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I glanced over at Sanai. “Can you choose your six best guardians to escort us? And, if Ava agrees, confirm with Deion it’s okay if the same two Spellbinders he sent outside also accompany us.”
Ava nodded emphatically. “Yes, we’ll be able to use their help for sure.”
Sanai tilted her head. “And what, precisely, do you want me to tell the police? They expect to begin conducting their investigation alongside ours.”
“And they still can. I leave it inyourcapable hands to start investigating things on this end. You’ve certainly done more of that during your time as captain than any of us have in our time as Packleaders.”
Her lips twitched. “You mean the whole hour you’ve been in charge? And when they ask where the hell you’ve all gone off to?”
“Tell the truth. We’re carrying out our own part of the investigation.” I cast a determined expression toward my brothers and Ava. “Now, let’s go get our girls back.”
* * *
Ava
There’d be no zipping around in my little red Corvette this time. Too many of us to transport, plus it’d just be plain foolish considering the danger. Which was how I found myself herded toward one of the Pack’s armored limos for the second time that day. Finn and Connor flanked me on each side, with Shea striding just ahead and the two Spellbinders—Rodrick and Zarya—watching our backs.
Sanai’s chosen guardians bustled us into two waiting limos, most of them riding in the second so the rest of us wouldn’t have to separate. The mood in our limo was a mix of grim and hopeful. For once, I couldn’t count myself among the “glass is half-full” members of our party. I’d already lost my sister that night and was facing the prospect of my closest childhood friend being a backstabbing traitor. I couldn’t shake the terror that I’d lose my nieces, too.
Potentially to the Dragon Lady, had shereallybeen the one to set all this in motion.
A chill swept across my skin at that thought. No matter how much I resented Grandmother, no matter the fact I knew the terrible things she’d done to claim power over Shifter society, no matter how much she’d always tried to manipulate me…I still didn’t want to believe that she would have ordered the murder of the granddaughter she loved merely to control the granddaughter she didn’t.
Especially since I still hadn’t figured out exactly what that tactic even get her. Instead of me being free to take over DC and then ultimately Boston upon her eventual death like she’d always planned, I’d been forced to assume control over St. Louis instead. Granted, I could pass that on voluntarily when the dust settled, if I so chose. Having Ava assassinated would only ensure I’d hate Grandmother and work even harder to thwart her. It for damned sure wouldn’t make me actuallycooperate.
“Nearly there,” Connor murmured a few minutes later, breaking me out of my whirling thoughts.
I found that I’d somehow pressed myself as close to his body as possible, and that Shea had moved his just as close to mine on the other side. Leaving Finn as the odd wolf out closest to the door. Something I was grateful for. As protective and supportive as he’d been that evening, it would take a lot more than that to bridge the distance between us.
A distance entirely of his own making.
Shea glanced down from his superior height. “Sanai arranged for Alexander to join us in the limo the moment we arrive. Your parents are sending two vehicles full of Spellbinders and the remaining Shadow Wolves we sent them earlier to help us search.”
I nodded, finding myself once again grateful for the energy source my bond with the St. Louis Pack now offered. It had been one hell of a night, and Moon Mother knew when it would actually end.
Not that I’d be able to rest until we found Rory and Sorsha.
We pulled up to the gate of my parents’ estate, which began opening before the chauffeur could even stop. A few seconds later, Alexander jogged to Finn’s door, flanked by the Shadow Wolves who he had thankfully kept from murdering anyone around them when the tether snapped. Once he safely slid inside and settled on the seat across from us, his guardians moved to the SUVs my parents had loaned for the search.
Alexander shook his head and met each one of his nephews’ gazes solemnly before locking eyes on me. “Words can’t express how sorry I am for failing you tonight.”
I’d only met Alexander a few times before, but the elegant man had never struck me as anything but fiercely competent and quietly kind. The complete opposite of his father-in-law who’d led the San Francisco Pack before Alexander’s wife Fiona—aunt of the wolves spread out around me—had taken over upon his death. No wonder they trusted Alexander more than they ever had their grandfather. Kind of reminded me how I felt about my own grandmother.
Although, to be fair, their grandfather hadn’t murdered his own spouse to attain power.
My lips twisted sardonically. “If any Beacon failed me tonight, it for damned sure wasn’t you, Alexander. From what I understand, you prevented a wholesale slaughter after the assassinations snapped the Pack tethers earlier.”
He sighed. “Perhaps, but I didn’t prevent the abduction of your nieces. The entire reason why you asked me to help tonight!”
“Noperhapsabout it,” Shea admonished. “Nothing says our nieces wouldn’t have been injured or worse in that chaos had you not dealt with it. At least we know they’re still alive, wherever they are.”
More of a hope than an actual certainty, but I was trying to reactivate my “glass is half full” mode.
And logically speaking, it did seem likely they were still alive. Had their kidnappers wanted them dead, they would have killed rather than abduct them. Alive, they could be used against the Pack; and particularly against me. That would prove true whether itwassome nameless group of renegades who wanted to start a War of Succession or if my grandmother was somehow behind all of this. Dead, my nieces would be of no use as bargaining chips.
And it pissed me off that anyone might think of them that way.
But I had to put myself in the same mindset that their captors might be in if I were to have any real hope of rescuing them.
