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This is fucking stupid. Madden was right, the police are taking fucking forever to figure out a plan for this rescue mission.

I have no clue what they’re doing, but I do know they’re taking too god damn long.

“How’re you doing, big guy?” I ask Madden, who’s finally able to walk steadily across the room without all of us thinking he’s going to keel over.

“You know, it’s kind of a miracle, how quickly you’ve been able to recover,” Charlotte says to Madden, walking into the room. Dawson, one of her mates is behind her, carrying a platter of different foods from his dive bar.

“Oh my god, are those buffalo wings?” I say, jumping up from my chair. “My hero.”

“Yup,” he nods, setting them down at the table.

“How’re you feeling?” Charlotte asks Madden.

“Better,” he nods. “Obviously not great, but I don’t want to stab my eyes out whenever I look at any light.”

“That’s a lot of improvement,” She nods. “You know, I should totally use you as a guinea pig in some sort of study on alpha andomega recovery times. There’s not a lot of information about that.”

“I don’t know if I like the language of ‘should’ when it comes to you experimenting on my packmate,” Archer says casually.

We all start crowding around the small table with the platter of food.

“This shit is phenomenal,” I groan. “So much better than hospital food.”

“Anytime,” Dawson nods.

I look at my four packmates, all standing around the small table with grim looks on their faces. Pretty sure all of us have had the same facial expressions for the past three days.

“Guys, what if we take one of the company cars and go in ourselves? We know exactly where Luna is right now and we have no clue how long she’ll be there for.”

“I’m going,” Madden grunts, wiping his hands on a napkin.

“Hey, wait, I know you’re a speedy healer but that’s a horrible idea,” Charlotte chips in. “Especially for a rescue mission like this.”

“I’ll be fine,” he growls.

“I think Charlotte’s right,” Archer says softly. “It may be for the best if he hangs back for this.”

“What about me?” Charlotte asks, making both Madden and Dawson huff, though for different reasons.

“No way in hell you’re doing anything strenuous, not when you’re so far along in your pregnancy,” Dawson growls.

“Why’re you asking ifyouget to go when you sayIcan’t? She’s my mate.”

Charlotte crosses her arms over her chest.

“But Luna’s definitely hurt. A gunshot wound, minimum. She’ll need a doctor, and we all know she prefers me to a beta or alpha doctor.”

“We can use the bar as a base for the operation,” Dawson suggests. “That way, Madden can still be close to the action since we’re closer to the Southside and if anything goes wrong, we canall go in. Once you’ve rescued Luna, you can bring her back there too so Charlotte can check her out.”

“Using your bar as a base is a good idea and a generous offer,” Archer nods. “Thank you.”

“It’s a good plan, but I’m still going,” Madden insists. “I can be the getaway driver or some shit if you don’t want me to see action, but I’m not letting you rescue Luna alone.”

The look in his eyes is haunted. As if he’s still beating himself up internally for letting them take Luna. I totally get where he’s coming from.

I glance at Archer and Kane and we all share the same look.

“Okay man, we have a plan,” I say, nodding to Madden. I pull out my phone. “I think we should call Officer Stone and just let him know what we’re doing. Out of respect.”