The Skin She's In by Margo Collins (online e book reader .txt) 📕

I expected her to agree to get to the Shield office as quickly as she could. “No,” Janice said calmly, instead. “That’s probably where the wolves are headed. Everyone apparently knows to find you in the Shifter Shield office. So that’s the last place you need to be. We need to meet somewhere they won’t find us—not yet, anyway.”

I could hear her tapping on something, and imagined her blunt fingers drumming on the table in front of her or on the phone as she held it. “My house isn’t any good either—everyone knows where I live. I think our best bet might be the home of one of the Council members. That should let us get our strategy sorted out before anyone actually figures out where we are and shows up.”

“Do you want me to wait here until my replacement shift shows up?” I asked.

“Good Lord, no,” she said. “Y’all go ahead and get out of there. I need to make a couple phone calls, and then I’ll touch base with you. It might be best continue moving in the meantime.”

“Agreed. Call me on this number when you have a plan. I’ll text if I think of anything in the meantime.”

“Sounds good.”

As we disconnected, I dropped into my office chair again. Laying my head down on the desk on my arms, I tried to slow the rapid beating of my heart.

Inhaling deeply, I stood up and turned to Tomás. “Can you and Brian take us, keep us on the road until Janice calls back?”

He nodded shortly, already heading out the door.

I was terrified of what the wolves were coming to do—not because I couldn’t take them on, but because I was beginning to fear the kind of collateral damage I might cause in the process.

But I don’t have time to worry about that. Not now.

Not yet.

I had an army to lead.

And we were about to have to fight, no matter how untrained we were.

Chapter 25

“I’M SORRY, BUT DR. Nevala is not currently available.”

I blew out an irritated sigh. I’d been trying to contact Kade on and off for the last thirty minutes.

We actually split up when we left the Shield office, Jeremiah and Shadow taking their own car and heading over to Janice’s in case the wolves showed up at her place and she needed backup, Eduardo veering off to stash Serena with his mother’s youngest sister, Alma. It was a tenuous enough connection that the wolves might have trouble tracing her there.

I’d gone with Brian and Tomás.

As soon as we were in the car, I began calling the hospital, trying to get through to Kade to let him know to call me on Tomás’s phone if he needed to contact me.

The operator at the hospital’s switchboard wouldn’t tell me anything other than Kade wasn’t available. I knew from experience that a response like that usually meant he was with a patient—and when he hadn’t called me back after half an hour, I feared he’d had to take Jeff or Bron, or both, into surgery.

But Janice and I had been texting in the meantime and had agreed to meet at the clearing where we’d executed Scott Carson.

“Get on I-20 headed west,” I instructed. “We’ll need to exit in a couple of miles.” I told him where, and Brian nodded as I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes.

Once we get on the highway, I’ll take a nap, I promised myself.

From the front seat, Tomás’s cell buzzed and I opened my eyes in case it was Janice again. He glanced down and handed it back to me.

“Kade,” I said, tired but glad to hear from him, and ready to get an update on his two new patients. “How are Bron and Jeff?”

“They’ll be okay,” he said. “But you need to get over here.”

I said up straight. “Why?”

I listened for a few minutes and then clicked off. “Turn around,” I ordered. “I need to get to the hospital now.”

I’ll say this for Tomás’s driver—he didn’t bother to ask questions before taking the first exit and heading in the opposite direction. Only then did he ask, “Which hospital?”

“Kindred,” I said. “I’ll give you directions.”

Quickly, I texted Janice with the change in plans.

“What’s going on?” Tomás asked. I admired his ability to wait to ask about his girlfriend. I wasn’t sure I’d be as calm in his place.

“One of the women carrying the lamia babies has gone into labor. She’s early, too, just like Marta was.”

“That’s the woman who carried Serena?”

“Yes. But Evangeline has three babies—she’s carrying triplets.”

My stomach clenched at the thought of those infants coming into the world just as the werewolves were planning to attack. “Give me a minute,” I said. “I need to call my father.”

Tomás listened to me talking to Dad, his expression turning grim. When I hung up, he asked, “Are there any particular additional dangers involved in a lamia birth?”

I shrugged. “No one knows. The lamias had their babies without any other shifters’ help. No one was ever around, no one ever assisted.”

Tomás frowned. “Then how are you sure the babies are early?”

We weren’t, actually. As with everything else, the timeline for their birth was guesswork.

I opened my mouth to answer when my phone rang again. I glanced down. The readout said it was Shane Wills.

I held up a finger as I answered the phone, indicating to Tomás that I would get back to him in just a minute. “Shane,” I said, and continued without waiting for a response. “Now is not a really good time.”

“Your father told me,” he replied. “I want to be there. I think I could help with the infants.”

I shook my head. I was willing to acknowledge that my father might have been right about Shane’s helpfulness in our fight with the werewolves earlier. But Dad and I were going to have to have a talk about his determination to tell his favorite graduate student all about me. This was a new habit, one that