I sympathized with that, too.

“I’ll be damned…” my father mumbled, removing his glasses to squint at the short, smooth white line on Dan’s back. “This is the strangest thing I’ve encountered in more than thirty years as an Alpha.” He looked up and locked gazes with my mother, who had paused in the process of scooping shredded potatoes into the first skillet. “Things are changing, Karen.”

She nodded mutely, the slight dip in the thin lines of her forehead the only indication that she shared his mounting concern with the state of the world. But that was plenty for those of us who knew her.

My father stood, his mouth tugged into a deep frown, and motioned for Dan to put his shirt back on. I knew what he was thinking. How could he possibly keep up with rogues committing crimes aided and inspired by technology he didn’t know existed?

“Dr. Carver’s running late, but he’ll be here within the hour. We’ll eat, then he can remove the chip from Mr. Painter’s back.” My Alpha’s gaze found me as I snagged another piece of bacon. “And when Kaci wakes up, you have to talk her into Shifting.”

I could only nod and chew my bacon, hoping Kaci was ready to get it over with.

Ethan went to the guesthouse to wake up Jace and Brian, and by the time they’d showered and dressed, Owen had joined the rest of us in the dining room. We were careful not to wake Kaci—though I couldn’t resist peeking into her room to check on her—because in her weakened state, she needed all the sleep she could get. And because we didn’t want her to hear about what had happened to Manx or Marc, or the possibility—however slim it was in my mind—that he might not be found alive.

She would have to know eventually, of course. But not until she’d Shifted and could regain her strength.

Dr. Carver arrived as we were sitting down to a huge, hot breakfast. My mother set another place at the long dining room table for him, and Ethan and I introduced Dan and caught everyone up on what had gone down in Mississippi. Including our suspicion that Kevin Mitchell was working for either his father or Calvin Malone, the two Alphas most outspoken about the “stray problem” and least concerned with violating the civil rights of a segment of the population they had no use for anyway.

I was on my third helping of scrambled eggs when soft footsteps whispered from the hallway, and Kaci stepped into the doorway, long brown curls tangled from sleep. She clutched the door frame with one thin, white hand, her huge eyes taking in all the new arrivals at once.

“Kaci!” I smiled and stood, cutting Ethan off in the middle of an off-color description of Eckard’s corpse, hopefully before the tabby had heard too much. All eyes followed my gaze to the doorway, and my mother rose immediately to fill another plate, while I shoved Jace’s empty chair over to make room for the one he had taken from against the rear wall.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” She lowered her frail form onto the chair between mine and Jace’s, glaring at me with accusation swimming in her eyes. “I didn’t even know you were coming home.”

“It was a last-minute decision. Mr. Painter—” I gestured at Dan, by way of an introduction “—needed to see Dr. Carver for…a checkup. So Ethan and I brought him.”

She wasn’t buying it; I could tell from the firm, straight line of her mouth. But she’d learned enough diplomacy in her months with us—in spite of my sometimes less than perfect example—to know better than to call me out in front of everyone else. So Kaci just frowned and accepted the plate my mother handed her with a whispered “Thanks.”

I’d been gone for less than forty-eight hours, but I couldn’t believe the difference in her. Her eyes were dull, and looked bigger than they should have, while the rest of her seemed to have shrunk. Her skin was so pale I could clearly see the veins peeking through the dark smudges beneath her eyes, and her arms were all sharp angles, thanks to the too well-defined bones of her wrists and elbows.

While I watched her push eggs around on her plate, the table went quiet. No one seemed to know what to talk about, now that Kaci’s arrival had put an end to the update on the search for Marc.

When everyone was finished except for Kaci, who’d finally donned a small smile as she watched Jace and Ethan spar with the last two sticks of my mother’s homemade biscotti, my father gestured for me to follow him and Dr. Carver into his office. He shut the door behind us, and I sank onto the leather couch as if I hadn’t just dozed through most of the drive home.

I had slept, but I hadn’t slept well—not in several nights—and both the physical and emotional stress were getting to me.

Carver lowered himself onto the couch next to me, clutching a steaming mug of coffee in both hands while my father settled into his armchair. “I need to get Kaci out of the house until Dr. Carver has finished removing Dan’s microchip. We don’t want her to overhear any of that, for obvious reasons.”

I nodded, but my gaze remained glued to the mug I was seriously starting to covet.

“What do you think, Danny?” my father continued, and I tried to tune back into the conversation. “How long will this procedure take?”

Carver shrugged and somehow avoided spilling his coffee. “Half an hour, at the most. It’s very simple. Local anesthetic, a short cut, pull out the microchip, then some sutures.”

“Do you think Kaci can handle a half-hour walk in the woods?”

The doctor nodded. “I don’t know that she’ll feel like walking the whole way, but if someone is willing to carry her when she gets tired, the fresh air might actually do her some good. Assuming she’s properly bundled.”