“Did Coach say anything about it?” I asked.
Soren and Gabe both shook their heads.
“That’s your general manager, right?” Yuni asked. “I noticed the extra security tonight. Wherever he is, at least he’s making sure you guys stay safe.” Her attention shifted my way. She had sharp brown eyes with an intense shine to them, making them look almost golden.
Almost like a wolf’s stare.
“I don’t think I’ve gotten a chance to congratulate you two. I sat next to a group of fans that couldn’t stop talking about you two. It was cute. I did hear some douchebag say something shitty when I was grabbing some food. I didn’t feel bad about bumping into him and knocking over all five of his Cokes.”
“Nice,” I said. “And you know that shit cost him close to a hundred dollars.”
“Most definitely,” Yuni said, giggling.
“Let the idiots yap, they still paid for the ticket. And their hateful bullshit isn’t as loud as the cheers.”
“Never will be,” Yuni said. She lifted her glass over the fire. “To love drowning out the hate.”
I happily leaned in and clinked my empty beer bottle against hers, Gabe and Soren meeting us in the center.
I leaned back in my chair. Gabe leaned over and placed an arm across my shoulders. I rested a hand on his knee. The fire crackled and sparked, sending embers floating up into the air with the trail of thin smoke. It brought me back to camping with my parents, something my dad had thought we’d like and which quickly turned into a yearly tradition. It was comforting. There was a peace to the night that was such a welcome contrast to the high-voltage energy that had coursed through the arena earlier tonight. I wanted to soak it in.
Unfortunately, I’d only get another precious minute before that peace completely shattered.
A text dinged into my phone at the same time that Gabe’s and Soren’s phones also buzzed and trilled. It was from Dylan, sent to the Bobcat Baddies chat group.
“Huh,” I said. “Maybe the date didn’t—what the fuck?”
My heart plummeted to the ground. My phone opened to a photo. It showed a bloody and bruised Dylan leaning back in a chair, head lolled to the side. Around his neck was what looked like a thick iron collar. There were splatters of blood on the peeling wallpaper behind him.
“Is this a prank? This has to be some stupid fucking joke, right?” I asked, but knew deep down this wasn’t a joke, no matter how much of a jokester Dylan considered himself to be. Gabe and Chris both shot to their feet. I followed. Emmy had gotten it too. Yuni wasn’t part of thechat group, so she leaned in to read what was on my screen, her hand clamping painfully tight around my wrist as if she needed me to steady her.
Another photo appeared. Viktor was in the frame now. He had a knife up to Dylan’s throat. Dyl’s eyes were still closed; it appeared as if he had passed out.
Underneath the photo was a text.
DYLAN: You have taken one of ours, so we will now take one of yours. Meet us at Coral Ridge Park. If Veronica is not with you then be prepared for a pack war to settle this once and for all. Goodnight.
“Holy shit, holy fucking shit,” I said, hand over my mouth. “What do we do?” I asked, looking around at the fear-stricken faces.
Emmy turned the flames off. His face twisted with a red-hot anger I’d never seen on him before. “We get ready to fight.”
Chapter Thirty
Pre-Battle Preparations
GABE
Preparationsfor the full moon battle were swift and fierce.
We didn’t waste a second after getting that message. First, we tried contacting Viktor himself to tell him that we didn’t have Veronica—who we knew was his wife and second under him in the pack—but he didn’t believe us. We didn’t have time to question why he even thought we had her. All we could do was focus on rescuing Dylan, and in order to do that, we agreed to fight and end the rivalry between the packs once and for all.
The rest of the night was spent strategizing, choosing who would fight alongside Emmerson and how the battle could unfold. We agreed that it would be Emmy taking charge, with me and Chris flanking him. Yuni and Soren would fan out and try to pincer the Savannah pack from the sides, surprising them from the woods and hopefully taking out one or two of them before we even fully engaged.
We also needed to plan for any opposing strategies. They weren’t beyond using iron collars, which meant they were likely open to using even dirtier tricks to get what they wanted.
It was much like strategizing for a hockey game, except the stakes were so much fucking higher.
Emmy’s house served as the staging area. The atmosphere was tense. There were only two hours now until the moon would rise and our shifts would happen. I sat in the living room with Emmy, Yuni, Raquel, and Chris, all of us still in our same clothes as the day before. Eli came in from the kitchen with two steaming hot mugs of tea. He gave one to Yuni and one to me.
