” I whispered as I stepped outside and locked the door behind me.
A shadow scurried over a lawn across the street.
“Stop! I have a gun!” I grabbed it from my waistband and took aim as Jayden taught me to do years ago.
“What the fuck, Logan? You’re going to shoot me for sneaking out?” Zoey growled.
“Go home, Zoey,” I tucked the gun away and ran across the street to her. She darted towards the front gate leading me on a wild chase through campus.
“I’m pregnant and don’t have time for this!” I growled.
“Then go home! Go home and leave me alone! I’m going to see a concert tonight!”
“You can’t go out tonight! All hell is breaking loose!”
“What am I supposed to do? Stop my life and sit home in the dark and hide under the bed until they take care of all the bad guys?” Zoey snapped.
“Yes! That’s exactly what you do for tonight! Tomorrow you can raise hell and howl and cry about it, but tonight you put on a stiff upper lip and go home and wait with Ross!”
“You should have listened to him, princess,” a strange voice reached my ears. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my arm went around my baby bump instinctually. My wolf rose to his feet ready to fight or flee. I spun to face the intruder. He was taller than me and Zoey and had red eyes that glowed piercing the night like two floating blood orbs.
Vampire.
Standing face to face with the man who caused so much trouble over the last few years I was unimpressed. He was large and looming, but he wasn’t particularly impressive. I imagined him luring omegas away with charm or his disarming good looks, but he didn’t have any.
That’s why he needed the omega.
His dark shoulder length hair hung free around his shoulders and his hands curled claw like at his sides with broken jagged fingernails.
“Where’s Lee?” He growled.
I pushed Zoey behind me trying to convince her to run, but she froze, and the scent of her fear filled the air.
“Run stupid, pup, run!” My wolf growled, but I was the only one who heard him.
“He’s not here,” I growled standing my ground as a group of three betas appeared at the vampire’s sides. They were all shorter than him and looked about as entertained as an old lady on a Sunday stroll through a monster truck museum.
“You can’t hurt him anymore!” I growled when he didn’t answer, praying my smart-mouth antics would buy Zoey time to gather her wits and run.
“Then I guess you two will have to do. A Hemlock Princess and a Hemlock mate. Should be enough trade fodder, don’t you think, boys?”
“Hemlocks don’t have princesses! Go to Europe if that’s what you’re looking for!” Zoey growled.
“Run, pup, run!” My wolf growled.
The betas murmured their agreement.
“Go,” I hissed to Zoey and pulled my gun from my waistband. I set off a shot aimed at the Alpha’s head, but he yanked one of the betas in front of him to take the killing blow instead. The others scattered out of his reach afraid they’d meet the same end as their co-worker.
“Funny, little wolf,” he laughed and tossed his still twitching minion aside.
“Go!” I hissed to Zoey and fired a second shot. The bullet landed in his shoulder, but Jeb never slowed down.
“Get the other one, you useless dogs!” Jeb growled. “Before I shoot you myself!”
The betas closed in on Zoey as I emptied the gun into Jeb. He didn’t stop. He didn’t faulter. I was out of bullets and it was too late to run.
He snatched at me and I sank my teeth into his forearm.
“Biting? Really?” He laughed pulling me off my feet with a quick jerk of his arm. “
Vampires feed their omegas. Your blunt dog teeth are like gnats.”
An explosion went off in the distance sending gunk into the air. Gunk just like that which covered my classroom ceiling last month.
Leslie must have exploded a flashlight like Ryan did that day in class. I hope no one’s hurt.
My wolf growled and sank his teeth into the vampire again. Blinded by the fear and rage mingling in my stomach I didn’t see Jeb’s fist come down hard on my head.
I did see the explosion of red stars as the world fell quiet and dark.
Chapter Thirty
Jessie
The pack link was silent as we weaved through the trees to the location Lee described. Darian was the only one with the authority and power to silence all communication between pack members. For the first time since I claimed him, I couldn’t sense Logan. An eerie loneliness settled over the night, but we pressed onward. The sooner we eviscerated Jeb the sooner we’d reunite with our family.
Jake and I were so far ahead of those coming in the convoy that the hum of engines disappeared long ago. The woods come alive at night with hooting owls and bats. Tiny rodents scurried and scattered from the two wolves on a hunt. They retreated to their burrows happy not to be our prey of choice tonight.
A storm followed on the heels of the convoy thickening the air ahead of it. I reached out again to Logan, but the pack link wasn’t there. The cutoff was from more primitive days when silence could save the pack from a traitor.
Three soft smells filled the air. Before meeting Logan, I never noticed how soft omegas smell. All of their scents are soft and gentle, but tonight fear of the unknown clung to them. Jake glanced at me through the trees and we doubled our speed. I swallowed down a hunting howl from my wolf. Soon Jeb would be dead, and order restored to the pack and territory.
We charged the makeshift camp of tents. No armed guards greeted us, and no army leapt from the trees or charged from the woods.
“Hello?” I stuck my head inside of a tent where one of the soft scents radiated from. Jake stood next to me, our fur brushing, as he stood watch for unseen enemies.
“Don’t eat me!” A green-eyed rabbit shifter scurried against the tent wall until it collapsed around us.
“I’ll fight you! Both of you!” An omega wolf outside the tent growled.
“We’re not with them,” Jake shifted back.
I shifted back and found my way out from under the collapsed tent. A third omega, a raccoon shifter with bright eyes, looked around for an escape path.
“Come on,” I reached under the canvas trying to help the rabbit omega out.
“NO! Bad wolf!” He slapped my hand. “I’m not dinner!”
Jake laughed, but fell silent when I shot him a warning look. I knew Jake took his job seriously and later this would be funny.
“I’m not here to eat you. I’m here to take you home.”
“Don’t have one, but still not getting eaten!” He slapped my hand again in a quick succession like a rabbit kicking against larger prey.
“The convoy isn’t far out,” Jake said. “Maybe the others will have more luck with him.”
“Who are you?” The wolf omega growled.
“I’m Jake. He’s Jessie. We’re Hemlocks out to eat Jeb tonight.”
“He’s not here. He took his goon squad and left when his husband didn’t come back.”
“That wasn’t his husband!” The rabbit-shifter squeaked. “He didn’t like him and there was no claim mark.”
“He acted like he was his husband, Louis,” the wolf shifter said.
“Nope. He was like us. Stolen and lured off to be eaten!”
“Louis, calm down,” I tried to sound soothing.
“No!”
“Do you know Mrs. Hall?” I asked searching my brain for any common ground we might have.
“Everyone knows her!”
“I do too,” I smiled, but it looked more like a grimace. “I used to work for her.”
“Used to,” Louis said.
“I quit when I moved back to Hemlock Mountain.”
“You’re back now.”
“Yes, I am. I’m back to hunt down an asshole vampire.”
“Where’s your mate?”
“Safe, at home.”
“Go there. I’m not dinner!”
Sighing, I left Louis hiding under the collapsed tent and joined the others. The raccoon shifter scurried off under the tent with him and the wolf sized me and Jake up.
Jake showed him his official Hemlock badge.
“Then why aren’t you out there searching for him. He went that way!” The wolf pointed east.
“Because we’re waiting for the rest of the pack,” I explained.
As if summoned by my words, the hum of the convoy came into earshot.
“They yours or are the other guys back?” He looked around for a hiding place.
“Ours,” I said, but pushed him behind us just in case.
Jake ran ahead to meet with the convoy and a second later the pack link opened.
“Logan?” I reached out, but he didn’t answer. Even in our sleep we hear the pack link. Wasn’t it fully open yet?
My wolf stood alert and ready to pounce, but there was no prey in front of us. Only a convoy arriving. I heard the chit-chat of other mates and family members checking on each other, but my pregnant omega was no where to be found.
My gut twisted, and I swallowed down primal emotions my mind refused to accept.
“Logan?” I tried again as desperation churned my insides. Where could he be?
“Zoey’s ran off again,” Jake rejoined me. “Darian just got the text.”
Had he followed her? Even if he did he should answer on the pack link.
“Logan?” I shouted on the link.
“He’s not answering, and neither is Zoey,” Darian joined me on the pack link.
“Get them to safety,” I jerked my thumb at the three omegas and shouted to Jake. “I’ve got to go.”
“Where?” Jake shouted.
“That way!” The omega wolf pointed again.
“Look man, it could be a trap!” Jake grabbed my shoulder.
I shrugged him off with a growl that said I’d chew his face off if he tried to stand in my way. My mate had been taken. He wasn’t answering on the pack link. Hell, high water, nor a chatty tracker wasn’t standing in my way of getting back what was mine.
“Reports in. Struggle. Missing Zoey. Missing Logan,” Wrynn chimed in on the pack link. He sounded calm, but his fear ruminated through the link.
A howl tore from my throat as my wolf exploded from my chest. I was paws to the dirt before Darian let out the howl we all knew despite never hearing it before. It was the call to release the hounds. The hunting call. The war call. The call for the pack to assemble, save one of their own, to kill and not take prisoners.
The pack link fell silent waiting for an answer. Wrynn’s howl sounded a second later and the link exploded into howls and whoops. The first-mate of the pack has the most to lose if a war goes south. He or she keeps in mind the needs of the omegas and the pups. Without the agreement of the first-mate, if there is one, there is no war.
They could fight their war if there was anything left of Jeb once I was done with him.
“I’m coming, Logan. I’m on the way. Just stay alive. Do whatever it takes. I’ll be there soon.”
He couldn’t hear me, but I had to say it. The words reeled through my mind like a mantra as my paws hit the ground not caring who heard or saw me. This was war.
Chapter Thirty-One
Logan
I blinked against the pain in my head willing it to stop, but it didn’t. The dull throb made it hard to think inside the dark room. I sniffed the air and just beyond the pain I smelled Zoey. She wasn’t moving, but I could hear her gentle heartbeat. I swallowed hard and steeled myself for whatever Jeb had in store for us. He talked about ransom with his goons, but kidnappers didn’t always stick to their original plans.
/> “Zoey, wake up,” I whispered. I didn’t know how long we’d be alone before Jeb and the others returned. We needed a plan. This time she needed to run when I said so.
“Logan?” she whimpered squeezing her eyes shut. “I can’t move.”
“We’re tied up, sweetie,” I said in the most comforting voice I could muster.
“I’m so sorry. I should have stayed at home like you said,” she whined.
I leaned as far over as I could trying to find a way to take her hand or touch her face. If we were going to get out of here unscathed she needed to stay calm and the scent of her salty tears already filled the air.
“Are you hurt?” I strained against the darkness and the throbbing in my head to see, but only managed to make out her vague features.
“My head hurts. One of them scratched my back with a claw, I think. It burns,” Zoey tried to sit.
“No,” I hissed to her. “Stay still. The longer it takes for them to realize we’re awake the better.”
“I’m so sorry!” she whimpered, and a tear hit the dirty floor.
The whole room smelled like grime, dirt, and blood.
“It’s not your fault. We just have to wait it out. Jessie and the rest of your brothers are coming.”
“How do you know? I can’t feel the pack link?”
“It’s still there. They turn it off for stuff like this, remember?” I reassured her.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“No one can break the Hemlock pack link,” I assured her. “I’ve been kidnapped twice before. The best thing we can do is just lay low for as long as possible. He wants Lee back. So, he won’t kill us too quickly.”
Zoey let out a gut-wrenching sob and I cringed. Sobbing and crying always brings them back into the room. Kidnappers are sadistic that way.
“We’ve been here before. Just play along and wait. Strength and endurance are our survival,” my wolf reminded me.
I’d been kidnapped twice before. Once because of my parents’ profession and once because Jayden pissed off the wrong people. I survived both times. But I was alone then and not in charge of the safety of a teenage pup and my own baby growing in my belly.
“Calm. Calm. Calm,” my wolf reminded me. “Lone wolves hunt by ambush. They wait for the right moment. You’re alone right now and this isn’t the right moment.”
Omega Magic Page 16
