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“Nice takedown,” I tell Dare as he wipes his mouth. And I mean it.
“No better than you would have done yourself,” he replies with a shrug. “Archer’s strategy was the real MVP here.”
Archer grins, then leans over to grab the deer’s front legs. “It was a team effort. Come on, let’s get this back.”
I pick up the back legs, and we heft the beast up before beginning to follow our own scent trails back toward the cabin. Conversation between us comes a lot easier now than it did a few days ago. I don’t know that I’d call them friends, exactly, but I feel a lot less animosity toward them than I once did.
All because of a sexy little blonde who owns each and every one of my thoughts.
The generator is on in the cabin, so we see the lights from the windows through the trees before we see the building itself. The steady thwump thwump of the generator purring at the side of the structure is an out of place white noise on the silent night. I’m not a fan of the thing, since it inhibits our ability to hear properly outside the cabin. If witches were to find a way onto North Pack territory, they could sneak up on us when that thing’s going, and we might not be the wiser until it was too late. It’s a hazard, and I’ve said so.
But light is one of the few things that keeps Sable’s darkness at bay, so every night without fail, we turn on the generator. Her comfort is paramount. To all of us.
We’re just beyond the tree line when alarm bells start ringing in my head. At the same instant, Dare and Archer stiffen beside me, their noses turning to the air.
“Something’s wrong,” Dare growls.
“A stranger,” Archer adds, turning his wide eyes on me.
We both let go of the deer in the same instant, letting it drop to the ground behind us as we break into a run.
Our footsteps pound over the undergrowth as we rush to the cabin. My heart’s pounding wildly, a savage thing in my chest. All I can think of is Sable, getting to her and finding her safe.
My stomach drops when we come across Ridge’s body lying prone in the backyard, while the back door stands open to the night.
Archer kneels beside Ridge’s form and checks his pulse, then gently turns his head to expose an oblong object poking from his neck. He tugs it out of Ridge’s skin and holds it up to the light.
“Fuck. A tranquilizer.” His voice i
s stark with fear as he looks up at the house.
Dare and I both rush inside at once, nearly getting jammed in the goddamn doorway as we race into the kitchen.
It’s empty.
He heads toward the front of the cabin while I sweep the bedroom and bathroom. When he meets me back in the hallway, I can tell by the devastation on his face that Sable is gone.
“Nothing.” His voice sounds dead, blank almost, like he has to turn off every emotion inside him just to get the damn word out.
“Fuck. Fuck.”
I could punch a hole through the wall. I could tear this cabin down with my bare hands right now. But neither of those things would get us closer to getting Sable back, and that’s the only thing that matters right now.
She’s the only thing that matters.
I jerk my chin toward the door, and the two of us rush back out into the night.
Outside, Archer is helping a woozy Ridge sit up. I’m surprised at the rush of relief I feel that he’s okay. Although we’ve never been enemies, I wouldn’t have called us friends either until recently. But I’m thankful as fuck that he’s not dead.
Ridge groans, rubbing the back of his neck where Archer yanked the dart out. “Someone snuck up on me. I heard a noise out here, and I came to check it out…” He trails off and looks up, his eyes so wide I can see the whites all the way around. “Sable?”
“She’s gone,” I tell him, my voice rough as fucking gravel.
Ridge launches to his feet so fast he almost keels right back over, but Archer grabs him and steadies him.
“We have to find her.” Ridge shakes his head, looking half-drunk as his body fights off the tranquilizers in his system. “I didn’t like the smell of this guy. Fucking sociopath.”
“You don’t think her uncle…” Archer lets the half-formed question die out.
