“Stop,” she said, waving a hand at me. “If you honestly think I would do that, then maybe we need to discuss whether or not I should even be here.”
My stomach sank. Maybe I’d gone too far. I hadn’t actually seen her on my computer. I hadn’t seen her put that stuff in the drawer. But how else did it get there? Who else would have been on my computer? It was her door that was open last night. All signs pointed toward her.
“Lucia, I… I’m sorry. This is a big change for all of us.”
Her shoulders sank, and I could see tears in her eyes. “Do you honestly think I would do something like that?”
I didn’t know the answer to that, and that was what worried me. I didn’t know her at all. I just knew she had lost her pack and was grieving.
“No,” I said, because it felt right at the moment. I didn’t know, but I knew I needed to figure that out.
Chapter 22 - Westley
“Still no signs of what the past alarms were about? Or who was setting off the false alarms?” I asked, looking at Brandon and Asher across the table.
Brandon shook his head. “No, we have no idea. The alarms went through the grapevine. Someone heard it from someone else and passed it down. We’ve had a few people who thought they saw a hybrid and set the alarm off.”
“How does this keep happening?” I asked, looking at both of them.
“Don’t look at me. I work the night shift,” Asher said, and I snorted.
“Everyone is scared. People think that one is going to come and attack us at any moment. They don’t know what to believe, what’s true, or what is safe anymore.” Brandon tapped his hand on the table. “And I don’t blame them. Their world has been tipped upside down more than once since we arrived.”
Brandon pinched at his eyes. “Anything new about Lucia that I need to be aware of?”
I shook my head. “Nope, nothing. She’s looking for a job, so I think that’s a good sign. Otherwise, she seems to be adjusting just fine.”
“She seems to have integrated well with that pack. Jade and Nora said she’s been helpful around Belrose, trying to find things to do.”
I nodded in agreement. However, it would seem that Hazel was distancing herself from Lucia. I had a feeling it was just because Lucia wasn’t physically hurt anymore and neededthat extra hand. But otherwise, I didn’t think we had anything else.
“What about the last alarm? Who started that one?”
“They said they sensed a darkness that was around, so they sent it off. It was one of the guys, so I don’t think that was part of the false alarms.”
“Has anyone felt the darkness recently? Have either of the girls?”
Brandon shook his head. “No, it’s been eerily quiet for them recently.”
That was odd.
The meeting ended, and I headed out for a run. But once outside, I felt all the hair on my body rise. Asher walked out with me and paused. I noticed he’d paused just like I had.
“Something’s wrong.”
Suddenly, the alarms blared, and we both looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and I started to wonder if this was a false alarm. Were we being tricked?
Brandon came out. “Jade said she feels something on the west side.”
Shit.
We were all moving at once, hurrying to the West side of town. It was quiet, and the two guys on lookout looked surprised to see us. “Hey guys, are the alarms false again?”
“No, they are very much not,” Brandon snapped at them. “Why aren’t you two taking this seriously?”
The guys looked pale. “Well, the past five were fake, so…”
Before they could finish, a roar filled the air. We all turned just as a hybrid started charging at us.
