They stared at each other. His mind was filled with questions that he wasn’t even sure he could phrase. And while he struggled with his thoughts, a distant sound cut through the night air. It was faint, but he knew it intimately.
Sirens. Multiple ones headed this way. The police were coming, and he and Frankie turned to look out the window. It wouldn’t be long now until the building across the street started reflecting red and blue strobe lights.
“Frankie,” he said, “what do you want to do?” She had to take the lead here. He could barely fathom what had happened, though from the look on her face, she was equally baffled.
“Don’t freak out, okay? I’ll figure this out.”
He wasn’t the one freaking, so maybe she was talking to herself. But he didn’t like the way she said thatshe’dfigure it out, notthey. He didn’t have a chance to respond as her cell phone suddenly buzzed. She leapt to get it, her motions jerky and obviously keyed up. She was still naked and he wanted to appreciate the view. He did appreciate it, but he also heard how she answered the phone with a panicked, “Hello?”
If she’d wanted to, she could have kept him from hearing the other person on the line by pressing the phone tight to her ear. She didn’t. He heard the first squeak of a cry—Noelle—and crowded close to her as she returned to the bed and tilted the phone so they both could hear.
“Oh my God, girlfriend, tell me that was you!”
“Noelle?”
“That was you. I know it was you. No one else feels so…so…I don’t know. Powerful woman.”
“Um, what exactly did I send?”
“It was like a rush of love. I mean fated in the stars kind of love. I’ve heard about this kind of thing before but never thought it would blast through the pack like it did. I mean, everyone felt it. You should see the look on some of the guys’ faces. They don’t know what to think.”
“Oh shit…” Frankie murmured.
“Don’t say, ‘oh shit’! It was wonderful! And it completely took the wind out of your brother’s sails. We could hear him screaming in the other room. ‘Attack! Attack!’ but my guess is that nobody listened. I really hate that my husband is overseas. I want some of that loving right now.”
“So Raoul isn’t out at the bears? He’s still back at the community center?”
“Yeah, in one of the back offices. I was really worried when a bunch of the men left an hour ago, though I was relieved, too. They were the meanest ones. Good for us, not so good for you because I was sure they were going after you.”
“They were supposed to attack the bears.”
“So did they?”
Ryan crossed to look out the window. He could see the flashing lights of three different squad cars, but no werewolves. Only cops who were leaning on their cars while Simon and Alyssa talked to someone in a National Guard uniform. He looked back at Frankie and shook his head.
“No attack,” she said into the phone. “That’s a good thing. The bears were not going to roll over quietly. It would have been ugly.”
“Well, it was ugly here. Kids crying, mothers cranky, and the men looking edgy and mean. A couple teenagers got into a fistfight, and the wolves were snapping at everyone just to scare them. And then you happened. It was a miracle. Everyone looked shocked, but the little kids settled down. The women went mellow, and the men got embarrassed. And everyone is asking, who’s the new alpha? Like I didn’t already know, so I sweet-talked our guard and got my phone.”
“Did you tell them it was me?”
“I didn’t say a word, but all the women could guess. It certainly got everyone’s attention.”
“Noelle, I…um…I didn’t do that on purpose.”
“Well, pretend like you did.” Her drawl was laced with humor. “You wanted to be alpha. So come over here and cement your position.”
Frankie nodded as if that was expected, but when she looked at Ryan, he saw an edge of panic in her eyes. “Um, yeah,” she said. “No time like the present, I suppose.”
“Look, you’ve got the alpha power. Just blast everyone with a ‘stay put’ message. Say you’re coming to sort things out.” Then when Frankie didn’t respond, Noelle sighed, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “You can send the message, right?”
Frankie looked at Ryan and shook her head, but the message was obviously just for him since she said something different into the phone. “Why don’t you tell them I’m coming? Tell them it’s time to talk common sense.”
He could hear Noelle blowing out a heavy breath. “I can spread that message around, but you’ve got a plan, right? How about your father? Is he really dead?” Noelle’s voice broke a bit on the question.
“He’s not dead, but he’s unconscious. Raoul’s guys messed him up bad.”
“Right. So it’s up to you.”
