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“I’ll help you!” I say, raising my voice to be heard over hers. “All right? I’ll help!”

The girl raises her face to look at me, tears slipping down her cheeks like she can’t believe it could be true.

“But you all have to come with me,” I say, looking around at them, nodding. “Right now. Okay? We came here tohelpyou – tofindyou.”

“How?” one in the back whispers, awed. I shift my light to find her face, smudged with mud, her features dark and hair lovely. “How did you find us? Even the King-boss could not find us behind the stone wall.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know,” I whisper, feeling pathetic and confused about it myself. HowdidI find them?

“She is the Goddess,” one whispers, though I can’t tell who, her voice high and squeaky. “Just like Superior Janet said! Come to rescue us!”

I straighten a little, laughing at the ridiculousness of that. “No,” I say, pressing a hand to my chest. “IpromiseI’m no Goddess.” I glance back at Cole, inviting him to join me in theprotest, but he just looks up at me and blinks, the blankness of his gaze letting me know that he doesn’t think it’s so far-fetched.

But one glance back at the girls lets me know that none of them doubt it. They all stare at me, hope blooming on their little faces.

I fight back sudden tears, wanting themallimmediately in my arms, hugged close.

Next to me, Cole shifts so that he’s suddenly in his human form, crouched by my side.

The girls shriek, pressing back against the wall, their leader sitting up rigid suddenly and again showing her fangs.

“Cole!” I growl, smacking him again on the leg.

He just glances at me and turns his eyes back to them. “This is Nadia,” he says, gesturing to me. “She’s in charge. But weallhave to go rightnow.”

“Where?” the strong little girl in front asks, looking Cole up and down like she doesn’t trust him one bit.

“Out of the caves,” he says, meeting her eyes as seriously as he would any General. “And away, a little bit. And then we’ll make sure no one is hurt, and we’ll give you water and sandwiches.”

A gasp rises in the cavern. I look frantically around for something wrong.

A little girl – so tiny, not more than five – stumbles forward. “You…you have sandwiches?”

My mouth curves into a trembling smile as I slip the backpack off my shoulder, unzipping it slightly and shining the light in to show them. “Yeah,” I say. “We have alotof sandwiches.”

The girls surge forward, hands out, but Cole growls and holds his hand flat out toward them. “We leavefirst. Sandwiches when we’re…safe. All right?”

Many nod, but some turn towards the girl in front.

She frowns steadily at me. “How do we know you’re not being tricky?”

Some hums of consideration go through the group.

I tilt my head to the side. “I’m not. I want to help you. I’m not tricking you.”

She narrows her eyes, shifting her gaze back to Cole. “And he is really your tame Alpha? He will not make you bow to him later?”

I smirk a little. “Definitely not.”

“Prove it,” she says, raising her chin again, a proud and fierce little thing. I love her immediately, wanting desperately to give her a life where she can grow and flourish. “Make him bow toyou.”

“And if I do,” Cole says, his voice low and a little frustrated. “You will all come with us? And behave? And do as Nadia says?”

The girl considers for a moment and then nods.

Cole sighs and glances at me before bowing his head low, shifting his body so that he’s on one knee before me, his dark head facing down, the back of his neck bared to me. He stays quite still.

I glance at him and then at the girls…not knowing what the hell is going on. They all look at me, expectant.