“No, thank you. I ate when we first arrived.”
“I need to let you know that I hate the reason you are here. I give you my word that I will give you all justice. It won’t be today, we have some things we need to look into as we move toward it, but it is on the way. I am so very sorry for all you’ve all lost,” Jack said.
“Thank you, Alpha Laighin,” Steve said.
“Bonnie? You have this for a minute?” Jack asked.
“I do. We’re going to take our time eating and when you come back, we’ll go play on the splash pad.”
“I won’t be long,” Jack said, kissing her cheek before he and Steve headed toward the front door. “Mind taking a quick walk with me so we can talk a little?” Jack asked Steve.
“Glad to,” Steve said, as he followed Jack outside.
“You alright?” Jack said as he looked over at Steve as they strolled casually away from the house.
Steve huffed an attempted laugh, but didn’t even come close to making it convincing. “I’m breathing. That’s a good thing, right?”
“It is. Means you’ll live to fight another day.”
“Hoping so. Still hoping some more of our people show up, too. Doesn’t look very promising, though.”
“Can you tell me what happened? From your point of view?” Jack asked.
“Middle of the night, everything was calm, or seemed to be. By the time we figured out what was happening they’d already taken out sixty percent of our sentries.”
“You saw that for yourself?”
“No, Alpha Grail updated us. The alarm was sounded right before I spoke with him. We jumped up, or I did, and rushed through the house to get outside. Others were racing in every direction. Grail was standing in the living room, he bellowed at everyone to stop. We did and just waited for him to speak. He said as far as he knew sixty percent of our sentries had fallen, the rest were engaged in battle. Others had rushed to contain the attack, and he was on his way to join them. He said if we had families or children, to send them to safety with Gwen. If we chose to accompany them, to go now and do so quickly while there was time. A few changed direction and ran back to where they’d come from. Some of us continued on. Grail called my name, I turned back, he said that I was accompanying Gwen and their sons to a point of safety in the forest nearby. I was to take three or four more with us to ensure the safety of all those who sought shelter with Gwen. If he wasn’t there twenty-four hours after we made it to that spot, we were to come here and ask for sanctuary. I just grabbed the first few males I found that were nearby when I started toward the safe place in the forest.”
“And Grail didn’t show.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“You only had forty-seven with you when you arrived. Was there not room for any more in this ‘point of safety’?”
“There was room for a hundred more. It’s a cave you can’t see the entrance of unless you know where it is. But no more came.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I’d like to think that it’s because they got away and sought sanctuary with family members of other Prides. I do believe some did exactly that, but not many. And maybe some just decided to go it alone for a while instead of a Pride affiliation. But I’m afraid those ideas are more hopeful than reality, for most any way.”
“You think they’re all dead?”
“Or forced to submit and join the attacking Pride. And if that’s the case, knowing what some Prides are capable of, I think I’d rather be dead.”
“Do you know who the attacking Pride was?”
“Falwells. But they weren’t alone.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw a few lying dead as we slipped out of the compound on our way to safety, some were Falwell, several more were unknown to me. Falwell Pride is big, but this was more than just one Pride.”
“Were they all shifters?”
“Some. The majority were, but others weren’t. They were like your male, Three. Nothing against him, he’s a good male, but they were like him. I didn’t see them, though. Grail told me. He said to be careful, not all of them were shifters, some were Variant, or like the Variant.”
Jack nodded as he looked off into the distance thoughtfully.
