Page 38 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)
~Troy~
I found Savannah in her office with an additional guard posted outside her door. Good. Amanda might have been the assassin’s target, but we needed to keep security tight until the situation was under control.
The Beta was on the satellite phone when I got there, but she beckoned me inside without even taking a breath.
Her office was smaller than Amanda’s but decorated in a similar, masculine style.
Redecoration hadn’t been at the top of anyone’s priority list with everything else going on, but the tastes of the previous Alpha and Beta didn’t suit our new leadership team at all.
“That’s as much as I know right now, Vaughan.
I’m not keeping things from you; I simply don’t know any more. ”
My shoulders stiffened at the Crimsontooth Alpha’s name, and the motion didn’t escape Savannah’s attention. She shot me a knowing glance before rolling her eyes at whatever the man on the other end of the line said.
“You’re the one who put Leo in charge, and he and I are handling it. Let us do our jobs and stick to doing your own!”
Although I couldn’t hear his verbal response, the low rumble of his growl vibrated through the handset.
Savannah cut him off mid-sentence. “Look, someone just arrived to give me some news. I have to go.”
She hung up without saying goodbye, tossed the phone onto her desk, and sat back in her seat with a sigh.
“Do you have any brothers, Troy?”
“No.” I’d always thought I would have liked a sibling, or several, but this didn’t seem like the best time to bring that up.
“Consider yourself lucky,” she grumbled, exhaling one more time before shaking her irritation away. “Do you actually have news? I just said that to get rid of him, but I’d love to hear something good. Sit down.”
“Actually, I do.” After lowering myself into the seat across from her, I relayed the conversation Amanda and I just had with Kalo about bringing the Crimsontooth warriors onto our land, and Savannah immediately perked up.
“That’s fantastic. It’ll be much easier for them to help in planning our defense if they’re here. Can I tell them to come now?”
“Whenever you’d like. I’ll give you the coordinates for where we’ll make the crossing.”
With me there to answer any questions, she called the Crimsontooth Gamma at the hotel where he and his men had spent the night and shared the news with them.
They estimated they could arrive at the crossover point in a little over two hours, and we made plans for Savannah and me to meet them there along with Kalo.
When she hung up once more, we were both energized from the shift in momentum and our new plan. It felt good for us to be on the same side rather than fighting against her suspicion like I had for the past few days.
Savannah stated as much outright, casting an appraising glance over me. “You’re not so bad when you’re not creeping on Amanda.”
Having been warned about the Beta’s bluntness, I did my best not to take that personally and answer her in kind. “And you’re not so bad considering your brother is an idiot.”
Her lips parted in surprise, a couple of beats passing as she stared across the desk at me. Just when I thought I might have gone too far and opened my mouth to apologize, she cracked a smile.
“I’ll let that go this time because he was just being an idiot, but in the future? I’m the only one allowed to badmouth him.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I’ll never understand how he let Amanda go, but since I’m glad he did, I won’t say any more on the matter.”
She huffed a laugh. “He let her go because he found his fated mate. I would think that you of all people would understand what it’s like to try to resist something written in your bones.”
My heart panged at the memories of those seven long, lonely years. “You have no idea.”
Hearing the desperation in my voice, Savannah studied me carefully, as if really seeing me for the first time. “No, I really don’t. How either of you fought against it all this time, I can’t imagine. I’m also not sure which of you is more stubborn.”
“Maybe that makes us a good match,” I offered, giving her a smile meant as a peace offering.
I couldn’t tell her what transpired between me and Amanda the night before, partly because it was private between us and partly because I still didn’t know what it meant for us going forward, but if nothing else, I hoped I could convince the Beta that I had Amanda’s best interests at heart, always.
Once again, she seemed to read my mind. “You were very brave taking that bullet for her.”
Brave wasn’t the word I would have used. “I did what I had to do. For my Alpha and my mate.”
She couldn’t argue with that. “And what happens if her wish is reversed?”
“The bullet goes back into my heart.” I said it evenly, as if it was a simple fact. Maybe it was. But the idea of it sat heavy in my chest; not so much the hot, searing pain I’d have to endure again, but the thought of being permanently separated from my mate.
Still, given the choice, I knew what my answer would be, and my voice remained steady as I spoke it out loud.
“I’ll take it gladly if it saves her and this pack.”
The tight nod she gave me felt almost like approval. “Well, we’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen. If I learned anything from meeting my own mate, it’s that sometimes, you have to make the impossible happen. Maybe I can…”
She didn’t get to finish that thought as the guard outside the door knocked once before opening it a crack and sticking his head through. “Beta? Your mate has just let me know that he has a prisoner down in the cells. He asked you to join him when you’re free.”
My heart rate instantly picked up. Did he catch whoever tried to kill Amanda? Or the former Beta? Any possibility of getting to the bottom of the danger to Amanda was good news to me.
Savannah’s eyes met mine, filled with the same determination. “Shall we?”
That simple question marked another small act of inclusion that meant a great deal to me. If Savannah could learn to trust me, and if Jasper and I could be friends, maybe the idea of Amanda accepting me wasn’t as impossible as it once seemed.
For the first time in my life, it felt like I was finding my true purpose and my true place in the pack.
Now, I just needed to find a way to survive long enough to make it count.