Page 51

We take up a spot in the back corner by the stage. Luckily, all the huge speakers, which look even bigger this close up, are pointing in the other direction so we’re not overpowered by the music.
“I wish everyone’s pack mark was visible,” Kinsey complains.
“Tell me about it,” I mutter. It would make it so much easier to pinpoint the shifters from Twilight Pack.
She fidgets from foot-to-foot. “We have to attack this together. If I let you out of my sight, Nathan will kill me.” She turns, smirking at me. “He told me so.”
My shifter heart grows about three sizes. Who doesn’t love someone threatening others for them? “Aww.”
“I know.” Kinsey’s eyes shine. “He’s—”
The groaning of bending metal splits the air. The hair on the back of my neck rises. Above us, a crackling explosion, almost like fireworks, bursts to life. Both of us whirl, hands in front of our faces as flickers of fire rain down from the gigantic speaker above. The music cuts out, and the world around us moves in slow motion as the speaker begins to separate from its fasteners one-by-one. My wolf barrels forward, in full protection mode, taking over in an instant with her superior abilities.
Before I’m even fully in my wolf form, she’s dodged out of the way as the tall speaker falls right where Kinsey and I stood. My wolf pants, heart beating a mile a minute as she scans the area for our friend. Other shifters are in their wolf forms now, too, growling and baring their teeth.
My wolf retreats, prowling low. In this form, I can tell which shifters are Daybreak and which come from other packs. In the dark, their symbols shine on their foreheads in soft, white light. My wolf blinks. I’ve only run with Nathan and my own pack at night, so I’ve never seen this nifty feature in real time with other packs involved. With my own pack, our symbol just fades away.
A beautiful brown and red wolf bolts for me, the Lunar Pack symbol of a quarter moon decorating the top of its head. My wolf knows who it is right away, and the feeling of friendship spreads through our limbs.
A howl carries on the wind, and Kinsey’s wolf ears twitch. A striking brown wolf barrels into view. When he spots Kinsey, he slows his pace. Directly behind him comes another wolf—one I’m very familiar with. He hangs back, though his eyes say everything.
Kinsey’s wolf nods as she looks at Jonah, and then she nudges me. The four of us leave the scene while those who were far away and were able to remain human come closer. While they stare at the downed speaker, questions pour forth as the electricals fizzle. Puffs of gray smoke billow into the sky.
Nathan takes up the rear, and Jonah leads, navigating us back toward the car against the growing crowd. My wolf spots his keys dangling off his front leg. Smart to always have them on him like that in case he needs to shift quickly.
When we arrive, Jonah transforms into human form, barking orders for us to stay the way we are as he opens the trunk. Nathan and my wolf turn away while Jonah is naked. With a bag hefted over his shoulder, he takes one of those worn paths that guides us to the woods. Just inside the forest, he takes out three sets of outfits, leading Kinsey further away. With the way they look at each other, they’ve already been talking, and Kinsey’s no doubt filling him in on what happened.
Nathan shifts and grabs a pair of loose-fitting exercise pants from the ground, tugging them on. “Jesus, Mia. Are you okay?” He runs his hands through his hair, staring at me while I make my own transformation into human again.
I stand from the ground with the borrowed shirt already in my hand. My shaking fingers give me away as I pull the clothing over my head. “It fell right where Kinsey and I were standing.”
Nathan sets his jaw. He tugs his shirt on, and I hurry and pull pants up my legs. They’re about five sizes too big, so I roll the hem and then realize I’ll also have to hold them in place so I don’t moon anyone. Once we’re fully dressed, Nathan starts forward like he wants to hug me, but he stops himself.
He breathes out heavily, hands flexing.
Jonah and Kinsey walk toward us. The serious look on Jonah’s face has me swallowing. “We need to go back over there,” he informs us. “We need to see if that was an accident or not.”
“What do you mean?”
Nathan fixes me with a hard look. “You and Kinsey just happened to be under a speaker that falls? I’m not buying it.”
“It could’ve been a fluke,” I offer. If this was Sean, I don’t understand what he wants from me. I’m the one who’s been in Greystone Academy all this time because he decided he didn’t want a mate.
“With what’s been going on,” Jonah starts, “it’s highly unlikely. We have to go back and record that it was you standing under there.”
Nerves still frayed, I follow the rest of them, returning to the festival. The broken speaker has put a damper on all the festivities. The spotlights are up, the music is still off. Street performers litter the meadow, but people are more interested in what happened than being entertained right now.
“There they are,” a shifter says, pointing at us as we make our way to the area behind the stage.
Jonah takes point, walking up to the group of shifters. Some of them are clothed and some not, having no doubt fallen victim to their shifter side when shit went down. In Jonah’s extra sweats, I feel ten times better talking to these guys than if I was in my Greystone uniform.
Kinsey and I explain to the festival workers that we were standing there when it happened. When questioned why we left, Jonah gets all growly, telling them that no mate of his is going to shift back in public. The old men of the packs nod and smile at him, looking amongst one another as if they remember that time in their lives.
Honestly, it’s a good thing Jonah is here because I suspect the conversation may have gone differently if it was just Kinsey and I trying to tell them the story. Jonah, however, turns the tables on them, asking how in the hell a speaker almost fell and injured his mate. He also vows to take it up with Daybreak’s alpha to make sure that the equipment goes through regular safety checks.
When Alpha Richard’s security arrives, Jonah tells them the same thing. They make a report, transferring to a quieter area to do so because the festival is back in full swing. They may not have a band—they’re still being interviewed—but they have a Bluetooth speaker.
Kinsey, Nathan, and I move toward the bonfire as the night drags on. The heat from the flames helps calm me.