“So am I,” Liam said. “The rest of you help Mike get everyone to safety. We’ll find Jack and meet you at the boats. Abby and Isabelle, go with them.”
Both of the women got a stubborn set to their jaws as they shook their heads no.
“I agree with your father,” Brian said.
“I don’t care,” Abby said. “I’m coming with you.”
“So am I,” Isabelle added.
“We should all go,” Ethan said.
“We can’t all go,” David reasoned. “We have to get everyone to safety.”
“We came here for Jack,” Aiden said.
“And Jack would want his mate to be somewhere safe,” Mike countered. “We have to take them out of here.”
Charlie glanced at Dylan before turning to stare at the woods. Jack was back there somewhere. She could feel he was okay, but she desperately wanted to see him.
“He should be here soon,” she murmured as she rested her hand against her chest. “I know he’s still alive. I can feel him, but he should have been here by now. I should go…” Her voice trailed off as the feel of Dylan’s hand stopped her from offering to go with them. She couldn’t leave Dylan with this group. Jack trusted them with his life—he’d never doubted they would come back for him—but she didn’t know them.
Understanding and sympathy radiated in Mike’s eyes when she hugged Dylan closer. “Brian will find Jack,” he assured her.
She recalled Jack saying his friends might have someone with them who could find him; it must be Brian. “Yes,” she murmured, “he will.”
“Be careful,” Liam said to his children before embracing each of them.
“Always,” Ethan replied and clapped him on the back before they separated.
Liam, Brian, Stefan, Abby, and Isabelle waved to them before breaking away. Charlie watched them until they vanished into the woods.Bring him back to me soon.
“We should go,” Mike said to Charlie. “The boats are this way.”
Taking a deep breath to steel herself to continue without Jack, she followed Jack’s family into the woods with Mal and the others.
“What started the fire?” Mike asked as they jogged through the trees, careful to stay slow enough so the humans could keep up.
“The Savages set traps around the mansion, and some humans triggered one of them. Clifford, a friend of ours, set off another, and the two fires from the bombs combined. Jack and I were there with Kirha and Clifford when the bombs went off,” she said. “You were at the mansion before you escaped.”
Mike glanced at her over his shoulder. “Yes.”
“Whatever you did there caused most of the Savages to gather at the mansion. Hopefully, the fire overtook them before they could run away.”
She was sure some escaped, but the blaze had to trap some of them.
“The humans who set off the first bomb, were they part of your group too?”
“No, we didn’t know them.”
Mike glanced over his shoulder at Dylan. “I don’t remember seeing a child in the cages.”
Charlie squeezed Dylan’s hand. “We weren’t in the barn with you. We’ve been on this island for three years.”
Mike almost smacked into a tree when his head twisted around and he gaped at her. He turned back in time to dodge the tree in front of him.
“How is that possible?” he asked.
“Mal saved us,” Dylan said.
