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Damn him.
I explained everything to Emily, revealing mine and Griffin’s trip to the Black Hole. At first, she was absolutely livid and smacked my arm.
“I thought we were past the lies and secrets,” she yelled, her arms thrown in the air, waving about. “Quit treating me like I’ll break. I’m not a piece of glass!”
She continued to scold me—first, for going somewhere so dangerous, and then for not telling her. Though, she was pleased that Griffin and I worked together. Meanwhile, the smug jerk sat there with a grin on his stupid face the whole time while I got chewed out.
“Why am I the only one in trouble for going?” I asked, motioning to Griffin.
“Because you’re the one that repeatedly keeps things from me, even though I keep telling you that I can handle it.”
Despite her angry tone, I could tell she was more worried than pissed, which gutted me. I stood and reached for her, my hand snaking through her fingers, just as Griffin moved toward her, wrapping his arm around her. In a strange way, it was as if we were working in sync to comfort our mate.
“I know you’re worried,” I said, holding her gaze. “But we’re fine.”
“Well, if you can go, then so can we,” Emily said, visibly relaxing but pulling away and crossing her arms.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” I said, quickly adding, “besides, we didn’t find out anything, anyway.”
Emily rolled her eyes, and Ember leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. “Well, you guys didn’t know where to look.”
“Then at least let us go with you,” I suggested, hoping they would meet me halfway. But no, Emily was too stubborn to let me help now.
“We can do it ourselves,” she answered, her eyes hard and her lips pursed. “We took down a feral wolf on our own, so I’m sure we can handle a few supernaturals.”
I tried to reason with them, to tell Emily that even though I believed she could handle it, there was safety in numbers. But she insisted they go alone.
“It’d be less risky if we had fewer people,” Ember reasoned.
“Besides,” Emily chimed in, “Griffin’s still sick. He can’t go out like that.”
I didn’t mention that he was sick the last time because I didn’t want Emily to renew her worry.
But the moron blurted out, “I was sick the last time we went, and I did fine.”
Nice work, asshole.I got a scolding look from Emily for that one.
* * *
CASSIAN
Emily was hesitant to go, but Ember told her that she would be going in the morning, with or without help, so Emily was quick to agree. They decided to stay the night at Griffin’s since it was closer. My only consolation was that he would be tied up with the change and wouldn’t be alone with Emily all night.
Ember rode back to the warehouse with me so she could grab her car. I made her promise to be safe and not do anything stupid while they were there. She assured me she didn’t want trouble any more than I had.
After Ember left, I called the other alphas in the area to let them know about the feral wolf attacks and ask if they’d heard anything. I used my father’s old address book—or, as I called it, ‘alpha book’ because it had contacts and information that only the alpha knew. It was the first time I’d really looked through it because I hadn’t really needed it up to this point.
I skimmed through the contacts, looking in the New York list of packs. One by one I called each number, every call as disappointing as the last. No one knew anything about the ferals besides they turned crazy. That was it. But it wasn’t a total loss. A few alphas had the potential to join us in this fight.
My eyes glanced at the page, looking for the next number on the list.
Ash Hounds.
I dropped my pen as I read the name over and over again. Seek the Ash Hounds, and you seek the truth. That was what the fortune teller said. It couldn’t be a coincidence—this had to be the same Ash Hounds that she referred to.
My fingers hovered over the numbers on my phone, hesitant to dial. If this really was them, what would I say?
Without second-guessing myself, I pressed the call button and waited as it rang four times before a deep, raspy voice answered the phone.
“Alpha Radolph speaking.”
