Page 14 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)
~Troy~
Hunter yipped happily in my head as Amanda closed the link between us.
She’s concerned about us. That’s why she reached out.
I felt it too, though I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much.
It might have simply been the same level of concern she’d feel for any member of the pack.
As Alpha, she cared for us all. However, something in her tone, in the way her voice vibrated in my head, made it feel like a little bit more.
Not an acceptance, not by a long shot, but maybe a thawing in the icy wall she’d built between us.
A step had been made in the right direction, and it made me more determined than ever to assist her in this situation with Kalo and prove my worth to her, as a member of her council and, more importantly, as her mate.
We had reached the lookout ledge just before Amanda linked me, and Kalo seemed content to gaze out over the scene in front of us without the need for conversation. However, since I now had instructions to return him to the pack house, I would need to move this along.
“This mountain forms a natural border to our land on this side,” I explained, gesturing to the ground below us that marked the northern reach of our territory.
“Crossing it would take a lot of effort. The lake serves the same purpose on the west. Therefore, we focus our defensive measures primarily in the east and south.”
Kalo nodded, his gaze following each movement of my hand as I drew the border lines onto the landscape in front of us. “Do you have any kind of early warning system? Something to alert you before the border is breached?”
“No. We tried setting up a laser system several years ago but large animals kept setting it off. It caused more trouble than it was worth.”
I’d had several sleepless nights because of it, patrolling outside our territory only to find a moose wandering around harmlessly.
“Any allies you could call for assistance in the event of a large-scale attack?”
“We recently allied ourselves with the Crimsontooth pack in Montana. They’re a large, well-equipped pack with a well-trained fighting force.”
As much as I’d been against the treaty when it involved Amanda being mated to their Alpha, I could understand why Alpha Warren initiated the agreement. Any pack tempted to attack us would face repercussions from the biggest pack in the whole Rocky Mountain region. It made a powerful deterrent.
Or it should have, anyway. The pack conspiring against us now didn’t seem to feel too threatened by it.
Were they counting on Crimsontooth not coming to Amanda’s defense?
I’d heard stories about mutinies in other packs where allies refused to intervene if the insurrection came from within the pack itself, so maybe they counted on that being the case this time too.
Unease roiled in my stomach as the words Alpha Warren spoke to me all those years ago echoed once again in my head.
She may be my blood but she’s still a female. Disposable. If you think her lineage will protect her, you’re wrong.
The certainty in his voice had shaken me so much that when I ran into Amanda in the hall afterwards and she asked what was wrong, I couldn’t answer. I didn’t want to have to tell her the awful things her father said, not when she obviously loved and admired him so much.
Some of that shine had worn off for her after the situation with her mother and Kyle, but still, I hadn’t shared the full details of that conversation with her and I doubted her father ever had.
Exactly what he told her, I couldn’t be sure, but it had been enough to make her turn her back on me.
Seeing the disappointment, hurt and resentment in her eyes never got easier, no matter how much time passed.
“Troy?”
It took a second to realize Kalo was talking to me. He must have asked me a question while I got lost in my thoughts. “Sorry. What did you say?”
“I asked how quickly these allies could respond to a call for help, if you needed it?”
“It would take at least 12 hours,” I admitted. “Probably a little more by the time they mobilized.”
None of that could be considered a secret; anyone looking at a map could see that Alpha Vaughan and his warriors were a day’s drive away from us. Perhaps we should call on them now, as a precaution, until things felt a little more solidified.
Kalo echoed my thoughts almost precisely. “Could they spare a portion of their forces in the short term?”
“I’ll discuss it with the Alpha. She should have concluded her business by now, so we can head back if you’d like.”
He took one last, lingering look at the vista spread out before us. “Yes, I’ve seen what I need to for now.”
Beneath the evergreen trees on the forest floor, the drizzle of rain halted, the drops gathering in the branches above us and falling in large splats rather than tiny droplets. Every so often, one would land directly on my head or shoulder. Kalo chuckled with delight when one hit his nose.
“You’re lucky to have a position that allows you to spend so much time outdoors. It’s peaceful here.”
The first part, I definitely agreed with. I joined the border guard for two reasons; first, to protect my pack, and second, to spend as much time outside as possible. After discovering Amanda was my mate, my primary purpose became to protect her first and the pack second.
Not that she knew that.
“It’s only peaceful when no one is trying to attack us,” I pointed out. “I don’t relax when I’m on duty.”
“Would it make your life easier to have a better security system around the perimeter of your territory? Is that what you’d wish for?”
Something in the way he phrased the question prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. “What I’d wish for?” I repeated slowly.
“Yes. If you could have anything you wanted.”
Kalo reached up to a branch above us, pulling it towards the ground before releasing it and letting it spring upwards again. Water droplets flew around us, making him laugh with an almost childlike pleasure. Innocent, in a way.
Meanwhile, I turned his question over in my head. I knew without hesitation what I wanted more than anything in the world, but voicing the thought out loud, to a stranger, went against every protective instinct I had.
“I don’t believe in wishes,” I answered instead. “Hard work and determination will get you much farther.”
Kalo’s smile twisted into something more complicated. “Don’t underestimate the power of wishing. If the timing’s right, there’s no stronger power.”
Weird, Hunter repeated in my head, still baffled by Kalo in general.
Instead of agreeing with him, though, I asked a different question. “What would you wish for?”
The expression on his face shifted once more into one of forlorn hopelessness, a look I recognized from staring into the mirror over years of heartbreak.
“I would wish to undo something I once did. Unfortunately, that’s not possible, not with a wish and not through hard work or determination either. ”
I knew exactly how that felt, and for the first time, the stranger in front of me didn’t seem entirely foreign to me. “Maybe it can’t be undone, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t another way to make it right, one way or another.”
His golden eyes met mine and I could have sworn the sadness lifted, just a little.
“I’m counting on it,” he replied right as another large drop of water hit my neck and slithered down my back, sending a shiver down my spine along with it.