Lucas was off with Paige, endlessly plotting and managing. If word came that the summoning was beginning before Jaz arrived, he needed a backup plan. I’m sure he had several. No one asked what they were. No one really wanted to know. They almost certainly didn’t end with Hope’s survival.

Finally we got word that the jet was about to land at the regional airport. Adam, Clay, and I took off for the landing strip and arrived just as the jet touched down. We stood in the airfield waiting for the door to open.

“Remember that scene in Silence of the Lambs?” Adam said.

“Where they bring Hannibal Lecter off the plane in a strait-jacket and mask? Kinda feels like that.”

“Except Lecter had to kill his guards and wear their faces to impersonate them. With Jaz, we don’t have to worry about the face ripping part.”

“He’s just a psycho with one special power,” Clay said. “It means you need to keep an eye on him. Doesn’t mean he’s any tougher to kill than anyone else.”

“Is that what you’re going to do when this is over?” I said. “Kill him before he goes back to headquarters?”

“Only if he tries to get away. You don’t think he’ll do that, do you?”

I smiled. “Of course he won’t.”

The door of the plane opened. Two guards came off first and walked stone-faced down the ramp, then took up positions flanking it. Jaz appeared.

Twenty-nine years old. Black curls. Long-lashed green eyes. Cast Jasper Haig in a movie, and he wouldn’t be the killer. He’d be the hot nice guy, the sweet friend that the heroine finally noticed once she got over her infatuation with the hot jerk guy. Which is probably the movie that ran in Jaz’s head every time he thought of Hope.

He wasn’t wearing a straitjacket. Or a mask. He wasn’t even shuffling out, chains rattling in his wake. It took a second to realize that thin cables ran between his feet and his hands. Modern technology. It really lacks drama.

There was, however, one nice touch that would play well cinematically. The werewolf at his shoulder, prodding him along.

“Shit,” Clay said, fumbling for his cell phone and checking for a missed message. “Something must have happened to Karl.”

Before we could answer, he loped off to meet Elena. We jogged behind him.

“Is Karl—?” I began.

“Karl’s fine.” By her tone, it almost sounded as if she wished otherwise.

“Fine?” I said. “But he was at death’s door this morning.”

“Oh, he still is. Apparently that doesn’t matter.”

Before I could ask what she meant, she greeted Clay with a quick hand squeeze and a tired smile. He murmured something I didn’t catch, and she nodded.

“Quite the welcoming committee,” Jaz said. His grin lit on Clay. “Clayton Danvers. This is an honor.”

“Want me to take this trash off your hands, darling?” Clay said.

“Please.”

Clay took Jaz by the shoulder.

“Good,” Jaz said as Clay led him away. “Your mate? Nice lady, I’m sure, but not very talkative. I’m hoping you’re the chatty one, because I have a lot to ask—Oww.”

I shook my head and walked over to Elena.

“We didn’t know you were coming,” I said.

“Neither did I. Normally, this is exactly where I’d want to be. But right now, I should be sitting at Karl’s bedside.”

“Benicio made you come?”

She snorted. “Benicio doesn’t make me do anything. Sadly, I can’t say the same for a certain conniving bastard who happens to be a member of my Pack. I’m not at Karl’s bedside because Karl is not in his bed.”

She turned to the jet door. As if on cue, Karl appeared, leaning heavily on a cane. A young man hovered anxiously behind him with a wheelchair.

“Sit in the damned chair!” Elena said. “Jasper already knows you’re in no shape to fight him, so the macho act is only going to ensure you don’t live long enough to meet your daughter.”

I expected him to snap something back. Or at least glower and ignore her. But he lowered himself into the chair and let the nurse roll him down the ramp.

“Too weak to argue, I see,” I said.

“Oh, he argues just fine. He’s playing along now because he already got his way.”

“Someone told him about Jaz, I take it.”

“Damned nurse. I could have wrung her neck. Or his. Manipulative bastard. He knew something was up. When I slipped out to talk to Benicio, Karl charmed her into telling him what was going on. I come back? He’s out of bed and getting dressed. I tried to get them to sedate him, but he’s on too many other drugs to risk another dose. They worried about an adverse reaction. So I was screwed.”

Clayton came back to meet us, Jaz now secured in the van. “I’d have done the same if you’d been taken.”

She grumbled something uncomplimentary under her breath.

“So you’re saying you’d have stayed in the bed if it was me?”

She sighed and uncrossed her arms. “It’s not that I don’t understand. It’s that I couldn’t stop him. He’s putting his life in danger by coming here. As Alpha-elect, it’s my duty to protect him. As a Pack wolf, he should have obeyed me. When I was kidnapped and taken to that compound, Jeremy made you stay behind. He was able to make you stay behind.”

“Different circumstances. I stayed while we planned. Once the attack was launched, Jeremy wouldn’t have tried keeping me back. You tried with Karl because he could kill himself. You could have tried harder, I bet, but you knew that the stress of being stuck in that bed could have killed him just as easily.”

She sighed again. He put his arm around her waist and steered her toward the car. They murmured together, too low for Adam and me to hear, and we hung back so we wouldn’t.

When they caught up to Karl in his wheelchair, we picked up speed to join them.

“I do appreciate this, Elena,” Karl said, his voice quiet. “I know it’s not what you wanted, but I’m grateful—”

“Stuff it, Karl. You’re here because you didn’t leave me a choice. Remember all those years of fence-sitting? Trying to decide whether you wanted to be in the Pack? You never really got over that, did you? Well, I’ll make it easy for you. If you survive this, you’re out.”