“Take his commands as if they’re mine,” I say just in case. “I have the charm that called them so I have to tell them or they may just shove the students wherever.”
“That makes sense.” Jayden kisses my temple.
“Let’s go see the shifters and assess the wards.” I sigh. “There’s so much to do.”
“I told you to rest, love. You said no until you assess things here. We can go to bed if you’ve changed your mind.” Jayden buries his nose in my neck.
“Not going to happen.” I laugh, shoving him away. “I asked the shifters to come so I need to know they are all okay here.”
“Fine,” Jayden grumbles. “Let’s go see the dogs.”
“Jayden, that was rude. Some of our best friends are shifters.” I smack him in the chest.
“Some of? Who else do you count besides Greyson?” Jayden’s brows tip down.
“Oh, right, you weren’t there for that reveal. Kira is half shifter. Her wolf is gorgeous; her fur has flames in it.” I grin.
“What the hell happened on this mission?” he asks.
“So much.” I glance away as the rogues’ screams fill my ears.
“You’re going to have to tell me what happened. Eventually you’re going to need to talk about it or it’s going to haunt you the way the island did for months.” He pulls me into his side.
“It’s going to haunt me forever whether I talk about it or not, Jayden.” I nuzzle into his side. “I promise, I’ll tell you when I know everything is okay here.”
We walk the rest of the way to the wards in silence and find several large tents set up just on the other side. Tristan spots us first and bounds over like a puppy.
“Beth, you’re back. Is that why the monsters fled with their tails between their legs?” Tristan grins.
“It wasn’t because of me but the army I brought with me.” I shake my head but I’m smiling.
He thinks far too highly of me.
“Sure, it was because of the army.” He rolls his eyes. “It’s not like you haven’t killed them all before.”
“Some of them multiple times. Which reminds me, did that big ugly bastard show up again?” I ask Jayden.
“You know? I don’t think I saw the Minotaur this time. Weird.” Jayden tilts his head to the side.
“It’s too much to hope that he was actually defeated the last time. He will probably come back when they attack again because they will definitely regroup.” I scan the tents set up around the perimeter.
“We’ll sound the alarm when they do. You won’t be caught unawares.” Tristan puffs out his chest.
“Having you guys out here on the perimeter probably saved a lot of lives. The warning howl gave us time to prepare even while you held them off.” Jayden holds his hand out for Tristan to shake.
“You have been friends to the wolves since we all learned about each other. Of course we came to help.” Tristan nods.
“Where’s Artemis?” I ask. “I would have thought she would be out here with her children.”
“She had to go to Olympus. There’s some kind of hell beast that she and Orion have to hunt or it could end the gods forever,” Tristan says. “She gave the wolves here a blessing before she left that helped us in battle.”
“You look a little starstruck, Tristan.” I laugh.
“I met the moon goddess. Of course I’m starstruck.” Tristan crosses his arms over his chest.
“Greyson,” a familiar voice shouts and I turn to find Grant with several of his enforcers running toward us.
“Grant. I didn’t think you would come. I thought you said you were sending people.” Greyson hugs his younger brother.
