My heart ached.
Joe came then. He put his forehead on my shoulder. “Rico and Jessie. They got everyone out the back in time. While Ox kept her talking. They’re fine, Gordo. Everyone is safe.”
I closed my eyes and sagged against Mark.
He held me tightly.
“Pappas?” I managed to ask.
Joe said, “No. He… he didn’t make it.”
“Okay,” Mark whispered, rocking me back and forth. “Okay. Okay. Okay.”
I opened my eyes to the sound of an approaching vehicle.
There, on the road, heading straight for us, was one of the trucks belonging to the hunters, light bar across the top lit up.
I struggled to push myself up, needing to get to whoever it was. It never ended. It never ended, and I couldn’t—
“Elizabeth,” Mark grunted in my ear, arms tightening around me as he held me against his chest. “Tanner. Chris.”
“What?” I croaked out.
“Pack. Pack. Pack.”
The truck stopped, and through the windshield, I could see Tanner and Chris staring out in horror at the sight before them. Elizabeth said something and pushed the door open, sliding from the driver’s seat. She had found some clothes to wear, and though they looked big on her, she was still intimidating as fuck. Her eyes were orange as she approached, her hand going to the tops of her sons’ heads as Carter and Kelly fell in step beside her.
“Is she gone?” she asked, voice hard. “Elijah.”
“Yeah,” Joe said wearily. “She’s—Gordo. He saved us. He saved all of us.”
“What happened to him?”
“Just tired,” I muttered, though my words came out in a slur. “Give me a few. I’ll be up to kick some ass again later.”
“Jesus Christ,” I heard Chris say. “You let her blow up the bar? Oh my god, where the hell are we supposed to drink now? Mack’s? His beer is all foam, man.”
“I told you two to stay in the truck,” Elizabeth scolded Chris and Tanner as they approached. Chris looked worse than before, and Tanner’s face was pale as he held his arm against his chest. “You can’t be moving around much until we get your injuries checked out.”
“Oh, man,” Chris said. “Please tell me my sister’s okay and that she didn’t hear me bitch about the bar before I asked about her well-being.”
“Every word,” another voice said. “When you get healed up again, I’m going to kick your ass.”
I turned my head against Mark’s chest.
Coming out of the dark on the other side of the bar was Jessie. And Rico. And they were leading a group of wide-eyed people, most of whom were staring in shock at the devastation before them.
The Omegas growled at them, but Ox flashed his eyes and they flinched away, trembling against each other in the snow.
Chris moved toward Jessie, smiling even though it obviously pained him. He limped, right leg dragging behind him. She met him halfway, wrapping her hands around him. He grunted in pain, and when she tried to pull away, he just held her tighter.
“This kind of sucks,” another voice said, and I looked to see Bambi standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at what remained of her bar. “Good thing it’s covered. Though I’m probably going to have to commit insurance fraud, because I don’t think it’s going to go over very well if I tell them the reason my bar exploded was because hunters came to kill my boyfriend’s werewolf pack.”
“I love you so much,” Rico breathed. “I’m going to do so many things to you after I get over the mind-numbing PTSD of almost getting murdered by evil humans and feral werewolves.”
“Werewolves!” Will cried, and he looked soberer than I’d seen him in a long time. “I always knew something was going on with that family. Always hiding out in the woods. And you all said it was coyotes we heard howling. Looks like I’m owed apologies from all of you!”
The townspeople murmured behind him, huddling together. Some of them watched the feral wolves. Some of them were watching the fire burn.