“My son Samuel can give her a lift,” the River Alphaoffered.
A man, who had the same sturdy build as Zack and the same reddish-brown hair, lifted his hand in awave.
“My Second rides with us,” Liamsaid.
I sensed from the weighted look father and son exchanged that they weren’t too pleased with Liam interfering in theirplans.
“All right,” Zack said, his voice a little less loud, which wasn’t to say it was at a normal pitch. It was most definitely louder than any voice I’d everheard.
Although they all climbed in the way they’d poured out of the vehicles, Liam opened the door. He gestured for me to go ahead of him before hopping in, and then we were off, warm wind scraping through my hair and pounding against myeardrums.
At some point during the drive, the girl sitting beside me introduced herself. “Jane.” She looked to be around my age, perhaps a year or two younger, with a round face dusted in freckles and sweeping lashes that looked red in thesunlight.
“Ness.”
“I know.” She pushed a bluntly cut piece of auburn hair out of her dark-blue eyes. “Are you and your Alpha athing?”
When I shook my head, she scrutinized Liam a little moreboldly.
“Why the heck not?” she asked after a longbeat.
“It’s a long story.” One I didn’t see myself sharing withher.
“It’s a longride.”
Was she really expecting me to confide in her? I didn’t know her, plus Liam was sitting right there. Not that I would’ve felt comfortable had he been in the othercar.
“The males in your pack are so hot,” she said with a breathy sigh. “Makes me want to visitColorado.”
I frowned. “How do you know if you’ve never been toColorado?”
“I attended the pack summit a couple yearsago.”
Oh.Right.
“After what happened to my older sister, though, Daddy doesn’t want us straying too far off ourland.”
I was glad Sarah had told me about the Alpha’s daughter, the one who’d been killed by Morgan. “You’re Zack’s daughterthen?”
“One of them. We’re seven. Two boys, five girls. Well, only four now.” Her gaze turned a little misty, but she blinked, and her eyesdried.
I wondered which of her sisters had been the one to sleep with August, because Jane was far too young to be the girl inquestion.
Thinking about August made me acutely aware of hisabsence.
And of the emptiness inside mystomach.
I pressed my hand to my navel as though my touch could somehow reactivate thelink.
Liam’s gaze drifted to my hand. Thankfully, he didn’t ask me how I was feeling . . . or ratherwhatI wasfeeling.
As we drove over miles of concrete roads that turned into rough terrain, I wondered what August wasdoing.
What he wasfeeling.
My blood turned to ice as a thought collided into me. What if August had been wrong about liking me before the link formed? What if he felt relieved by itsabsence?
I dug my phone out of the front pocket of my backpack and powered it on to send him a message that I’d arrivedsafely.
