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I almost laughed as I walked to the lab. I couldn’t believe I got myself riled up over Molly’s dreams. I wanted Evie with my pup so much that I was willing to believe anything right now, including a child’s made-up story. Anything that would give me so much joy in the middle of one of the most stressful moments of my life.
I walked out of the elevator and frowned. Evie wasn’t at her desk. I walked into her work lab. Adrien was in there by himself, searching for that fucking club and checking to see if the facial recognition software pinged. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days.
“Have you seen Evie?” I asked him.
“No. I haven’t left the room since I got here,” he said, not even bothering to look up from his screens.
“Okay, thanks.” I walked back out and tried to mind-link my mate, but the connection wasn’t there, and panic began to set in. Evie shouldn’t be leaving the pack grounds without guards.
Maybe she went over to Guardian Moon? Tenoch asked, beginning to pace.
I was tempted to call Uncle Helios, but I went into Evie’s office first. I didn’t want to send everyone into a panic. She’d left many papers on the desk, and I couldn’t make sense of most of them. I grabbed one with a list of women. I could recognize a few from the original list of suspects, so I wondered if this was a new one. I didn’t recognize the name she’d circled, so I unlocked her computer to see if I could figure out what she was doing and where she went.
The program she created to narrow the suspect list was up on one of her screens, confirming that the paper list in my hands was the same thing. There was a Google search for an Italian restaurant open on the side. The name was unfamiliar, but the picture next to the search looked like an old structure about fifteen minutes outside of pack ground territories. I looked back at the list.
Who the fuck was Judy Martinez?
I pulled up the program with all three packs’ information, including their members and searched the name. The woman in the picture looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her, so I clicked on her picture icon to open up the full profile, and bolted out of the office and through the front gates of the lab in less than a minute. Tenoch took over when I was outside, shifting and running toward our mate.
It wasn’t until we were halfway to the address on her computer that I realized no one knew where I was going, and no one knew where Evie went. My phone was somewhere outside the lab on the floor with my clothes, so I did the only thing I could think of, because there was no way I was turning around and running from where my mate was.
‘Bells, I need you to call Mom. Tell her it was Judy Martinez. She needs to get her and get people out to the old, abandoned restaurant outside of the pack grounds,’ I reached out to my twin.
‘Cory, what the hell is going on?’
‘Evie found the mole, but I think she went to go meet with her. It’s Paolo’s fucking mother. Her ex-boyfriend’s mother,’ I growled, pain lancing through me that Evie would keep this from me. Did she still love him? Is that why she didn’t tell me when she figured it out?
‘Fucking hell! Okay. I’ll call her. Please be careful, Cory,’ she answered.
I took back control and shifted back when I was near the restaurant. I slowed down a little, quieting our walk and pulling in my aura as much as possible. It was hard; Tenoch was snarling in my head, and he wanted nothing more than to run into the building. But we couldn’t just barge in. We had no idea what we would find. I heard voices coming from the back, and I made sure to stay downwind of them as I walked around toward them.
The smell of two people hit me, and I had to stop moving long enough to keep control of our body to stop Tenoch from running in; ripping flesh first, asking questions later.
Paolo.
Evie came to meet Paolo.
I finally got close enough for their voices to reach me, and it only mollified my aching heart slightly when I heard the anger in Evie’s voice.
“Enough bullshit, Paolo! You said you would explain, so explain. I told you already. I’m not covering for your mother. Not when she might know where they are keeping Violet and Tori. Have you been helping her?”
“Fuck, Evie! No! I told you! I don’t know why Mom hates Cory’s family. We were in Mexico, happy. Then, one day, a man came to talk to her. I don’t fucking know what they talked about, but ten days later, we were moved to the states, and then were dropped a couple of miles from Guardian Moon. I don’t know what they want, but Mom is a good person, and she only wants justice. Whatever they did, they have to deserve what she’s doing.”
“I don’t believe you. You know something, and I can’t help you. I won’t. Your mother has sunk both of you.”
“Wait, Evie, don’t go. Please. I can help you. I can keep you safe. I told you not to get involved with them,” he said.
“Let go of me, Paolo. I’m not leaving them. Your mother is fucked in the head. Celeste is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.” I heard a growl and a thump, and I felt a sting in my cheek as Evie gave a startled yip.
“Shit! Evie, I’m sorr—” I didn’t listen to more. I ran around the corner to tear this man apart.
“Get your fucking hands off of my mate,” I roared, my alpha command flowing from every word. Evie stopped struggling against Paolo’s hold in surprise, which only gave Paolo the leverage to pull her flush against his chest, a claw to her neck.
Sweat broke out from his forehead as he fought the command, but I was surprised that he didn’t seem as affected as he should have been.
“Surprised, Alpha Cory? Your command doesn’t work on me,” Paolo taunted, but the sweat beading on his forehead told me he wasn’t telling the full truth. It affected him, just not as much as it would a normal werewolf.
“Let me go, Paolo.” Evie tried to struggle out of his hold.
