Page 14 of Wolf Revealed

“No deal,” Mike said firmly into his phone. “You get the thumb drive when I get my son. Not one second before. And if you continue to threaten to hurt or kill my son, I might get mad and crush this tiny piece of plastic in my hand.”

“If you do that, your son will be dead,” Roman said coldly.

Mike winced as he heard Lark whimper in despair. Regardless of his confused feelings about her right now, it still hurt to know she was so afraid.

“And you’ll be without the data on this drive you’re clearly desperate to get your hands on,” Mike growled.

The silence over the phone was heart-crushing, and over the radio, Mike heard Lark hyperventilating.

“Fine. We’ll do it your way,” Roman said. “Go north another block, then turn east on Woodall Rogers.”

Mike took off running before Roman even hung up.

The next twenty minutes turned into a frustrating wild goose chase as Roman made him run all over the place with no clear purpose, other than to check to see if he was being followed. Which, of course, he was, but his people were good enough to keep their distance.

Since he had no idea where Roman’s little game was going to end, all Mike could do was keep running. His heart sped up every time his phone rang, like some kind of weird Pavlov’s dog experiment, and when Roman finally told him to stop, he’d gone almost five miles.

“Stay right where you are,” Roman ordered.

Mike slowed to a halt, taking in the paved walkways, park benches, open green spaces, and small clusters of trees along the perimeter of the area as cars zipped by along Interstate 345 off to the east.

“Head toward the monument on the southwest side of the park,” Roman said, his tone making it clear it wasn’t a request. “And don’t think of doing anything stupid like hiding the flash drive somewhere along the way. I’ll have eyes on you the whole time.”

With that, he hung up.

“I’m on the northwest side of Griggs Park,” Mike said softly into the radio. “Everyone get ready. I think Roman is going to make his move.”

“Copy that,” Gage said.

As Mike strode along the walkway, he picked up the same sharp, chemical odor on the breeze he’d smelled in the warehouse.

Roman.

But a few steps later, he picked up another scent. This one was new to him, but, at the same time, completely familiar. It took him forever to remember where he’d smelled it before, until he finally remembered carrying an infant Kal back and forth across the living room of their small home late one night when his son couldn’t sleep. Kal had been resting on his shoulder as Mike gently rubbed his back, trying to soothe him.

“Kal is definitely here. I can smell him,” he said. “Everyone be ready to move on my word. The number one priority is keeping my son safe.”

“Are you sure it’s him?” Lark asked, her voice full of hope. “It’s been a long time since you smelled him, and you weren’t a werewolf back then.”

“It’s him,” Mike said firmly. “I’m sure of it.”

“Everyone start converging on the park,” Gage ordered. “Remember, Roman might be some kind of supernatural, so we don’t know what we’re going up against. Be careful.”

“Keep our son safe,” Lark told Mike, even as his pack mates began to coordinate their approaches to the park. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Mike started to tell Lark to stay where she was, worried about her being in the middle of all of this, when Roman came into view, Kal at his side, and three big, mean-looking men flanking them. And all three of them had that same weird chemical odor Roman did.

Crap, they were supernaturals, too

Chapter six

Lark’s heart was pounding so hard she could barely hear Gage giving orders to both the SWAT werewolves and the members of her pack over the radio. And he was standing a few feet away from her in the huge RV the SWAT team had converted into what they called an operations truck. With all the various racks for equipment, weapons, radios, computers, and cameras, it didn’t look anything like an RV anymore. There were even two whiteboards and a corkboard.

And while she might not be listening to most of what Gage was saying at the moment, she didn’t know how he could be so calm. She felt like she was about to lose her mind, she was so worried Roman might hurt Kal. The more she tried to focus on what it would be like to see him again, the more she panicked. She only prayed Mike could keep their son safe until she could get there to help.

“Lark, you need to calm down and breathe,” Khaki Blake said as the vehicle swayed under them, picking up speed as they moved closer to Griggs Park. Khaki was one of Mike’s SWAT pack mates, and even though Lark had just met the woman, she already had a good feeling about her. “You won’t be able to help Kal if you don’t get control of your emotions.”

“I’m calm,” Lark lied, taking a deep breath and doing her best to regain control. She wasn’t doing a very good job of it.