“It’s about time you came. I thought you would want to find your pets a little bit sooner, considering what’s on the line here. My pack mates hacked into Drakewood, and while it doesn’t say the reason you’re here, it does say that if you don’t graduate, you’ll be exiled from Pack Carlisle.” The hulking man looms over me, cradling the small cage with Killer, Strawberry, and my bunny inside. “The director won’t let us near you again after we fucked it up the first time, and that’s not acceptable. Not when we so clearly need your help. You want to find Jade, don’t you? You know something, something you’re not telling anyone and we need to know what that is right fucking now. She’s everything to us. You have to understand that. I just want to talk. There might be something that could help us that you don’t even know about. We know your family works with a criminal empire.”
He’s talking about Pack Fernando. He would know all about them, considering that Jade’s pack aren’t exactly upstanding citizens. They’re criminals in their own right, thieves, and that’s one of the reasons Jade managed to stay away from our family and mother.
Tears burn my eyes at the sound of his desperation; his voice is veritably dripping with distress and grief. I know those emotions all too well, and right now, I wish I could just speak the truth. Jade would want me to. But then what would happen? She’s not here to protect me from them. And when they find out what I did, they would ruin my life. Maybe even murder me. It doesn’t matter that it was unintentional, that I’d do anything to take it all back.
Reyes heaves a breath, his annoyance over my silence clear with his scent. “Please, Amber. You’re one of the last people who saw her. If you’re protecting someone—”
Rage explodes inside me, and I slam my palms against his chest. “I’m not protecting anyone! I don’t know anything! Leave me alone.”
He doesn’t get a chance to react as I snatch the cage from him, then quickly put space between us. I expect him to rush me. I expect him to do something drastic. But he doesn’t. Instead, his face falls with his defeat, and he growls under his breath. Pulling out his phone, he mutters something through the line and shoots me one last look.
“I know you know something, Amber. Don’t let whoever you are protecting take you down with them. Make no mistake, our pack will find out the truth. We know Jade wouldn’t just run away. She would come back to us if she could. So what’s keeping her away, huh?” He bares his teeth at me and yanks the door open, storming into the hallway.
“Amber!” Theoden yells, fear lining his voice.
I freeze as Reyes yanks a gun from a holster beneath his jacket and points it at Theoden. My chest tightens, my heartbeat freezing. I think he’s going to pull the trigger on Theoden, but he doesn’t even move his finger fully to the trigger. He keeps the pistol pointed and says, “C’mon, Amber, try to have a little sympathy here. How would you feel if something happened to your omega?”
I don’t speak, don’t breathe, just wait.
Thankfully, Reyes drops the gun with a frustrated groan, pulls the hood of his jacket up as he bows forward to hide from the surveillance cameras, and strides away, leaving Theoden and I behind just as abruptly as he’d first joined us.
My whole body trembles, my fear and anguish getting the best of me. I don’t know how much longer I can hide the truth. The only one I am protecting right now is me.
Because I killed Jade. I killed my sister.
Nobody else. Just me.
“Lace, there’s been an intruder. Put the campus on lockdown.” Theoden’s strong arm wraps around me as he speaks into his phone. He pulls me down the hall and toward my dorm room.
I clutch the cage, staring at the floofs, trying my best to keep it together. This could’ve turned out so much worse. It still can.
“I’m escorting Amber back to her room. I will stay on this floor until everything is all clear… No, it’s not good. We can’t have word getting out that our security has been tampered with,” Theoden continues, keeping his voice low, pausing occasionally as the Warden speaks on the other line.
As we cross the maze of hallways back to my dorm, I try to listen to what she has to say, but I can’t make out her voice through the pounding in my head.
And then the familiar colognes of Gabe and Beau waft over me. They’re back. Thank God.
“You found them,” Gabe says, striding over to my side as I continue to pace the hall toward my waiting room. He touches my chin, coaxing me to look up. “Amber, fuck. You’re trembling. What the hell happened?”
“Get into the dorm room. Now,” Theoden commands, opening my door. He presses his hand to the back of Beau’s shoulders, forcing him to follow behind Gabe. The four of us enter the small dorm. Silence hangs heavy in the air.
Gabe attempts to take the cage from me, but I hang on tight and shake my head in defiance. It feels like holding onto the rescued bunnies is the only thing that’s still keeping me together. And once that’s gone, I might fall apart.
“Jade’s pack,” I cry, a strangle groan escaping my mouth. “They were here. They managed to break in. They’re going to—”
I can’t even finish my sentence. I can’t think straight.
“They’re not going to do a single damn thing, cherry pie. We’re not going to let anything happen to you. You, me, and Beau, we’re a pack now, and that means we take care of each other. No matter what we’re fucking up against.” Gabe pulls me into his arms, hugging me close. “We’re going to get through this.”
If only I could believe him.
GABE
I hold Amber in my arms until her shivering subsides.
When she’s ready, she pulls out of my embrace and stares up at me with water-logged eyes. “You’re wrong,” she says.
It takes me a moment to recall what was last said, then I realize she’s contesting my promise that Beau and I will protect her. “We will,” I insist. “Right, Beau?”