“We also don’t have a good connection with them,” Asher said, tying his boots. “I heard, apparently, your father cut ties with them a couple of years ago. Something about being hostile and backing out on deals.”
Whether that was true or not, I didn’t know. Either way, we needed to keep going. I wanted us to get back before it started getting dark.
“Jade, where do you feel the pull?”
Before Jade could even respond, the radio beeped, and I pulled it free from my pocket. “Yes, Kaleb?”
“A hybrid had just appeared, stalking outside of the town. I sent a couple to check up on it, but something feels wrong. Have you guys found anything?”
I tightened my fingers on the radio and looked at Jade. She looked around her eyes, seeming to see something we couldn’t. Then she frowned. “I don’t feel it now.”
“What do you mean?”
She shook her head. “It was heading that way, but it just…disappeared.” She pointed to the North of us. She looked frustrated as she turned around, her eyes glued to the way we were coming. “I feel the pull back at the pack now.”
“Fuck,” I said. “It’s a diversion. They planned this. They wanted us here while others attacked in town.” Which meant we needed to get back.
“But what about the pull I felt out here? It was stronger than the pull at home, which means there must be more out here.”
“We should head back,” Lynn said, shaking his head. “We haven’t come across anything out here anyway. Our pack needs us back to help.”
“But I felt something here, Brandon. I don’t think it’s that simple.”
“Either way, we need to get back home,” another person said. “We can’t stay out here while our home might be falling apart.”
I agreed, but Jade’s head whipped around toward the left of us. She stared into the woods like she was seeing something we weren’t.
“Jade, what is it?”
She started walking, and I watched her for a moment. But she didn’t stop. She kept walking. So, I yelled. “Jade! Where are you going? We need to head home.”
She didn’t turn back. She continued to walk, and everyone looked at me with a confused expression on their faces. I ran a hand over my face and sighed. “Follow her.”
We all started walking after Jade, but she started running. My heart raced as fear hit me. Where the hell was she going?
“Where the hell is she going?” Asher asked, looking at me.
“I don’t know.” After we rushed after her, I could smell the change. It was burning wood, and smoke started to appear in our view. It grew hot, and everyone started to cough.
“Brandon!” Jade’s voice came out pitched, and I ran ahead. She stood a few feet ahead of me, frozen like a statue. I grabbed her arm, feeling my entire body shaking.
“What the hell did I say? I said to stay by my side. You can’t just run off when you want. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out here?”
She pointed, and I pulled my eyes toward where she was pointing. My eyes widened as I took in a town, but a large part of it was burning. I didn’t see anyone, almost as if it had been abandoned. There was fire everywhere, and smoke was pouring out of buildings. The streets were empty, and cars were parked along the road. My stomach lurched at the sight of it.
What the hell was going on?
My heart stopped beating as I took it all in. This was the pack I had been talking about, and it was entirely in flames.There was blood everywhere and fire eating up everything. There was garbage littered everywhere and bodies all around.
“Shit,” someone said behind us as the rest of the group caught up to us. I heard people gasp, and everyone started talking. Noise erupted around us, but my eyes remained on the scene.
“We need to help,” Jay said.
“No, this isn’t our problem,” someone said. “We have a problem back at home. We don’t need to turn this into our town.”
“But these are people. What if there are people here who need our help?”
“Who we cut ties with!”
