Page 14 of Found (Mate Rejected #8)

14

MACK

“ Y ou’re not going in alone.” My dad stops peering out of the front windows of our rental to snap at me.

I slept as well as I thought I would. Which was terrible, and so did everyone else, because no sooner had we all gathered around the dining table to discuss our next steps than we were already yawning.

“Last night was pointless,” I tell my dad. “We don’t have time to waste peering through trees in the hope of finding a way in.”

My urgency to act isn’t just because of the terrible nightmare I had about Aerin in desperate trouble and me not being there when she needs me the most.

It’s Clary.

Clary has been quiet at the dining table, head down, clasping his mug of coffee but has yet to take one sip from it.

He hasn’t mentioned leaping out of my car and charging to the forest, on his way to potentially getting himself killed. He hasn’t mentioned Douglas catching up to him and laying him out with one punch.

But just because he passed the night on the couch, watched over by Bennett and hasn’t attempted to slip away, doesn’t mean he won’t the second we’ve turned our backs.

“So what do you suggest?” My dad crosses his arms as he continues to scowl at me.

I run a hand through my hair as I slump into my seat. “I don’t know. I just know that waiting for an opportunity to slip in might mean we miss a chance to help Aerin and the other omegas who might need help now.”

Warren texted me this morning while I was in the bathroom. I called him back and checked in with everyone in Winter Lake. They’ve had no trouble at the house and Chris and Zoe are healing fine. Aerin’s grandparents have thrown themselves into the task of clearing up and repainting the den, ready for Aerin to come home.

And I had nothing to tell them.

“We’ll have breakfast and think things over,” Ivy says, getting up from the dining table. “Probably we’re all still a little grouchy from hunger.”

Douglas snorts.

Clary gets up from the dining table.

We all watch him closely as he walks out and into the living room before sinking onto a couch.

I glance at Bennett.

He shrugs.

While Clary was using the shower, Bennett said Clary didn’t try to leave in the night after he regained consciousness. He just sat up, seemed to recognize someone had brought him back to the rental, and lay back down again.

“Breakfast sounds like a good idea, Ivy,” I say, rising from my seat.

I try to hide my surprise as my dad heads to the refrigerator without any prompting and pulls out a carton of eggs. While Ivy and my dad prepare the meal, I can talk to Clary and try to cut off any attempts he might be planning to sneak out.

I turn on the TV and dial down the volume before I sink onto a far too hard couch beside Clary.

He doesn’t speak or even look at me.

“We’ll get them back,” I say as I take in the results for a football game and a brief roundup of the regional news.

He nods.

Behind us, pots rattle, water starts running, and the others chat between themselves about the insane traffic on the way to Michigan.

“I know it feels like we’re doing nothing, but they are here and so are we. It would be suicidal to charge in there without even knowing how many we’d be up against.”

“I always told her I’d fight for her,” he says so quietly, I barely hear him. “She’s right there—feet away from me—and I’m doing nothing to get her back.”

I know exactly how he feels.

“Do you know how Aerin and I met?” I ask him.

He shakes his head.

“She ran from her mate. He was not good to her. She was pregnant, afraid, had nowhere to go, but still determined to walk away the second her injury had healed.”

“Injury?”

“She nearly got herself run over by a semi. I shoved her out of the way and broke her leg in about four places,” I say wryly.

Not exactly the most romantic way to meet the love of your life.

“ Four !” his eyes pop.

“I still feel as bad about that today as I did then. She said it didn’t matter. That I saved her life, and that’s what’s important, but… I’m losing track. I fell so hard and so fast for her, I knew I would do anything to convince her to stay with me. And that I would do anything to make her happy.”

Clary looks at me.

I squeeze his shoulder. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her and the baby. Not one thing. Give me today. Can you promise not to go charging in there for one day?”

After a long look, where he seems to be deciding how much he wants to trust me, he nods. “Sorry I scared her in Winter Lake. I didn’t mean to make her fall in the forest.”

“I know, and so did she.”

When Ivy calls out to say breakfast is ready, I raise my eyebrow. “How about we eat something and get back to working out how we can save the women we love, huh?”

Smiling, he nods and gets to his feet.

We pass the day at the dining table.

We talk and we pace and we talk some more.

The map we have is okay for mapping out the town, but for the real nitty gritty of the Raleigh property, it’s useless.

We need to explore it on foot.

It’s after dinner, and we still have our plates on the table when the only way to get Aerin out invades my mind. I’ve been telling myself over the course of the meal that there must be another way, a less dangerous way, but there isn’t.

“We split up, find a soft spot, exploit it. Walk in and bam .” My dad slams the wall beside him.

I sigh when a dusting of plaster flutters from the ceiling. “We paid a security deposit. How about we refrain from destroying the place, huh?”

“Not my fault this place is made of cardboard,” he mutters as he stalks over to the dining table, grips the back of a wooden chair and twists it as he sits on it back to front.

“They’ll expect an attack at night,” I say.

Everyone looks at me.

“If I were them, I would have more men patrolling at night during the day, and I would pay particularly close attention to the forests,” I continue.

“So what are you suggesting?” Helena asks.

“An early morning attack. Maybe at 2 or 3. Right when they’re most tired and thinking it would be too late or too early for an attack.”

Douglas slowly nods. “It might work. We still don’t know their numbers, but at least we’d have the element of surprise.”

“We’d have to take full advantage of it and move fast. They have the omegas for leverage,” Bennett reminds us.

As if anyone here is likely to forget that.

Ivy studies me for a beat, then she gets to her feet. “Well, it’s nearly 7 now. How about we clear up this mess and have ourselves an early night? We can meet down here at 1?”

Clary nods.

I’m eager to go rescue Aerin, but I can’t deny that a large part of me walked away from this place over ten years ago and isn’t looking forward to confronting my old pack.

They were family, but because they took Aerin, they’re enemies.

That place has a lot of bad memories for me. Some good, but mostly bad. I’m not looking forward to going back there.

Cleaning up from dinner doesn’t take long when everyone is helping.

As they head up to bed, Ivy tells Connall she’ll see him upstairs.

As everyone heads up to bed, and I send Bennett upstairs to take the room I slept in upstairs, telling him I’ll take the couch, I join Ivy in the backyard.

She studies the moonlight, as inside, I hear someone using the bathroom, Clary I think, since he’s not on the couch.

“You were quiet during dinner,” she says, not looking at me.

“I was thinking of the best way to get Aerin out without her being forced into a hostage situation.”

“Me too.”

No matter which way we look at it, she is their leverage and they know it. They wouldn’t have taken her if they hadn’t intended to use her against us, and that means they will be keeping her close.

We stand quietly in the shadows of the covered patio as inside the sound of everyone moving around quietens down.

“You figured out a way, didn’t you?” Ivy finally asks quietly.

I lower my voice so no one inside will hear me. “We’ve exhausted all ways of getting Aerin out. All except the most obvious that puts her at the least risk of coming to harm.”

I feel Ivy look at me, so I turn to study her.

“You walk in and walk her out,” she says.

I nod.

She says nothing for a couple of seconds. “She won’t thank you for putting yourself at risk, and neither would Connall. And, since you’re family now, neither would I.”

“But?”

She squeezes my arm again. “Good night, Mack. Be careful.”

I watch her walk inside and close the door shut, then I hear her walk up the stairs.

And I turn to look into the distance, at where Aerin must be.