Page 53 of Wolf Revealed

“Me, too!” Violet said.

Lark laughed, wiping happy tears from her face as she stepped back. “Deal.”

They were still talking about moving all her stuff and Kal’s there—along with Nugget, of course! —when Hale and her father hurried into the kitchen, Mike’s pack mate carrying one of the assault rifles SWAT used.

“We have multiple hits on the motion sensors along the south and west perimeters,” Hale said to them even as he covered the bud in his left ear with his hand, listening to the radio. “And we have a camera visual on at least a dozen heavily armed men moving through woods to the south of the house. We have no idea yet if they’re Roman’s men or Sentinel’s.”

Lark’s stomach lurched, fear making her heart suddenly beat out of control. The outbuildings Kal wanted to explore were in that direction.

“My brothers said something about doing a perimeter sweep of that area,” she said. “Kal went, too.”

Hale muttered a curse and spoke into the radio, even as her mom and sister began to panic. Lark was right there with them.

“Everett, it’s Hale,” Mike’s pack mate said into the radio. “Do you copy?”

“Copy,” Everett said. “What’s up?”

Hale quickly filled her brothers in on the situation, telling them to stay at the maintenance shed where they were and that he was going out there to give them some extra security back to the house.

“I’m going with you,” Lark told him firmly.

“Violet and I will go, too,” her mom said.

“No!” Lark said. “It’s too dangerous.”

She was already out of her mind with worry about Kal and her brothers. She didn’t want her mother, father, and sister out there, too.

Her mom opened her mouth to argue, but her dad interrupted.

“Lark’s right. If those men are from Sentinel, we should be able to hold our own, but if they’re Roman’s supernaturals, we’re outnumbered and probably outmatched. It’s too dangerous for you and Violet.”

Lark took her mother’s hands in hers. “Please, Mom. Let us go find Kal before whoever’s out there does. I can’t risk him being taken again. I just can’t.”

Her mother still looked like she wanted to insist on going, but finally nodded. “Please be careful.”

“I will.”

Hale seemed as relieved as Lark when her mother acquiesced. “Corbin, I know you want to come with us, but I think it’s better if you stay here with your wife and daughter in case someone gets past us and into the house. Lock yourself in the panic room.”

Her father was clearly torn, but nodded.

Lark gave her parents and Violet a quick hug, then hurried out the back door with Hale.

“Do you know how to use a gun?” he asked.

She nodded. It was another one of those things her dad had insisted she and her siblings learn. “Yes.”

Hale dropped to one knee, lifting the leg of his jeans to reveal a small handgun secured to his ankle.

“This is a small-frame automatic,” he said, pulling the top slide of the weapon back and loading the first round into the chamber as he stood. “It’s lightweight, holds ten bullets, and has no manual safety.” He handed her the weapon. “Stick close to me, and don’t do anything dangerous. Mike will have my head if I let you or Kal get hurt.”

Lark made sure to point the weapon in a safe direction with her finger off the trigger as she followed Hale toward the trees to the south of the mansion. As they moved, his phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out, holding it to his ear. She only half listened to the conversation, focusing more on what sounds might be coming from the woods, straining to hear boots crunching through dead leaves and pine needles.

“That was Gage letting me know they’re on their way back. Roman and his men weren’t at the paint factory,” Hale told her after he’d hung up. “Sentinel was, though. They said someone inside the police department tipped them off that Mike would be there.”

“Are Mike and everyone else okay?” she asked. “Who tipped them off?”

“Yeah, everyone’s good. And they think it was Wayne.”