Page 49 of Dual Nature

Mason: and Noah's too...

Laughing to myself, I tucked my phone into my back pocket and realized that something else was folded up there. The urge to take it out and look at it was strong, but I knew it would be better for me to look at it alone. Something in my gut told me that if someone could get past my defenses to place a note in my pocket, they must be from the Organization or one of its international sister companies. Thankfully, the guys were tired, content to just listen to music on the way back, because my mind was racing. When we got back to the pack lands, I could sense the difference in the way my body relaxed with the knowledge that we were on home turf. After we pulled up to Zander's house, the others took their truck to the pack house to get more clothes and things to spend the night.

"We really need to talk about consolidating down to one house," Zander muttered as he flopped onto the couch.

"What if that's what they're doing, packing up things to bring over a few loads at a time?" I countered.

Zander cracked open an eye at me. "What makes you think that?"

"Just a hunch," I answered with a shrug of my shoulders. "I'm gonna get ready for bed and look over these new books we got tonight."

"Sounds like a brilliant plan. I'll be up in a bit, just want to check in on a few things before heading up," Zander shared as he turned on a sports channel.

Grinning, I headed upstairs. I never would have pegged Zander for a sports fan, but it was March Madness according to what I was overhearing. I might not know much about sports, but I knew enough to fake it with the best of them. Assassins could never predict what information might be necessary to maintain a cover.

Alone in the master bathroom, I paused to listen, making sure no one else was lurking in the house. I quickly took my phone from my pocket, and the paper fluttered out to the floor where I snatched it up. Unfolding it, I saw it was written in the code all of us had been practicing since the day we started training.

The Dark Ring knows, and they're coming.

We have someone to get you out.

Be ready tonight.

You'll know the signal.

My whole body froze. That couldn't be what it said. Why would the Organization be sending anyone to come get me? Margaret told me that I was obsolete, so Finley the assassin was no longer in their records… but she had also said she would have my back. Had she sent someone to give me this note? How would the Dark Ring know about me unless someone told them? I’d killed everyone besides Delilah and her guard. Even then, they didn’t know what I really looked like or that I had been bit.

Oh, fuck!

Dashing out of the bathroom, I raced to the nest and grabbed the laptop Mason had been using the other day. I didn’t want to risk going downstairs to get the new one they’d got me. Better to do this quickly while they were distracted. My first thought was to pull up the news for New York. Sure enough, there I was being carried out in the arms of an international superstar on NBC's website. Motherfucker! With the matter being handled by the Senate, I had thought the video would have disappeared as well. If the Dark Ring knew I was with Zander, then they'd be coming after me, meaning everyone in the pack was at risk. This leaves me no choice but to leave.

My head sunk into my hands as my mind whirled with possibilities of what could happen. It had been five days since I blew up the house and fled, so they must have sent the federal marshals after me right away. Then Zander got his mother involved, so the Dark Ring couldn’t use that move anymore. Speaking of his mother... I could go to Zander right now, tell him what was going on, and bring the Senate into this. Then again, I'd been sent to deal with this situation, and the only reason this was happening was because I had failed the job I was given. No—it was better to finish this myself.

While I came to that conclusion and found peace in that choice, my wolf was not at all on the same page. The thought of our mates or pack being in danger sent her into a tail-spin of panic. Her plan would have been for me to tell my mates so they could keep us safe. She'd much rather us shift so we could run and find a safe place to hide rather than head into the heart of danger.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Lane asked from the doorway.

I kicked myself for not staying more alert. If this is how I’m going to act, I might as well just hand myself over to the Dark Ring. "Oh, I was just looking something up, but it wasn't the news I wanted to get."

Giving answers like this made me realize how instinctive the art of skirting the truth was to me. Everything I’d just said was true—but not at all what Lane really wanted to know. I couldn't let them know. If anything happened to them, I didn’t know how I would live with myself. They were everything good and wonderful in my life, and there was no way I was going to let the Dark Ring steal a loved one from Colt again.

Lane frowned at me but didn't push the matter, holding his hand out to me instead. "Come to bed. If there’s a solution to your problem, I’m sure you’ll find it after getting some sleep."

"It's just hard when things from my past life didn't get resolved like I wanted them to." I sighed, walking up to Lane and taking his hand. "There wasn't any closure, you know? I just got the rug ripped out from under me and was told to move on."

Lane tucked me against his side as we walked upstairs where I found Colt sorting through a suitcase full of things. He looked up and must have seen something in Lane's expression because he immediately paused.

"Everything okay?" he questioned.

"She's just feeling a little displaced between her new life and the one she was forced to leave," Lane answered.

Colt made his way over to me and cupped my face in his hands. "I know it's rough when life throws you curveballs and you're not ready for it. If you ask anyone, they've gone through something unexpected, but not all are as easy to adjust to afterward. Did you know that I was the one who bit Lane? All he was trying to do was save me after Cory had been taken from us. I had gotten severely wounded in the fight, and I was so out of my mind with anger and pain, that when he reached out to me, I cut him up with my claws and changed his life forever."

Shocked, I pulled out of Colt's hold to look at Lane, reading the sadness and understanding in his eyes. They drew me over to the bed and sat with me in the middle, each holding one of my hands as they talked.

"I was a human EMT at that point, fresh out of training and raring to save anyone I could. I was on my way home from a shift when I saw a naked, bloody man on the side of the road. My guess was a mugging or something else. When I turned him over to check his pulse, he lashed out, but I refused to leave. The damage had already been done at that point. I brought him to my place and nursed him back to health, and in return, Colt took me under his wing and guided me through my first shift. I was lucky to have him. Unfortunately, my parents couldn’t handle my new life. They called me an ‘abomination,’ so Colt is really all I have now. Well, Colt and the rest of the pack," Lane shared, giving me a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He might make it sound like his parents rejecting him didn’t hurt anymore, but I wasn’t convinced.

Colt scoffed at that. "If I hadn't had Lane around when I lost Cory, I don't know that I would still be alive today. The universe decided that I wasn't a total failure as a brother and gave me a second shot while we both looked for Cory."