Chapter One

Ben

"I'm fine, Ben." Seth tries and fails to take a deep breath after me and Desie get him settled into a chair in the kitchen. "I'll be fine," he corrects. "You and Michael go with Jasper. Find Iris. You'll know where to look. Get her back here."

I glance at Desie's pinched expression over his head. "I'm staying here until you're not bleeding to death. Then I'll go help. Michael can go with Jasper and whoever else."

"Ben," Seth says, his eyes boring into mine. "I need you to do this. I am not going to bleed to death. Desir'ee will get me stitched up. You know the area, you and Michael have the best chance at finding her. I need you to get to Iris before she's gone. Hurry. Please."

He's right. Goddammit. He's right. Jasper and his pack can comb the area, but they won't know where to look the way me and Michael do. "Okay."

"Okay," Michael agrees from the door. He looks at Trent. "You're okay with Jasper going?"

Trent's normal snark and attitude is gone along with the color in his face. "I'd like to see us try to stop him. Let's go."

Jasper is first out the door and it feels like a punch to the gut. Despite all the weird shit about him, he's still an omega and he should never be the first one out the door.

By the time we reach the far edge of the neighbor's yard where Talia said Iris was playing with Brandon, Cody, and Joseph, Jasper is making the strange clicking sound I've heard about. He takes one deep breath and turns his head sharply to the left towards the back of the houses. We all look in that direction, but there's nothing back there except a small wooded area…and the treehouse.

Michael gives me a look and I nod.

"You think?" I ask.

"I hope so," he answers. "This way," he calls and starts running across the yard.

Everyone follows, but the closer we get to the edge of the trees the more my stomach twists. They're definitely in the treehouse. And they defended their post as well as a bunch of kids can. It's quiet. I strain my ears for any hint of sound. Iris is pretty much a baby. She should be crying if she's scared. I need her and the boys to be huddled up in that treehouse scared to death.

There's one body at the base of the large tree. Trent bends to check for a pulse and nods. "Unconscious. Gash on the temple." He pats the asshole down for weapons and tosses Kaleb a handgun. "Fingers are busted all to shit."

Good. Maybe they're up there afterall.

Trent looks over at Jasper. "Let me climb up there first. I know you want to go first, but please, baby. Let me go. Okay?"

I watch the pure, violent rejection of that idea roll through Jasper's body like an earthquake, but he nods.

"I'll go up with him," Michael says.

They start climbing while Kaleb and I truss up the guy on the ground with the belt from his pants and my own. The higher they climb, the deeper the branches creak. The treehouse isn't very high up, but it is a good fifteen feet up into the tree. Many mothers have threatened to have it dismantled for being unsafe, but it wasn't new when me and Michael played in it when we were kids and it's still as sturdy as it ever was. I earned my first broken bone falling out of this tree when I was seven, and I'll take that secret with me to the grave. My mom would have pulled that tree up with her own hands if she knew that's how I broke my wrist. Dad knew the truth though.

"If you climb up here, we'll knock you back down," one of the boys yells from inside the treehouse. "I mean it. You'll be on the ground like the rest of them."

Brandon. Before I can yell up to tell him that it's okay and we're here to help Trent starts cursing and trying not to fall.

"She's my daughter, you little shit! Stop it!"

"Leave us alone!" another of the boys calls. "The next one's going in your eye!"