Nick’s brows drew together. “Wait, you’re telling me the guy was a suicide bomber?”

“Shockingly, yes.”

“That’s some fucked-up shit,” muttered Bracken.

“Was Kerrie behind this?” asked Derren, suspecting that she had decided to take matters into her own hands since her previous plan hadn’t worked.

“He doesn’t recognize her name,” replied Trey. “He says that the voice on the phone was distorted but sounded male. Even if Kerrie hadn’t made the call, she could be the mastermind behind it; she could have hired people to help her. We’ve no way of tracking his family before anything can happen to them.”

Stone sighed. “I doubt they would have been allowed to live in any case—they’re witnesses who could identify their kidnappers.”

Derren was thinking the same thing.

“On one hand, I feel sorry for him,” began Shaya, cuddling Willow close. “On another, I want to rip him apart for putting so many lives in danger.”

Taryn’s voice came on the phone next. “Hey, sweetie. I’m feeling the same. A part of me wants to force him to choke on his own testicles. But I know I’d do whatever I had to do to keep my family safe, no matter what it was. And it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for him; he’s so petrified of what will happen to his family that he’s shaking.”

“Thank your Seer for us,” said Trey. “We owe her big-time. That bomb could have killed us all.”

Derren blinked. “Wow, that ‘thanks’ didn’t even sound begrudging.” The Mercury wolves and Taryn chuckled.

Trey snorted. “Don’t be an asshole all your life, Derren.”

“He’s just defending his mate,” Nick told the other Alpha male with a smile.

There was a short silence. “They’ve imprinted?” asked Taryn.

It was Shaya who answered, her voice excited. “No, it turns out they’re true mates.”

“Really?” Taryn’s smile was in her voice. “But I thought Cain—”

“Yeah, it’s best if we don’t talk about him right now,” Nick interrupted on hearing Derren’s growl.

Trey chuckled. “Congratulations, Derren, to you and your Seer.”

“Yes, congrats!” added Taryn. “I know this is totally selfish, but could you wait until after all this shit is over before you have your mating ceremony? I really, really want to go.”

Ally smiled. “We’ll wait.”

After thanking Ally and Derren profusely for being willing to hold off the ceremony, Taryn ended the call.

Eli turned to Nick. “It’s doubtful that Kerrie could have kidnapped an entire shifter family on her own. My guess is she either hired people to help her or the kidnappers are friends of hers. Either way, it means there are people who know where she is.”

“If no one’s willing to give up her location for the reward, the person hiding her has to be someone she’s close to,” said Caleb. “A family member or boyfriend.”

“Marcus said that, according to her family and pack mates, she doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Kent reminded him. “And both Donovan and Rhett confirmed that through their research.”

“All I’m saying is that someone has to know something,” said Caleb.

“But if it’s someone who owes her, they might be willing to keep hiding her.” Derren knew from his experience with Cain that owing someone could mean agreeing to a favor you might not agree with. “As a Seer, she’ll have had visions that saved lives. They might feel indebted to her.”

Hearing her cell phone ring, Ally retrieved it from her pocket. It was Roni, which brought a smile to her face. “Hey.”

“Why am I hearing from Taryn that you and Derren mated?” demanded Roni, sounding a little hurt.

Ally winced. “I didn’t mean for you to find out from someone else. I wanted to tell you in person.”

When Ally left the room as she continued to attempt to placate Roni, Derren looked at Nick. “We need to find Kerrie fast. If she’s behind that bomb, she’ll send someone after us next.”

Nick’s jaw hardened. “But we’ll be ready when they come. And we’ll destroy them.”

Shaya nodded. “And then we’ll find and destroy her—and we’ll enjoy it.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Five days later, after unpacking the rest of his things in what was now his and Ally’s lodge, Derren followed the smell of coffee downstairs and into the kitchen . . . just in time to watch his mate do a very feline stretch that made him want to slam her against the wall and thrust deep inside her.

His mate.

The shock of finding her still hadn’t left him. He hadn’t had many good things in his life, and he hadn’t expected that to change. And he definitely hadn’t expected the gift of finding his mate, particularly since he could be a broody, aggressive son of a bitch. He couldn’t be prouder or more satisfied to discover that his mate was Ally—the female who’d showed him how to live when he’d forgotten what that was like. She made him play with her, swim with her, chase her, argue with her. It all invigorated him.

She accepted the dark places inside him, accepted his scars and his past. Moreover, she forced him to accept it all too. She had faith in him, saw a goodness in him that he wasn’t sure was truly there. Despite the dark stories he’d told her about juvie, about the things he’d done to survive that place, she’d never once pulled away from him. Hadn’t condemned him for going after Neil, for killing him, or for the fact that he’d never regret it.