CHAPTER16
Explosions filled the air. The forest to the side of the estate lit up orange and red against the night sky.
“I guess that’s our distraction,” Michael murmured as they piled out of the car.
At the same time, fifteen uniform-clad HRU members burst from around the far side of the house, barrelling toward the source of the explosion. They didn’t look towards where Michael and the other were, too focused on the perimeter fence. The humans would be long gone by the time they got there, so Michael didn’t need to worry about them being attacked.
With a chunk of the HRU distracted, they headed to the front door and found Jacob and his team waiting just inside.
Michael wasn’t surprised that the whole of Jacob’s team chose to join them. He just hoped they weren’t the only ones.
“We’ve spoken to everyone we can who’s likely to be on our side,” Jacob said. “Some are here tonight. Others have stayed in their apartments, happy with the direction we want to take things but wanting to stay out of the fighting.”
“Thank you.” It was as much as he could expect. And a good reminder that although the main bulk of the McKillan pack leaders were here at the McKillan Estate, a lot of the pack would still be in their apartments. With the HRU taken out of action, the pack itself wouldn’t be anywhere near as strong, and it was Michael’s hope that the rest would fall in line.
“Come on,” Jacob said. “We need to get to the training centre before the rest of them return.”
Unlike Jacob’s people, who had housing in the pack apartments in Pimlico, the HRU had their own accommodation off the training centre, which they could use if they wanted. A lot of them chose to stay there. That worked in their favour tonight. They didn’t need rogue members turning up and coming in behind them.
Jacob and his team led the way through the ground floor of the main house to the stairwell. It was eerily quiet. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it wasn’t this. “Where’s Baker?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him all day.”
Well, that wasn’t good.
Michael pulled out his phone and tried his number. It rang and rang, and he gave up after number six.
Fuck.
They took the stairs up to the training centre on the third floor, still not running into anyone, and Michael was starting to get nervous. “Are the cameras on?” He motioned to the ceiling where cameras were positioned in uniform distances along the corridor.
“We disabled them, but I’m not sure for how long.”
There was nothing they could do about it now. They’d either know they were coming or they wouldn’t.
They reached the outer double doors of the training centre and came to a halt, hanging back so they weren’t visible through the windows, and waited to see if anyone came out to meet them.
Nothing happened.
He shared a confused glance with Jacob.
Like a lot of the areas in the pack house, the training centre was soundproofed to some degree, which right that second was a huge pain in the arse.
“Is Simon in there? Paul?” he asked, eyes trained on the door. “Is Isaac still in the secure flats?”
“We couldn’t see any of them on camera before we shut it all down.”
That didn’t mean anything, necessarily. Isaac could’ve been in the bathroom or the bedroom.
Instinct told him that wasn’t where he was.
They were all together, and Michael had a horrible feeling he knew where.
First things first.
“We need to go in,” he said, looking around at everyone waiting for his go-ahead.
Jacob nodded. “Shifted or not?”
