Page 33 of Mortal Blood
Cole brushed aside his explanation. “What happened here tonight?”
The man twisted his head round to glance at one of the wolves crouching on his flank, and Cole stiffened.
“Does he somehow know something you don’t, Owen?” he demanded in a low voice.
Owen quickly snapped his gaze forward away, shaking his head and tucking his chin even further.
“No, Alpha Heir. I— There was an attack—the Black Wind pack. They breached the perimeter but we fought them back.”
Panic turned my blood to ice. They’d been here. Kallan had been telling the truth. Which meant…
“My mom.”
I pushed past Cole. I needed to get to her, now.
Behind me, I heard Cole curse. “Jax, go and find Blaine. Meet us at the clinic.”
“Your father—” Owen protested hesitantly.
“I’ll pay my respects to the alpha in due course,” Cole snapped, and then he was at my side, grabbing my hand and stopping me breaking into a flat out run. “Cali, calm down.”
“Kallan’s been near her, she could be—” My throat closed around the word and I thought I was going to throw up. “She was supposed to be safe here, Cole, you promised.”
“We don’t know anything has happened yet, Cali.”
“We know they were here!”
“Yes.” He yanked me to a halt and I rounded on him. “And you’re acting like an idiot.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. We don’t know that the area is secure yet, and you could be running headlong into a trap.”
“You think I care about that? My mom—”
“Icare about that! Dammit, Cali, you think I could handle it if anything happened to you?”
I froze, staring into his eyes, and the anger slowly faded from his. He lifted one hand and swept a stray lock of hair from my face.
“We’ll go to her together,” he said softly. “But please let me make sure it’s safe.Whenwe get to your mom, she won’t thank me if I’ve allowed her daughter to be mauled by a stray wolf.”
I swallowed, and nodded.
“Okay,” I whispered. He was right, I was being reckless and I could get both of us hurt. But that didn’t make the cocktail of fear and urgency churning in my gut any less vicious.
Cole ushered me behind him, keeping one hand lightly on mywrist as he guided us through the shadows, pausing every dozen steps to listen and scent the air, and the slow, cautious approach was like acid on my frayed nerves.
At last, the medical center came into view, and Cole’s hand tightened on my wrist, dragging me to a halt right before I bolted for it.
“You smell that?” he asked grimly, and then shook his head. “No, of course not.”
“Smell what?” I asked, the hairs standing up on the back of my neck.
“Nothing.”
“Cole!”
“It doesn’t mean anything, Cali. We know they were all over the town.”
