“Their Alpha? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been a problem. He’s strong, and hard, and obviously has the final sayin most things, but he doesn’t tell his people how to live their lives and what they can and can’t do. He wants them to be happy and find love.”
“Really? Sounds like the kind of leader you want.”
Hail nodded. “Besides, Frenzy stayed, so I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to stay it would have been fine.”
“Frenzy stayed?!” Athena yelled in surprise. “For like a week or two?”
Hail shook her head. “He told us goodbye, he told Lethal goodbye. I’m fairly certain that he knew before we left here that he wouldn’t be coming back.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Athena said.
“I’m thinking I should have stayed, too. But then, I had things to see to. And I had to come back. I took vows of loyalty to our team. I made promises. You and our team are here. And I live here.”
Athena reached out and took Hail’s hands in hers. “Hail, honey, our team is just about non-functional. Torrid and Flash don’t even live here anymore. They just check in every other day or two to see if I need them for anything. I’m about to pop,” she raised her eyes to the ceiling, “thank you Scorn!”
“Scorn didn’t do this without your permission,” Hail reminded her.
“Beside the point… anyway, Storm and you are the only active members at the moment. And honestly, I’d be surprised if we ever go out as a team again. I’m not leaving my child to be raised by Scorn and Lethal’s team if something happens to me. So, frankly, I’m out, no longer active in SOT missions. Storm asked if she could start applying to other teams so she could become more active and I gave her my blessing. You finished your mission. You saw it through, you supported everyone on it with you. And you made it back in one piece. Yay, you. So, now what do you want?”
“I don’t know,” Hail said.
“Hail, if that male was here and asked you to go back to that town with him…”
“He lives on a mountain with his Pride. They all have their own homes, and I love it there, Athena. And I met the nicest girl. And she really likes me. We laugh and talk and she’s really my friend. Not because she has to be, but because she likes me. And I really liked the way that felt. I loved being there.”
“Then go back. Go back to your male, go back to the Lion Pride on the mountain and be happy. You’ve more than served your time here.”
Hail shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s probably already moved on, written me off and doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Why?”
“Because I left him!”
“You had a job to do. It’s done now.”
“I don’t know if I want to do that or not.”
“Then don’t. But think about it. You don’t owe the Variant anything. You don’t owe me or our team anything. You do owe yourself something, though. It’s your time.”
“I don’t want to face him and have him just walk away. I know what to expect here.”
“Hail, gather up some of that courage you never failed to have on mission, and use it to give yourself what you want out of life. And if for whatever reason, you find yourself coming full circle and looking back in our direction, come on. I’m not going anywhere. Alliance isn’t going anywhere.”
“Maybe. Right now, I just want to unwind and figure out what I want to do next.”
“No pressure,” Athena said.
“Yep.”
“But I’d love you forever if you’d put some of that vanilla ice cream in a big glass with some vanilla and some chocolate syrup and make me a chocolate shake.”
“Of course,” Hail said, getting up and heading toward the kitchen. “You want an extra one for the baby, too?”
“Absolutely!” Athena said.
Chapter 26
Feral walked into the cafeteria and looked around. He’d been back for two days and couldn’t figure out why the fuck he was even here. Sighing in irritation, he looked around the room at everyone sitting with friends, laughing, perfectly happy being where they were, doing what they were doing. Then his gaze stopped on one table. Hail was sitting alone eating a late breakfast. On a whim he started her way, and without invitation dropped into a chair at her table.
