Page 82 of Freed

I glance at Lexi and she nods excitedly. “No boys this time,” she says, glancing back at Finn and Chase who are in some sort of weird race where they apparently can’t use their arms.

“Do you need any help?” Hunter asks me.

I shake my head, tying the towel around my waist as I tell him, “No thanks. I think we can figure it out.”

He smiles at me and walks over to join Erica, Philip, and Gage as Lexi and I head to the back of the yard. Soren starts to follow, and Lexi has to tell him, “No boys allowed.” He grumbles something about “we’ll see about that,” but seems to let her go with me.

The cornhole is set up in the middle of the yard, just past where Maddox, Alaric, and Jon are sitting on some chairs, beers in hand. Maddox watches me as we walk past them, and just that look alone is enough to make my skin warm and my core tighten.

I quickly turn away, not wanting to get aroused right now. Lexi and I decide to toss two different colored bean bags in the same direction so we can stand together and chat while we play.

We take turns tossing them, and after our third ones she speaks. “You know, if you ever want to talk about anything, I’m here for you.”

“I know,” I tell her. “Same here.” We walk across to collect our bean bags and toss the other way as I think of something to ask her. “Have you ever met another omega before?”

She shakes her head as she takes her shot. “No. I didn’t even know what they were until we came here and I met Erica.”

“What happened to your family?”

“Happened? Nothing.”

“They’re still alive?” I ask in surprise. Somehow I assumed her abduction would have been like mine. Which is a stupid assumption to make. Lexi isn’t a hybrid like me, she’s a pure lion shifter. “Do they live here?”

“No, thank Goddess,” she says with a sigh. “They’re the worst.”

“So I’m assuming your mom wasn’t an omega?”

“Not that I know of. And she only has my dad as a mate.”

“It’s pretty strange, isn’t it?” I ask her as I toss my last bag and wait for her to throw hers.

“You mean being some weird ancient being that nobody seems to know much about except for these old books and Erica’s grandmother?” I hear the sarcasm in her voice as we move to grab our bean bags.

“Yeah, that. You think there’d be more of us out there.”

“There probably are. They’re probably either in hiding, or they have no idea what they are.”

“Do you⁠—”

A snarl rips through the air and we both gasp, our ends spinning to face the forest. My eyes widen in horror as a dozen wolves sprint from the trees, fangs bared, running straight toward us. Their eyes are red and I realize these must be feral rogue wolves.

Why didn’t we smell them coming?

“Cherry!” I hear my guys scream, and I spin, grabbing Lexi’s wrist as I pull her back toward the others, who are all sprinting this way.

Within two steps, I hear one of the wolves behind us, and I turn my head just in time to see one of the rogue wolves leaping toward Lexi.

I drop her hand and shift into my wolf form as I tackle it sideways, knocking it off course before I tumble head over heels a couple of times, coming to a stop on my side. I quickly jump up and turn around just in time to see Lexi shift into her lioness form.

She’s smaller than I expected as she turns to hold her own against the wolves, but she doesn’t need to, Finn is suddenly there in front of her, water dripping from him as he snarls, lunging for the closest wolf.

I watch as her other mates appear in their lion and panther form, putting themselves between the rogue wolves and Lexi.

A snarl has me spinning as several rogues head straight toward me, but before I can react, Bain, Chase, and Maddox are in front of me in their wolf forms, taking down the oncoming rogues with minimal effort.

I slowly back up, finding Gage and Hunter’s wolves on either side of me in a protective stance as they watch the others. Howls fill the air, and suddenly, dozens more rogue wolves push through the treeline toward us.

How many are there?