Chapter 64

Erin’s POV

“You seriously want back in?” Theo asked, raising his brows.

“That’s what you wanted right? You wanted me to return? Well, you win. I’m returning. I want to investigate all of this for myself and prove Gavin innocent.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want? You’d be going against your partner’s investigation.”

“Yes,” I answered with confidence, folding my arms across my chest.

The thought of returning to the Moonshadow organization terrified me; every time the thought crossed my mind, the image of Jessie came into my view, and it would back me into a corner.

What happened to her, and others were unfortunate, and I vowed to never allow something like that to happen again. But I couldn’t stand by and watch Gavin be accused of something he didn’t do. Especially now that I know about this woman of fire.

I needed to find out who she was.

“You have a lead?” Theo said, staring around my determined face.

He knew my face well and he knew when I was thinking intently about something, especially a lead.

“I might,” I admitted. “But I need to do a little more digging.”

A smile spread across his face as he stood to his feet. He went across his office until he reached a set of lockers. Inside the lockers were different gadgets and armor. On the floor of the locker was a backpack.

It was my backpack.

“You kept it?” I asked, sounding surprised.

“Did you think I’d get rid of it?” He asked with a light laugh. “All your stuff is in it.”

As I unzipped the backpack, I saw that everything I had placed inside of it at one point was still there. All the technologies and gadgets I needed to perform a mission. I couldn’t help the smile on my own face; as nervous as I was, I was also kind of excited.

However, I have never done this alone before. I was so used to having Henry by my side.

But as Theo mentioned, it was like I was working against him now.

“Oh, before I forget,” he said, walking toward his desk.

I knew what he was going to grab before he grabbed it.

In his top drawer, he pulled out a dart gun. Technically it wasn’t a gun for darts, but it resembled one and acted as one when needed.

It was a gun to insert the Moonshadow chip. It was so Theo, from the headquarters, could see where I was and see my health stats from his computer.

He pressed the gun to my chest, just above my heart. It needed to be close enough to my heart to catch a natural pulse for my health stats, but not close enough to where it pierces it.

Theo was an incredible aimer, and I wasn’t worried that he’d accidentally kill me. However, I still braced myself for the pain that was about to come.

It was an incredibly painful process, despite it only lasting a couple of seconds. My wolf will heal me quickly and it’ll be nothing more than a faint scar within a few minutes.

I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, looking away from the gun that was now pointed at my chest, ready to stick me with a chip.

I screamed when the silent weapon went off and the tracker pierced my flesh. The pain was quick and incredibly sharp.

Blood oozed down my chest and soaked into my blouse. Tears welled in my eyes and for a moment, I struggled to maintain my breath.

But just as soon as the pain was there, it was slowly disappearing.

Theo lifted the gun off my chest and as predicted, the wound was healing.

He went over to his computer and began typing something into it. I stood over his shoulder, watching as an image of my body appeared on the monitor with my current health status. The computer was syncing the chip that was placed in me.

Theo looked up at me excitedly.

“Welcome back to the Moonshadow, Erin.”

…

By the time I returned home from the headquarters, Henry was already gone.

I peered around the empty room, frowning and wondering where he had gone to. I grabbed my phone off the coffee table and my heart fell into my stomach.

I had a bunch of missed messages from Gavin.

It was nearing morning; he realized I had left the packhouse.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain this, but I needed to figure something out.

I quickly equipped some of the gadgets, hiding them under my loose clothing before leaving the house. It didn’t take long to get back to Gavin’s pack and once I entered the packhouse, I was bombarded by guards.

They were all trying to grab at me, holding onto my arms and making it impossible for me to go anywhere.

“Release her,” Gavin ordered as he took long strides toward me.

He looked a mix of angry and worried.

“Where the hell have you been?” He hissed as he stood only inches in front of me.

Being this close to him proved to be intoxicating. My heart was pounding wildly against my chest and all I could think about at that moment was kissing him. But I had to keep myself down. I couldn’t lose focus on my mission.

“I’m sorry; I just needed some space…” I explained.

“Space?” Gavin nearly laughed, but there was no trace of humor in his eyes. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? You could have been captured and killed, Erin.”

He was really worried; it tugged at my heart. I wanted to reach my hand up to his face and rub his gorgeous features.

“I’m okay,” I promised him. “I was with Henry—”

“Henry?” Gavin asked, taking a step away from me. Now I could see the hurt in his eyes. “Why?”

“He just wanted to talk,” I assured him. “Once we were done talking, I came back. That’s all…”

“I see,” Gavin said; he glanced down for a moment, almost defeated. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay and that you’re back. But promise me you won’t do that again? I need you to be here and safe.”

I nodded, plastering a smile on my face. I had no intention of keeping this promise, but I needed to say and do whatever I could to be sure he trusted me.

“I have to be somewhere this morning. But Beta Seth will stay with you per usual,” Gavin said.

I nodded, saying nothing, as he turned to his guards. He began to bark orders at his guards to man the packhouse and not to let any unwanted guests inside.

Meanwhile, I managed to slide away and head upstairs before Seth found me.

I slipped, undetected, into his study and used the small, silver, ring on my finger that I grabbed from my backpack to take some photos of the information Gavin had collected on Bane and the hospital fire.

I needed as much information as possible to narrow down who started the fire.

I shuffled through some of his papers quickly; I wasn’t going to let him catch me in here again. My face grew warm at the memory of last night when he caught me snooping around his office.

As I shuffled through his papers, I paused when I saw a notice.

“The Alpha convention?” I said out loud to my wolf. “I didn’t realize that was coming up soon. I wonder if there will be a full war like there was last year.”

“Let’s hope not,” Emily whispered gravely.

I scanned the notice, realizing that it was an invitation addressed to Gavin.

But not just Gavin.

“To Gavin and his Luna?!”