Jack’s pulse finally started to slow down now that Everly was in his arms. She was covered in blood, and he wasn’t positive she was okay, but she said she wasn’t hurt, and he had to hope that was true.He had been parked ten thousand yards away from Nachtown territory when he had gotten a mind-link message from Bridge. All his friend had said is, “It’s going down!”That was enough. Jack sped over to Everly’s house as fast as he could go. The rest of his family was already there. They were just about to relieve Bridge, Troy, and Sam of their duties when Slate had made his move.Bridge and Troy had managed to drive Slate away and get quite a few blows in on him, but they hadn’t killed him. He’d probably go limping back home and tell his daddy that he’d gotten beaten up, and he wasn’t even doing anything wrong.Well, council or no council, this was an act of war, and he was going to pay for it

“Everly! Everly!” her dad’s voice carried down the porch and out to Jack’s car before she could even get the seatbelt off and open the door.“I’m fine, Dad,” she said as Jim opened the door to the sportscar. He practically pulled her out of the car and wrapped his arms around her so tight, Everly could barely breathe.“Thank God,” Jim said. “Oh, thank the good Lord. I don’t know what I would’ve done if something would’ve happened to you.”“Dad,” Everly said, wishing he’d let her go. They had company, after all. She knew he’d spend plenty of time lecturing her about not chasing the dog into the woods and about how stupid it was that she’d followed Toby and all of that, but for now, with Jack and his parents, who had followed her father out of the house, standing right behind him, she really didn’t want to make a scene.Jim seemed to reali

The door slammed loudly behind him as Slate Bose came inside of his father’s house. He’d just gotten back from the pack healing center, and he couldn’t believe how stupid his dumbass cousin had been. What in the world had Rider been thinking? Slate had told him he had a plan for the girl. Yet, he’d gone plowing ahead like a damn bull on roller skates, and now, here they were in a whole heap of trouble. If he had actually hurt that girl, Slate was going to go back over there and finish the job the Lightwolves had started and end his stupid cousin. “Oh, good. You’re here,” his father said as Slate walked inside. His parents’ home was a lot nicer than the one he shared with his cousins, though it was nothing compared to the mansion the Greys lived in. Nightwolves never had it easy compared to their lightwolf counterparts. Everyone always blamed anything bad that happened on the Bose family and their pack, even if it wasn’t their fault. How many times had the high counci

The moment Aly’s phone rang, Jack answered it, even though he was exhausted and had almost nodded off several times, sitting there waiting for Everly to call. He didn’t even know for sure that she would, but he had a feeling that she might, especially since she was clearly confused when he’d dropped her off, and she hadn’t had much of a chance to ask him questions.Seeing his own name pop up on his sister’s phone, he rushed to answer. “Hi, Ev,” he said, longing to hear her voice. He tried not to pay too much attention to those feelings. He knew they could only get in the way of his ability to help her, and that’s what he needed to focus on right now. If she truly hadn’t been hurt in the attack tonight, as she claimed, then it was still in her best interest to get as far away from Cook as possible.“Hi, Jack,” she said, her voice just a whisper. He imagined she was trying to keep from waking her dad. &ldq

Jack had been so close to asking Everly how she knew that it was Rider that had attacked her, but then Alyson had inserted herself between them, and he’d been forced to let it go.Earlier that morning, he’d confirmed with his dad that Granite had called late the night before, after Jack had gone to bed, to tell him that Brock Bose had told him that it was his nephew, Rider Bose, who had been involved in the attack. Since Everly hadn’t been hurt, according to both Everly and Rider, no punishment had been served to the Nachtwolf pack, but Granite had warned Victor again that if there was a chance that Everly had been infected, she’d have to be taken care of.Sitting in his first period class, Jack wasn’t even pretending to concentrate on what his teacher was saying. His parents had said they’d spend the day talking to the pack elders to see what that might entail. Greta had said there had to be some other alternative to simply destroyi