Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,104

would make it hard for people on two legs to make it inside, but wolves? No. Wolf's Run is on lockdown, and if the pack doesn't like it, they can talk to me."

"Why is another pack attacking us, Alpha?" Jax asked Ian.

Ian just sighed. "I don't know. I know who it is, but I have no idea what he thinks he's going to accomplish."

CHAPTER 32

* * *

Lane and Theo helped Heather get Olivia home that night. Ian took Lev and the bears to see the warehouse of equipment Wolf's Run had available. I asked Seth if he'd stay and help Bridget with the crowd of people wanting to know what had happened and who had attacked children in our community. Ashley promised that she had it, but I figured the presence of one of Ian's betas sure couldn't hurt.

Just as we were getting everything under control, a girl slipped into the waiting area and made a straight line for Gabby. Her hair was a deep, dark red, the kind that could easily be mistaken for black in the wrong light. Her eyes were a warm, orangey-brown shade with hard dark lines around the outside of the iris. Striking, but they made her stand out among so many wolves.

"We're going to need a story for school," Zaria said. "Olivia's going to miss a few days, and all of you look like you got beat up. I was going to say that you got mugged outside the movie theater, if that's ok?"

"Why?" Roman asked. "I mean, who'd come after a group of teens?"

Zaria huffed at him in frustration. "Maybe someone who thinks the kids from Wolf's Run are rich? Maybe you'd all been too loud, or did something to piss them off, and they caught you on the way back to your car. Olivia tripped, cutting herself on something in the parking lot - which is why there's no police report - and the others ran."

"That works," Gabby said. "Thanks, Zaria. Can you tell the other kids and make sure it's common knowledge?"

"I'll help," Samantha said. "No way I'm getting out of school tomorrow. Told Mom that Roman's car had a flat on the way home, and we're waiting for a ride."

"I'll take you," Nikolai said.

And that was pretty much it. The kids had this. The parents had this. Our pack had this, yet I still felt like I needed to do more. Trent and Pax took Gabby and me home. The guys pampered both of us, but I caught Trent pulling Gabby aside to look at the cuts and scrapes on her. He said something, the look on his face serious, and she nodded. Then the man hugged her, looking like he'd been as worried as I was.

But the Hidden Forest pack was gone. One woman had been killed in wolf form. The bears took her body outside the walls and left it there. The hope was that her family would be able to collect her if they wanted. If not, nature would take its course, and no human would see anything but an animal.

At work, Thursday, I kept waiting for a call from Karen or an email from Damon. Something, most likely a threat, to let us know why they'd gone after the kids. It never came. Ashley was pretty sure the kids had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time - or right, depending on how we looked at it. Because if they hadn't been there, how far into the community would those wolves have come?

"But what's their big plan?" I asked. "Seriously, Ash. I mean, what good does it do for a pack to kill off our members?"

"Recon," she guessed. "Elena, I have no idea. Damon keeps saying he's going to make us pay, and maybe that's what he's trying to do?"

"Oh, because that's not obvious at all! We're supposed to be hiding from humans, and he keeps blaming us for being noticed, but this? Isn't it going to be even more obvious? Isn't he just asking for us to be exposed?"

"I'm not sure he actually cares," she said as she pulled a chair over to sit beside me. "Look, I know you're doing great as a wolf. The problem is that you can't get centuries of history in only a few months - and it's not all good."

"What do you mean?"

"We're stronger than humans," Ashley said. "We heal better. We're adaptable. The problem is that humans outnumber us in the millions to one. Locally,