Chapter 2

2

REMY

I braced my hands against the railing on the back deck, focusing on the sounds of the wind whispering through the trees, rustling the full branches heavy with new spring leaves. So much life was thriving in front of me as the morning sun warmed the yard and deck.

So much death in the house behind me.

I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, feeling the prickle of stubble, but shaving hadn’t been a priority. Fielding phone calls from betas from most of the midwest and Canadian packs had taken its toll. Every time I learned another Alpha had died, the hole I was standing in got a little bit deeper and a little bit darker. Thank God for Michael, who had stepped in a few minutes ago to give me a break.

How the fuck was I supposed to have answers for thousands of shifters when I was still wrapping my head around what had happened myself? Or, better fucking yet, when half of my damn soul had been torn away from me.

My wolf rippled under my skin, pressing for answers I didn’t have.

He wanted Skye.

We both needed Skye.

I swallowed the urge to kick the deck railing. Breaking shit wouldn’t fix the epic fuckup of my life right now or help me find Skye.

I needed a plan for my pack and my girl.

The back door slid open and closed a second later.

I lifted my head and turned to see Katy step up next to me.

“We’ll find her,” she said softly, firmly. A breeze ruffled her red hair. “We’ll find them all.”

Skye .

My eyes slid shut, the agony that gripped me every second since I lost her fresh and raw. I almost reached into my pocket for the broken necklace that I carried.

Finding that in the rubble had almost killed me.

Had it really been a little more than twenty-four hours since Skye was still in bed with me? I would have given anything to turn the clock back to that moment. If I closed my eyes, I could still smell the citrus scent of the shampoo she used. It clung to her and our sheets, the scent forever embedded in my brain.

Walking by the bowl of fruit Mom kept in the kitchen on my way out here had nearly sent my wolf and I into a tailspin.

I inhaled deeply through my nose, filling my senses with pine and woods and sunshine. Anything to cauterize the gaping hole in my chest.

If Katy felt a fraction of the pain and panic that constantly clawed at me, eating me alive, since Maren went missing, I was amazed she was talking to me.

“I was an asshole,” I muttered, turning away from the rail and leaning my back against it. “I’m sorry, Katy.”

I owed her a million apologies. I had done what I thought was best for the pack, and part of me still knew that keeping her out of the search for Maren had been the best move for us all. Especially since the first chance she got, she almost was kidnapped by the same people who had taken Maren and the others.

But I still felt like shit knowing it had broken her heart and carved a divide between us bigger than the Grand Canyon. Katy and I weren’t as close as our twin brothers, but we were pretty damn close. That made the rift between us even harder to endure.

“We’re not focusing on that now,” she said, shaking her head firmly. Her jaw was set in a way I knew since we were kids—she was ready to kick ass and take names. “Right now we need to find Skye and Maren and Tate. They’re out there.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little. The last few weeks had sucked without her in them. I had missed her like hell. No one was more loyal when it came to her friends.

She truly believed Skye and the others were out there. Her confidence was comforting.

I knew Skye was out there, but not knowing where, or with who, was what was killing me.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Linden and Damien had disappeared before the explosion.

My stomach twisted at the idea of Skye being back with her uncle, but Preston had confirmed Linden was around right before the explosion. And Skye was missing when I went to find her.

It wasn’t a huge reach to know her uncle had taken her in the chaos, and I hadn’t been there to protect her.

The first thing I had done was reach out to people we knew in New Mexico when we got home hours ago. They had been watching the Long Mesa pack for me since, and there hadn’t been a single sign of Linden there. No one had come in or out of the compound, so Skye wasn’t there.

But that still left a lot of the country, namely the Norwood territory in New York. Damien and Trace were there. We had confirmed their plane was landing as the bomb went off. But there was no sign of Skye or her uncle yet.

At least Preston was dead. The metal I-beam that fell when the lodge exploded had pinned him to the ground, half of his arm ripped clean off and a piece of rebar speared through his leg.

Grim satisfaction settled in my gut, remembering the way he had begged for his life. Begged me to help him, crying out even as I walked away and left him to bleed out.

It made me sick thinking about how many times Skye had begged him for mercy.

Letting him die was the highlight of the last twenty-four hours.

The back door slid open again, this time Rhodes and Dante stepped out onto the deck.

Dante gave me an indecipherable look. The only emotions he gave away was the red tinge around his eyes from when he broke down earlier when we got the news.

Luke’s death had hit him hard. Tate’s disappearance was hitting him harder.

He cleared his throat and joined me at the railing. “I just spoke to Ryder. The plane landed outside of Brooks Ridge an hour ago. They’re working on getting the first group onto it.”

I watched him carefully, looking for cracks. He had lost his girl and his Alpha on the same day. At least he still had Ryder, even if he was a few hundred miles away for a few more hours.

“Good.” Rhodes rubbed his jaw with a nod, his dark eyes sweeping across me. “The sooner we get everyone here, the sooner we can make a plan.”

“Do we have a plan yet?” Katy asked.

“First we need to get everyone here, safe,” I said, my tone calmer than I felt.

Dante and I had decided to move the Brooks Ridge pack here on the flight back. They were too small and unprotected in Alaska. Dante could have gone there, but right now we needed to pool our resources to find Skye and Tate.

Any hesitation was squashed when Luke died in the early morning hours.

It had been a miracle he had survived the explosion at all. By the time Dante and I found him, he had been pinned under a beam that crushed his pelvis for several hours. He never regained consciousness, but we brought him back to Blackwater and prayed for a miracle.

It seemed we were out of miracles.

Luke was dead. Skye and Tate were gone. And Dad was...

“Any change?” I asked Katy, knowing she had come from the med center in town.

The medical team had met us at the airport, immediately transporting Dad and Luke to their intensive care unit.

She shook her head, her dark eyes big. Her throat worked as she swallowed hard. “The doctor said that the longer he’s in a coma...” Her lower lip wobbled as she trailed off. “It’s not good.”

“Skye was in a coma for almost a month and survived,” I replied fiercely. “Dad will survive this, too.”

He had to. I wasn’t ready to be an Alpha yet.

“Mom and the twins are with him,” Katy said softly. “I told her we would stop by later.”

“Do they need anything?” I shifted my weight, feeling the stress of everything starting to press on my shoulders.

“Larkin and Addie were going to bring them lunch,” she replied.

I had only spoken briefly to Addie on the phone, but she was handling Skye’s disappearance the same way I was—throwing herself into the present and focusing on what she could.

I just had to keep moving. As soon as I stopped, I remembered what had happened and fear started to choke me. Moving was good. Moving would keep me alive.

Rhodes cleared his throat, grabbing my attention. “The council wants to meet this afternoon. It sounds like Norwood is making waves on the east coast already. They’re worried about what that could mean here.”

I rubbed my jaw, exhausted and anxious as the hits kept coming.

I was worried, too.

It wasn’t dumb luck that Damien and Trace had left the Summit hours before the bomb went off. I would bet my pack on them being behind the explosion, which meant they were responsible for the deaths of dozens of Alphas.

Katy touched my arm and drew in a sharp breath. “There’s more.”

I angled my head in her direction, waiting for her to explain.

She ran a hand through her red hair, the strands practically shimmering in the sunlight. “I talked to Michael on my way out here. Some of Dad’s betas are planning to offer to handle the pack for you.”

“Handle how?” Dante growled for me, scowling.

“Take over,” she clarified weakly.

My eyes narrowed. “I’m the Alpha. At least until Dad wakes up.”

“Dad’s in a coma, Skye’s... missing. Remy, you’re eighteen. No one would fault you for stepping aside until we know what’s going to happen,” she said kindly, her eyes watching me carefully.

I knew she was trying to help, but the more she spoke, the more pissed off I got.

“No. This is my pack. If one of Dad’s betas feels the need to challenge me for the pack, I’ll handle it.” I folded my arms across my chest.

Hell, the way I felt now, I could go for putting my hands on someone. I wouldn’t even need to shift to rip someone apart.

My wolf rumbled his approval. He was definitely onboard for some gratuitous violence and bloodshed. He had been leashed for too long. First through Skye’s testimony, then the explosion, and now this.

“Okay,” she said simply, touching my shoulder. “We’re with you. Come hell or high water, we’ve got your back.”

Rhodes gave me a grim look. “You’ll need to appoint your own council. At least for the interim.”

I ground my molars together. I wasn’t supposed to pick my own council for years yet.

My attention turned to Dante.

He gave me a short nod. “Until we know what’s happening with our pack or if this merge turns permanent, I won’t challenge you. I’m behind you, whatever happens next.”

I tilted my head back, my gaze unfocused as I looked up at the tree canopy above. “Okay. Rhodes, call Will. I want him at the meeting tonight, too.”

Rhodes nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. I didn’t need to tell him to show up or make a formal announcement; Rhodes was my beta and everyone in the pack knew when I became Alpha he would be at my right hand. I knew my best friend would follow me into hell.

Pretty convenient, since I had a feeling we would be walking through it before this was all said and done.

“He’ll be a good addition to your council,” Katy murmured, her fingertips brushing her lips as she nodded in agreement thoughtfully.

“For now I’m merging Dad’s council and mine,” I said finally, knowing in my gut it was the right call. I knew those people, and they knew Blackwater.

We would all need to work together for whatever came next.

“It’s a good plan,” she said. “But you know these guys will probably push back, Rem.”

I felt the smirk pulling at my mouth before I spoke. “They can push all they want, but at the end of the day, they’ll fall in line or they can find a new pack.”

Rhodes chuckled and grinned at me. “Hell yeah.”

Even Dante cracked a small smile.

I looked at my sister. “I want you there, too.”

She blinked, surprised.

“Most of the people I trust are standing right here,” I told her. “I’ll need all of you for what comes next.”

Rhodes sighed hard. “Be a hell of a lot easier if we knew exactly what was coming next.”

“We do,” I replied grimly, finally giving into the urge to pull the chain from my pocket. I clenched it in my fist, the crescent moon pendant digging into my palm. “We stop Norwood, we find the missing shifters, and I get my girl back.”