Page 22

Chapter Twenty-One

Talia

T he house is tense as Forrester and I stare at each other in uncomfortable silence.

I can see the fight in his eyes, between what he wants to do and what he thinks he should be doing.

The magic in my soul wants to reach out to him, to take away all the pain, anger, and dark tendrils of manipulation that have been dragging him down to be this hateful person he never should have become.

“I, uh, I—” Forrester stutters out, shifting his eyes from me to the rest of the room then back to me nervously.

“I don’t know how to, ah, do any of this. I don’t even know if it’s possible for me to heal.”

“If you let me in, I can help with that,” I offer, tears filling the corners of my eyes.

“Healing is a specialty of mine, after all.”

The open vulnerability on his face feels like the first real glimpse of Forrester that I’ve seen.

It’s not an angry man hiding his pain behind snarky remarks and cold aloofness.

It’s the innermost parts of him that have been crying out in pain for far too long.

For Forrester to finally embrace all of this, he needs those wounds to heal and allow his true self to come through.

Forrester steps towards me, and I stand up to meet him part way.

His hand hesitantly reaches up to cup my cheek and I can feel the slight tremor of his fear against my cheek.

“I would appreciate that. I want to be the man that you deserve,” he whispers to me, his grey eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Help me heal, Talia.”

Instead of answering aloud, I lean my cheek into his hand and nod my head.

My lips graze against his palm softly before I look back up at my broken yet beautiful mate.

“Meet me out on the back deck tomorrow morning at sunrise. We can try then.”

“Sunrise,” Forrester repeats with a twitch of his lips.

Pulling away from him, I turn back to the rest of my mates who watch us with a mixture of happiness and uncertainty.

“We should get back to why we all came here. If you guys are okay with it, Wes and I can go over what we discovered and then Drayton and Alaric can fill us in on their news.”

All of my mates nod in agreement as Wes joins me standing up near the front of the living room.

Wes takes over most of the explanation of the Champions of Adessa legend and what we believe that means for all of us now.

I add in my own information as Wes explains, like how the goddess spoke to me in greater detail.

“Fuck,” Penn murmurs, rubbing the stubble on his jaw subconsciously.

“That’s a fucking lot of pressure.”

I grimace and nod.

“It is. I’m so sorry to have brought all of this on you guys. The truth is there’s still so much more we don’t know than we do. Everything we’re piecing together is from legends and wars long past.”

“It’s something, though.” Drayton walks over and pulls me into his arms.

“We will figure this out together. If there’s a war coming and you need to be front and center for it, then we’ll be front and center with you. The goddess chose us to be your mates for a reason.”

Alaric pulls me from Dray’s arms and crushes me against his chest and chastely kisses the top of my head.

“You are our mate and we will fight and protect you with every ounce of power given to us by the goddess. None of us are going anywhere and none of us hold your goddess-given destiny against you.”

I can almost feel the pointed look Alaric gives Forrester over my head.

He will probably be one of the ones that takes the longest to forgive Forrester for what he’s put me and the rest of our group through.

Someone leans their cheek against the top of my head while I’m cuddled in Alaric’s arms.

Penn’s scent mixes with Alaric’s and I breathe it in deeply, nearly groaning at the intoxicating scent it creates.

“I’m sorry, Talia. I didn’t mean it like that,” he murmurs, the sound vibrating through me.

“I just meant that it’s a lot to take in and understand. When I had visions of you, I never imagined that this is where our path would lead us.”

“That’s okay, Penn. I know it’s a lot. I’m struggling with it all myself,” I assure him.

“As long as we’re all together, we can do this. I know we can.”

Drayton clears his throat, effectively breaking up the hug between the three of us.

“Thank you, Wes, for putting the time and research into the Adessa legends. Keep going with that so we can try and figure out what exactly is on the horizon for all of us. Pull whatever resources you need from the pack in order to figure this out.”

“Will do, boss.”

“We do need to circle back to the discourse going on in the pack. While it’s not on the same danger levels as an all out war between shifters and humans, it is still a problem that needs addressing and a much more immediate threat.”

Penn pulls me down on the couch with him, tucking my hand inside of his with a sweet smile.

Wes takes the other spot on the couch while Alaric stays standing beside Drayton.

Forrester sits away from us on the small loveseat, an uncomfortable grimace on his face.

I squeeze Penn’s hand tightly in my own, the anxiety surrounding Forrester still weighing heavily in my chest.

He’s going to struggle with whatever Drayton has to say, but I don’t know how to help him right now.

His pain is far too complex for me to help ease it at the moment.

“Marcus has been going behind our backs to other packs just outside our normal alliance area to try to sow a story of an unstable alpha who is using and abusing his pack to take over the surrounding packs. He’s calling for the alphas to lend him wolves to help overthrow me,” Drayton explains, his voice deepening with anger with every word.

“He has sowed discord among our own pack, but not enough to have a clear advantage against me. We have allies in at least one of the packs he reached out to who have been sending us any information they can. They turned him down, but at least two packs have agreed to send him reinforcements.”

“When is he planning to challenge you?” Wes asks, looking between Dray, Penn, and Alaric.

Penn speaks up beside me at Dray’s nod.

“We believe it will be very soon, maybe within the next two weeks. Marcus has been much better at covering his tracks than we expected him to be so we don’t have a definitive date.”

“That’s going to make things harder,” Forrester mumbles out, rubbing the stubble along his jaw.

“Maybe I can talk to him and see if he’ll confide in me. If we know when it’s going to happen, we can be prepared with allies of our own.”

The whole room falls silent, each of us looking at Forrester in differing levels of confusion.

He sighs and rolls his eyes, the sarcastic gesture normal enough for Forr to shock at least some of us out of our surprise.

“I get it. I deserve your shock and confusion, but can we please get back to the discussion?” Forrester grumbles.

“I’m doing my best to keep my shit together so that Talia thinks better of me. It has nothing to do with the rest of you assholes.”

I smile at his reasoning, then attempt to hide it by pulling my lips between my teeth.

It shouldn’t make me so happy that his effort is mostly for my benefit, but it does.

Having your mate go against their very traumatic instincts to do better for you is far better than any grand romantic gesture he could have done.

Penn nudges me with a knowing look on his handsome face.

He chuckles under his breath and shakes his head, bringing a giggle out of me.

The room breathes again at my giggle and Drayton smiles lovingly at me before talking again.

“You could try to speak to him,” Drayton answers, hesitancy clear in his voice.

“I just don’t know how much he’ll actually tell you. It’s not a secret that you’re Talia’s mate just like the rest of us are. I think that’s why he hasn’t attempted to bring you in on his plan at all since you’ve been back. Not to mention, with me out of the way, you are much closer to alpha status than Marcus is which still makes you a threat.”

“Fuck. I didn’t think about that.”

Alaric clears his throat and steps up closer to Drayton.

“You are right, though. We do need to be prepared for this attack. We’ve already reached out to our closest allies and they’re prepared to back us up if this becomes bigger than we’ve anticipated. That said, we need to figure out our best approach to having a pack advantage. That means cracking down on the insubordination in some of the heavily influenced wolves and preparing to exile the wolves that are fully committed to Marcus.”

“How are you going to crack down on the in-sub-oo oord- in-nation?” I ask, stumbling over the word a little bit.

Unease twists in my gut as the idea of anyone within the pack getting hurt makes me extremely uncomfortable.

“There’s punishments already in place for certain types of insubordination. They vary from cleaning duties for a month to exile depending on the type of incident and the number of incidents.” Alaric rubs the back of his neck in thought.

“We’ve been lenient since Drayton became alpha to try and give the pack time to acclimate from the change.”

“Which has been a mistake,” Drayton adds with a sigh.

“I thought I was doing what was best for the pack since my father was cruel and the challenge was far more violent than ones in the past have been. All I’ve done is weaken the pack, though.”

Penn shakes his head at Drayton.

“You didn’t weaken the pack, man. The pack was weakened by the previous leaders and now by Marcus. Showing lenience and empathy after a drastic and traumatic change of leadership is not what put this bullshit into motion. I know the wolves that aren’t being influenced by that dickhead actually respect you far more for the kindness you’ve shown the entirety of the pack, including those that don’t deserve it.”

Drayton smirks at Penn and runs a hand through his hair.

“You did tell me that this would be the way I gained the pack’s respect and loyalty.”

“Damn fucking right I did. I saw the outcome of those actions in a vision and I still stand by them,” he responds with a serious expression.

“Though I do think with the more serious threat Marcus is posing now, it’s time to shut it down completely. Just remember that showing mercy and benevolence are still better than ruthlessness and cruelty. Don’t rule through fear like your father did.”

“Never.”

I glance at Forrester a few times during the exchange, watching his expression move through various difficult emotions before settling into a look of begrudging respect for his brother.

Wes is watching him as well, a shadow of a smile on his face.

The pride he has for his pack brother at this moment is beyond touching.

If only Forrester could have seen how much these four men care for him this whole time.

How he could look at any of them, especially Drayton, and not see the love and concern they hold for him is a mystery to me.

They wear their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to each other, and now me.

A loud bang sounds outside the house, causing me to jump in surprise.

All the men aside from Wes are on their feet in an instant and moving towards the door.

Wes pulls me up once the others have moved to check the entrances, then tucks me under his arm.

“Was that a fucking explosion?!” Forrester yells out from the front of the house.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“The packlands are being invaded!” Drayton yells out, a deep menacing growl following after.

The men are a flurry of movement around me as Drayton yells out commands to them while speaking to someone on the phone.

“Penn, I want you to shift and go check the explosion at the gates. Alaric, I want you to get everyone willing and able to fight ready to defend the rest of the pack and drive the intruders out. We don’t know who is attacking yet, so use caution. Wes and Forrester, evacuate the rest of the wolves from their homes and bring them to the pack house. I want them kept together so we can do a head count and make sure everyone is accounted for.”

I stand behind them all, in a daze of fear and confusion.

Is it the humans coming back to take me?

Is it Marcus burning down the packlands instead of trying to take them?

Is it another threat that we’re unaware of?

None of us know the answers, but I refuse to sit on the sidelines in fear for any of them.

Our packmates are in danger and that means I need to push past my fear and do something.

“And me?” I ask, stepping out from Wes’s arm and standing tall.

“You just stay safe. We can’t lose you,” Drayton murmurs, stepping close to kiss my forehead before disappearing through the front door after Penn and Alaric.

Forrester and Wes come to stand with me, talking between themselves as I stare out the door after my other three mates.

I won’t just stand around while the pack is being attacked and not do anything.

This is now my pack too and I’m going to do whatever I can to protect them.

“Which section do you want me to take?” I finally ask my last two mates, looking between concerned grey eyes and proud chocolate brown ones.

“If we give you a section to evacuate, do you promise to not put yourself in unnecessary danger?” Forrester tilts my chin until all I can see is him.

“I won’t let you out of my sight without a promise.”

“I promise. I won’t take any unnecessary risks.”

Forrester and Wes send me off to the section of packlands where Penn’s mom lives.

Once we’re sure we have the pack divided between us, we say our goodbyes and head out.

Nothing could have prepared me for the chaos I would walk into.

The smell of smoke and the haunting howling of wolves sears into my memory, and I quickly realize that my promise was nothing more than a fool’s hope.

I will absolutely put myself into danger to save these wolves.

They’re my pack.

My family.

I won’t lose any of them to keep myself safe.