Page 46 of His Retribution

I suspect my love is trying to protect others from facing the same end she fears so greatly.

I just need to make her understand that she no longer needs to run, no longer needs to fight in a battle that has been haunting her, plaguing her mind because now she has soldiers ready to go to war for her.

My light has me and I will protect her until the end of time.

A twig snaps about three hundred yards away and my eyes shift to where my dearest friend takes his human form.

“Brother," Andrej grunts while he walks toward me, tugging up a pair of basketball shorts. "Any change?"

I shake my head and go back to staring at my light’s cabin. "She has stopped crying but does not sleep."

He grunts again as he drops down beside me. "Have you seen her?"

Another shake of my head.

I long to see her, long for so much more, but being able to breathe her in, hear her every move will have to suffice for now.

Andrej nods but a muscle in his jaw ticks and I know immediately more has brought him here than a simple check in.

"It is well after two, brother. What is it that took you away from your mate in the middle of the night? If you merely had concern for me or my light you could have sent a message.” I arch a brow, glance his way. "What is really on your mind?"

"We have location on Ivan."

"That is good." But I'm not totally following why I need to know that right now.

"Yukon."

My stomach flips, body goes tense.

If he is in Yukon, then...

Andrej nods. "Nero."

My light was right. Right to run when she did. Right that the bastard was chasing her.

If Nero is in Yukon then he was so close to discovering her but instead her instinct to flee kept her from being found.

And now it will only be a matter of time before he shows up here to finish the job he has taken to executing over and over.

"How?"

"The wolf shifter, Colt. Picked up the scent of the human harboring him and followed the trail. Led him to Yukon, a small city only a few hundred miles from where the little one had lived."

Though I plan to destroy my grandfather and extinguish any need for my mate to live in fear, to continue surviving in a state of constant paranoia, right now I am grateful for it.

Had she not followed her instincts and departed when she did, there is a better than likely chance she never would have left Alaska.

And this also means I was spot on with my thoughts on Ivan's plan.

"His numbers?"

"Well into the hundreds."

Christ.

That is a huge coven, not that it's surprising for the vampire king to have so many followers, but it means we will be no match for them if a war breaks out. We are roughly forty here in Ashland, mostly shifters with a few human counterparts. Our only saving grace is the fact that we have dragons, some of the most powerful dragons to ever exist, but I fear even that won't be enough to protect us.

"You know what is to be done."