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“I’m worried.”

“About?”

“Allie.”

“Why? I’m sure she’s having a good time with Levi.” I really was happy for them. I had Casey. I was completely over Allie.

“A good time?” Hailey raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, you’d think, but I have a bad feeling.”

“A bad feeling how?” My stomach turned. Hailey didn’t strike me as the type to make something out of nothing. She also wouldn’t have come to me unless she really felt she needed help. We barely knew each other, and I represented a rival family to the one she’d spend her whole life loyal to.

“I don’t know. She’s my best friend, and something feels off.”

“But you don’t know how to find them, do you?” From what I understood only Jared knew.

“No. But I wish I did.” She buried her face in her hands. “Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m usually right about these things.”

“Do you think Levi told anyone else? Wouldn’t he have told Owen?” Her brother was Levi’s chief advisor. One would think he’d have been in the know.

“Owen’s claiming he didn’t.”

“Did you tell your brother your concerns?” Maybe Owen was just keeping quiet out of loyalty to Levi. I’m sure if he did know he’d been sworn to secrecy. Just as Jared was.

“Yes, and he told me Jared would be back soon. Why he has so much faith in Jared I don’t know.”

“If Jared’s not back soon, it might also mean Vera won’t be. That’s going to be a problem too.”

“Casey’s real close to her, huh?”

“Yes, and the two have a lot to talk about.”

“What’s really going on with Casey? Georgina only said ‘something was off’ and she’s looking for her mom’s family.”

“That’s pretty much it.” Hmm. I wondered how much Georgina had told her.

“But what does off mean?”

“Weird dreams, sleeping a lot.”

“Do you know what they did to her?” Hailey never beat around the bush. “Georgina said something about a weird kind of magic that works on Pterons. Do you know anything else?”

“We have no clue, but something happened. I certainly wouldn’t have sent her over there if I wasn’t sure of that.” I gestured toward the water. The boat had completely disappeared, and with my eyesight, that meant it was really far off.

“Where exactly is the cave where they held her?”

“Oh no.” I shook my head. “You’re not going there.”

“Why not? We need to find Jared and Vera. I get that you have to stay here for Casey, but I don’t.”

“I can’t let you do that alone.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl?” She stood up, looking down on me.

“We all know how strong you are. That’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“Jared’s strong too. Arguably one of the strongest.” It took a lot to admit that, but it was true. “If he’s in trouble, do you really think you can handle it?”

“How great would it be if I saved him?” She grinned. “It would be legendary.”

I had to smile at her excitement. I understood what it was like when people didn’t take you seriously. When they doubted your abilities. But that didn’t mean you could be stupid about proving yourself. “And ridiculously hard. You realize that.”

“Yes. I do.”

I looked back out at the water. “I can’t let you go alone.”

“Why don’t you leave someone here then? Someone you trust.”

I’d promised Casey I’d stay close. I couldn’t leave. She’d understand that I wanted to help find Vera, but what if she needed me? What If she got in trouble? “Let me make a call.”

“To who?” Hailey started pacing. She was so excitable.

“Just give me a sec.”

I dialed the new number Eric had given me. The one that was supposedly not tapped.

“Toby?” Eric answered on the first ring. “Is she okay?”

“I think so.”

“What do you mean by that?” He yelled loud enough that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “She isn’t with you?”

“They wouldn’t let me go with her.”

“So? You’re a Pteron. Since when do you listen to what anyone tells you to do?”

“Casey needed this. I couldn’t mess up her chance.” I appreciated Eric’s concern, but he needed to calm down. I was already plenty worried about Casey without him making it worse.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Where are you?” I might as well cut right to the chase. “Did you find them?”

“I got detained, but it’s all okay.”

“Detained?”

“Ran into some old
friends
.”

Old friends that weren’t really friends was never a good thing. “Okay… are things cool now?”

“Yes. It just slowed me down. Why? You’re not leaving her to come.”

“No. Of course not.”

“Then what do you want?” His voice relaxed slightly. Had he really worried about me ditching her?

I stamped down my growing annoyance. I needed to get to the point and get off the phone. “Do you want some help?”

“What kind of help?” he asked suspiciously.

“A kick ass Pteron.”

Hailey grinned. Everyone needed their ego stroked once in a while.

“Depends. Who is it?” The suspicion was still there.

“She’s the head advisor to the queen.”

“Hailey? I haven’t met her, but I’ve heard she’s hot.”

Hailey could hear every word and grinned even bigger. I grinned back. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t tell her that’s her reputation. She’s pretty tough.”

“Sure. But that’s fine. Give her this number and we’ll meet up.”

“Nice.” I hung up and turned to Hailey. “Ok working with a bear?”

“One that’s heard of me? Sure.” She pulled my phone from me and typed his number into her phone. “Call me as soon as you hear from Casey.”

“Same to you on Vera and Jared.”

“This is all insane, isn’t it?”

“Says the one who grew up in The Society world.”

She laughed. “It isn’t as much of an advantage as you’d think.”

“I never said it was an advantage, just that none of this should be as surprising to you.”

She shrugged. “Try to relax a little. She’ll be okay. Casey is insanely strong.”

“I know.” Casey never ceased to impress me with her strength.

Hailey shook her head. “I don’t want any details.”

“I wasn’t talking in that way, but you need to go anyway.”

She turned to leave.

“Hailey?”

She turned back. “Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

“Getting sentimental?”

“Just learning that nothing is as easy as it sounds.” And you never knew when you’d seen someone again.

“And this sounds easy?”

“Not at all, which just makes it that much worse.”

She laughed. “You be careful too.”

“I will. I mean sitting on a rock is difficult work.” I laughed. “I just hope she gets back soon.”

“She will.”

“Do you really think so?”

“No, but that seemed like the more socially acceptable answer.”

I laughed again even though the reality of her words were anything but funny. “See you around.”

“Around? Sure.” Hailey took off; disappearing into the sky like Casey’s boat had disappeared across the water.

“We’re so screwed.” After struggling against the rocks as a bear, I’d changed back into my human form. At least we could talk that way, although I was still deciding whether that was a good thing. The small amount of light spilling in through the ceiling made the confinement a little better, but I was still ready to get out.

“You think?” He exhaled loudly. “I can’t believe we screwed that up.”

“We?” I turned to him even though I couldn’t see a thing in the pitch blackness. “You were the one who pushed her too far.”

“I was trying to distract her.”

“Distract her? You were destroying her entire self-worth.”

“Self-worth? Because I said Robert hadn’t wanted her?”

“Woman work that way. They want every guy to want them, especially the guys we want. By the way, what’s with her wanting Robert? Is she talking about the former king? He’s twice her age.”

“She’s that age too. She’s taken on the appearance of an innocent human. It’s weird.”

“Very.” I shifted uncomfortably. Being naked wasn’t feeling very natural at the moment. Despite the darkness, I felt extremely exposed.

“We have to find a way out. We have no choice.”

“No kidding. I’d rather not die today.”

“It’s bigger than us.”

“Oh? Care to fill me in?” I didn’t like being kept in the dark.

“Tiffany has plans to kill Allie and Levi and use Casey as a literal puppet to take over The Society.”

“Uh, what?” Either he’d lost his mind or things were even crazier than I thought.

“She did something to Casey’s mind. She’s in control, or can be.”

“And she’s killing Levi and Allie so Casey becomes queen….” The pieces were starting to fall into place. I finally understood why the boss wanted her so badly.

“That’s pretty much it. We can’t let that happen.”

“Obviously.”

“Any brilliant plans? Your idea to move further back into the cave served us well.”

My mouth fell open. “I was leading us to the back entrance. You think it would have been better to head out the front? We would be worse than stuck—we’d be dead.”

“We’re only better than dead if we find a way out of here.” Jared was one of the must infuriating people I’d ever met, and considering I’d spent years living with a bunch of jerk bears, that was saying a lot. It’s like he lived to annoy me. To be fair, I probably annoyed him a lot too, but he deserved everything that came his way.

“There has to be a way out.” I felt around for the wall and started pushing. “There’s always a way.”

“Generally I’d agree with you except I’ve tried everything.”

“You have to get your strength back.” Pteron strength was nearly unstoppable. He’d normally be able to break us out in seconds.

“You make that seem easy.”

“The magic can’t be that strong. You’re a Pteron. Act like one.” I pushed him hard. I needed to make him angry. My sense was that the magic was only going to hold to a certain point. If I could push it hard enough, maybe the hold would break. And maybe I was delusional. Either way, I didn’t see any other choice.

“Oh yeah? It’s all on me?”

“You are the Pteron. Aren’t the rest of us supposed to bow at your feet or something?”

He laughed dryly. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want. And hell, I’m naked, so if you’re going to bow down, you might as well do something else.”

“That had better be a joke.” Was he trying to make me mad too?

“What do you think?”

“I think you’re an asshole, but you’re the asshole who’s going to get us out of here.”

“You curse too much.”

“And you don’t?”

“I’m a guy.”

It was my turn to laugh dryly. “Having a dick doesn’t give you an excuse to curse.”

“And we’re talking about my dick again. A little fixated?”

“First of all, I wasn’t talking about yours in particular. Second of all, you’re the one who brought up the whole innuendo crap.”

“Innuendo crap? You said you wanted to fall down at my feet.”

“I never said I wanted to. I was being sarcastic, idiot.” I stepped closer to him.

“And you are annoying the hell out of me.”

“Shift.”

“I can’t.”

“Try it.”

“I’ve tried hundreds of times.”

“Try again,” I demanded.

“Why?”

“Because otherwise I’m going to think you’re a wuss.”

“And I should care what you think?” He was so close to me that his arm brushed against me.

“Whether you should isn’t the question. I already know you do.”

“I don’t.” He huffed. “And I can’t shift.”

“Because you’re not trying.”

“Yes I am!” He screamed so loud the walls shook.

“Uh, do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Get angry. You need to get angry.”

“Okay, make me angry.”

“That’s easy. It’s easy to make weak, small dicked men scream.”

He laughed.

“You’re supposed to be screaming and not laughing.”

“But now I know what you’re doing. It’s not going to work.”

“Fine.” I happened to be pretty good at the whole pissing people off thing. “You want me to make you angry?” I took a deep breath. “We’re only stuck here because you fucked up. You couldn’t cut it. You couldn’t make it out. And now you’ve ruined everything. Everything is messed up because of you.”

“It’s not working. I know you don’t mean it.”

“I do mean it. I mean what kind of head of security gets stuck in a cave? Naked?”

“Did you have to mention the naked part again? I’m telling you, you’re fixated.”

I groaned. “Jared. You’re not getting angry.”

“No. I’m not.” He sighed. “New plan.”

“New plan.” I thought about it. “Ok. I can’t get you angry at me. Let’s get you angry at someone else.”

“I’m already pissed at Tiffany.”

“Of course you are. She’s about to kill your best friend and his mate.”

“I can’t believe I fell for that little act of hers.”

“I can’t either, but that’s beside the point.”

“She thinks she can mess with me. She’s got another thing coming.”

“She does. Prove her wrong. Break us out and save everyone. Be the hero.”

“If she even touches Allie…”

“You have a soft spot for her, don’t you?” I decided to follow a hunch.

“Not in any way you’re implying.”

Bingo. Here we went. I could do this.

“Oh? You don’t?”

“Of course not.”

“Are you sure?” I stepped closer and touched his chest with my hand. “Are you sure you don’t secretly fantasize about her. About taking Levi’s place and fucking his queen?”

“Shut up!” He pushed me off him. I stumbled back.

“What? Did I get you on a sensitive subject?”

“I don’t want Allie!” His yell was even louder this time, the entire cave started to shake.

“Yes you do. You want her to yourself.” There was nothing fun about pushing Jared like this, but it was working. We were so close.

“I don’t want her! I never have!”

Stone fell from the roof of the cave in large pieces, allowing tiny slivers of light to stream through. The plan was working, but maybe too well.

“We have to go.” I grabbed his hand.

“You’re a real piece of work.”

“It worked though. I made you mad.”