MattI turned, searching the crowd for Lucy. She wasn’t where she had been most of the afternoon, in a little shaded corner, probably feeling out of place. She wasn’t at the buffet either. When was the last time you saw Lucy?I thought you were watching her, Tony said. I was keeping an eye on Tina.I frowned. She’s not where she was a second ago…I focused on my hearing, listening for her. Then, I heard her voice. “Excuse me? Could you point me to a bathroom?”She’s going to the bathroom. Do you still have eyes on Tina?I haven’t let her out of my sight, he said stiffly. I honestly don’t know how much more I can take this, Matt. I’m pretty sure I was about to lose it in the car. How much longer do we have to be here?Not long. Head that way so we can go.I smiled and excused myself, saying something about checking on our companion. I headed inside and asked for the bathroom. Based on the way she sounded, I was headed down the same hallway. A woman went past, and I took a seat at th

LucyI woke up feeling refreshed and rested, even though there was a bit of pain in my neck. “Come on,” Tina said, nudging me out of the car. She opened her door and climbed out, and the sunlight nearly blinded me. It was near dawn wherever we were. The sun was already recoloring the sky. I gasped as I looked into the distance and saw water. This had to be the ocean. There was a single building there that looked like some sort of office building. “See you later!” Cara said as we got out of the car. Tina took my hand and led me toward the front doors. “There’s no need to be shy. Everyone already knows you’re coming. You’ll meet Diana and everyone else formally. They’re super nice….”I looked around. The walls were all made of glass on the bottom floor. I could see a group of people on the balcony outside in the back. It looked like it led down to the beach. The back doors opened, and I could smell the salt of the ocean. My heart raced. “Welcome back, Tina!” The woman behind the

PeterI turned slowly and turned on the bank of screens that showed the recordings of all the rooms during the conference. I rewound the tapes to when Matt and Tony had first arrived before they went sprinting off the first time. Their luggage hadn’t been spectacular. They had spent so little time in the room and hadn’t said anything. Instead, Matt had spent a lot of his time texting someone on his phone. Tony sat across the room, facing the door with his phone in his hand. It had been obvious that they had known they were being watched, still, I scanned the room, searching for a laptop of some sort, but there hadn’t been one, which meant there was no way I could hack into their files using their IP address.A shame, though I suppose it would have been too easy. The same had been true of David and all of his direct subordinates. Any alpha who had come with a laptop was too low in my pack and David’s pack to have anything worthwhile on their laptop.I drank slowly, running my fingers

LucyWhen Dagon left, Riley started looking through her tablet. “Honestly, he’s such a big help. Let’s start with the easy stuff first.”Riley walked me through signing up for the GED courses for my human education through a local university.“After you take the placement exam, the supernatural side of the university will generate a course of study for you, and you’ll be taking your classes on campus.”I shuffled my feet and nodded. “Will it be okay? I’ve been out of school so long.”She smiled. “You won’t be the only one attending at the time. We could arrange for you all to meet if you’d like?”I nodded. “I’d like that… It’s just… I’m a little nervous.”Her eyes softened. “Whatever will make you most comfortable.”“I think it would be okay if I knew at least a few people.”She took note. “I’ll get it organized. Anything else before I take you to the testing room?”I shook my head and stood. She stood and walked with me. I heard her telling me not to be nervous, but I couldn’t help i

DavidI settled at my desk, expecting a lot of information that wouldn’t be of any use to me, but for the first time since I had started to send them out to gather information, they came back with something interesting. Alpha Oren was being released from prison within a month, and his sons were currently in SCF custody. It was almost hysterical. Better than that, it was an opportunity.“No word about when they’ll be released?”“None yet.”I nodded. I already knew from other sources that Lucy was no longer at the Estate, but I would have to move carefully if I wanted to make the most of this. I’d need all the records I could manage on her situation, but if she was really being treated as a refugee, I could go to Blue Moon with my liaison and offer her sanctuary. Matt and Tony would be furious, but they wouldn’t have any say in it. Blood Moon was more stable than Blue Moon in almost every way. We weren’t known for outright murder and bloodshed like Blue Moon, but given how Lucy had co