Page 48 of Venom Island

I gape at her. “What?How the hell would you like me to do that?”

She points to my watch. “With that.”

I lift it up for her to see. “There’s no connection.”

She grins. “Yeah, I can fix that.” She looks at Xavier. “Flip it on.”

“I don’t answer to you, Fran.”

She rolls her eyes. “Just do it, X. If Riq here is telling the truth…” She lets the sentence hang, the two of them engaging in a battle of wills between their gazes.

All while the howling grows in the distance.

Definitely Alpha male howls.

“I don’t have fucking time for this,” I snarl, pushing past Francesca—something that’s easy to do this time since her attention is on Xavier.

Except she grabs my arm, her claws digging into my flesh.

“Don’t,” she warns me as Philippe steps into my path.

“Caja needs me,” I say, my voice lethally quiet. “I’m going.”

“Make the call,” Xavier says to my back.

I spin toward him. “For the last fucking time, I?—”

He grabs me by the neck and shoves me into a wall, his weight pinning mine as he slowly repeats, “Make the call.”

I push him off of me, my wolf itching for a fight. My fist sails through the air in an arc toward his jaw just as my wrist begins to buzz, causing me to falter mid-punch.

My knuckles still make contact, but not with as much force as I intended, and I jerk my hand back to look at my watch.

Xavier comes at me, but Fran body slams him before he can make a connection. Philippe steps forward like he’s about to take over for Xavier, but he freezes as a screen populates the air before me.

“Where the hell are you?” Ander demands before I can speak. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”

Yeah, and somehow his call just came through.

Probably because of whatever Xavierflipped on.

“Venom Island,” I mutter, somewhat surprised he doesn’t know that already. His jet should have provided my coordinates.

“Venom Island?” he repeats incredulously. “Why the fuck are you on Venom Island?”

I blow out a breath, my wolf pacing inside me with the need to get to Caja. But I can’t do that if these assholes won’t let me fucking leave.

So I’ll give them theproofthey want.

But to do that, I have to answer Ander’s question. “Hel had some sort of magical episode on the flight and created a freak storm.”

He stares me down over the screen, saying nothing.

“The Omegas took the escape pods,” I add. “I… I don’t know where any of them are except for Caja.”

“Caja’s with you?” he asks after a beat.

“She’s…” I trail off. “She’s on the island.”