Page 52 of Pack Ruin
“The food. The squirrels and rabbits in the lean years when you were still a kid yourself. The rice and grain from the kitchen after you started working for Del. Ma and I would’ve starved more than once without the extra you brought us.”
Oh yeah.I remembered dropping two rabbits off on her porch one December, when I’d heard her mother coughing from three streets away. Shifters rarely got sick, but that year, too many weak ones had died of starvation and the cold.
“So thank youagain, Flor.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat, my heart aching. “I wish you’d thanked me then,” I said quietly. “I wish anyone had.”
“We weren’t allowed. You knew that, right?” She sounded shocked.
I was, too. I shook my head. No one had talked to me; no one had ever befriended me since…
I blinked as she pulled the neckline of her shirt lower.“You probably don’t remember, but when we were eight, I shared a sandwich with you at lunchtime. The teacher caught me and turned me in to Blackside. He used a hot silver poker to give me a necklace.” She angled her neck so I could see a row of irregularly spaced, permanent welts—about the size of a cigarette end—placed along her collarbone and disappearing behind her long, dark hair. “Our whole class was warned that if anyone so much as smiled your way, they’d get far worse.”
I wanted to throw up. Of course Blackside had done that. “I guess… I can’t blame you for not helping me after that.”
The last thing I expected was for her to laugh. “Not helping?” She patted Delia’s hair and smiled down at the girl, who was now sleeping somehow. Then she glanced back at me, her dark eyes gleaming with a fierce, stark fire. “We helped you for four years, Florida Wills.”
“What–what do you mean?”
“You know what they say. The pack protects, right? Well, the males in our pack did a shitty job of that. But the females? We did everything we could, even if you never knew it. We cut the hole in the fence back at least five times after someone on patrol mended it, making sure it looked like some animal wasdigging it out. They eventually gave up fixing it. We made loud noises when you were running along the dorm rooftop so Holly wouldn’t hear you. We brushed dirt over your footprints, and swept bleach over the spots where you holed up that had your scent. The ones we could find, anyway. You were really good at hiding. Maybe just not as good as you thought.”
My jaw was hanging open, but she kept on. “We made sure you had cinnamon to cover your scent, even when the kitchen was running low. Some of us even grew the ghost peppers Del dried for your secret weapon in our backyards. You think you stayed safe all on your own? Every unranked female in our pack helped keep those bastards from catching you. And we’ll do it again now, if it means you get clear of here.”
She met my gaze and held it for longer than any other shifter besides my mates had been able to, since Brand claimed me. “We’ll get you free tonight, but you have to promise me one thing. Don’t come back. Don’t ever let them catch you. You’re our hope, do you understand? Hope is the only thing we have left, and we can’t lose it now.”
24
The Worst Plan in the History of Plans
FLOR
Her words pounded into my mind like sledgehammers, changing not only my plans for the near future, but my memories of the years I’d lived here before. So many small things I’d noticed and dismissed while I was being hunted began to make sense. The bleachy smells had been them. The windows left unlocked. Who even knew what else.
The pack protects.I’d thought it was a lie for so long. But what if I’d only been seeing the worst parts of my pack? If they’d been helping me all along, how could I leave them to suffer here now? Even with Holly taken care of, they were caged in this building.
I was their hope. That word taunted me like a pissed-off mockingbird dive-bombing my focus.
I closed my eyes and sent my attention to the bond with Glen.Huh.He wasn’t scared anymore. He felt wary, excited…fascinated, even. But not afraid. That meant I had time. It wasn’t even midnight yet. I could get clear.
At that exact moment, Delia let out a tiny, snuffled sob as she slept. The sound was like a silver dart in my chest. Not just me. I had to get the women in this building out, too.
My throat tried to tighten, but I forced out a question. “How many?” Iris raised an eyebrow. “How many girls, how many unranked women are in this building? How many need to get out?”
“Get out—” Her jaw snapped shut. With tears shining in her eyes, she rasped, “Twenty-four, besides us.”
I had no idea how I could get twenty-nine girls out. But I’d have to. From the sounds of the muttered, “Oops,” and the sudden absence of Holly’s muffled shrieks, we had a dead body. The guards would notice her absence in the morning.
“Can they be trusted? Can they all run? Or climb?”
“Flor, if it means getting out of Southern, they could fly.”
I walked to the window and thought. Ihadto get Luke out. That was my primary goal. But I couldn’t leave these girls here to die, either.
Fuck.What should I do? I stared outside for a moment. Brand would let them live inside Mountain’s borders. But that was too far from here. There was only one place, one group, close enough to hide them. Sergeant’s rogue pack.
“How much time do we have?”
Iris answered quickly. “Five hours. The bell rings at four-thirty.”
