Page 52

52

Kaylee

Rushing towards the boardroom while frantically clipping my hair into a bun, I dodge an omega with their arms full of clean linen. A week has passed since Growling Heart came to train with Ivory Fangs. In that week, Marco has caused a fight and is now chained in the dungeons with silver cuffs, Ash hasn’t left Devon’s side—he was still in a coma—and Royce has told Amelia that he and Ash wish to leave the pack when Lucas and I take over Oak Fur.

Also, today I had a weekly checkup with Hannah to see how my pregnancy is progressing, which had made me late to our war strategy meeting.

After our foraging session, Lucas, Amelia, Titus, and I discussed a training routine that would work for both packs. Those following us to attack Oak Fur and the wolves Titus brought would train in the morning in hand-to-hand combat, where Ivory Fangs would spar with Growling Heart. From there, we would give them a few hours to relax before meeting at the forest’s edge at four in the afternoon to train both stealth and foraging.

With these exercises, each team was given one mesh bag to protect. Lucas, Simon, Titus, and I would sneak around the forest while the teams foraged for wild herbs, vegetables, and mushrooms and stole each other’s bags. From there, they would have to track down who stole their bag and steal it back before sneaking away and continuing their foraging. We decided that each team would receive a prize after each training session.

Our only catch was that you couldn’t team up with the same wolf twice.

“Sorry I’m late,” I pant as I burst into the boardroom. Lucas smiles as he pulls out the seat beside him and helps me settle in. I receive a peck on the cheek before he moves to the mini-fridge in the corner and returns with a bottle of water and a bottle of apple juice, both for me.

“It’s fine. Lucas told us you had a check-up with Hannah.” Amelia waves my apology off, smiling.

“How’s everything going?” David asks as Lucas settles beside me. I look around the table to find Titus, Daisy, Kurt, Simon, Alexander, and Carson—Titus’ Head Warrior. Avery was busy training the wolves today in our stead, with Maya at her side.

“Good. Hannah says I can still fight in four weeks’ time, but not any time after that,” I answer, and Lucas sighs. He and I still disagreed on my joining the fight, but he agreed that as long as I fought at his side, he wouldn’t protest.

“Lucas told me about your little bundle of fur coming in a few months. Congratulations, by the way,” Carson chimes in, a smile on the burly man’s face. I turn to scowl at Lucas, watching my mate ignore my stare with a grin on his face. He knows I don’t want many people to know about our pup and knows that I’m not ready to share the news further until we’ve reached the twelve-week mark—which so happens to be in three weeks’ time. The time we leave to take back Oak Fur.

“So, about our plan,” Lucas states, trying to change the subject. I let out a small growl of annoyance, everyone in the room looking on in amusement.

“You’re sleeping on the couch tonight,” I state, turning away from my mate, who finally decides to look my way.

“What? No!” he shouts, reaching out and trying to take my hand in his. I push it away, deciding to be petty for now. Daisy chuckles, telling Lucas he should have kept his mouth shut while Carson apologizes. I reassure him he did nothing wrong, that it’s Lucas’ fault for telling everyone I’m pregnant, and that he needs to face the consequences of his actions.

I explain that Amelia was the first to blurt out my pregnancy when I wasn’t ready to announce it yet at our first meeting, to which David chimes in, stating I proceeded to beat some revenge into her during training. This has Amelia looking at her mate with a glare before she turns to Lucas.

“You should count yourself lucky that you’re sleeping on the couch tonight,” she states with a smirk on her face. “Sleeping on the couch is an easy punishment compared to Kaylee handing you your ass in the sparring ring—again.”

Everyone laughs at this, and David explains how that particular punishment came about.

“What I wouldn’t give to see you hand that ass-whooping to my god-brother,” Titus says, snorting with laughter.

“He could barely move, let alone sit for the rest of the day well into the next morning,” I say sweetly. Daisy stands from her seat, rushing to my side to hug me.

I smile, accepting her friendly embrace as she asks me when I’ll be handing Titus a good-ass whooping since our original plan had been canceled because of Marco’s outburst.

I happily state that I’ll do so tomorrow morning during our sparring session, and she squeals in delight, plopping down onto the empty seat next to me while Titus grumbles about his mate being a bloodthirsty little creature.

“Now that we have everyone here, let’s start our meeting,” Alexander suggests, a smile on our lawyer’s face. We all settle into our respective seats, and Alexander brings up the chat between Ramos and his men on screen.

“It seems their attack is nearing its final planning stage,” Amelia explains, standing from her chair and moving towards the screen. Andrew minimizes the chat to take up the top left corner of the screen before bringing up a map of Ivory Fangs’ territory with dots drawn along the border in three points.

“From what we can tell, three packs will be attacking from here,” she continues, pointing to the North-Western side of the pack. “Here.” Her hand moves to the Eastern side. “And here.” She finally lands on the south side of the pack border.

I can see our enemies’ plans and ask Alexander to pass me the laptop. He obliges, passing the laptop to David, who then hands it to Kurt and Lucas. Once it reaches me, I immediately pull out the tracking pad and draw on the map, everyone in the room watching the screen.

“Fuck,” Kurt curses, moving to stand beside Amelia. “Ramos is using the pincer technique your dad came up with, Kaylee,” he states, following the arrows I drew.

The pincer technique requires three teams to form a triangle of sorts around a pack border. The main force will be at the points, with wolves slowly moving inwards until the attacker reaches the pack’s center—the packhouse—and has captured or killed everyone in their path. For me to recognize my father’s work so quickly means Ramos is as stupid as we thought he was.

“So what does this mean?” Simon asks, staring at the screen in confusion.

“It means the attack will likely happen faster than we thought. I guess in another three weeks,” I answer, anger rising inside me.

“What should we do then? This new information changes our own plans,” Titus states, concerned. Everyone agrees, their eyes turning to Lucas and me. We’d planned to leave Ivory Fangs for Oak Fur in three weeks. With this update, we won’t be able to stick to our original strategy.

“If we want to win this fight, we’ll need to leave for Oak Fur in about ten days to catch them off guard,” I say, feeling Lucas take my hand in his and squeeze it gently. “Our strategy will stay the same—go in at night, take out all the warriors and guards, and make our way into the packhouse, where Ramos and Marilyn are sure to be.”

My eyes move from the screen to look at each and every wolf in the room. I had hoped to train with everyone for another two weeks before we finalized our travel arrangements to go to Oak Fur, but it seems like the cards just aren’t in our favor.

“I can work on coordinating omegas to drive you all to Oak Fur in vans,” Alexander volunteers, motioning for his laptop to be returned. “They can take shifts and get you there much faster than driving yourselves would.”

Alexander quickly puts the map of Ivory Fangs in the top left corner of the large screen while bringing up a new map, one I recognize as Oak Fur.

“Devon’s friends have already been cleared as allies,” he continues, pushing his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. “Over the last five days, I’ve been conversing with them on patrol schedules. They’ve all switched to being on night patrol as of tonight. So no matter what day we attack, we can sneak in and work quickly.”

I watch as a list of wolves with their pictures beside their names pops up on the screen. Alexander then explains that each wolf will wear a white bandana, indicating they’re our allies in the fight. Our wolves will also wear the same bandanas so they know not to attack us if we’re seen sneaking past Oak Fur borders.

“Amelia, have you talked to anyone in the infirmary to see if they can work on some drugs for us? Something like a low dose of wolfsbane that we can inject into any enemy warriors to get them to the packhouse more easily?” David asks, looking at Amelia, who has returned to her seat.

“I have. I’ve talked to Hannah, and she’s already prepared everything for us.”

Pride swells in me at the mention of my friend and doctor. I’d just seen her today, too, and now knowing she has kept this secret of helping us in our war efforts makes me feel closer to her.

“Good. I’ll check in with her at some stage to divide the drugs equally among our wolves. Titus, will you be okay with mixing our men into each van?”

“Yeah, that works for me, Alex. We’ve been training them to work together this past week, so my men should be fine working with Ivory Fangs wolves,” Titus answers, and Alexander nods in satisfaction.

Our meeting ends twenty minutes later, and Alexander rushes off to make the final preparations for equipment and transportation. Daisy volunteers to help him.

I stand, ready to go to the training facility, when Lucas and Amelia stop me in my tracks, the duo staring at me with stern gazes.

“You’re going home to the cottage to sleep,” Lucas orders, gently taking my hand and leading me out of the boardroom. I turn to look at Amelia, who is walking behind me. My godmother doesn’t allow me to protest at all.

“Lucas told me you have been running yourself ragged the last two weeks preparing to take down Ramos and Marilyn. You need a break, Kaylee.” Her voice is soft yet stern, filled with motherly love. Any protest I have dies down, and I reluctantly allow Lucas to take me to my truck, climbing into the passenger side with his help.

“Titus, Lucas, and I can continue planning. You, on the other hand, can rest and relax. Lucas can fill you in on what we have done later tonight,” Amelia adds, pressing a kiss to my cheek and giving me a tight hug.

“Okay. I’ll take today off, but that’s it. We leave in ten days, and I need to make sure everyone is prepared,” I concede, allowing Amelia to close my door while I buckle myself in.

Lucas sighs with relief, happy I’m not arguing with him on this decision. Truth is, I am exhausted. Training wolves, preparing for war and performing my beta duties while pregnant is a heavy workload—one I’m happy to be rid of for a day.

My mate hugs his aunt, promising to return when I’m safely tucked away at home before climbing into the driver’s side. In moments, the truck pulls away from the packhouse, windows down, and fresh air fills the cabin. I watch the scenery pass by, waving at the pups playing in the yards. I can tell Lucas is taking his time by how slowly he drives, wanting me to enjoy the ride and relax.

It works. I slowly feel my eyelids grow heavy as the exhaustion finally sets in until the last thing I see is the lilac bush when we pull up in front of the cottage.