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Us. The pack. That lone wolf feeling starts to evaporate as I feel my brothers have my back.
Dove throws her hands up in the air, frustration clear in every line of her body. “Does it matter? They kill us, we kill them. All the while, the Order picks us all off one by one.” She reaches out, her fingers wrapping around Sawyer’s bicep. He glances down at her fingers wrapped around his arm. I’m instantly ready to defend her if I need to, but his expression surprisingly softens. “I’m scared of our future.” She says it to Sawyer before she looks around the group. “It’s not just tau at risk. Hunters will take vargr too. They will tear you away from your mates and bring you together only during heat. Is that what you want?”
She twists to look over her shoulder at me, her eyes softening as she takes me in. “I want to wake up every morning feeling safe. I want to be able to relax out in the real world. I want to escape from the prison we are forced to live in just to survive.”
My chest tightens, and I desperately want to pull her against me, but I sense she needs to do this so I don’t interrupt her.
She turns back to Sawyer, her gaze bouncing between him and Cade. “How are you going to protect your mates against an organization that wants them and has the means to hunt them down? Are you going to risk losing everything because you are too stubborn to listen?”
Sawyer tears his eyes away from my woman to meet his brother's. For the first time, I regret turning off our pack link. I have no idea what the silent conversation they’re having is about. I know I can turn it back on, but at this point it would feel like I’m invading their privacy.
Cade clears his throat, one hand slipping around Halle’s nape protectively. “We don’t know this kid enough to trust him.”
“I know. I also know you don't trust me enough yet, or else we wouldn’t be in this mess right now. It’s a risk, but what we’re doing now isn’t working.”
“If you want to leave, then go.”
I stiffen, my spine snapping straight at Hester’s voice. I was so engrossed in Dove that I didn’t notice or sense her approach, but she’s with Apryle, who, as usual, has a sour look on her face.
“I want you all to come with us,” Dove says, her voice dropping low.
“I’m not naive enough to trust their kind.”
Ayden bristles at the way Hester looks him up and down like he’s nothing.
Cade releases his hold on Ayden’s shoulder, allowing him to stand. The boy stumbles to his feet, instantly putting some distance between himself and the rest of us.
“We trusted you without knowing who you were either. And while this is crazy, it’s not crazier than coming to the Sanctuary to begin with. And we did that,” Cade points out.
“We don’t know the first thing about his group,” Wyatt reasons.
“Talk to Callum. If you’re not on board after that, you can walk away. You’ve lost nothing. At least hear what he has to say,” Ayden says.
I snag Dove’s arm, needing her back in my grasp to calm the nerves working through me. I’m not sure why she trusts this kid, but maybe she’s right. Maybe it’s time to do things differently. We’ve dodged bullets so far, sheer luck keeping us all alive.
How long before that luck runs out?
“Are you okay?” I ask her, my breath tickling the shell of her ear.
“I don’t know,” she admits. “I’m scared and fired up.”
I nuzzle her neck, letting her scent fill me. “I missed you.”
She leans into my touch. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have given you an ultimatum.”
I kiss her cheek, hugging her tighter to me. “You were trying to help.”
“We know what good intentions can do, Jacks.”
We do. We’ve barely recovered from the last round of good intentions.
Her body stiffens abruptly as a ripple seems to work through the group.
“The wards have been breached,” she murmurs, straightening in my arms. I don’t release her, wanting to keep her close if there’s danger.
“They’re here for me,” Ayden says.
“Who is here?” Cade demands, his eyes hard and his frame seeming to grow in front of my eyes.
