Page 149 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Icould hardly believe the plan we put into motion was working. Sam didn’t suspect anything, though she seemed a little put off that Clay was avoiding her. I couldn’t blame him, though. Even I couldn’t stand to be falsely civilized in her presence for more than a minute or two at a time.

It was a good thing she kept mostly to herself.

“Are they there yet?” Clay asked, his nostrils flaring as he paused in his pacing of the living room floor. “They should have been there by now.”

“Give them a few more minutes,” I said, holding my hands up in a placating gesture I knew would do absolutely nothing to soothe him.

Jared’s phone pinged, and Clay and I both whipped out heads to where he leaned against the counter in the kitchen, staring down at the illuminated screen of his phone.

“They made it,” he said in an exhale, throwing a shaky hand through his tousled hair.

I almost shouted out in relief, but settled for a grin that both my guys shared. “We did it.”

We’d casually spoken about the new order pick-up date and time in front of Sam yesterday, and like a good little snitch, she fed the information to the person on the other end of the phone just after midnight last night. We were even so kind as to include our plans for a route for the return trip.

Our order was in fact not delayed by a day as we’d allowed her to think.

In fact, it’d just been delivered without a hitch to Grove’s End’s hastily cleared out walk-in freezer in town.

And that was where it would stay for now.

We would make a trip later tonight to grab enough for a few days and smuggle it into our deep freeze in the cabin.

As far as anyone would know until we could tell them otherwise, the meat came from a last-minute trip to the K-Mart in Hillsborough.

Jared clapped Clay on the shoulder, and the big oaf nodded to his best friend with a pained smile. “Damn. I thought for a second…”

He let the sentence trail off, but we both knew what he was thinking because we were thinking it, too. He thought they were caught. That they were taken and our meat order was destroyed again.

“I told you this would work.” I couldn’t help but rub it in just a little.

If I thought Clay had been hesitant to go along with my crazy idea, Jared had been even more combatant about it.

He wanted to drag Sam in here by her hair and force her to talk.

He didn’t think trying to outwit whoever was behind this was smart. Or safe.

Which told me that neither of them were going to like what I had to bring up next.

“Okay,” I said, getting myself back in planning mode. “We finally got some food, so that’s good, but that’s only part one of the plan.”

I slid my gaze to each of them in turn, and their grins dropped, replaced with a stoic determination to see the rest of the plan through to completion.

Clay sat heavily in the armchair, and Jared leaned against the wall just behind him, folding his arms over his chest and putting his tan biceps on display.

I closed the distance between us, easily lifting the couch from its bottom ledge and dragging it closer to where they waited. We needed to speak quietly. It wasn’t just Sam we had to worry about overhearing; until we figured this out, no one else could know what was happening.

“Part two,” I started, pressing my callused fingers together in front of my face. “We know they’re going to try to head off the jeep on the way back from Portland.”

“We’ll do it like we talked about,” Jared continued.

“Turn the Jeep into a Trojan horse.”

“Jared drives. You and I coat ourselves in meat scent and hide in the back. When they attack, we’ll be ready.”

I bit my lower lip.

“I think we should bring a few others into this,” I blurted before I could change my mind. “The last time they attacked with eight. If they have the same number, maybe more, it’ll be a hard-won fight.”

“But we’ll have the element of surprise,” Clay reminded me, but I could already feel the change in the air between us. They both knew I was right. Likely had been thinking the same thing as me. I’d risk myself, but I wouldn’t risk them.

And they’d risk themselves, but they wouldn’t risk me.

Which meant that if we were serious about doing this, we’d need help, and they would have to know what they were signing up for.

“If we tell others, we risk Sam finding out she’s been made,” Jared put in, not an argument, just stating a fact. “And if she’s going to find out anyway, then we may as well just get what we need from her.”

“No,” Clay and I growled at the same time, making Jared narrow his eyes on Clay.

“I know she’s your sister, man, but if it’s between Allie and her—”

“You don’t think I get that,” Clay snapped, looking at Jared like he didn’t even recognize him. “That’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“First off,” I butt in, giving them both a cutting look that said to keep their goddamned voices down. “It’s not worth the risk of losing our ability to be one step ahead. There is a chance that she could find out, but she may not, and if she doesn’t, then we can still use her.”

Jared’s face pinched, and I could tell he was holding back from saying whatever it was that fought to be set free from his lips. “And second?” he gritted out. “I’m assuming there’s something else I don’t know.”

He shot me a glare, and I tried not to take it personally.

He’d been stuck covering my and Clay’s asses every night here at camp when we left.

I knew he was feeling left out of the loop, but his role was equally as important as the role Clay and I played when we went to listen to the bug in the Chevelle.

I made a mental note to send him with Clay next time. As much as I hated the idea of either or both of them being out there without me, it was only fair.

“Second,” I said, trying to rein in my wolf as she growled quietly within, put off from the vibe in the room. “She lied to him.”

“What?” Jared asked, frustrated and confused. “Don’t snap at her, man,” Clay shot at Jared, and seeing them in weirdly opposite roles from normal really made my head spin.

Jared ground his teeth together before repeating himself, more calmly this time. “What do you mean?”

“Sam lied to whoever was on the other end of the call last night.” Clay was the one who answered, leaning over the front of the armchair with his finger knotted between his knees. “She was asked about the search party routes and said she didn’t know where they would be.”

I remembered that moment clearly. The both of us so confused in the car when she said that she couldn’t find out without seeming too suspicious.

But we both knew that she’d been there at dinner, sitting just two seats down from Charity as she briefed Clay and a few others on this morning’s search party route.

We’d of course quietly suggested to Charity after dinner that she go the complete opposite way from which she was planning, but Sam had definitely heard.

I’d even seen her peek up at Charity halfway through, her gaze flitting back and forth over her barely touched macaroni salad as Char gave away her entire search plans.

“I think it’s because Clay was going to be with her,” I admitted, sending an apologetic glance his way.

He snorted as though that was highly unlikely, but said nothing to the contrary.

“You think she doesn’t want Clay getting hurt or taken?”

I nodded solemnly. “Either that, or she’s having second thoughts about helping whoever’s orchestrating all of this.”

Jared shoved off from the wall. “Don’t tell me you’re starting to feel bad for that lying piece of trash.”

Clay bristled but didn’t contradict Jared, and the tension in the room grew.

I held my hands up. “I don’t know what to think right now, Jare. I’m just saying I think we need to keep Sam in our back pocket. Go ahead as planned and keep her thinking she’s safe.”

“Fuck,” Jared muttered, shaking his head at nothing in particular as he toed the carpet. “So, who do we bring in, then? Another two or three would even our odds.”

“Seth,” Clay said straight off. “Maybe Charity. I trust them both more than anyone else here.”

I agreed with him. Vivian would’ve been another obvious choice had it not been her mate that was taken.

She couldn’t know about Sam or she’d kill her.

But I was tempted to let her unleash her fury on those responsible for what happened to her mate.

It’s what I would want if it were either of mine. Maybe…

“Maybe no one really has to know anything just yet,” I mused aloud. “Maybe we get a small team together. Seth, Viv, and Charity—”

“Allie,” Clay interrupted, giving me a look.

“Hear me out,” I urged him. “We tell them we have a lead on where and when the people responsible for this shit will strike, but we don’t tell them how we know. We don’t tell them about Sam. We swear them to secrecy.”

Jared sighed heavily, and it looked like he’d aged five years in the last few days. I was sure Clay and I didn’t look much better. “I don’t know about this, Allie.”

“It’s too risky otherwise,” I pressed.

“There’s risk involved either way,” Clay grumbled to himself, lifting his head with a decision set in his eyes. “But Allie’s right. I’d rather the kind of risk that might see Sam killed than the kind that might hurt any of us.”

Jared had nothing to say to that, working his jaw as he mulled over the less than perfect options on either side.

“Okay, but just Viv, Seth, and Charity. And we bring them to Grove’s End with us and tell them there. Then there’s no way of anyone overhearing.”

“And Layla,” I amended with a wince. “Someone here needs to know where we’re going and what we’re doing just in case...just in case we don’t come back.”

Jared’s face darkened at that, but grudgingly, he nodded.

“And I want to tell Layla about Sam.”

Clay’s eyes bugged out at me. “You’re kidding, right?”

I shook my head. “No. Layla is one of the most level-headed people I know. She will know better than to tell Vivian, and once I tell her why it needs to remain a secret, she’ll understand why she can’t tell anyone, and she won’t.

I trust her. And we need someone here who knows the whole truth just in case we—”

“Stop saying that,” Clay demanded, his voice growing in volume and agitation. “We’re coming back, Allie. With all the information we need to take whoever is doing this to us out. End of story.”

I wouldn’t upset him more by pushing the point, but I needed them to agree to this. I promised no more secrets, and so my intent to tell Layla everything had to be shared even if my first instinct had been to do it without saying a word to them about it so they couldn’t stop me.

“We need to do this. We need someone here who knows the truth while we’re gone. What if Sam tries something, hmm? What if she cries wolf and the pack goes running into a trap because I’m not there to give them orders otherwise?”

Jared pursed his lips. “That’s a good point,” he acquiesced. “Maybe...maybe you should stay behind. Then we don’t have to tell Layla anything and camp will have more protection.”

“Ha!” I scoffed. “You won’t be rid of me that easily. There’s no way in hell I’m letting the two of you go running into an ambush without me at your sides. Period.”

“I don’t know, Allie,” Clay started, his shoulders tensing. “Maybe Jared’s right—”

“Period,” I repeated, enunciating every syllable of the word.

They both quieted at that, and I realized my wolf was dangerously close to the surface, battering at my defenses for a good long run.

I hadn’t joined the search parties for a day or two and with everything going on, going for my daily run didn’t really seem like a priority.

And now, my wolf was the one paying the price.

She was chomping at the bit for some freedom.

“I’m going to go for a run,” I said, changing the subject. “Can you guys handle wrangling Seth, Char, and Viv? I’ll meet you all at Grove’s End later”

“You aren’t going anywhere alone,” Clay all but hissed, eyes slanting in a way that dared me to disagree with him.

“I’ll go with her,” Jared offered. “Think you can handle getting everyone together, brother?”

Clay nodded. “Yeah. I got it.”

“What about Layla?” Jared asked. “When are you going to tell her?”

I tried not to think too hard about it before replying in a heavy breath, “Now, I guess. Before my run. No point in waiting.”

I’d like to say that Layla was shocked at my admission about Sam, but the truth was that she didn’t seem surprised at all. She even told me in confidence that she’d heard several others whispering that they thought she might be the one to blame for everything that was happening.

I guessed Sam might’ve already hung herself before we even had the chance to untie her noose. Oh well, she’d dug her own grave. I just hoped we could get what we needed from her before the rest of the pack swapped out false niceties for their claws and fangs.

Just like I’d thought, though, Layla completely understood the reason for the secrecy and easily promised not to tell anyone anything.

Especially Vivian. At least for now. I’d promised her the truth would be coming out soon whether we wanted it to or not, and I’d take the full force of Vivian’s rage and all of the blame for keeping it from her when the time came.

Our friendship had weathered many storms since third grade. We could get through this, too. Or, at least, I hoped we would because I couldn’t imagine my life without my two best friends.

“So you’re going to the pub now?” Layla asked as she walked alongside me down the stairs and to the door. Jared nodded to us from where he stood near the front window, making sure no one drew too near to the cabin while we had our little talk upstairs.

“Going for a run first, then we’ll head over.”

She gave my arm a squeeze and tugged me in for a hug that enveloped me in her jasmine scent.

I didn’t know what it was about hugging your bestie when your life was falling apart all around you, but the instant her arms closed around me, a ball formed in my throat.

My eyes burned, and I had to work extra hard not to let myself cry.

I was afraid if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop.

“Be careful,” she said as she pulled away. “I’ll take care of things here.”

“I know you will.”

“Ready?” Jared asked from the doorway and the way half his face was cast in moonlight and the other in the dim shadows of the room made him appear to be two people instead of one. The Jared I fell in love with four years ago, and the one I loved now.

I wished he’d never had to go through what he did to create that second shadow self, but without it, he wouldn’t be who he was now, and I wouldn’t change a thing about him. Darkness and all.

My lips tipped up into a grin, and the knot between my mate’s brows softened. “Yeah,” I said. “I am.”