Page 39

Stacy

My chest has been tight for most of the journey. Grey, me, Luke, and the alpha Gus are in Grey’s car and as we get closer, my thoughts race even faster.

His right hand has been on my thigh most of the drive, and it’s what’s keeping me from hyperventilating, I think. He’s grounding me.

Though my chest is tight with tension, I’m in awe of Grey. In awe of these people who are all helping.

Yes, Lincoln and Jase went to track down my brother and Jase’s sister, but this convoy is on the way to the village in order to help the people there.

The same day Grey finds out things are bad there, he drops everything to help. And several of his pack members come along to assist, putting the wellbeing of the people first.

Aphra’s premonition is coming true. Me going to Arcana Falls does seem to be the catalyst for change for my pack. In a twisted way, Wyatt did us all a favor by ordering me to go to Arcana Falls.

Fate is strange.

But why has fate given me all of this hope if others have been lost along the way? The way Grey said Lincoln vomited because of the stench of death coming from our village is more than troubling.

Luke didn’t have much extra insight about the state of things before we left. He was busy training the week before he left, which means he was in the back of the village in that place I loathe. And it’s clear Luke is unhappy about going back, has a look in his eyes that I suspect is about the fact that he was just removed from a home with food and comforts, not to mention a video game system and library of games, to go back to that. He’s still so young, has had a hard life so far. But this all could be the turning point to give him the sort of life he deserves, to help him be the man he could be instead of being molded into another tool for my brother to use. A tool that would get pulled by a spell that extracts all bad.

He’s been quiet for most of the ride. So have I. I quickly packed some clothes into my suitcase for us. I was surprised that all the gifts for the girls as well as the money I’d saved were in there. I took out a few things, added some more including a few changes of clothing for Grey as well as toiletries for us both. I haven’t even asked who died last night or who’s in the cell under the town hall. Because I’m not sure how much more bad news I can take, especially if that news is that more good men turned bad. If Malachi wound up in that lake.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know some things. Greyson Blackwood, my mate – his strength, his determination, his perception and capacity for caring means that he’s going to help. And it’s everything I need despite the shame inside me because I know he’s about to see where I come from. The way I lived.

I’m fretting over what’s happened to my loved ones, but I also know that no matter what the state of things… today is the beginning of change for the Silver Hills pack.

He took care of me last night, tapping into his magic, instinctually ripping the knife out of Wyatt’s grip and sending it into the ceiling to get danger away from me.

He helped me find Luke and welcomed him into his home for the night, feeding and clothing him, making him safe.

Grey saved the members of his own family the night before at that magic circle – and he only just met them. He’s here today, with me, facing whatever we have to face with the state of things in my village. My village, not his.

While traveling, he had his cousins Erica and Vivica on speaker and he asked if they can help with some magic tools to help him combat the most likely leftover magic things Wyatt has and might come at us with. They’re putting something together for him.

When he’s about to let them go, I pipe up.

“Erica, Vivica? Do you have a way to reach out to the Starling coven for me?”

“Yes,” Vivica says. “Can I ask why?”

“I told Erica Aphra Starling was the witch my brother kidnapped and that she ran off, but her four-year-old daughter Halla… she’s in the village.”

I feel Grey’s body go tense. Or tenser.

“Wyatt used Halla to get Aphra to cooperate. I promised her I’d look after Halla for her.”

“We’ll contact them,” Erica agrees.

“Aphra trusted me. And I did my best to take good care of Halla after she was gone, but then Wyatt sent me off and so she’s with my aunt and my cousin. Or, she was when I left…”

“She was still with Addy and Aunt Shea until I had to go into training,” Luke says from the back seat.

I flash him a look of gratitude.

“We’ll make some calls,” Vivica says.

“Keep us posted on how we can help,” Erica adds. “We’ll put together that kit for you, Grey.”

“Good,” Grey says, “When I get back, I want as much face time with you all as you can spare. I need to be up to speed as soon as possible. Everything in my body and mind tell me this.”

“Got it. Whatever you need,” Vivica says.

“However we can help,” Erica echoes.

The call ends and we’re almost to Silver Hills. Even if I didn’t see where we are, I think I’d feel it, sense it in the air – the echoes of my life here. The pain. The abuse. The hunger, fear, and longing.

I’ve always felt like I’m mostly alone in the world, the people closest to me relying on me even if I don’t know how to fix things for them. I’ve always felt like I’ve got nothing but hard, uphill battles to look forward to.

Dealing with the business. Trying to pay all the bills with limited means or begging for extensions from bill collectors. Ordering supplies in a way that will give us enough without my brother blowing a gasket that I’ve spent too much. Helping people in the pack with whatever their problems are. Coping with Wyatt’s moods and demands. Coping with all he doles out. Dealing with all the punishments, the demands.

I never had the capacity to imagine this much more for myself, just how vastly different the life I had could be from the life Grey had laid out for the future.

But this feels like another hill to climb first. Climb the hill, look at my life and my roots, and find a way to help my people find their own way forward before I get to move on with Greyson.

***

We turn off onto a dead-end road only half a mile from where my people are. In the clearing by a pond, there’s a truck, two cars, and a van alongside a shiny mid-size silver Airstream camper attached to a black pickup truck. Several pack members watch us get out of Grey’s car.

I recognize all of them other than one, from either last night at the party or because they’ve been at Grey’s house.

Tyson’s mom Catrina is standing with Dr. Blakely from The Collective. There’s also Lincoln, Jase, six other men, two of which I recognize because they’ve taken turns with surveillance outside Grey’s house. I’m pretty sure the other four are pack betas I met or at least saw yesterday, plus the one I don’t know, a large chiseled blond guy I surmise must be Jared. But something about him strikes me as unusual, though I can’t pinpoint what it is.

All eyes are on me as greetings are exchanged, and it feels like the overall vibe is all warmth and concern.

A green SUV pulls in just as we get out of the car and the guy who gets out is like a combination of Riley and Tyson Savage. He’s tall. Built. 100% alpha. This must be Brody. He’s got hair longer than Riley’s, shorter than Tyson’s. And he has warm chocolate brown eyes and thick, well-groomed dark facial hair.

Immediately, people are all about greeting him excitedly.

He and Lincoln do a belly bop greeting, he messes up Jase’s hair while Jase threatens to give him a wedgie, then the three of them throw their heads back and let out howls at the same time before he turns and picks up Catrina Savage and swings her around, making her giggle before he blows a raspberry on her neck, then sets her down.

When his eyes hit Grey, who has a hint of a smile for the first time since we left his house, he approaches with a twinkle lighting in them. He and Grey hug with hearty backslaps.

“So good to see you, bro,” Grey says. “Appreciate that you came.”

“Needed to be here, brother. Serious. Woke up last night knowing I needed to head home and not knowing why. Called my folks, got their update, hit the road before dawn. Called Rye this morning to tell him I was on the way and he filled me in on the latest pack happenings. I knew I needed to come help.”

His eyes bounce to me and the warmth in his gaze vanishes as he asks, “This her?”

The way Brody looks at me makes my belly lurch. Maybe he’s holding a grudge after hearing what I did.

“This is my wife. Stacy,” Grey replies.

Brody sizes me up with an unreadable expression and then his face splits into a blinding white smile as he puts his hand to his chest. “Ah. Of course Grey would rate earning a beauty such as this. Look at you!” He grabs my hand and is about to kiss it. “You bring those cookies I hear tell of?”

“Oy!” Grey grabs him and puts him in a headlock. “Your mouth doesn’t touch my mate, and all her cookies are for me.”

Brody laughs uproariously and digs his fingers into Grey’s ribs.

“Fuck sakes,” Grey mutters, shoving him away. “How’d you hear about her cookies.”

Brody laughs harder and then they hug one another again with more back slaps.

“I have spies. Great to meet ya, Stacy,” Brody says belatedly.

“You, too,” I say. “I appreciate that you came.”

“Congrats, Grey. Truly,” Brody puts his hand to his heart.

“Thanks, bro. Okay everybody, thanks to all of you for comin’,” Grey claps his hands, pulling all the focus to the situation at hand. “Me ‘n Stace appreciate you. Now how about if we gear up?”

All faces go serious as spines straighten and I’m once again enthralled to see how this pack works together.

“So, I’m gonna walk the perimeter with all the alphas present as well as Luke, since he knows the lay of the land. Then we’ll come back and talk about a plan.”

He turns to me. “Be back in a few, Blossom. Gus, can you hang back here with the betas and keep your eyes on Stace for me?”

“Absolutely,” Gus steps up and stands directly beside me.

“Okay, babe?” Grey checks.

I moisten my lips and blow out a big exhale. He pauses and looks into my eyes. “Gonna be okay. No matter what’s on the other side of the fence, it’s gonna be okay. Yeah?”

“Shouldn’t I go, too?” I ask. “So I can put people at ease about you guys?”

“Not yet.” He gives me a severe expression. “Let us have a look first.”

I can’t look into Greyson Blackwood’s eyes without feeling things. Big things. Hope. Love. His strength. Our connection that’s growing stronger each day.

I look to the group at large. “Thank you all for coming. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you’re all so thoughtful and caring despite everything my brother and me have put everyone through.”

“Not your fault,” Linc clips like he’s angry. “You hear? Nobody’s blaming you. Get that outta yer head.”

“I’ll try,” I say softly, hoping he sees how much his words move me. His expression warms, so I continue. “Please, everyone… be careful. I don’t know if he set any traps. He would. He’s done it before.”

“Which is one of the reasons why you’re stayin’ here, ‘till I get a good look around. Okay?”

“Okay,” I say softly.

Grey tugs my braid and kisses me again.

“I love you,” I whisper.

“Love you, sweetheart.” His response is husky, but also loud and clear.

I love that he doesn’t care who hears it. His thumb skates across my mate mark and he goes.

Half of them get into Grey’s car, the other half into Jase’s truck.

Cat Savage comes over and rubs my arm reassuringly. “We’ll get through this together. That’s what we do.”

“I…” I burst into tears like a weakling. I’m so embarrassed.

But Cat Savage pulls me to her and hugs me, rubbing my back. And it feels so, so nice.

She pulls back and her kind eyes are too much.

“I can’t believe you’re this nice when I’m the one who shot your son right after you got him back,” I blurt.

She comforts me some more as I blurt how my brother made me do it and why I felt I had no choice.

Ten minutes later we’ve had a drink and are in lawn chairs under Jared’s awning. She’s put out some snacks for the group that are waiting and is asking me questions about my pack, about the people, what sorts of medical issues I think we could be looking at.

I explain that a few months back, after several weeks of almost everyone in the pack getting a stomach bug that caused all sorts of gastrointestinal issues, we figured out that another well had gone bad. We started boiling it before drinking it or cooking with it.

I grimly lay the medical facts I know out and tell her there have also been some issues that I think come from vitamin deficiencies as well. Most of the women of prime childbearing years are just not getting pregnant despite being very sexually active. There was a one hundred percent miscarriage rate for the past year with far fewer pregnancies period. We had multiple inexplicable stillborn births the year before and had a two-year zero live birth percentage for our pack. I also told her there often isn’t enough to eat, definitely not enough variety for nutritional needs, and that I don’t know if that got worse after I left.

She asks why that is and I tell her that not only is our soil nearly useless, nobody who’s left works outside the village because my brother has gotten increasingly controlling, so we’ve become a hundred per cent reliant on Wyatt to provide for us.

To say Cat looks alarmed is an understatement.

I also tell her we’ve lost at least another twenty-five per cent of our pack over the last few months as many have fled. They’ve fled hunger and infertility and dirty drinking water. They’ve fled Wyatt because he’s greedy and meaner than a honey badger.

Cat reassures with a squeeze of my shoulder, “I’ve got first aid supplies, medicines, and I’ve brought a dozen cases of water. Plus some food. Look.” She rises and I follow her to the van, which she opens to show me is full of supplies.

She explains, “We make sure to use up what’s in our emergency cache and refresh it every eighteen months or so to make sure we don’t have a bunch of inedible expired foods. It was just about time to rotate out again, so I brought a whack of things and have already sent a text message to Cicely to order replacement supplies. We’ve got some bags of rice, cases of soup, fruit, fish, and some freeze-dried meat, Some dry goods like pasta, granola, and nuts and jerky. I think I also brought tea, sugar, coffee, some meal replacement drinks, too. Plus a whack of paper goods and soap.”

“I’m gonna cry again,” I warn, fanning my face.

She waves her hand like it’s nothing when really, it’s going to mean everything to the people here.

“Once we see what’s what, I can send some of the boys out for more of whatever we need,” she adds.

I’m overwhelmed by the kindness.

“Can I ask a question?” I twine my fingers nervously.

“Absolutely,” she replies with an open, kind expression.

“Grey thinks I was in heat the other night. I’m… worried that if he got me pregnant, whatever has made it so the women have miscarried or had stillbirths … could it harm my ability to… grow our baby?” I hold my stomach. “I don’t know if I was in heat, if there’s a chance a baby is growing in me or not, but… I’m scared.”

“You’re eating well, feeling well?” she asks. “Shifting regularly?”

“Never better,” I tell her, and it’s true. “And yes. Wyatt doesn’t allow shifting without permission, which might also contribute to the level of illness around here, but I’ve been shifting often since being with Grey.”

I’ve been eating properly, drinking clean water, shifting and exercising. I feel stronger, better physically than maybe ever.

“Glad Greyson is taking good care of his mate. I had no doubts he would. But when we get home, let’s put you on some prenatal vitamins immediately just for extra peace of mind. If you have conceived, we’ll know pretty soon and I can do an ultrasound, blood tests, check everything out and make certain all is progressing the way it’s intended.”

“Thank you,” I breathe out.

She grabs my hand and squeezes it affectionately, showing she understands my concern, but I spot Gus shuffling from the corner of my eye and realize that though the non-alpha men waiting around are in conversation with one another, Gus heard. It’s written all over his body language. And this is why I won’t ask Cat Savage the other question I have right now.