Addie (Pack of Misfits #1) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,62

all watch as he pulls into the bar parking lot and gets out. Penn starts to put the car in park, but Herrick stops him. “Not here. Not now.”

“Fuck this shit.”

“Herrick’s right,” I say, as much as I don’t want to. “We need to leave.”

“Those fuckers are after our mate,” Penn says through clenched teeth.

I exchange a look with Herrick. If Penn loses his shit and gets out of this car, this will not end well for any of us. “We can’t start shit here, Penn. We’ll get our asses handed to us and we won’t be able to warn Addie. We gotta leave. For Addie.”

That seem to snap him out of his rage long enough to blink and look over at us. I can see that the bond that drives his protective instincts is shifting away from imminent attack to strategic planning. The last thing his coyote wants is for any of his actions to hurt Addie.

“Fine. But we make that fucker pay,” Penn says with a snarl.

“We will,” Herrick promises darkly.

Penn throws the car back into drive and rushes out of the lot, our tires screeching on the asphalt as we make it onto the highway. We all take several minutes to think in silence, our brains soaking up everything that went down and what it means for us and for Addie.

I’m the first one to break the tense silence. “This is not good.”

“No shit. They’re after our mate, and I fucking called her a liar. And that was after I told her she wasn’t good enough for us. Obviously it’s not fucking good, Lafe!”

“Hey, don’t get mad at me,” I tell him. “You’re the one with the automatic asshole setting.”

“Fuck!” Herrick punches his fist against the dashboard, earning him a glare from Penn. “What am I gonna do? Addie is gonna hate us more than she already does. We should’ve listened to her. I should’ve listened to her.”

“Yeah, you should’ve. But it’s not too late, bro. We can fix this. We’re still bonded to her, thank fuck.”

“She doesn’t want to be.”

“Then we’ll have to change her mind.”

Herrick runs his hands over his scalp in frustration. “Okay, okay. We need a plan.”

Penn nods in agreement. “We have to play this right. We need to protect her, but we also don’t want to start a pack war, because that could be devastating. If they’re after her, we need to stop it, but if we make things worse, then Rockhead could attack Aberrant, and we don’t want that happening. Rockhead are a pack of dirty fuckers. The last thing we want is them attacking her pack and killing her packmates.”

“We won’t let them hurt her,” I growl, my animal angry at the thought.

“Of course not.”

“So? What are we gonna do?”

“We’re going to stop those Rockhead assholes from hurting our mate. We’ll kill every last one of them if we have to.” Penn shoots a sideways glance at Herrick. “But first, we have to get her to talk to us again.”

I don’t know which task sounds more daunting.

“How are we gonna do that?” Herrick asks. “She’ll probably refuse to see us.”

I smirk and slap him on the back. “Get ready to grovel, asshole.”

14

Herrick

Three hours after we leave the Rockhead meeting, Penn is driving us downtown to Doggie Style Pet Shop, where our mate now works, apparently. It’s an embarrassing name, and Lafe giggles like a fucking girl every time one of us says it.

We got lucky finding out where she is from her friend, Zoey. Penn found her number on Addie’s phone and called her on our way back from the Rockhead meeting. It took a few tries, but Zoey finally answered and we got her to tell us where we can find Addie. Penn did all the talking. He’s a charming motherfucker when he wants to be.

“I just find it funny that a shifter mated to three coyotes works at a place called Doggie Style,” Lafe snickers from the back.

“Yeah. So you’ve said. Three times,” Penn replies dryly as he turns to car into the business mall lot.

As soon as he parks, he has to lock the doors to stop Lafe from jumping out. “Wait.”

Lafe loses the happy-go-lucky look that’s been on his face ever since we started driving in her direction. “Fuck that! I don’t want to wait anymore. I’ve waited long enough for you fuckers to pull your tails out of your asses. I’m not waiting any longer to go see her. My coyote is fucking scraping me