Page 33

CHAPTER 33

brIAR

“W e don’t have enough forces to go up against a thousand heavily armed Knights.” Uncle Vale shakes his head and rubs a hand over his closely cropped beard as he thinks through something. “Even with all of our enforcers, we’re looking at two hundred wolves.”

We all got back around eight in the evening our time, but I was exhausted. Malachi told Vale we needed to have a strategy meeting in the morning, and then we went straight to bed.

Now, we’re in the dining room bright and early with Vale, his betas, the pack’s top enforcers, Rhys, and his mages. All of them listened intently to what we found, and I passed around my phone so they could look at the situation themselves.

“What about the mages?” Malachi asks.

Rhys tilts his head back and forth as he thinks. “We have probably two hundred and fifty mages if we pull everyone from nonessential missions. That still doesn’t even get us up to five hundred supernaturals. With all the heavy artillery and weaponry they have, we need to at least match their numbers, if not exceed them.”

I turn to Rhys, shocked he’s willing to devote his own people to the cause. “Why are you helping us? The curse doesn’t affect you.”

He gives me a half smile that makes his face seem a little less harsh. “Sure, this curse doesn’t affect us, but what about the next one? The Knights are all supernaturals’ problem. Any chance we have to take them out or cripple their operations, we should.”

Shaking my head, I look down at the table and mumble, “But it’ll be dangerous. Mages could, and probably will, die in this fight.” A lump forms in my throat thinking about all the lives we’ll probably lose.

“I know, but many more of us will die if we sit back and do nothing.” Rhys’s hazel eyes soften at whatever he sees on my face. “This isn’t your fault, you know?”

Swallowing past my tight throat, I give him a small nod before looking down at the table. I logically know this isn’t my fault. The Knights are the ones who made the choice to curse us and keep trying to kill all of us.

But the thought of a thousand wolves and mages putting their lives on the line so I can break the curse makes me sick to my stomach. I know many of them will die, and I don’t know how to handle it.

Saint reaches over and grabs one of my hands in his. He squeezes me comfortingly, providing an anchor when I feel like I’m at risk of drowning in my worry.

“So we need more wolves or mages, then?” Bastian asks.

Vale nods. “Correct.”

Xander shoves a hand through his hair as he stares off in thought. “I don’t know what mages we can trust, but we should ask the Nightshades if they have any wolves they can spare.”

“Good thinking, but I’d be surprised if they have more than a hundred to lend us.” Vale seems to quickly mentally calculate how many people we have with the Nightshade pack’s wolves. “It’ll help, but we’ll still fall far short of what we need.”

“We could always ask the Russians,” Bastian suggests with a grin on his face. When Vale sighs and arches a brow at him, Bastian throws his hands up. “What? They’re a massive pack, psychotic, and kill for hire. The Russians would be awesome to have at our side.”

Malachi pinches the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Yeah, they’re also psychotic enough to kill our own enforcers and take over our pack while they’re at it.”

Bastian raises his eyebrows in shock before a small pout twists his lips. “Oh. Well, that’s rude of them.”

I snort at Bastian pouting about no one wanting to ask apparently unhinged wolves from Russia to help us. I have to agree with Malachi, though. That doesn’t sound like the best plan. I don’t really know much about the current wolf packs, but hopefully there are other ones we can ask.

“The Adler brothers still owe you a favor,” Jesse interjects from where he’s leaning back in his chair, scowling at everyone. “The last I heard, they had consolidated all of the bear packs in Canada. I bet they’ll have at least one hundred and fifty bears to spare.”

Sam grins and nods at Jesse. “Porter down in Arizona also owes you one hell of a favor. He wouldn’t have a prowl to govern without you. Those jaguars are sure sneaky, and a hundred of them would be really fucking helpful for getting Briar and the boys where they need to go.”

Vale nods. “I think this is worth calling in some favors. That brings us up to, what, seven hundred?”

Nodding, Malachi says, “I can get us the rest of the shifters.”

Lifting an eyebrow at his son skeptically, Vale asks, “How?

Flashing his dad a sharklike smile, Malachi throws an arm over the back of my chair. “You’re not the only one owed favors, Dad. I have several smaller packs that owe me and will be all too happy to get out of debt finally.”

Clapping Malachi on the back, Vale grins at him. “Good work, son. I’m proud of you.” He turns to Rhys. “When do you think your mages will be ready to go?”

Rubbing a hand over his face, Rhys says, “I can have everyone ready in two days. That gives us time to pull people out of assignments safely.”

“All right.” Clapping his hands together, Vale starts barking out directions. “Sam, Jesse, start contacting the packs immediately. Bastian, reach out to the younger Nightshade. You have the closest connection to them. Malachi, start gathering your shifters. We’ll plan to leave in two days at eleven in the morning. That way, we’ll get to Tunisia around nightfall. Do you have any way to reach out to your contact in Tunis, Bee?”

“Yeah, he gave me his phone number.” I was surprised the old man even knew what a phone was, much less was comfortable texting.

Vale gives me an encouraging smile. “Let him know when we plan to come and see if he can find enough boats for all of us. I will pay whatever the cost. We just need enough ships for a thousand people.”

I give him a nod and pull out my phone. Typing a quick message, I send it off to Jad and wait for a response.

Sam hops out of his chair and practically skips out of the room, like he enjoys nothing more than lording being owed a favor over people—or he’s just enthusiastic about killing some Knights. Either way, he’s much more excited about everything than I am.

Jesse rolls his eyes before he too stands up. He stalks out of the room like he’s ready to go murder someone, not just call to ask for a favor.

Malachi pushes up from his seat and braces his hands on the table. “You need anything from the five of us before we go make some calls?”

Vale makes eye contact with me. “I just need to speak to Bee for a moment alone.”

Glancing down, Malachi wordlessly checks with me to see if I’m fine with that. I give him a small smile and subtle dip of my chin. “Okay. We’ll be right outside when you’re done.” Bending down, he plants a hard kiss on my lips before he strides out of the dining room.

Saint, Xander, and Bastian each give me a kiss of some sort before they follow Malachi. I’m sure I have a dopey smile on my face. It always makes my heart feel all mushy when my mates can’t leave my side without kissing or hugging me.

Uncle Vale stands up and walks around the table. He offers me a hand, and I take it, letting him pull me to my feet. He starts for the door at the far end of the dining room.

Following him, I try to ignore the intense gazes of the enforcers. They’ve been staring at me like I’m the answer to all their prayers since they found out that Dido is reincarnated into me. It’s a ton of pressure, and I can’t shake the feeling that I’m going to let them down.

Pushing open the door, Vale leads me into a bustling kitchen. The people inside are busy making all manner of snacks for the hungry shifters that are constantly coming and going through the mansion. In an hour or so, they’ll probably switch to cooking lunch for the mages and wolves camping out in the dining room.

We head out a door at the rear of the kitchen, and I’m surprised to walk out onto the patio. The late winter air is chilly, and the wind stings my cheeks. I hug my arms around myself, the crewneck I stole from Saint not doing much to keep the cold out.

It’s a short trip across the gray pavers to the retaining wall where Vale seems to love to have talks. He sits down and gestures for me to do the same.

Much less gracefully than Vale, I lower myself onto the stone wall and let my feet swing in front of me. “What did you wanna talk about, Uncle Vale?” I ask when the silence stretches.

My voice seems to startle Vale out of his thoughts. He runs his hand over his beard before turning to me, his piercing eyes, the same shade of navy as Malachi’s, seeming to stare into my soul. “I need you to promise me something.”

I’m nodding before I have a chance to think it through. “Of course. What is it?”

His mouth flattens into a grim line. “Storming the Knights’ stronghold will be messy, violent, bloody, and filled with death. No matter what happens or what you see, I need you to promise me that you’ll take care of yourself, my boys, and your mage above all else.”

My blood turns icy in my veins at his stark warning. “What do you mean?”

He puts his elbows on his knees and shoves his hands through his graying hair. “I mean that I need you to promise not to sacrifice yourself to save the other people on the battlefield. People are going to die, Bee, and it will all be for nothing if you jump in front of the first bullet or sword you see aimed at someone else.”

I gape at him incredulously. “You want me to just let people get hurt when I could help them?”

“No. I want you to focus on what will help them the most—breaking the curse. If you stop to help every single person who needs it, you’ll never reach the curse. The Knights will take you and my boys out before you’re even close. All of the lives we sacrifice will mean nothing without you fulfilling the prophecy.”

“What if I can’t?” I ask, the familiar doubt creeping in. That’s the thing about the prophecy, it says I’m the only one who can break the curse, not that I will break it. If I fail, there’s no one else who can do it. It’s a lot of pressure, and I find myself lying awake at night, worried that I don’t have what it takes.

Wrapping an arm around me, Vale enfolds me in a hug and pulls me into his side. “You can, Bee. You are the most powerful wolf I’ve ever met, and I have met many, many shifters in my life. You’re capable of amazing things. Just look at how you’ve united shifters and mages, and you’re uniting packs that rarely talk to each other all across the country. So very many people believe in you. With your mates by your side, I know that you can accomplish anything and everything you set your mind to.”

I close my eyes and lean into him, trying to absorb his belief in me, because the time for doubting is over. This is happening, whether I think I can break the curse or not. I absolutely refuse to let all these people put their lives on the line for nothing, so I have to believe that I can do this.