Page 49 of Bold Mercy

I sighed. She was supposed to wait until I got to the house before she even left Shadowfield, so I could make sure the house and area were safe. With everything going on, it was easy to forget that there was a human serial killer with his sights, apparently, on Lucy.

“If you get there before I do, stay in your car with the doors locked, Lucy.”

“I’ll will,” she assured me. “Don’t worry.”

“Why aren’t you worried?” I asked, a little aggravated.

“Because…” Her voice strengthened. “Because things are going to go how they go. Besides, Susan is with me. She’s almost as good a bodyguard as you are.”

“Hi Kaity,” my mother called. “There’s a car full of wolves right behind us. Eli wouldn’t let us leave without protection.”

“They’ll be taking her back to Shadowfield later,” Lucy told me.

I wasn’t sure if taking Lucy home was a good idea—I just knew there was danger everywhere. She’d nearly gotten shot at Shadowfield. “And Jared?” I asked, my voice a little too casual.

“We didn’t see him before we left,” Lucy told me.

I knew the alpha was going to be extremely busy making sure Shadowfield was protected against raiders, human or otherwise. He was also going to blame himself for his wolves getting hurt in the first place. Shadowfield was about to change, and the wolves would change with it. It was how they would survive.

I wasn’t sure how the pack was going to feel about me accidentally calling all their wolves, but I’d deal with that when the time came. I shouldn’t have been able to force their shifts. I wasn’t their alpha. Without a doubt, it was going to cause some issues.

Maybe with Jared, as well, who I hadn’t seen since he’d gone into the woods to heal his gunshot wound. But I had enough on my mind without adding extra worry, so I shoved the uneasy thoughts of him and his pack away.

But I wondered, as I was sure Jared wondered, if I could have done such a thing if we hadn’t forged an unbreakable bond in his bed.