Heat Race - Tanya Chris Page 0,82

and he could express himself. He didn’t need a dancer’s figure or the strength to leap four feet in the air. He just needed a creative outlet and some time to indulge it. He would fill the pack with omegas, give them room to grow as big and wild as they pleased and never allow anyone to tell them what their limitations were. Let them find their own limitations and then break through them.

All this, Jack Henry dreamed as Lon tried to steal it from him. But Elias had conquered Lon—had killed Lon—and now he could have his dream. He squeezed Elias’s hand, promising him that everything was going to be all right even as he hovered on the edge of hysteria himself. Because everything was fine. Except that something wasn’t fine at all.

They were on the outskirts of Galvetta when the squad car’s radio gave a concrete reason for his nebulous unease. “Multiple ambulances required at the Treehouse Pack property,” the dispatcher said. “Repeat, multiple ambulances. All available units please respond.”

The officer flipped on his siren. It screamed out Jack Henry’s urgency as the car picked up speed, hurtling them toward an ominous future.

“Saul.” Elias touched his chest. “Is he…?”

“I don’t know.” Now that they were closer, Jack Henry could feel Saul on the bond as a separate, identifiable pulse—weaker than it ought to be, but there. “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think he’s alive?!”

“No! I meant I don’t think he’s dead.” He’d forgotten that Elias’s bond to Saul wasn’t as strong as his own, which meant Elias couldn’t pick out the unique signature of Saul’s energy. “I can feel him.” He put Elias’s hand on his chest, as if Elias could access the bond through his skin. His own fear was subsiding. Though pain and worry filled the bond, he was close enough now to know everyone was alive.

“We’re echoing negative energy back and forth to each other,” he told Elias. “We sense fear, so we transmit fear, so they receive fear. And they’re doing the same to us. Try to be positive.” He pushed as much calmness and love through the bond as he could muster.

“Ambulances though,” Elias muttered.

“They don’t send ambulances for dead people. At least, not with the sirens blaring.” And there were a lot of sirens blaring, as if a herd of ambulances were converging on their property. “We’re going to be fine.”

He would have his mates. He would have his dream. He would forget about Lon’s hands on his body and Lon’s tongue in his mouth. They would have a baby, and everything would be fine.

SAUL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saul’s ribs ached and his head throbbed, but he insisted on sitting up. He needed to see that the house was still standing, that he’d managed to hold off eight alphas intent on destroying it long enough for Jasper to come.

“They broke a few windows,” Jasper said. He’d taken a tour of the property at Saul’s insistence and was back to report. “Poured some gasoline in the living room. It smells rank in there, but I guess the broken windows will help air the place out.”

Saul tried to respond to Jasper’s joke with a smile, but he’d just installed those windows yesterday, for fuck’s sake.

“I’m more worried about you,” Jasper said.

“Almost better.” That was a total lie. His head had stopped bleeding, thanks to the pressure Jasper had put on it, and some of his smaller wounds had scabbed over, but the broken ribs and broken arm were going to need more time, and he was so covered in bruises his metabolism couldn’t deal with them all at once.

“I’m worried about Jack Henry too,” Jasper said. “I’m getting mixed signals from him.”

Saul nodded. His own physical pain swamped the sensations coming through the bond, making it hard to sort through them, but there was pain there. Not just his own pain echoing back at him but something coming straight from Jack Henry, something too heartbreaking to examine closely. His body kept rejecting it, insisting he focus on his own state, but it twanged at the edges of his consciousness.

“Do you think Miller is really calling a doctor or do you figure he’s halfway out of the province by now?”

The sound of tires on gravel answered Jasper’s question. Miller had returned. Saul tensed, anticipating a second attack, but Miller only stopped long enough to let out his passengers before screeching off again.

Jasper’s parents came down the hill toward them. Alice carried a first aid kit that made the one