Page 23 of Found (Mate Rejected #8)

23

AERIN

I ’m sitting in the passenger seat of Mack’s car, under strict orders not to get out, no matter what I see or hear.

Clary is in the driving seat, and he seems to be handling the speed of events much better than I am.

I had expected his pack from New Mexico to arrive to help free Leah and the kidnapped omegas.

I had not expected members from the other packs also missing their omegas to descend on the small, two-bedroom house in the suburbs.

The neighbors must have wondered if we were having a party with all the cars parked outside.

“We’ll get him out,” Clary says as we make the final approach to the Raleigh property.

I aim a faint smile at him. “And we’ll get Leah.”

He nods.

Altogether, there are fifty of us.

I have never seen so many packs working together with one common goal: rescue kidnapped omegas.

If a shifter wandered into a new city and stumbled into a pack who viewed that territory as their own, the usual response was to chase that shifter away or kill them.

I grew up hearing stories of how omegas are so prized, so rare, and so valuable that Alphas would snatch her up and cage her if she wasn’t careful.

It’s surreal to be sitting in the passenger seat of a car, parking a few miles away from the forest belonging to the Raleighs, and knowing that moments from now, nearly forty shifters are about to launch a coordinated attack to rescue omegas.

We’re not all friends, and after tonight, we will all go our separate ways, back home and probably never see each other again.

“This is still the most suicidal plan I’ve ever heard,” Helena says.

I grin at the cell phone I stuffed in the center console minutes before.

She’s in another car with Bennett.

Her role, like mine and Clary, is to take the omegas back to the house. Bennett and some of the others will be going into that forest soon and leading them to us, and we’ll be driving them away to safety.

“I know. How do you feel about sitting out the fight?” I ask her.

“Honestly, kind of relieved. Those first few minutes are going to be insanity. I’d probably accidentally kill the wrong person,” she says.

I grin. “You’re an enforcer. I doubt that.” And she’s not completely sitting out this fight. She’ll be going in the back way with Bennett and a handful of the others to guide the omegas to us.

The bulk of the fighting will be happening where I don’t think the Raleighs will expect it to happen.

Their front door.

When my dad had suggested the idea in a house jam-packed with shifters from more than a dozen Midwest packs, there was complete silence for three seconds.

“You want us to walk right in there?” Connall had said slowly.

“We’ve been going around and around the issue of getting in without them seeing us first, and we will keep on circling the issue and not find a fix for it,” my dad had said.

“What exactly are you saying?” Clary’s Alpha, a lean dark-haired and blue-eyed man had asked.

“I’m saying it’s time we give up on the idea of a sneak attack. It isn’t happening and they are likely anticipating us to do just that. Let’s take the fight to them. Hit them hard and hit them so fast they turn all their attention to the front, to us,” my dad had said.

“Leaving the forest clear for some of us to get the omegas out,” Bennett had added.

“They’ll be watching the omegas,” someone had said.

A red-headed man had nodded. “The second we attack, they’ll start using them as hostages. They’ll order us to back off or else.”

“But Mack is in there,” I’d said and had wanted to hide my face when everyone had looked at me.

I’m used to being in the forest, alone, not part of anything important.

But I had not shied away from the attention.

I’d stiffened my spine. “Mack knows we won’t leave him there for long. The reason he went in was to get me out and find a way to get the omegas out too. He won’t wait to do that.”

The conversation had ground on for hours as we debated how we would launch the attack, where, who would go where, and do what. One of the hardest things to estimate was co-ordination.

None of us know when Mack is going to try to free the omegas, and we hope that we don’t act too fast or he won’t get a chance.

“When do you?—”

“ Shh !” Clary hushes me, twisting in his seat and angling his head toward the dark forest.

I can’t see anything, but it sounds like something might be happening.

The others weren’t going to attack the front until 1:30. The clock on the radio is 1:15.

Has the attack already started? Or did one of the Raleigh guards spot them approaching the house and set off a warning?

I rest my hand on my belly, wishing I wasn’t so pregnant that I have to sit this fight out. I had refused to stay at the house and just wait for news. My heart wouldn’t have been able to take it, and I’d have worn a hole into the floorboards with all the pacing I’ve been doing lately.

Eventually, Ivy and the others had agreed that as long as I was in a car parked as far away as possible, with the engine running, that Clary could get me away before anyone could grab me.

I only think they agreed to me coming because I reminded them that if I stayed at the house, I would need someone to stay with me, and we couldn’t afford to spare anyone when everyone was needed for the fight and the rescue.

There are four cars altogether, which should mean there’s plenty of space for all the omegas. I watch as two of the car doors up ahead open and Penny, Colton, and a couple of others get out and dash into the forest.

“I can’t see anything,” I whisper, still straining to see in the darkness.

And then, in the distance, lights start to come on. So many of them that I know something is happening in the farmhouse.

A wolf suddenly leaps onto the road, and I know exactly who the wolf is.

Mack.

For one brief second, he stares right at me and I don’t know what to do more, burst into tears because of my stupid hormones, or scramble out of the car and hug him.

I don’t have a chance to do anything because he’s not alone.

Women stumble out of the forest, all are shivering, teeth chattering, and they look stunned.

Clary leaps out of the car and rushes toward the women.

The drivers of the other cars wrench their doors open and within moments, all the women are in the cars and they are peeling away.

Clary helps three women into the back of our car and climbs back into the driver’s seat, slamming the door shut behind him. None of the women are Leah.

“Where’s Leah?” I ask.

He snaps on his seat belt. “In another car.”

That explains why all the tension in his shoulders has melted away. His mate is safe and away. We’ve done what we came here today, and barely had to do anything because Mack did the rescuing for us.

All that planning, talking, and build up for a moment that only lasted five minutes.

When I look for Mack, he’s gone.

“Did you see Mack?” I ask Clary as he puts his foot down on the accelerator.

Clary shakes his head. “By the time I got to the women, he was gone.”

I twist in my seat as I look into the forest.

But there’s no sign of him.

He was out. He got the omegas out. Why did he go back?