Page 19 of Found (Mate Rejected #8)

19

AERIN

I get halfway down the road before I have to stop. Tears fill my eyes and I can’t see.

Sniffing, I drag my sleeve across my eyes, move to press on the accelerator, then scream as I slam on the brakes.

Slowly, I loosen my death grip on the steering wheel as the man I was not expecting stalks around the side of my car and pulls the door open, sighing when he sees me.

“My boy did exactly what I think he did, didn’t he?”

I look Mack’s dad in the eye, and I burst into tears. Then I remember what he thought of omegas when we first met. “If you even think of accusing me of being weak, I’ll?—”

He unbuckles my seatbelt, helps me out of the car, and pulls me into the most unexpected hug I think I’ve ever had in my life.

“You’re not weak, Aerin.”

“I just left him behind,” I say as my eyes burn. “I should have made him come with me.”

Connall blows out a sigh. “Mack, for all his quiet ways, is and always has been surprisingly stubborn. Come on, let’s get you to the house.”

I frown at him. “What house?”

He blinks in surprise. “Mack didn’t tell you?”

I shake my head. “He said we would talk, but now I realize he only really wanted one thing from me.”

“And that thing was?”

“Me safe.”

Connall nods. “That sounds like Mack. Come on now. Let’s get to the others.”

I’m still confused about the house and this talk of others, so I can only assume he means the rest of the Winter Lake Pack and maybe Ivy, since he’s now living in Virginia with her. If he’s here in Michigan, then she will be as well.

He helps me into the passenger seat because getting into and out of a car while heavily pregnant requires two people.

“Did he tell you anything?” Connall asks as he resumes driving.

I shake my head. “Just that I should be safe if I drove for a bit. That someone would come to me.” I consider his strange response that hadn’t made much sense a few minutes ago, but now it makes perfect sense. “I guess that means he must have known you would be here to meet me.”

Before he’s finished parking in front of an ordinary suburban style home, the door is swinging open, and I was right to think the Winter Lake Pack was here.

So is Ivy. And so, to my surprise, is my dad.

“Dad!” I open the car door, move to get out, and nearly fall on my face.

He helps me out.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Given he dropped everything to come to Winter Lake when he heard you were missing, I’d say he wanted to get you back as much as we did,” Bennett says.

I give Bennett a quick hug, and turn to my dad, surprised. The Boone Pack is everything to him. All my life I’ve come second, and now suddenly he’s putting me first?

“You dropped everything? For me?” I stare at him.

He shrugs, though his tone is almost embarrassed when he says, “The pack will manage without me for a couple of days. I gather that mate of yours handed himself in to take your place?”

I start to defend Mack.

Dad shakes his head. “Thought as much. You picked a good one, Aerin.”

“We have to get him back,” I say. “We can’t leave him there.”

“Inside now,” Ivy says. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

We gather at the dining table in the kitchen.

No sooner am I seated than Ivy is throwing a blanket over my shoulders. And even though I’m not cold, I wrap the blanket tighter around myself because it smells like Mack.

“When was the last time you ate?” she asks.

“Uh…” The meal Mack brought for us, but when I try to remember how long that was, I can’t remember.

“I thought so. You look like you’re starving.” Ivy walks over to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and peering inside. “I’ll throw something together.”

I don’t think I look like I’m starving. I feel like I’m in shock.

“Mack agreed to stay there if they let you go, didn’t he?” Clary, the shifter from New Mexico, who had turned up in Winter Lake, looking for his omega mate, asks.

He hasn’t joined us at the table.

He stands a little apart, hands stuffed in his pockets, beside the doorway.

I nod. “Mack, for all he’s the most mellow guy I’ve ever met in my life, is surprisingly stubborn about some things.”

Notably, keeping me safe.

Connall hums in agreement, and narrows his eyes at Ivy. “You knew he was going, didn’t you?”

Ivy is busy cracking eggs into a white bowl. “He was going to sneak out regardless of what I said or did. You saw how quiet he was when we were eating dinner.”

No one looks surprised by what Mack did, and truthfully, neither am I. I wanted to argue with him, to tell him that there had to be a better alternative, but Mack isn’t stupid. He wouldn’t have done what he had if there was another way. And Mack is Mack. He would absolutely be the sort of person to sacrifice himself for others.

“Did he have any orders?” Bennett asks.

I shake my head. “Not particularly. But I don’t think there’s a way he could have told me without worrying about someone overhearing. I told him I knew the omegas were there, and he said I had to leave. He would figure out a way to get them out.”

Clary straightens. “Did you see Leah?”

Nodding, I smile at him, relieved I have some good news for him. “I told her you’d come to Winter Lake looking for her and that you would find her.”

He swallows hard. “Did she look okay? They haven’t?—”

“No,” I softly interrupt him. “I don’t think anyone hurt her. She and the other omegas didn’t look like they’d been mistreated.”

Something sizzles and I glance over at the stove.

Ivy is making an omelet it looks like, and from the smell of sharp cheese and salty ham, my grumbling stomach can’t wait for it.

Connall sets a bottle of water down in front of me and I smile gratefully. “Thanks.”

“So my son is going to find a way to break the omegas out?” Connall asks.

I twist the lid off the bottle. “He said he would, but I don’t think he could do it alone. That house was full of Raleighs.”

“How full?” Colton asks.

Penny smiles tiredly at me, and I return her smile. She’s usually a ball of energy, but the last couple of days must have been exhausting for them. I missed most of the car ride to Michigan after Shane knocked me out, but from their tired faces, they’re all functioning on minimal amounts of sleep.

“Franklin invited me and Shane to dinner one night. I think so I’d know how many Raleighs there were and wouldn’t try to escape. The room was full. I think there must have been fifty or more,” I say.

“ Fifty ?” My dad frowns. “And all were Raleighs?”

I nod. “I think so. They all seemed pretty loyal to Franklin. He’s the one in charge.”

“The name doesn’t ring a bell,” Connall says, his expression thoughtful. “What did he look like?”

I give him a brief description of the alpha, including the scars on his face.

But Connall’s expression doesn’t get any clearer. “The scars could have been after I left. There was no Raleigh with a scarred face when I led them.”

Ivy sets a plate with a golden brown omelet in front of me and passes me a knife and fork. “It’s not much, but?—”

“It’s perfect. Thanks Ivy.”

As I eat, I answer all the questions I can about the Raleighs. Since my time was mostly limited to my room, and I have a feeling that Franklin only let me see what he wanted me to see, it’s hard to know how useful my information is.

I don’t know about the boundaries or if there were any enforcers doing patrols. But probably. Franklin seemed to always know where I was when I left the room, which means he must have had someone watching me.

“I need to do something,” Clary says.

All heads swivel to face him.

Bennett frowns. “You can’t go back there. Not now. It’ll just undo everything Mack has done.”

“I’m not going to sneak in,” Clary denies as he pulls his cell phone from his pocket. “I just need to make a call.”

“To?” Connall asks.

“For help for when we go in there,” he says, walking out before we can ask where that help is coming from.

I’ve barely finished my meal before I’m yawning, exhausted.

“You should go up and get some rest,” Ivy says.

“You won’t go and rescue him without me, will you?” I ask.

Connall snorts. “I doubt he needs rescuing. More of an opportunity to cause mischief, so we know when to walk in.”

Everyone looks at him. Me included.

“But Mack agreed to stay,” I remind him.

“He wanted you out of there so he could act without them using you as leverage to do what they wanted him to do,” Connall says.

My dad nods. “Now he’s there, he can do more there than he could here.”

“Like free the omegas?” Penny asks.

“And create an opportunity for us to get in,” Colton adds.

Clary returns to the kitchen, tucking his cell phone into his pocket.

“What did your Alpha say?” I ask.

“He asked us to wait until he and the others arrive. Now that we know for sure that Leah is here, they’re jumping on the first plane here. They should arrive tomorrow evening.”

But it’s still not enough, I can’t help but think. There’s barely twenty of us and against the Raleighs that is not nearly enough people.