Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 40

"What happened?" Ryker growled the moment he strode through the door, shaking the rain from his hair. The weather kept doing that on and off again thing, and while it had been calm when he left Jo's house, it'd opened up right before he got to Brett and Aaliyah's home.

"Everyone's ok?" he questioned his sister, who'd been the one to contact him after Aaliyah got back. She was also the one who he'd alerted to the fact that he was pulling up to Brett's house.

"I don't know the full story, but they seem to be okay," Lexi said, glancing back at the living room. She bit her lip and then looked up with worry. "What's going on, Ryker? Why is Duncan suddenly doing this?"

Ryker wished he knew. Unfortunately, his best guess was that Duncan was taking advantage of the fact that Ryker now had a weakness. Ryker had always had weaknesses in the form of his family, but they were all trained werewolves. As far as Duncan knew, Ryker's weakness was very human, and very vulnerable.

Ryker almost couldn't wait for the day Duncan found out otherwise.

He just wished that could happen without also putting Jo in danger.

Ryker started down the hall. "Let's see what they say happened," Ryker said, deciding not to share his hypothesis with his sister. No need to make her as worried about Jo as he was.

"Ryker, that you?" His brother appeared in the doorway, looking more frazzled than Ryker had ever seen him. He held Connor in his arms, his hands rubbing soothing circles on his son's back.

"Hey," Ryker said, trying to keep his voice quiet for the sake of the five year-old. "Y'all want to talk about what happened?"

Brett nodded and looked at Lexi. "Can you take him up to bed, Lexi?"

She stretched her arms out for her sleepy nephew, and a few seconds later they disappeared up the stairs.

"Is dad here?" Ryker asked as Brett ushered him into the living room where Aaliyah was curled up in an armchair, Talon in her arms.

"He's with Marcus," Brett said, referring to Aaliyah's dad. "They're trying to track Duncan's trail and see where he slipped through our border."

Ryker nodded. "I've got Charlie sending extra people out." Not that it would do any good. It seemed like Duncan's pattern was to strike and disappear, then wait until everyone was complacent before striking again. It was infuriating.

Aaliyah echoed his thoughts. "He's probably long gone," she said, shaking her head. "If it wasn't for the kids, he wouldn't have gotten away though." Her eyes flashed yellow for a moment, teeth slightly bared in anger. "He knew what he was doing."

"And he's an absolute moron for doing it," Brett said darkly, leaning against the arm of Aaliyah's chair. Leaning over, he kissed the side of her head and then reached to run his hand gently over Talon's dark curls. The three-year-old was fast asleep, his head resting on Aaliyah's shoulder.

"No doubt about that," Ryker said. He stayed standing, his arms tightly crossed as he paced the room. "Can you tell me what happened again, Aaliyah?"

He hadn't gotten the full story yet. Lexi had burst into his thoughts demanding he come immediately, but she hadn't told him anything besides what he needed to know right then. Plus he wanted as many details as possible. Maybe he'd be able to figure out where Duncan was planning to be next, and they could get ahead of this before it happened again.

Aaliyah nodded, shifting a little, her arms tightening around Talon as she leaned toward Brett. "Sure. We were out near Ferndown Mountain, hiking with Dad to one of the waterfalls. Nowhere near their territory. We didn't have any problems until we were coming back from the falls." Her frown deepened. "We were just about half a mile away from the parking area when I smelled him. It was definitely Duncan. Pretty sure he was alone."