Page 35

I smell faint fear scents, some urine, likely breaking through whatever mask my brother used, as we run past where I now know by scent that Wyatt had some of our pack betas waiting for him.

It’s a good hour or more of looking before Lucas’s faint scent hits my nose. We’ve caught up with him deep in the woods close to Drowsy Hollow.

I shift to person shape and call out his name. Greyson, still as wolf stands beside me and sniffs the air as my cousin’s scent obviously hits his nose, too.

“It’s me, Lucas. It’s Stacy. Come out, okay? I promise you it’s okay.”

Leaves rustle and my cousin in his wolf shape steps forward, fear scent pungent.

“It’s okay. This is Grey. He’s my mate,” I tell him.

Lucas backs up a little, looking at me with betrayal in his wolf’s eyes.

“Come with us. We’ll talk,” I urge, extending my hand. “Wyatt was wrong. Really wrong. This pack isn’t what he said it was.”

He looks at Grey who is behind me, now shifted to person shape and immediately takes off running.

“Stay here,” Grey clips and shifts back to wolf, taking off after him.

“Grey!” I shout. “He’s scared!”

He turns around and barks at me in a way I know means he wants me to wait here. So I do.

Not three minutes later, the leaves rustle. Luke is shifted to person shape and he’s breathless and terrified, but he’s walking beside Grey.

“It’s okay, Lukey. I promise it is,” I tell him.

Grey grabs my hand and presses his mouth to it before he says, “Let’s go home. We’ll talk there.”

***

We’re at the kitchen island. I’m in pajamas, Grey is in sweats, and Luke is wearing some of Grey’s sweats which are about four sizes too big. He’s stuffing his face with the third sandwich I’ve made him. He’s eating like he hasn’t eaten in a week. But he is talking, too. Greyson has been mostly listening, letting me lead with the questions.

Wyatt recruited him and Luke thinks he’s low on potions. He had enough to mask himself and Jessica Young but seems like what he put on them was heavily diluted and augmented by catnip.

They got here tonight not through the traditional entryways to the village because they knew there were patrols. Instead, they’d driven to the resort across the lake, broke into one of the cabins last night to sleep there and kept watch with binoculars from over there. Tonight once they saw excessive activity moving toward one side of the village, they took kayaks across the lake to sneak in.

It's obvious that the party tonight offered the perfect opportunity.

When Luke starts to talk about how Wyatt has been on the absolute warpath since finding out I was taken in by this pack and claimed by one of the alphas, I decide to cut this off.

“Maybe we should sleep,” I say.

I don’t want Luke getting deep into Silver Hills politics tonight. It’s been a hard night. I’m bone-tired. And frankly I can’t handle more bad news about home. I know it’s cowardly, but I need to regroup first.

“We do need some shuteye,” Grey says, but his eyes are on me like he sees through me.

No, I definitely don’t need Luke spewing more information to make Grey angrier. I’m already a bundle of nerves with the sensations and emotions coming off him. I need a breather. So does he.

He turns his gaze to my cousin. “Luke, like I said in the woods, you’re safe here. But I need to know we’re safe, too. You’re being shown trust by being allowed to sleep under this roof instead of in a cell with the other beta from your pack that survived. Don’t mistake this for weakness, pal. Gonna ask you to stay put. Yeah? We’ll talk some more in the morning.”

Luke swallows hard and not making eye contact with Grey, he says, “I will, sir. Thank you.” He stuffs the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and washes it down with the rest of the glass of milk I poured for him.

***

“Seems like a good kid,” Grey says as I get into bed.

He pulls his shirt off and tosses it before dropping his jogging pants and climbing into bed nude.

“Yeah. Thank you for letting him stay tonight.”

“He’s family to you,” he says. “And he’s clearly a good kid so he’s now family to me, too. Erica’s spell was to do with pulling all the bad out. That’s why he didn’t get pulled up into that.”

“Not everyone was bad always. Wyatt destroyed those betas. His treatment of them turned them bad, you know? He turns everything bad. If he’d won here he’d ruin this place, too.”

“He didn’t win, Blossom. Nothing he could do would allow him to win. Believe that.”

“He had machine guns. He sabotaged Tyson’s house. If not for Erica, what else would he have done? What was his full plan?”

“Don’t know, but it’s over for tonight. We’ll figure the rest out tomorrow.”

“But he’s still out there,” I whisper. “I wish this were over. I know it sounds awful, but I can’t help but wish when your pack pulled those betas out of the lake that they got him, too.”

“It doesn’t sound awful. He’s hurt you. Hurt your family, your old pack. He’s repeatedly tried to hurt us. He’ll be stopped.” He presses his mouth to my forehead, then my nose, and now he's kissing my mouth and working my pajamas off.

Now nude together, he gently caresses my face.

“Gotta talk more in the morning, get more information from the kid so we can strategize, but right now… I need you. Then I need sleep.”

We connect and when his knot starts up, I whimper softly into his shoulder through it, trying to be quiet so Luke isn’t disturbed in the room down the hall.

But he makes me look at him. And love shines in his eyes, so does determination. So much happened tonight. And he got us through it. I love him. I love him so, so much.

Tears come as I climax, emotion oozing from my pores for this man.

Grey swallows my whimpers with more kisses and lets out a low groan as he finishes powering into me.

“Try and get some sleep,” he says a few minutes later while I’m snuggled up to him.

I feel gooey and my body now feels ready for slumber, but my mind has other plans. Because how can I sleep when he’s still out there? I don’t know what’ll happen to the beta in custody, don’t even know who it is. I didn’t pick up enough scent to know who was here. I’m not sure what’ll happen long term with Luke, either. Will we send him back to Silver Hills? Will he stay with me and Grey while this is all being sorted? How gruesome will the wake of Wyatt’s path of destruction get before he is stopped?

My brother blew up part of Tyson’s house. It’s not completely destroyed, but Grey told me their bedroom was damaged badly and that they’re staying with Mason and Amie tonight. Ivy could’ve died. Their unborn baby!

I hate my brother. I have no idea where he could’ve even gotten the machine guns. I’m just grateful that whatever his dumb and awful plan was, that it went wrong and there were no losses on the Arcana Falls side. I’m also glad that Jessie Young is okay and back with her aunt and sisters.

Grey seems to read my thoughts. “He’ll have to go find resources. Regroup. It’s over for tonight. Let’s rest, okay? Jase and Linc are leavin’ at first light, heading to Silver Hills to meet up with Jared. We’re gettin’ to work on making sure this is over. I’ll get on it just as soon as I catch a few hours of sleep. Okay? On it until it’s over, babe. Full throttle.”

“Okay,” I whisper, thinking of poor Sherry who’s undoubtedly going to realize very soon what being the ‘Queen’ of Silver Hills means.

I’m just glad Grey didn’t go and leave me here. I shudder to imagine what Lincoln and Jase will think if they do get behind those gates and see what I’ve come from. The idea of Grey seeing it has bile bathing my wisdom teeth.

“So,” I say, “You pulled the knife out of my brother’s hand with your mind.”

He says. “Shocked the shit outta me, too.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“Your eyes were bleeding,” I whisper.

“It didn’t hurt like you’d think. What hurt was not being able to rip him to shreds. Intense emotion often means our eyes light with our inner fire. The level above that usually means blood vessels blowing in our eyes.”

“Like your head is about to explode,” I say.

“Yup.”

“Will you… go there? To Silver Hills?” I ask.

“Let’s see what the morning brings. Go from there. Let’s get some sleep, babe.” He presses a kiss to my mate mark before he shifts to his wolf shape, which startles me, but he remains still beside me and I know he’s again doing it to sleep light, to protect us. I snuggle into his soft fur and close my eyes. His wolf begins to purr for me, and it doesn’t take long to drift off after all.