“Drink this if the tremors return.” Pippa pressed a vial into my hand. “It’s a warming tincture. I just finished stewing it. It’ll help.”
I pocketed the vial and pulled her into a one-armed hug. “Thank you.”
She patted my back. “Anytime.”
“Can you check in on Wren for me? Help Conah out if he needs it?”
“Of course.”
The pressure at the base of my skull intensified. I needed to move.
The guys were waiting downstairs with The Elites. Patrol packs were on alert, headed to the edge of town in human form, awaiting a call from their alphas.
“What now?” Sloane asked.
I closed my eyes and imagined the varga’s voice, focusing on the pressure at my nape.
Find me.
The pressure intensified and then my body began to tingle. I headed for the door and the tingle grew stronger. It built as I clattered down the porch steps and into the falling snow. I made a left toward the forest and the tingle ebbed slightly.
“Cora, what are you doing?” Sloane asked.
I pressed a hand to my chest. “I think I can find them. I just need to follow the tingle.”
She gave me an odd look. “Um…Tor…”
“Cora?” Tor joined her on the porch steps.
Oh, fuck this, I didn’t have time to explain it to them. The longer we waited, the more chance I’d lose this connection. If the infection burned out, we were fucked.
I made a beeline for the garage. “We need to go now.”
Leif jogged toward me, keys jangling in his hand. “Everybody, get in your cars and follow us.”
Leif, Tor, and Rune clambered into the Rover with me.
One wolf in town could be mistaken for a huge dog breed, but several, not so much. Rune had insisted on coming, and I wasn’t about to exclude him from this, not after last night.
The engine roared to life and we were off.
I navigated based on the tingle and buzz in my body, a distinct thing to the chill that simmered in my veins.
It was a beacon calling me.
We took a left and the buzz died a little. “No. Wrong way.”
Leif continued to the roundabout as the buzz lessened and then turned the car and headed the way we’d just come. The tingle amped up. We were back on track.
Ten minutes later we were headed to the other end of town.
Tor leaned forward between the seats. “There’s nothing out there except the new construction site. They’re demolishing the warehouses to build flats.”
Yes, that had to be it. “Perfect place to stash a bunch of shifters, don’t you think?”
Tor sat back and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Head to the southeast edge of town. The Partridge Project.”
The buzz was a solid vibration in my veins now. The road ahead melted, and I was back in the room.
“You’re close,” the varga said.
“Yes. I need more information, though. The place you’re hidden in is huge. I need clues.”
She showed me the skylight and the door, eyes tracking across the unremarkable room.
Shit, nothing much to go on. “Who took you?”
“I don’t know. The last thing I remember is running through the forest, then there was a bright light, and we woke up here. They’ve been taking us one by one, and each time there’s the light to blind us. There are only three of us left, but more arrived a day ago.
“Dire wolves.”
“Yes. Did Vax send you? Is he okay?”
Vax the varga alpha. “It’s complicated, but he’s fine.”
The rattle of a lock.
“They’re here. Oh, God.”
A blinding light and my connection was severed.
I was back in the car, chest heaving. “We need to hurry. Now.”
Leif stepped on the gas.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
We huddled beyond some bushes outside the wire fencing to the decrepit-looking site. According to Tor, the Partridge Project had begun three years ago, but from what I’d seen, not much progress had been made. Construction equipment was stationed beyond the fence, visible through the swirling snow. It was a weekday but not a single worker was visible. Okay, so it was snowing, and maybe they didn’t work in this weather, but my gut told me no one had worked here for a while.
“It’s a front,” Sloane said, swiping across her phone and holding it out to show us a photograph from an old newspaper announcing the project.
The place looked exactly the same in the photograph. Same buildings still standing, no new structures.
Sloane tapped on her phone again. “Okay, so Conah just sent me some photos of the place from before Partridge took over.”
“Conah?”
“Yeah, I called him as soon as we knew where we were headed.” She frowned at her phone, trying to shield it from the snowfall. “So this place was all factories. Was there anything in your vision, anything significant about the structure they’re being held in? We have your connection, but we can’t risk having to backtrack on ourselves if your beacon fails.”
She had a point. We had no idea who we were up against and the infection could burn out of me at any moment, severing my connection to the varga.
“It’s a dark room, bare pipes and brick, beams and a skylight.”
She studied the photos Conah had sent. “Bingo. There’s only one building with a skylight. It’s on the other side of the lot.”
The snow was getting heavier. Good, we’d have cover.
“We need wire cutters,” Leif said.
Jessie held up her hands and grinned. “No, we don’t.”
Two minutes later we were in the lot. Backup had arrived in the form of pack wolves who had the lot surrounded. One howl and they’d descend on the bad guys like a pack of wolves—pun intended.
Sloane led the way toward the building with the skylight and I followed, the humming in my veins confirming we were on
