This time, though, it was different.
Cillian and the others stared down at the map, each mark on it a location where an attack traced to the Night Pack had occurred. As the marks trailed, they had gotten less frequent, as if the pack were only whetting their appetite while they made their way somewhere else. The question was where that might be.
“This is weird,” Franco muttered. “Right? I’m not the only one looking at this who thinks it’s weird.”
“Any ideas?” Camden asked, regarding the map with a knitted brow.
“None at all,” Cillian said. “They didn’t act this way last time.”
“We’re sure it’s them?” Franco asked.
“As sure as we can be,” Cillian said. “Witnesses to each of these attacks describe at least one person who matches the description of people from the Night Pack. There are probably more, but these are only the ones that we can definitively connect to them.”
They all stared at the map, trying to make sense of the bizarre movements. Cillian tried to recall them doing anything like this before. Last time, the attacks had been almost withina radius around the pack’s home base, a way to expand their influence. They hadn’t stretched out like this, not until they had successfully taken over another pack.
“If I didn’t know any better,” Jasper said, hovering over the map, frowning, “I’d say that they were making their way here.”
“Why would they come here?” Franco asked. “That seems pretty coincidental, if you ask me.”
“It does,” Jasper agreed. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s looking like they’re heading this way.”
Camden considered this, drumming his fingers. “Is there any way they could have found out about us? That we were hunting for them.”
Realization struck Cillian like a speeding truck. Groaning, he pinched the bridge of his nose, frustration and comprehension washing over him simultaneously. This was all his fault.
“Yeah,” he said, more than a little bitterly. “Chase. The one who got away.”
He could kick himself. Chase had probably run straight to Eric and told him about the guy who had attacked him, demanding information on the Night Pack. If Eric had asked for a physical description, it would have been easy enough to connect the attack to the strange person who had bought Amber off him. How much work would it have been from there to find out who Cillian was and connect him to the Silverrose pack?
“He recognized me,” Cillian said. “When we were fighting. He knew that I was part of the team that went after them the first time. He probably told Eric, and Eric would have made the connection between the guy who bought Amber fromhim and the attack once Chase gave a description of me. It’s only a short jump from that to the Silverrose pack.”
None of them responded right away. Instead, they all stared at the map, each absorbed in their own thoughts.
“I’m not going to berate you for your stupid decision again,” Camden said, though it sounded as though he was barely holding back his anger. “Because you already know how stupid it was, and it’s not going to do any of us any good. At the moment, we need to deal with the fallout.”
Cillian nodded, his fingers curling into fists as he tried to hold back his anger. He’d been stupid and impulsive. But berating himself wasn’t going to do anyone any good right now. He’d fucked up, and now they needed to find a way to correct his mistake.
“What do you suggest?” he asked.
“Eric knows who you are now,” Camden said. “That’s going to make things a lot more complicated.”
“Well aware,” Cillian growled. His damn impulsivity. If he had thought for more than two seconds, they might not be in this mess. Now they were racing against a ticking clock, but they had no idea when the timer would run out.
“How certain are we that they’re coming here?” Jasper asked.
“I’d say there’s probably an eighty percent certainty,” Cillian admitted, his brow creasing as he looked at the notes in front of them.
Camden snarled, but bit back the retort Cillian sensed was looming just below the surface. Every time Camden glanced at him, Cillian could sense him wanting to snap.
“What do we do?” Franco asked. “Should we consider evacuation?”
Camden considered this for a moment, staring at the map, his brow creased in consideration. He rubbed his chin. Cillian could see the calculations behind his eyes as he weighed his options.
Eventually, he shook his head.
“Not yet,” he said. “We don’t have enough information. We don’t know where they are or when they’ll strike. If we evacuate now, we might send everyone straight to him. We need to scout more and figure out what we’re dealing with before we consider anything like that.”
Franco nodded.
