Escaping Death

Chapter 38

Ace

Leaving Solana behind at home is more difficult than I initially expected. My wolf has been whining in my mind since she slammed the door in my face and there's a positive linear correlation between the increase in distance between us and the increase in how fucking irritating my wolf is being.

We drove half the day yesterday and every update from Hunter said the same thing — Sol locked herself in my room, Sol was wandering around upstairs, Sol didn't eat. I haven't heard from him since dinner time last night and now it's nearly noon.

I can't allow myself to regret leaving her there. I can't think straight when she's near me, let alone when I can smell how much the others want her and her them. The lust is all-consuming.

But that doesn't stop Grey from nagging me about it every waking moment. Telling me to go home, not just to bring her here with us but to go and stay home with her.

There's a desperation to his pleading that has me feeling unsettled, but I'm not overly concerned because one taste of her and he's been hooked. I need to stay the course, though, and manage his expectations. We are not keeping her. This is a temporary arrangement and then it's best if she takes off.

My skin heats at the thought alone, drawing the attention of Dean and Eli away from the T.V. in our hotel room and over to me.

Dean and Eli share a meaningful look, smirking at each other over some shared inside joke while Tate doesn't take his eyes off his computer for a second.

"What are you two idiots grinning about?" I huff.

Eli's smile grows wider but he rolls his lips in sealing them shut.

"They took bets on how long you'd last before you cracked and teleported Sol over here." Tate says, taking a pillow to the face for outing them.

"I'm not bringing her here," I say flatly, attempting to mask how much I wish I could. "She's already marked for bounty, I don't need to add fuel to the fire by parading her in front of breeders."

Satisfaction ripples through the pack bond. Each and every guy in this room agrees, Solana is safer at home than here.

I rub my hands against my exhausted, sleep deprived eyes in a futile attempt to shake Sol from the front of my mind. "Run me through the week one more time."

"This afternoon we're meeting Reef's boss to settle the fallout from the attack on Sol. Friday is the auction so we expect the girls will be moved Thursday. I won't have a time and location until an hour before the move so we need to be ready." Tate says.

"Tomorrow?" The other days are all accounted for, maybe I could sneak home and make sure she didn't kill Hunter. If he doesn't update me soon I might just kill him myself, the anticipation is draining my capacity to ignore the urge to text him.

"A few minor errands but otherwise it's open."

I nod absentmindedly running through the agenda in my head, calculating every minute we're away from home and how soon we can be back. I check my phone at the sound of every notification only to be disappointed when it's not Hunter. Fuck, it's going to be a long fucking week.

***

Forget the long week, it's been a long day. Reef's boss is not what I expected. Most of these rings are headed by some idiot scumbag who lives and dies by high risk, high reward transactions. But not this guy. He's clean, smart, and unreadable — outwardly, at least. Dean was able to pick up on some inner workings of his mind.

The big takeaway is that he considered our score settled. Reef insulted us, we insulted him, he attacked, we retaliated. We also were able to learn that nothing has interrupted their day to day operation. Reef was easily replaced, and so the cycle of abuse continues.