Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,171

to stop by my place," she said.

"And mine," Lev added. "Heather should be at the clinic with our clothes from earlier."

"We need to hit the trails," Scott said. "Jesse's been grouping the pack into defensive chunks - teams, of a sort."

"But aren't we safe?" I asked as I drove. "The walls, the grates. They can't get in, can they?"

Lane reached over and caught my hand. "They can. One way or another, they will. If we don't give back their converts, they'll use that as an excuse to come and take them."

"Why didn't anyone fucking tell me this!" I screamed, needing to just get it out.

Lane's thumb swept gently across my hand. "Because you're hard to deny. Because you were right."

"Because," Lev said, leaning forward, "if it wasn't this, then it would've been something else, and at least five lives are worth fighting over."

That made me feel a little better, but not much. When Ian had said going into Damon's territory would mean he wasn't risking Wolf's Run, I'd assumed that meant Damon would just lick his wounds and find another way to complain. I'd never imagined a man driving his entire pack across town to assault an upper-middle-class housing community!

There were supposed to be cops to prevent things like this. Then again, if no one called them, they wouldn't come, and none of us wanted humans to see what these men really were. Sampson had already killed a woman, but there had been no legal repercussions because she'd just been a wolf. It also hadn't seemed real. I'd been told, but I hadn't seen the dead animal. That had made it a little too easy to push from my mind.

When I pulled up in front of Bridget's house, everyone piled out. The naked men went straight for the SUV parked in the drive. The kids headed for the clinic with Gabby leading the way. I turned off the truck, thought about it for a split second, and then rolled down the windows and left the keys in the ignition. If anyone needed to get something or pick up someone, we wouldn't have to double back to find keys. Then I followed my daughter.

Inside, the clinic was a quieter version of chaos. People were sorting out their clothes. Ashley and Kim were helping Bridget get the sick boys into rooms where they could lie down. I didn't see the other girl, but Evelyn was soothing her baby, who was still making unhappy noises.

"Alpha!" she gasped when she saw me. "If Damon asks, you can send us back. That should appease him."

"No," Kim yelled back at us.

I just held out my arms. "Can I see the little one?"

"Derek," she told me as she offered her baby. "I named him after the wolf on that show."

Under the blankets, the little boy was adorable. He couldn't have been more than four or five months old, and the boy was wonderfully fat. But the moment his childish eyes landed on me, his face lit up in a smile and all of his fussing stopped.

"Hey, you," I whispered, setting him on my hip. "Aren't you a cutie?" Then I looked at Evelyn. "Why'd you come if you just want to go back?"

"I don't want to go back," she insisted. "I also know that Mia had no idea smiling at a guy in a bar would earn her this. And he's going to make her his mate, just like he did me."

"Are you a convert?" I asked.

She nodded. "Most of us are. Damon picked me up when I was just out of high school. He bit me, he turned me, and then he claimed me. For a bit, I thought it was so romantic, until he took the next girl. Alpha's prerogative, he said."

"Shit," Xander groaned. "I joked about that stuff, but that's just sick."

"Now you see why it's not funny," Olivia told him.

Xander nodded, then simply turned to Gabby. "Alpha?" he asked. "Make sure I never become like that?"

"Then be my beta," Gabby said. "Did you know Pax is an alpha? Ian's betas are all strong. They all work to make him even stronger, and they don't just do what he says. They push him, Xander. I'm not losing Olivia, but I'll gladly take you."

He paused for a moment, looking at his friends. "All of us?"

"Six," Gabby told him. "Two tigers, a human, and my three best wolves. I don't know how else to balance us than to have more than just wolves, and that means

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