“Okay.” Zack studied Eden for a moment longer before his lips quirked in an awkward, sad smile. “You weren’t this bossy when you were ten.”
“I was shorter too.” She slipped her hand into Jay’s. “Trust him, Zack. He’s a good man. Whatever you guys are running from…”
“The same thing every other wolf is.” Zack turned his back on them and started toward the porch. “Might as well come in. Waiting won’t make it hurt less to hear. Or to say.”
“Never does.” Jay pocketed his keys and kept hold of Eden’s hand as they followed her cousin up the steps and into the house.
Though he could hear plenty of footsteps and movement in the upstairs rooms, they didn’t run into anyone as Zack led them to the kitchen. The girl who’d saved Eden the previous night was standing in front of the sink, and Zack’s severe expression softened slightly. “Kaley, could you run and get Lorelei?”
Her gaze fell on Eden as she dried her hands, and her brow furrowed in confusion. “Uh…sure. She’s just out back.”
Jay watched her go. “How many of you are there?”
“Six, other than me.” He sank into the chair like his whole body ached. “No—four. There was a couple expecting a baby, but they split after last night’s attack. Now there’s one other man and three women. Everyone’s pretty roughed up.”
Jay took the chair opposite his. “Your pack?”
He nodded, not looking at Eden. “Memphis is too big for only one. There was the strongest pack, but they always left the rest of us alone, as long as we paid our tribute.”
“What changed?”
“The alpha let too many vicious bastards join up.” Zack’s features twisted into a scowl. “By the time he realized how vicious they were, it was too late. They put him down and turned Memphis into their playground.”
An old story, the kind of thing that happened all too often. Especially in cities, where the stress of hiding amongst humans seemed to lead to ever-increasing savagery. “So you ran.”
“Not at first.” The words came from a slender blonde standing in the doorway. She walked in with a grave look at Zack. “Kaley wanted to come back, but I sent her out to the barn with Mae. I figured you wouldn’t want her in here for this.”
“Thank you.” Zack cut a look at Eden. “You don’t have to listen to this either, you know.”
Eden stared right back. “I think I do. I’m a part of it, whether you want me to be or not, and I need as much information as I can get.”
Zack smacked his hand on the table with a growl. “You don’t get it, Eden. You don’t know what life in a city is like for a werewolf. In your worst nightmares, you can’t imagine it.” He gave Jay a desperate look. “You know I’m right.”
“So is Eden. Like it or not, this is part of her life now.” Jay laid his hand over hers. “But be sure you want to hear this, honey. You don’t have to—not yet, anyway.”
Eden squeezed his hand lightly, then pulled hers away and offered it to the blonde. “I’m Eden. You must be Lorelei.”
The woman nodded but kept her hands to herself as she slid into the remaining empty chair. Eden let her hand fall to the table, her embarrassment plain.
Zack sighed and rubbed his face. “They asked me to step aside as alpha. When I didn’t, they snatched me off the street and told my pack I was dead.”
Lorelei took over. “With Zack gone, most of the stronger men tried to fight. They died. The ones who didn’t took their loved ones and ran. With all the outward opposition gone, the gang pretty much did whatever the hell they wanted.”
“But you weren’t dead,” Eden said softly.
“I wasn’t dead,” Zack agreed. “They were having too much fun beating the shit out of me.”
If the fresh scars on the man’s face, neck and arms were any indication, they’d done more than that. They’d tortured him, and with magically enchanted weapons, no less. It was the only thing Jay could think of that wouldn’t heal, the reason he still had a shallow, scabbed-over scratch on his own side. “What about everyone else?”
“They hid. A few of us couldn’t.” Lorelei looked away. “It was bad, but nothing we couldn’t get through. Not until Kaley—”
A surge of raw, angry power burst through the room. Zack clenched his jaw and his fists and still looked like he was about to punch a hole through the table.
Jay held up a hand. “It’s okay.”
Zack sucked in a steadying breath. “They didn’t say as much in front of me, but I knew they’d go after the pack. It didn’t matter how broken I was—I had to get free and get them the hell out of Memphis.”
“So you left,” Jay murmured. “But why did they follow? Could they want you all back that badly?”
“Last night was personal.” Zack rose and retrieved a cloth-wrapped bundle from a drawer by the sink. He set it on the table before carefully pulling back the fabric to reveal a twist of herbs, twine and a lock of bright pink hair.
Jay picked it up and turned it over in his hands. “The girl from the woods. Mae.”
“That’s right.” Lorelei leaned forward. “One of the new alphas—Scott Fields—he took a shine to her. At least, that’s what we thought. Then he got…crazy. Plain old bugf**k insane.”
Zack snarled. “He stalked her, is what he did. Tried to make her feel indebted by keeping the other men off her. And with no one to protect her, what the hell other choice did she have?”
He exploded from the table, toppling his chair to the floor. Furious, jagged power smashed through the room in a brutal wave. Lorelei sucked in a breath, and Eden jerked beside Jay, nervous ripples of magic vibrating off her.
If he didn’t calm her down, she’d shift—suddenly and painfully. “That’s enough,” he said firmly. “Everyone settle down.”
Zack whipped around, his mouth open to deliver what would undoubtedly be a vicious retort, judging from the rage in his eyes. Then his gaze tripped over Lorelei and settled on Eden, who was practically hyperventilating, her fingers locked around the edge of the table.
He stumbled back and hit the wall with a hollow thud. “I can’t do this. I can’t take care of them.”
Jay stood. “I’ll help them in any way I can, but I can’t do it alone.”
Zack met his gaze. “Are there more of you in town? Do you have some sort of pack here?”
“No, there’s just me.”
Something deadly stirred behind the other man’s gaze, a banked fury that eclipsed his previous anger and turned his next words into a venomous threat. “The only other alpha we have is Kaley, and she is not going to be your partner.”
Jay held his gaze. “To be honest, I kind of figured she was with you.”
That put an entirely different look in Zack’s eyes. Panic. “She’s not. But I’m responsible for her, just like I’m responsible for all of them.”
And the weight of that responsibility would break him—sooner rather than later. “So let me handle it for a while. I’ve got the contacts, I know this place… It’ll be easier.”
Zack turned to Lorelei, who stared back at him, unblinking, and nodded once, almost imperceptibly.
The press of Zack’s power melted away. “I yield. If Eden says I can trust you…then I yield.”
“I’ll need to call some friends. Will you be okay with that?”
“Are they friends who’ll keep their hands to themselves?”
Jay ignored Eden’s squeak of outrage. “Yeah, they are.”
“Fine.” Zack glanced at Lorelei again. “You can tell them everything they need to know,” he growled before spinning out of the room. A few seconds later another door slammed shut.
Lorelei ran her hands through her hair. “Sorry. He’s been through a lot.”
“I’m sorry.” Eden folded her hands on the table, her knuckles white. “You’ve all been through so much.”
Jay had calls to make, and there were practical matters to deal with. “Lorelei, if you make a list of things you need—food, flashlights, sleeping bags, anything—I’ll make sure you get them today. Tomorrow, we’ll get started on things like electricity.”
“There are immediate needs.” She stood. “Zack said there are some things stored in the attic we might be able to use. I’d appreciate some help looking around, Eden.”
Eden pushed out of her chair without meeting Jay’s eyes. “I repacked a lot of it after my uncle died. I’ll show you.”
A mundane task, but it could be what she needed to keep going at the moment. “You’ll be all right?” Jay asked.
She managed a half-smile. “I’ll shout if I start sniffing people or going crazy again.”
“Deal.” He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed as he stepped out onto the front porch.
Fletcher answered on the third ring. “That you, Ancheta?”
“It’s me. You still in Nevada?”
“Nah, chased that prey to ground a month back. I’m enjoying the sun in Florida this week. Purely recreational.”
“Where in Florida?” Neal Fletcher had nothing holding him, no reason not to pick up and head for west Tennessee. “Panhandle or down south?”
“Panhandle. Why, you got trouble up your way?”
“In a manner of speaking. A splintered pack of refugees out of Memphis just fell into my lap.”
Fletcher spit out a curse. “Have you called Colin yet? Last time I talked to him, he mentioned checking out Memphis after he finished up his current gig. If it’s bad enough to catch his attention, you’re going to need more than me for backup.”
“Alphabetical order in my contacts list, Fletch. First you, then Colin, and then Shane.” He stepped off the porch and rounded the edge of the house. “What had Colin heard about Memphis?”