"Dammit, Savannah," Roarke muttered. "You don't even know what we're dealing with." He closed his eyes. "Don't go," he said softly. "Don't go out there."
Empathy flashed across Savannah's face. "I have to, Roarke. I'm sorry. I'll be careful."
"I have an idea." Jace rubbed his palm against Abby's. "Roarke, I'll assign one of my other wolves to go with her. Tristan is an excellent fighter, and he can protect her."
"No!" Savannah shook her head. "I don't want a partner. I'm going alone."
Abby sighed as Roarke and Jace tried to argue with her. She understood Savannah. After Lucius, she had never been willing to let any man near her...until Jace. The moment she'd met Jace, she'd known she was safe with him. Somehow, Drake had done the same for Savannah, but no other male had earned her trust. Abby knew that the thought of isolating herself with another male was too much for Savannah to handle. "I'll go with you, Savannah-"
"No." Jace dragged her off the arm of the couch and onto his lap. "You're with me." He looked at Abby's face, and understanding flashed in his eyes as he read her expression. He turned to Savannah. "You can team up with us." A perfect solution that didn't require her to be alone with a male. It gave her the buffer of another woman, but the protection of a skilled fighter.
She shook her head stubbornly. "If we split into three groups, we'll cover the ground faster. Don't you understand what Grigori can do? Minutes can make a difference for Drake. Even if it's not Grigori, one minute could be the difference between life and death for him. Something's terribly wrong, and we all know it."
The room fell silent. Everyone knew she spoke the truth. Drake's life, sanity, and heaven knew what else was in danger as they sat there.
It was Jace who spoke up. "All right," he said. "Here's the situation. Anyone who gets a lead on Drake must report it in, and wait until the others get there. If Grigori or his wolves are around, abort." He looked hard at Savannah. "Anyone who violates this will be locked down until Drake is found. One step over the line and you're recalled from the field. Understood?"
Everyone agreed, and Savannah let out a breath of visible relief. "Okay. I agree."
Jace looked over at Roarke. "That work for you?"
Roarke grimaced. "We can't keep her here, so yeah." He looked over at Savannah. "Be careful. I'll meet up with you when I can."
She nodded. "Thanks. I appreciate that." She shoved her hands in the front pocket of her jeans. "I'm going to go catch some sleep before we go. Abby? When will you have the maps ready?"
"By morning."
"Okay. I'll see you then." Savannah pressed a kiss to Roarke's forehead, then slipped out of the room, her feet making no sound as she walked down the hall to the room she was staying in.
When she left, Jace tucked Abby more tightly against him, as if he needed to protect her the way Roarke couldn't protect Savannah. "You trust her not to go in after Drake?" Jace asked Roarke.
He was still watching the doorway his sister had disappeared through. "I don't know," he said. "She's different now. Harder. Jaded. I don't know why she's obsessed with finding him, but she is." He looked over at Jace. "She's all I have left. I can't lose her, too."
Jace nodded, his arm tightening around Abby. "I understand. We'll keep track of her-"
"No." Abby touched his arm. "You guys need to give her space. She needs to find her own power again. Lucius took that from her, and she has to be the one to find it."
Roarke's face darkened. "But if she gets in trouble-"
"Didn't you hear her? She wants to save Drake. If she gets killed, she can't save him. She'll be careful." Abby leaned her head against Jace's shoulder, suddenly exhausted. "He matters to her for some reason. She needs that."
"We all need that." Jace kissed her gently. "Let's go, sweetheart. We have a long day tomorrow."
Abby let him pull her to her feet, leaning against his side as Cash and Bryn rose. Kiernan picked up Roarke easily, and Abby's throat tightened. How badly must Roarke be hurt to have to be carried? How badly must he be hurt to let his sister leave without him? Roarke was as much an alpha as Jace, so to be left behind when his sister was in danger was against everything he lived by.
She looked at Kiernan, but he shook his head, warning her not to ask.
As Kiernan carried Roarke out, Cash walked over to Jace. He didn't say anything, but he pulled Jace into a massive bear hug. The two men held tight for a long moment before releasing. "I'd have been pissed if you'd had to die," Cash said, his voice raw. "I'm glad you're back."
"Me too." Jace took Abby's hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "Thank Abby."
She started to protest, but her words faded when Cash turned toward her. "Jace matters to me," he said. "Anytime you need anything, you just let me know." He grabbed her and hugged her too. The strength of his embrace made tears fill Abby's eyes, and she hugged him back.
"Thank you," she whispered, her throat tightening. After growing up in Grigori's dysfunctional pack, she'd cherished being on her own after the attack. But the loyalty between these men was powerful, making her realize how much better life was with that kind of support.
"You're one of us now," Jace said, his gaze kind as he watched her. "You're my mate, which means you're part of the pack. You're home, sweetheart, forever."
She nodded, then her throat tightened even more when Bryn pulled her into a hug, too. "I'm glad there's another female around," she whispered. "Did you know Jace's entire pack is males? It's time to even things up a bit." She pulled back, her eyes serious. "Grigori almost destroyed Jace, and you saved him. Never forget that."
Abby nodded, unable to speak over the lump in her throat.
Jace laughed softly and wrapped his arm over her shoulder, tucking her against him. "Come on, babe. We have a lot to get done."
Abby melted against his side and waved goodnight as she let Jace escort her out of the living room to their room at the end of the hall. The moment the door was closed, Jace pulled her into his arms, kissing her with that same long, slow, delicious kiss that made her heart melt every time he did it.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, pouring all her love into the kiss. "I love you, Jace."
"I love you, too," he said as he slipped his arm under her legs and scooped her up, still kissing her as he carried her across the room and set her on the bed.
She propped herself up on her arms as he jerked off his shirt, showcasing the powerful muscles that still made her heart skip. "Don't we need to work on the maps?"
"We will, but first, I need you." He crawled onto the bed, moving over her like a predator about to take his prey. "I need your kiss. I need your touch. I need your love. I need it all, Abby."
Her heart softened as she slipped her arms around his neck. Her big, bad alpha, whose tenderness made her soul turn over. "I need you, too, Jace. Always and forever."
"Always and forever," he agreed, just before he kissed her, a kiss that promised the kind of love she'd never believed in, until she'd met him.
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Keep reading for sneak peeks of other Stephanie Rowe novels on the following pages!
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Sneak Peek: Dark Wolf Rising
DARK WOLF RISING
A Heart of the Shifter novel
© 2015 Stephanie Rowe
Bryn McKenzie would be dead by Thursday.
And it was going to be an ugly, terrible death.
It was almost two in the morning, she hadn't slept yet, and she knew she wouldn't. She just waited in the bed in the hotel room, staring at the ceiling, listening to the low conversation of the men in her living room.
Men who had been assigned to protect her.
Men who would fail.
They thought they knew how to keep her safe, but they hadn't seen what she had seen...which was why she had to die. No one who'd witnessed that particular murder would be allowed to live, and she knew that.
She'd known it when she'd gone to the police and told them what had happened.
She'd known it when she'd agreed to testify at Jace Donovan's trial.
She'd known it when her team of highly skilled police officers had set her up in this hotel room, determined to keep her alive long enough to testify.
And yet she'd done all of it anyway, and she would stay here and hope she was wrong, because a woman had died in front of her, and Bryn was the only one who knew who had done it. There was no way she could stay silent when the man who'd killed that innocent woman went free.