Chapter 27

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

The cold night air brushed over my face as I ambled through historic downtown Savannah. Now that I was free to come and go from Silver Ridge, I stayed out as much as possible to avoid Barric. A week had passed since he taunted me with The Collective symbol on his shirt.

The head alpha hadn't played any more games, but he was suspicious, and his gaze followed me every time we were in the same room.

Leaves crunched under my boots as I headed toward Forsyth Park. My heart had been aching for Hawk after the events at Corvin Manor. He might have been a total dick to me, but I couldn't imagine what he was going through. When we left the raven headquarters, he looked so haunted, so lost.

Did Gia help him? Did anyone?

The urge to visit him tore at me, and I had to fight my feet from turning in that direction. Fane would probably have an aneurysm if I did.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and when I took it out to check the screen, a smile pulled at my lips .

Fane: Staying out of trouble?

Me: Of course.

Fane: Liar.

Me: I just got done dancing on the bar at Wrath & Ruin. I downed a whole bottle of tequila, and Ruin just invited some sexy dark fae to join us in the VIP room.

I snorted, picturing his scowl.

Fane: You better be kidding.

When I didn't respond, he sent another text.

Fane: You're kidding, right?

Me: I'm kidding. Don't freak out.

Fane: I'm not freaking out.

Fane had been going down the rabbit hole to discover my parents' identity. Presently, he was checking out the hospital where I was left as a newborn to see if he could glean some information. He asked me to come, but I wasn't in the mood to visit my dumping ground.

Even though my parents abandoned me to save me, it still didn't erase the horrors I experienced.

I shoved my phone back in my pocket and slowed as I came to the tree Hawk and I used to sit under, flinching when a guy with his head in his hands and a half-empty bottle of Jack beside him appeared.

"Hawk?"

His head snapped up, brown eyes bloodshot and glazed over. "Tate?" He blinked a few times as if to ensure he wasn't hallucinating. "What are you doing here?"

A sharp pang pierced my chest at his disheveled state. Instead of the black raven attire, he wore threadbare jeans and a long-sleeve Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt. "I was out for a walk." I gave a noncommittal shrug and pointed to the enormous oak, the bare branches twisting above our heads to create a skeletal canopy. "I was thinking of you so…"

His mouth parted. "You were thinking of me?"

"Yeah."

"I hope you weren't plotting revenge." He grabbed the bottle of liquor and took a deep swig. "I deserve it, though. You should hate me."

I scoffed and sat beside him, expecting him to pull away or flinch, but he didn't. "I could never hate you."

Hawk's brows slammed together. "Why?"

"Because I know what it's like to feel hurt and lost." I reached over and gently patted his shoulder, the muscles tense beneath his shirt.

His expression suddenly crumpled, his head falling against the tree. "I really messed up, Tate." He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing in the long column of his throat. "I wasn't lying about everything when I called you the other night."

"I know." My heart squeezed into a tiny ball. He no longer held that little bit of innocence he used to, and his eyes had become almost as haunted as mine. "You can't keep this whole angry, reckless antihero thing up. It's going to get you killed."

"I don't know what to do, and now I find out my aunt isn't as altruistic as she'd have everyone believe. In fact, she's kind of a heartless bitch." He dragged his hand down his face, dark circles bruising beneath his eyes and stubble coating his sharp jaw. "I really do need help."

Invisible hands gripped my insides, twisting them into knots. "Go to one of the veterans. Gia would be a good listener." She'd mentored us both through our training. "And dump Roxie's ass. She's a black hole sucking you dry."

His mouth twisted like he tasted something sour. "I already dumped her lying, manipulative ass. She's a cancer that's been slowly eating me. "

I couldn't have said it any better.

"Maybe I need a vacation." Hawk turned to me, his cheeks ruddy from the cold and alcohol. "Know any good places?"

Mohan Wild's was on the tip of my tongue, and I almost let it drop. When I had nowhere else to go, the Anders took me in. They helped tear off the heavy burden of guilt and pain resting on my chest and welcomed me even when they had no reason to trust me.

They'd do the same for Hawk, but I didn't have the right to ask them. I couldn't just volunteer them to help rehabilitate a troubled raven.

Right?

Maybe I could ask Camus to help. He did owe me for the shit his daughter and her mate pulled.

"I'll have to get back to you on that." I gave a dry chuckle. "But in the meantime, get yourself a new partner. Roxie's a shitty girlfriend and an even worse partner."

Hawk scoffed and tipped the bottle back again. "I've already put in for someone else. I've been such an arrogant, careless asshole, so I'm not sure who'd be willing to work with me."

"Someone will. Just make an effort to get better, and they'll notice."

"No one will ever live up to my first partner." A sad smile curved his lips. "I need to come to terms with the fact that my little Strawberry Shortcake isn't a raven anymore."

His old nickname for me set off a wave of bittersweet pangs in my heart. Hearing it for the first time in so long ripped the air from my lungs. "I don't think I was ever really a raven. But I can still be a friend."

After I helped Hawk back to Corvin Manor—I was not about to leave him out there drunk and alone—I cut through some of the side streets in downtown, resigned to finally return to Silver Ridge. Hopefully, I could just slip in and book it for my room before I ran into anyone, especially Barric.

As I turned into an alley that would lead out to Bull Street, my blood iced over at the tree symbol glowing on the brick facade of a building. I'd bet my right arm no one else could see this, not unless they were in The Collective or a descendant.

What was it doing drawn on a random building with some kind of magic witch dust? I searched the area but saw nothing unusual, so I jogged through the alley. As I exited, the faint glimmer of another symbol registered on the exterior of a coffee shop on the right and then another on the streetlight.

My pulse spiked. It was a trail meant for members only.

Did this lead to a secret meeting?

Before I even made a conscious decision, my boots led me toward the next marking and then the next. Fane told me to stay out of trouble. As long as I didn't get caught, I wasn't in trouble.

I followed the symbols to the outside of the shifter bar, Lunar Souls, and then around the back and down a flight of concrete stairs. My heart pounded as I opened the heavy metal door and slipped inside.

Murmured voices carried in the dank basement below the bar while I tiptoed through a maze of wire and metal shelves full of boxes. The scent of beer and mildew wrinkled my nose. As the shadows thinned, I ducked behind a shelf and slid a few boxes apart to find around two dozen shifters—a few different species—causally sitting in folding chairs, facing the right. A single dangling light in the center, the squeak of metal echoing as it gently swayed back and forth, cast a sallow glow over the clandestine group .

Wes, Torin's father, sipped a glass of scotch or whisky, the claw scars on his neck contrasting against his bronzed skin. I recognized a few others from Silver Ridge.

"I know you're all on edge, but there's no need to panic. Everything is still going according to plan."

Frost spread over my flesh, freezing the sweat beading down my back as Barric stepped out of the darkness. His massive presence overwhelmed the tight space and dwarfed all the other shifters.

Pangs assaulted my heart, and I hated the disappointment that threatened to choke me. Deep down, I'd wanted to be wrong about him. But like so many others, the head alpha was full of lies.

He folded his large body into a chair in the front of the room, facing the others, his long, jean-clad legs spreading wide. "No one has brought up The Collective. No one will connect the missing shifters to us."

The air catapulted out of my lungs as his words sank in, solidifying the horrible theories twisting in my mind. Not only was The Collective Hunt still active, but they were behind the vanishing shifters. What the hell were they doing with them? Joseph had been missing for a while when he escaped, so The Collective wasn't killing them, at least not yet.

Roman stepped into view and took a seat in one of the chairs in the front. If Barric was here, I wasn't surprised to find the witch. According to those papers I found in the archives, The Collective had always kept witch allies. Maybe he helped with the blood magic to make the symbols visible for members only.

"Alpha Saint has been asking too many questions." Amelia, Dominic's mother, folded her arms over her chest as she scowled, not a hair out of place on her blunt bob. "He's been poking around Mohan Wilds and other neighboring packs. "

Of course that horrible woman was in a hate group, and if Fane hadn't killed her son, he'd probably be right next to her, smirking like an arrogant prick. And apparently Saint had caught on to The Collective. Maybe he'd even suspected from the beginning but hadn't raised his suspicions yet.

"He's been to the Cypress Falls pack too." Reese, Marissa's mom and Camus's mate, tucked a raven lock behind her ear and sat in the front row. "Someone needs to tell him to keep his nosy ass at his own pack."

Barric nodded. "I'll have a word about overstepping boundaries with him."

Reese gave a curt nod and lifted the glass of red wine to her scarlet lips, taking a dainty sip. "I exert enough energy trying to keep my own damn mate in the dark. I can't deal with that young, meddlesome alpha too."

A silent breath of relief expelled from my lungs when she confirmed that Camus wasn't part of this bullshit. The alpha of Mohan Wilds had earned a nugget of my trust while I stayed there, and I didn't want to be disappointed by another person in a powerful position.

Jax glided from the shadows and passed Barric a lowball glass with golden liquid before taking the empty chair at the head alpha's side. The beta's angelic blond curls and charming smile looked out of place in the sinister gathering, but something menacing flickered in his amber stare as he studied the crowd. He was just like the rest of them.

"And another thing, Barric," Reese hissed, yanking my attention away from the beta. "How dare you banish my daughter and her mate from Georgia for ten years—all because of that piece of trash bitten hybrid. Why is she staying at Silver Ridge? She's a bitten wolf!"

The head alpha lifted his hand to cut off her shrill protests. " Once this is over and everything is settled, I'll lift the ban on Marissa and Dorian." He rubbed at the thick, short beard covering his jaw. "As for my reason for protecting Tate, that's none of your concern."

Amelia shot to her feet, the dense muscles in her stout body tense as marble. "That freak Fane killed my son for her. How could you allow them to remain here? I deserve an explanation."

A low growl curled between Barric's teeth as his eyes burned gold, and his alpha power infiltrated the air. "You deserve to sit the fuck down, Amelia."

My breath caught at the vicious, threatening tone that burst out of the head alpha, but the members didn't flinch. Apparently, they were well acquainted with this side of him.

Amelia dropped into her chair at his command.

"I won't protect Tate forever," he said in a calmer voice. "Her time here will end when my partner is ready."

Partner?

So Barric was working with someone.

A combination of fury and heartbreak sluiced through my veins, making me hot and cold, tense and weak. I'd already concluded that Barric's story about protecting me because I reminded him of his dead son was bullshit, but hearing it from his own mouth had invisible claws raking down my chest.

Like so many others, I was just a means to an end where Barric was concerned.

What was waiting for me at the end this time?

Barric's head suddenly snapped up, his gaze zeroing in on my hiding spot.

I jerked away and ducked behind the boxes as my heart slammed against my rib cage, my breaths coming in frantic pants.

"Is someone there?" he called out.

Oh hell!