Luca was still seething.


    I sat in silence, unable to wrap my mind around Johnathan’s words and nearly giving myself a headache trying to decipher the riddle I felt like he’d given me.C0ntent ? 2024 (N/?)velDrama.Org.


    Getting out of the bug, I followed ine, Bates and Luca to the door at the base of the tower. When we walked inside, my eyes took a moment to adjust from


    the bright sunshine to the darkness.


    The entire structure was just level after level of mesh, metal flooring with desks ofputers and monitors upied by people wearing headsets and headphones. A tall spiral staircase shot up from the center of the floor.


    I followed Bates, ine and Luca all the way up to the top, passing each floor. When we reached the top, I finally caught a glimpse of daylight through the window that ran the entire circumference of the


    building, allowing me to see the men who circled the outside of the water tower and surveilled thend below.


    Lincoln was standing behind a desk, looking at a digital map when Luca walked up to him.


    “Any updates?”


    Lincoln stood up straight.


    “We’ve got the thermal imaging cameras being installed now at the gates and more motion sensors being set up around the perimeter. They should all be online within the next hour.”


    “And the trip wires?” Luca asked.


    “Ben is working with his engineering team to make sure there weren’t any glitches in the modifications we made, but those should go up tomorrow.”


    “Did you find out how they got in?” I asked Lincoln.


    He nodded, pointing at a red line that marked a portion of the border on the map in front of him.


    “My guess is they were camped out outside the pack for a few days and watched the patrol squad to get their schedule. They climbed the fence during the twenty minute gap when no one would be there. How they got past the secondyer of security without their scent being caught? We still have no idea.”


    “Won’t happen again,” ine said gruffly.


    “I’ve randomized the patrol schedule now so it’s no longer predictable.”


    “We’ve also added a wire beneath the fence that carries an electrical current. Anyone who touches the fence will be fried,” Lincoln added.


    “Unless they figure out how to cut the power,” I said.


    “It’s on a generator,” a voice said behind me.


    I turned to see Bening up the staircase.


    “Even if the whole pack loses power, the generator will kick on for the fence and the sensors attached to it.” he continued.


    He smiled at me before turning to Luca.


    “We’re ahead of schedule,” he told him.


    “I’ve got my boys taking the trip wires out to ine’s crew. They should be set up before nightfall.”


    Luca nodded.


    I could tell he felt a sense of relief by the way his shoulders dropped.


    “Good work,” he told them. “Make sure to monitor everything and run a few pilot tests to make sure it all functions the way it should.”


    Bates turned to ine.


    “Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who has to touch the fence.” he said, holding his fist up.


    ine just rolled his eyes.


    Luca pulled me over to the side, gesturing for Lincoln to follow us.


    “I need you to set her up with a call,” he said to Lincoln.


    Lincoln looked at me.


    “Do you have the number?”


    “It was on my old phone,” I said, embarrassed I didn’t know Mady’s number by heart.


    “No worries. I put your contacts on a drive.”


    He looked at Luca.


    “Do I need to set the call up on a duel line?”


    Luca looked at me before nodding.


    My eyebrows furrowed.


    “Duel line?” I asked.


    “We’re going to listen in on the call,” Luca exined.


    “I want to make sure we’re getting as much information from her as possible, so I may direct you to ask her a few questions.”


    I nodded, suddenly feeling like Luca didn’t trust me to talk to my own best friend without help. Lincoln called Luca and I over to a desk on the other side of the room where andline was attached. Several different pairs of headphones were plugged into it, so I knew they would be able to hear the whole call.


    “I could just put her on speaker,” I offered as I watched Lincoln untangling a few of the cords.


    “She’ll be able to tell by the echo in the room,” Lincoln told me, shaking his head.


    He had me sit in the rolling desk chair as he pulled out aptop and USB drive. Lincoln pulled up my contacts that had been in my phone and I dialed Mady’s number using thendline.


    Everyone gathered around me and took a headset, listening to the phone ring


    “Hello?”


    Her voice sounded confused and it took me a moment to remember that I was calling from an unfamiliar number.


    “Hey, Mady, it’s me,” I said quickly.


    The line went silent.


    “Mady?”


    I heard shuffling before she said casually: “Yeah, no, that final was brutal. I thought Dr. Robertson would have been a little easier grading that question knowing that he didn’t cover that case very well in ss.”


    “Mady, what are you talking about?”


    “Give me a second.” she whispered.


    I heard more shuffling, followed by the sound of a door creaking open and shutting.


    “Sorry, I had to get outside,” she said finally.


    “What’s going on?” I asked her.


    “Your dad is at our house,” she told me.


    “He’d lose what’s left of his mind if he knew I was talking to you. What happened to you? I’ve been calling you all weekend.”


    “Sorry,” I apologized.


    “My dad left some weird-ass voicemails on my phone sol got rid of it. It didn’t ur to me that you wouldn’t have a way of calling me after that.”


    “No, it’s okay. I understand,” she said. “It’s just… I wish I could have gotten a hold of you sooner. Shit has really hit the fan here and I thought I should warn you.


    I looked up at Luca, who wore a solemn expression.


    “I know,” I told her.


    “Johnathan Whitley and Waylon Parker snuck into the pack a few nights ago.”


    “Wait, what?!” She eximed.


    I heard her sigh,posing herself.


    “How did they find you?” Mady asked, her voice quieter.


    “That’s why I was calling,” I admitted.


    “Johnathan told us that my dad sent him. He said you gave my dad the address.”


    “What? No. Of course I didn’t do that,” she said defensively.


    “I would never do that. Trust me. You need to stay as far away from here as possible. I wouldn’t have told them where to find you.”


    I looked up to Luca again.


    “Ask her if she could think of how he found you,” Luca whispered.


    “Mady, is there anyway he could have found out?” I asked.


    “Maybe he looked at your phone? Or you told your dad?”


    “No,” she repeated.


    “I haven’t told a soul. No one even knows that I’ve talked to you. I’ve barely spoken to your dad and I told my parents I was going to the townhouse to study for a final when I went over to pack your stuff.”


    My stuff.


    “Do you think he could have gotten the address from the post office when you mailed me my clothes?” I asked her.


    “I wouldn’t think they would be freely telling people who everyone is sending their mail to,” she replied dryly.


    “Unless, maybe he was following me and went in right after I left and asked. I do know that my dad is friends with the postmaster there. Maybe your dad is too.”


    I drew in a deep breath.


    “That’s got to be it,” I said.


    “I’m sorry, Carrie,” she said.


    “I would have driven to the next town over to send your clothes if it had urred to me.”


    “It’s okay,” I assured her.


    “It’s not your fault.”


    ine leaned over.


    “Ask her if she can give us any information on what Johnathan was saying earlier,” He said.


    I nodded.


    “Who was that?” Mady asked me.


    “His name is ine,” I told her.


    “He’s one of the guys listening in on our conversation.”


    “Intrusive,” she said.


    “Very,” I agreed.


    “Now, Johnathan was saying something weird about how he couldn’t die? He also said my dad told him he


    could have me if he came to get me. Do you know anything about that?”


    “Jesus,” shemented.


    “What a creep. I’ve never liked him since that incident when we were in high school.”


    I gulped, hoping Luca didn’t hear that part.


    “No, I don’t know anything about that stuff, though,” she continued.


    “But, honestly, it doesn’t surprise me. Your  dad really


    has gone coo-coo. He’s trying to get my dad to authorize a raid on your new pack.”


    My eyebrows furrowed.


    “A raid?”


    “Yeah,” she confirmed.


    “He thinks our thirty fighters have some kind of chance against Luca’s pack. My dad hasn’t agreed to it, but that hasn’t stopped him from persistently asking. That’s why he’s here now.”


    As Mady was talking, I saw Lincoln take a piece of paper and scribble something on it before sliding it my way. I looked down to see it was a telephone number.


    “Give her this number,” Lincoln told me.


    “Tell her to call it if she has any more updates.”


    I nodded and read Mady the number.


    “Are you going to call me back when you don’t have amittee listening to us talk?” Mady asked me.


    “Soon,” I promised her.


    “Please stay safe,” she told me.


    “You do the same. Take care of yourself, Mady.”


    I hung up the phone, letting out a slow exhale.


    “I don’t get it.” Bates said.


    “Why would Johnathan lie and tell us that she gave it to your dad?”


    “He may not have,” Luca said.


    “He only told us Mady gave it to him involuntarily and that there was coercion involved. Maybe he coerced the postmaster to give him the shipping address. It would be awfully bold to threaten your Alpha’s daughter, even if you are the Beta.”


    “I don’t like it either way,” ine said.


    “I think Johnathan’s got more to say.”


    “Yeah, if his jaw isn’t wired shut for the next six months after He-Man shattered it with his fist.” Bates said.


    Luca shrugged.


    “He would have just given us more riddles. Wolves like that always do because it gives them a sense of authority to know something we don’t. He would never have told us.”


    Bates nodded in agreement.


    “Are you concerned about a raid?” Lincoln asked Luca.


    He shook his head.


    “No, but let’s start taking measures to respond. I want scouts sent down to Oregon for the week, just to see what’s going on. I don’t think Carrie’s friend knows much.”


    Lincoln nodded and ine pulled out his phone.


    “I’ll get two guys down there first thing tomorrow morning,” he said.


    Luca looked at me.


    “Let’s go home,” he said.


    I could have cried hearing him say this. Luca and I made our way down the staircase and outside.


    “My truck is parked over here,” Luca told me.


    “Bates can drive the bug home since he ran out all the gas.”


    In a move that somehow both shocked andforted me, Luca grabbed my hand and held it as we walked over to where his truck was parked on the curb.


    I relished in the feeling as his hand molded to mine, fingers intecing. The sparks that traveled up my arm carried a wave of emotion that brought tears to my eyes.


    Luca opened the passenger door for me, but stopped me as I went to climb into the cab.


    “What’s wrong?” He asked softly.


    I leaned into his chest, feeling my knees give out.


    Luca held me tightly against him, with one arm around my waist and the other holding my head against his chest.


    “I want to leave,” I admitted.


    “I don’t want to deal with any of this. I don’t want to think about it.”


    “Then let’s leave,” he said.


    “Where do you want to go?”


    I looked up at him with blurry eyes


    “Are you being serious?”


    Luca nodded, using the pad of his thumb to brush a tear away from my cheek.


    “We’ll get away for a few days,” he told me.


    “We can go anywhere you want.”


    “Far from everyone,” I told him, making himugh.


    “I know just the ce.”


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