Page 165 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“All right,” Trent said. “Head home. Get some food, get some rest. If you have ladies waiting for you, get some nice, hot… er—” Trent glanced at Stormy and Avery awkwardly. “Hotbaths. Yeah. Baths.”

On the ground at my feet, the hostage let out a low, muffled groan of pain.

“Shit,” Langston cursed. “He’s waking up. Get his ass over there,” he said, pointing at Trent’s truck.

We grabbed his arms and dragged him to the truck, where we tossed him in the back seat. I flicked the childproof lock, then slammed the door shut. The guy’s eyelids fluttered, but the left didn’t quite open all the way, the lid glued partly shut by dried blood.

“What the fuck,” he moaned, and slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position.

The window was down a crack. Langston reached forward and snapped his fingers in front of the glass to get his attention.

“Hey. Wake up. Look at me,” Langston said.

The man put a hand to his head and winced. Realization washed across his face, and the look of pain vanished, panic taking its place.

“What the fuck? Where am I?” he shouted.

Ignoring him, Langston said, “If you try to shift, you won’t get far, got it? You got a whole pack who’ll run you down. You know as well as I do what wolves do with cornered prey, right?”

The man nodded hesitantly. “Got it.”

“Is this guy going to give us the same info Dallas would have?” Avery asked.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, I said, “Hopefully. Things didn’t go as planned, but this is better than nothing. Hopefully, he can tell us something we don’t already know.”

Avery leaned into me. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I wouldn’t care if you came back with nothing as long as you’re safe. When Kyle called, I was afraid he’d say you were hurt or dead or something.”

Turning to her, I tilted her chin up and kissed her. “It’s over now,” I whispered.

A flood of emotion washed over my wolf and me. Hearing her say she was worried about me did something strange to me. It madeit feel like things were getting back on track between us. Even if life was still a minefield, at least we had each other.

Langston cleared his throat. “Sorry to interrupt, but we need to figure out what’s next.”

I nodded, sliding my hand into Avery’s. “Right. Let’s go inside.”

Langston beckoned Porter over and gestured to the prisoner. “Can you watch this piece of shit while we all talk?”

“No problem,” Porter said. “Making plans gets boring. You kids have fun now.”

“Hey!” The prisoner banged his hand on the glass. “It’s hot in here. Can I get some water or something?”

“Drink your piss if you’re thirsty,” Porter said, slapping his hand on the roof of the truck.

I followed Langston and the others back to the house. As I walked, Avery squeezed my hand. Regardless of how badly things had gone today, my mate was at my side. Wewouldget through this. Wewouldsave our son.

And we’d do it together.

40

AVERY

We congregated around the kitchen table, and I sat on Cole’s lap. Sitting beside him wasn’t close enough. After the phone call, the fear, I didn’t want to be away from him. Our fight seemed millions of miles and hundreds of years in the past. Now, all I wanted was to be near him. In the chaos, Cole was all I had, the only thread that connected me to my missing son.

He placed a hand on my thigh and rubbed my back as the others got comfortable.

“What exactly happened while we were gone?” Langston said. “Zayde said Kyle made contact?”

“He did,” I said. “We tried to track his call, but it didn’t work.”

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