Dark Veil by Mason Sabre Page B

glanced at Stephen and then Cade. “I need you to both go scope these areas. One each. Cade, you go to Liverpool,” he pointed at Stephen, “and you take Manchester. I’ll call their alphas and let them know you are coming. This stays under wraps. You speak to the alphas only. I want to know if there are more. If this is something Human …”
    “We can't let them know we know,” Stephen agreed.
    “We can't give them a head start. I’ll make arrangements for you to stay somewhere.”
    “And Phoenix?” Cade asked Malcolm. “I can't leave him home alone, and I can't leave him with my father. Trevor would …”
    “Take him with you,” Malcolm cut him off.
    “He’s just a kid,” Stephen protested. “Maybe we can take Gemma, too? She can look after him.”
    Cade shot Stephen a look of What the fuck … but Stephen ignored him.
    “Fine. Gemma goes, too. The four of you leave tomorrow first thing. Get your animals focused. I’ll make the arrangements.”
    There was nothing else to discuss. Malcolm left the room, leaving Cade and Stephen staring after him. They said nothing to each other as they emerged from the room and out into the hallway. A sound from the stairs had Cade’s head whirling around, his heart thudding fiercely in his chest as his eyes fell on Gemma standing there.
    After a minute, Stephen rested his hand on Cade’s shoulder. “I’ll see you out.” This wasn’t the place for the shit they needed to talk about.
    Once outside, Cade turned to Stephen. “What was that all about?”
    Stephen raised his eyebrows questioningly.
    “Us all going.”
    “Well, you are in an impossible situation, and how could you leave without being noticed? Take it as fate offering you a hand. Now you can both leave your homes. They expect us to be gone a while. You’ve just been handed a head start. Now you have to decide if you want to take it. Just make the right decision.”
    Stephen left Cade at his car debating his words. He didn’t have a clue whether Cade would grab the opportunity or not, but he hoped to hell that his logic would make the right choice and not lead them onto a path that got them killed.
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Nine
    Gemma leaned against the window, staring at Cade as he stood outside talking to her brother. He didn’t look her way at all, absorbed in whatever it was they were talking about. She pressed her palm against the cool glass and felt the prickle of tears behind her eyes. He didn’t even glance back at the house as he walked away. Maybe he had decided he wanted nothing more to do with her. Maybe he really was that upset with her. Her heart was so heavy in her chest that it made it hard to breathe.
    Days had gone by and she hadn't seen nor heard from him. It wasn’t like him—not at all. It was against the wolf, too. She thought his wolf would have been clawing at the walls to get here … but apparently not. It left her feeling unsettled inside. She had thought that he would never leave her, that it would never be over between them—it couldn’t be—yet, as he took each step farther away from her, her crying heart began to wonder.
    She ran a hand over her flat stomach. Their unborn child was growing inside her every day, and she was alone. This wasn’t how she had imagined it would be when she had a baby. It was meant to be a magical time, not one that made her scared not only for her life, but for Cade’s and the baby’s, too.
    Gemma cracked the window open slightly so that she could listen to them, but they were too far away to hear anything above a muffled sound. She tried to lean in closer, but she only caught words here and there—nothing that she could make any sense of. Stephen saw Cade to his car and then he stood at the foot of the driveway to watch him drive off. Longing tugged inside Gemma as she watched the glow of the red lights slowly vanish in the dark of the night. Cade was going back to his home and his life, and it seemed she was a part of neither.