He cycles to the next frequency. “Halsey. Section three. Respond.”
A different voice, calmer, older. “Alpha. We are on the southern ridge. Twelve of us. Quiet here.”
“Hold.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
He goes back to the first frequency. “Bauer. Bauer, respond.”
Nothing.
The door opens. Liam first, half dressed, his hair still flat from the pillow. Reese a step behind him, already in a shirt and trousers, his jaw stubbly. They both glance at me on the couch, and neither of them comments.
“Alpha.”
“One of Bauer’s men just died on the gravel out front.” Lucas’s voice is clipped. “They were ambushed in the western buffer. He said there were too many of them to count. I have not been able to contact Bauer or anyone else in his section. Sections two and three are holding.”
Liam’s brow furrows. “How many on Bauer’s team?”
“Fifteen. I want a squadron on the ground in Bauer’s region by first light,” Lucas says. “Twenty wolves. Combat ready. Send our best trackers.”
“Done.” Reese is already moving toward the door. “I’ll wake the second platoon.”
“Quietly,” Lucas adds. “Don’t sound the alarm.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Liam is studying the map on the wall, his mouth thin. “If the man wasn’t exaggerating, twenty won’t be enough.”
“He wasn’t exaggerating. He used his last breath on those words. But I’m not sending more men in blind. I want eyes and a body count, not a second slaughter. We engage only if they do. Make that clear.”
“Understood.”
Liam follows Reese out the door, and the office becomes quiet. The quiet has a weight to it I do not like.
I get up off the couch and walk over to Lucas.
He is still at the comms panel, his palm flat against the wall above it, his head hanging between his shoulders. The line of his spine is pulled tight. This is a man holding a heavy burden and refusing to set it down.
“Hey.”
He turns his head toward me. The tiredness in his face hits me hard. I lift my hand and rest it against his jaw. He closes his eyes and leans into my palm for the length of a single heartbeat.
“What’s happening, Lucas? Talk to me.”
“That task force was looking for the witches,” he murmurs. “Bauer’s section was working the western buffer towns. Twenty-three settlements. They’ve been out there a week.”
A weight settles low in my stomach. Fifteen soldiers unaccounted for.
“Who do you think it was?” I ask quietly. “An army of that size doesn’t come out of nowhere.”
His eyes hold mine, and he exhales through his nose. “I don’t know. But the way he said it. ‘So many of them.’ That’s not a rogue band.” His fingers rub his temple. “Although, when our convoy was attacked, those rogues fought like nothing my men had seen. Strength they shouldn’t have had. Stamina that didn’t match anything natural. I have a feeling there’s a connection here. Maybe a larger group of them somewhere. Maybe the ones who hit the convoy were a piece of something bigger that we missed.”
“Enhanced, somehow?” I offer carefully.
“Maybe. Whatever that means.”
I do not have an answer for him. Not one I am ready to put in his head at four in the morning. I place my hand on his chest instead, over his heart, and let it stay there.
