****
“I’m not staying here,” Sera stated flatly. The hospital room was driving her insane by inches, and she itched to flee the restrictive walls, but Stephanie deemed the cabin too unsafe after the earlier ambush. “I’m not going to sit here and do nothing while those motherfuckers have my baby.”
Stephanie’s eyebrow went up, but she didn’t offer an argument. “I can’t make you stay here.”
“I’m going to get him back.” She lifted her chin, still expecting a challenge, not knowing what she would do if Stephanie pushed back. Did Stephanie have any actual authority over her now? Would Stephanie resort to violence to stop her? Sera didn’t feel weak, but she had no idea of her true strength, nor did she know anything about fighting. Or being a wolf. “And I need your help, Stephanie. Please.”
“Of course,” she said, without a moment of hesitation.
Sera’s eyes widened. Somehow, she hadn’t expected that. “Really?”
“Those motherfuckers took my whole family. I’m not going to let them do it again. If Seth were here, he’d say the same thing.”
“Well...I don’t know what to do.”
Stephanie’s smile was grim and more than a little scary. “I’ve spent the past ten years building a spy network throughout the Pacific Northwest. I’ll get a location.”
“That’s how you were able to find Aiza?”
Stephanie nodded. “They don’t do much without me knowing about it.” She frowned and shook her head. “But I still didn’t see this coming.”
“Well, how could you have? How could they have, for that matter?”
“There was an ambush on the compound. The two events might have been related, or maybe whoever took the baby heard about Seth’s arrest. They do monitor the police scanner.”
“So they heard Seth was arrested and somehow hatched a kidnapping plan on the fly? Why? There has to be a reason, Stephanie.”
“They’re assholes.”
Sera’s head snapped up at the strange yet beautifully familiar voice. “Aiza.”
Stephanie moved immediately, placing herself between Sera and her sister, shoulders square. Hurt flashed over Aiza’s face at the aggressive gesture, and Sera’s heart jumped to her throat.
“Look, I’m not here to start a fight.” Aiza held up both hands and looked from Stephanie to Sera, her eyes pleading. “I’m here to help.”
“How did you know?” Sera asked.
They called Noah. He wanted me to stay put and maybe I shouldn’t be here, but I knew you weren’t going to wait around for some judge to issue a warrant.” She tilted her head. “I was right, wasn’t I?”
“You’re right.” She blinked rapidly, trying to bring her rapidly rising emotions under control. There was so much she wanted to ask, so much she wanted to say, but all of that had to wait. “And thank you. Your help is very much appreciated. I just don’t exactly know what we’ll need your help with quite yet.”
Stephanie’s phone started to ring, and she paused to check the screen before answering. When she saw the number, she quickly brought the phone to her ear. “Seth? Are you alright? Yes, of course. She’s right here.”
Sera accepted the phone with trembling fingers and her tears threatened to spill again as she heard Seth’s voice. “Sera, honey?”
“They took him.”
“I know. Noah’s here. He told me. They’re working on finding him right now. They’ve got local and federal officials combing the area. There’s an Amber Alert out. They’re going to find him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Sera—”
“You don’t know that,” Sera said with a brittle edge. “I’m going to find him.”
“Sera, honey, no.”
“No? Just because you can’t do anything doesn’t mean I’m going to just sit here and twiddle my thumbs.”
The silence felt heavy between them. Finally, Seth said, “They’re dangerous. What if they find our son just in time for him to lose his mother?”
“Who are they, Seth? Who are they to do this to us? To you? To Aiza?”
“They’re a gang of low-lives, thieves and leeches. They don’t make anything, they only subsist on what they can take. They’re not smart, but they’re strong and they’re mean, and there’s enough of them to get what they want, most of the time.”
“What do they want from you?” Sera just wanted to understand. “Is it land? Money? Do they just like to see you hurt?”
“I’d wager it’s all three. They’d get our territory and everything we leave behind.”
“Somebody has to stop them.”
“That’s what Noah and a lot of other good men and women are working on right now. You don’t need to put yourself in harm’s way.”
“I love you.”
“Sera—”
“I’ll see you soon.”
“Sera, listen—” Even though it sent a shard of pain through her chest, she ended the call and handed the phone back to Stephanie. “Is there some place safe we can go and make a plan?”
“I’ve got a place.” Her attention jumped over to Aiza. “Somewhere Noah won’t come looking.”
“Let’s go.” Sera had never felt so resolute, so confident, in her life. But she’d never felt this sort of power thrumming through her veins.
And she’d never had a better reason to fight.