Although there was no reluctance in her voice, Derren knew that it would hurt Ally to give up this lodge that she’d made her home. She was relaxed here, considered it her haven. Although he’d miss his own lodge, he couldn’t bring himself to ask her to give this place up. Besides, the only thing he needed was his mate—he’d go wherever she was happiest. “I was thinking I could move in here permanently, and we could make this our home.”
Shocked, she asked, “Really?”
“I know how attached you are to it. Well, to the porch and hammock.”
She laughed. “Thank you.”
He took her mouth softly but still as possessively as always. “I have an ulterior motive.”
His playful tone made Ally smile, since he wasn’t a particularly playful person. She liked that he let his guard down for her. “Oh? What’s that?”
“As much as your prickly nature amuses me, I like it better when you’re happy, because then you’re much easier to seduce.”
She snorted softly. “You don’t seduce, you take.”
“I take what belongs to me.” When she rolled her eyes, he chuckled and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Sleep.”
Exhausted after a hectic day, she cuddled into him, closed her eyes, and drifted off.
Derren was in the middle of a dream about Ally covered in whipped cream when he woke up with a jerk as the hammock began to bounce. That was when he saw Ally darting inside the lodge like the hounds of hell were on her heels. Following her, he found her in the living area dialing a number on her cell phone. “Baby, what is it?”
She held up one finger as she put the phone to her ear. Knowing that something was very, very wrong, it took everything he had not to prod her for answers. Right now, she was in her “let me do this” zone. His wolf was on high alert, sensing her fear and wanting to protect her from whatever was causing it.
“Come on, Roni, answer,” she groused as she paced. But Roni didn’t. Ally dialed another number. Within moments, a voice greeted her on the other end of the line. “Jaime, has a red Chevy appeared at your gate?” asked Ally, frantic.
Derren could easily hear Jaime’s response: “Yeah, it’s an old contact of Trey’s. He’s on his way to the caves now. He says he’s got information on Kerrie’s whereabouts.”
“Stop the car before it reaches you, Jaime! It’s got a fucking bomb in it!”
Derren advanced on Ally, alarmed. “A bomb?” His wolf froze before releasing a low growl.
“I had a vision,” Ally told a rapidly talking Jaime. “I’ll explain all of it to you, I promise, but first you need to stop that car.” She ended the call to allow Jaime to do just that.
“Ally, what the fuck is going on?” demanded Derren.
Sensing that her mate was going to explode if she didn’t quickly explain, Ally told him, “I had a vision in my sleep. I saw Roni, Marcus, and some of the Phoenix wolves in an underground parking lot. Roni and Marcus are on Phoenix Pack territory, so my immediate guess was that that is where it will happen. The wolves were all watching as a red Chevy pulled up. Instead of getting out of the car, the driver mouthed, ‘I’m sorry.’ Then he lifted a remote, pressed a button, and boom.”
“Fuck.” Derren had visited Phoenix Pack territory many times, knew the parking lot was at the base of the caves and full of vehicles. If a bomb went off there, it could make the foundations of the caves crumble. One thing was for sure: it would have killed the wolves in the parking lot, which included Roni and Marcus.
Noticing that his mate was shaking, and feeling her distress, Derren cupped the back of her head and pulled her close. She locked her arms so tightly around him, it almost hurt. “It’s okay, baby.” He used his free hand to soothingly rub circles on her lower back. “It’s okay.”
“It felt so real.” She buried her face in his chest, unable to spit the sickening death-filled images from her head. “I watched them fucking explode. Heard Roni scream. The fire . . .”
Derren rubbed his cheek against hers, sharing his wolf’s need to calm and soothe her. “You saved them.” Pulling back, he said, “Look at me, Ally.” Her emerald-green eyes were clouded with the anxiety flooding her veins. “They’re going to be fine.”
She nodded, taking a calming breath, knowing she needed to pull herself together. “We should go tell Nick.”
After washing and dressing in record time, they headed for the main lodge. Inside the kitchen, Ally had barely finished retelling her vision to the pack and Stone when Nick’s cell phone rang.
“It’s Trey,” Nick told them after a glance at the screen. Putting the Phoenix Alpha on speakerphone, Nick immediately said, “Tell me my sister’s unharmed.”
“She’s fine.” Trey’s voice contained a simmering anger that they all knew was directed at the bomber. “We stopped the Chevy before it got even halfway to the caves. To our surprise, the driver got out with his hands held up in surrender. He said his family’s been kidnapped, that he received a call to say that if he didn’t do as instructed, they would be killed.”
There was no sympathy in Trey’s tone. Clearly the Alpha was too enraged at the thought of his mate, son, and pack being blown to fucking pieces to feel anything but contempt for the male who had not only crossed into his territory under false pretenses but would have caused the deaths of so many.