Page 217 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

“I’ll call the station and have a couple guys bring our other wolf down,” he said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t knowwhere you got that medicine, but I’m glad you did. Two men owe their lives to you. I’ll give it to the doctors. Maybe they can make more of it in their labs somewhere.”

I handed the vial over, the weight of the world lifting off my shoulders.

“I’m gonna give this to the attending physician and then call Mr. Kolchak’s wife,” Milbanks said. “I think she’ll be happy to know her husband is a healthy human again.”

“That was awesome,” Trent said with a big, goofy grin. “Like we were on one of those medical dramas or something.”

“Yeah, very cool,” Langston said dryly. “Look, I’m not starving like Kolchak was, but I’m hungry. You guys wanna grab something to eat at the hospital cafeteria before the next wolf gets here?”

“I’m down,” Trent said.

“You guys go on,” I said. “I need to catch my breath and tell Avery what’s going on.”

I stepped outside and sat on a bench beside the door, trying to make sense of the day. Lowering my head, I pulled my phone out and scrolled down to Avery’s number.

A woman walked past, heels clicking on the concrete as she did. I glanced up at the athletic legs that ended in black two-inch heels. She crossed directly in front of me and dropped a piece of folded paper on the ground in front of my feet.

I frowned down at the paper. It was taped shut.

“The fuck?” I muttered.

I picked it up. The woman was striding away quickly toward a car on the curb.

“Ma’am?” I called. “Ma’am, you dropped something.”

Either she didn’t hear me, or she was ignoring me. She opened the passenger side door and got in.

“Ma’am!” I shouted. “Wait!” The car pulled away. “Shit.”

I turned the piece of paper over in my hands and froze at the word typed on it.

Cole.

“What the hell?” I whispered, tearing the tape off and smoothing the paper out.

Two typed lines stared up at me from the paper:

Tomorrow night. Midnight. Be ready to fight for your son.

He says you owe him another game of HORSE.

Below that was an address I wouldn’t have known before the last few weeks. Kyle’s mansion.

Another game of HORSE? My mind drifted back to the day Ashton and I had hung out at the basketball court. We’d played HORSE that day. No one could have known that. As far as I knew, he hadn’t even told Avery. This was from someone Ashton trusted. My heart raced.

“Oh my God.”

I ran inside to find Langston and Trent.

51

AVERY

“You sure you don’t want to stay home?” Porter asked.

“No. It’s too quiet,” I said.

When Trent dropped me off, he’d called Porter to come and be the lookout at my house. I’d only managed to hang out there for about an hour before the silent rooms became oppressive. I didn’t want to be at Cole’s, and I didn’t want to be at my place. The only option that left was Stormy’s.

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