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M y eyes dropped to the picture I clutched in my hand a second before lifting them to meet Daniel’s gaze. “Why would Elias have a file on me? Pictures of me?”

He snorted and folded his muscular arms across his broad chest, pulling the fabric of the gray t-shirt tight around his biceps. “Probably because he’s obsessed with you.”

“He isn’t obsessed with me,” I countered. “He’s been helping me. He’s my friend.”

“Yeah, well your friend has been keeping tabs on you and your boyfriend,” he retorted coldly.

“Mate,” I corrected instinctively.

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Mate. Fine. The point is, Elias has been keeping tabs on you since you first showed up at that school last year. He even went as far as to dig into your history in Long Mesa. It’s all there, Skye.”

“That makes zero sense,” I snapped, narrowing my eyes. “He’s been helping me since I met him.”

“He’s been studying you since you met him.” Daniel scoffed, tossing me a look that was part pitying and part annoyed. “You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed how he’s constantly trying to get you and Remy to ‘test your bond’ or watch you or some other creepy shit.”

“It’s not creepy; it’s his job ,” I replied emphatically. “And aren’t you supposed to be working with him? Isn’t that the whole reason you’re even here? Because you’re helping him with his research?”

He growled, the sound low and ominous. “Jesus, wake the fuck up, Skye. I’m not helping him—I’m trying to figure out what his angle is. Elias isn’t the guy you think he is, or the guy my pack thinks he is.”

My spine stiffened. “You said your pack was gone. That you were the last one left.”

“I lied!” He threw his arms wide. “It was a fucking lie that Elias came up with as a cover story. Are you catching on yet?”

I glared at him, my wolf snarling and ready to attack. “Then who the hell are you?”

His arms fell to his side. “A friend.”

“A friend who happens to kidnap women?” I asked archly, still fully aware that he stood between me and the door.

“I’ve never kidnapped anyone, and neither has my pack.” He actually seemed offended at the suggestion. “If you’re talking about kidnappers, you might want to look a little closer to your own circle. Pretty convenient that all the girls who recently went missing are from your school.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I demanded.

“It means, princess,” he seethed, taking a step forward, “that your good buddy Elias has been absent every time one of those girls went missing.”

“Elias is an old man,” I answered coolly, rolling my eyes. “And I was there when two men, neither of whom were Elias, tried to kidnap one of my best friends.”

His jade eyes glittered. “Right. One of them killed himself, right? Blew his brains out in the snow?”

I flinched back at the reminder of the way the crimson sprayed across the freshly fallen snow. The grotesque image was seared into my brain.

“How did you know that?”

“Because his name was Daniel Christopher,” he replied smugly.

My breath caught. “That’s your name.”

“No, that’s the name of a guy Elias told me to be,” he fired back. “An identity he set up for me because he knew a dead man wouldn’t be using that name. A lone wolf he hired to kidnap your friends.”

I started shaking my head slowly. “You’re lying.”

“You know I’m not.”

“No,” I said stubbornly, refusing to pull at that loose thread. If I did, I had a feeling everything would unravel around me.

“My name is Dimitri Dashkov,” he said softly. “I’m from a pack in northern Russia in the Ural Mountains. Dr. Samuels approached my Alpha three years ago when he found out we had been making progress with the fertility issues plaguing all the packs. He wanted to study our methods. We stupidly let him in, and he’s spent the last year bastardizing his own version for his pack.”

My knees shook, threatening to give out. I blindly reached back for the edge of the couch before perching precariously on the arm. “No way.”

“Skye,” he crouched down in front of me, the move putting us almost at eye level, “I need to find Remy or Gabe and tell them about this.”

“Tell them about what? That you’re a liar and Elias helped you?”

His jaw clenched. “You haven’t asked one of the more important questions, you know.”

I glared at him. “Enlighten me, asshole.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ll let that slide. What you should be asking is: ‘What pack is Elias from?’”

“He’s never claimed allegiance to any pack,” I replied. It was what allowed him to move freely between packs and conduct his research.

“His nephew is Damien Valois.”

My head snapped up.

“Elias Samuels is from Norwood ,” he said slowly.

I shot to my feet. “No!”

“Think about it, Skye,” Daniel—no, Dimitri —hissed. “All the girls who went missing are from your school. Who knows the security systems and protocols of that place better than Dr. Samuels and the packs that left? They knew exactly how to get in, unseen, and take the girls they wanted.”

“Maren,” I gasped, my hand flying to my throat. “You’re saying they took Maren?”

He frowned. “I don’t know the names of all the ones they took. But if she went missing from the school, then, yeah. Odds are she’s in New York, inside the Norwood territory.”

“And they did this because of the theory that your pack came up with?”

“It’s a little more involved than that, but yes.” He glared at me. “The North American packs aren’t the only ones who have felt the strain of what’s happening to our species. But our Alpha had a theory, and so far? It’s working. It isn’t a full fix, but it’s enough to buy us more time.”

“What’s the theory?”

“Skye, I’ll tell you all of that, but right now? I need to find your Alpha or your mate and tell them something is going on.”

The gravity in his voice shook me. Something that looked like fear lingered deep in his eyes.

“They’re probably in the main building,” I muttered.

He turned on his heel. “Stay here. I’ll find—”

“Like hell,” I snapped, following on his heels.

He pulled open the door and paused, but I shoved him enough that he stumbled through the doorway and I could slip outside.

His hand clamped around my wrist, and the animalistic growl that ripped from my throat was a barely controlled warning from my wolf.

He had no right to touch us.

He held eye contact with me, but slowly removed his hand and stepped back to put distance between us.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, and it sounded sincere. “I shouldn’t have touched you.”

I rubbed my wrist. It didn’t hurt, but I didn’t like the feel of anyone else touching me that wasn’t Remy.

And my wolf definitely didn’t approve. She was currently Team Rip-His-Throat-Out.

“It’s probably safer for you if you stay here,” he added quietly.

“Safer?”

“Yeah.”

“ Safer means Remy could be in danger then, right?”

He barely nodded.

“Then I’m coming with you.” I turned and stormed down the stairs, trying to swallow the rising tide of panic. “Keep up.”

He started to mutter something under his breath, his boots stomping down the floorboards of the steps like they had personally offended him, when someone yelled my name from the right.

“Wait up, guys!” Tate called, jogging to cross the distance between us. The smile on her face slipped as she looked at us. “What’s going on?”

“Have you talked to Dante or your dad?” Dimitri demanded by way of greeting.

Tate’s eyebrows rose, her gaze flitting to me. “Not since they left this morning. Are you guys headed to the lodge?”

“Yeah. Apparently something is going on that Daniel ,” I grimaced, “needs to talk to them about.”

“Yeah, I do, and it would be better if you both waited here,” he snapped back.

“You said Remy’s in danger,” I retorted coldly. “That means I’m coming.”

“Whoa!” Tate yelled, stepping between us with her hands up. “What kind of danger?”

Dimitri looked ready to explode. “The kind that will probably happen if we keep standing around here talking about it. I’ll explain everything, but first we need to find them.”

“My dad and Dante are in trouble, too?” Tate asked softly.

“Honestly? I think we’re all in trouble.”

“Then I’m done waiting,” I replied, spinning around in the direction of the lodge.

I made it three steps before the world exploded in front of me. Glass, stone, and wood flew in every direction as the main lodge erupted into a fireball.

The force of the explosion knocked me clear off my feet, hurling me backwards. My head hit the ground and everything went black.