“If that’s who you choose, so be it,” Harold said, waving his hand dismissively. “Just don’t come crying to me when you realize you’ve made a mistake.”
The alpha dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and Camden left the office. Nothing had changed in the years that Camden was away. The pack was stuck in the past, with old-fashioned ideas about the relationship between humans and werewolves. It had taken Camden years of living outside the confines of their strict hierarchy to see the world in a new way, and now, he could clearly see that the entire pack was in need of a fresh perspective. Beyond making him happy, bringing Flora into the pack as his wife would do wonders for changing the way the rest of the Silverrose pack viewed humans.
Camden felt sure that he was doing the right thing by keeping Flora with him, but he couldn’t help but ruminate about the tricky situation they were in. As soon as it was discovered that he had removed Flora from her family and her engagement to Alpha Sier, he would be in big trouble with his uncle. It could interfere with their ongoing investigation into the Ironbrand pack, especially since they were planning to return for Flora’s daughter. But Camden knew he couldn’t just leave the girl there. Especially since her retrieval had been the price of getting Flora to agree to their marriage.
The fact that Flora even had a daughter in the first place was doing his head in. It wasn’t the most important thing to get to the bottom of right now, but Camden couldn’t help but wonder how that had happened. Flora had told him that Demetrius wasn’t the father, which only begged the question of who else it could be. Still, Camden decided to try to put it out of his mind. All that mattered now was getting Flora to stay with him. If he had to go on a rescue mission to make that happen, that’s what he would do.
There were a dozen challenges facing them as a couple, but Camden didn’t care. He knew Flora was supposed to be his mate. If he was being honest with himself, he had known that for a long time. It had taken seeing her on the arm of someone else for it to sink in completely, but now that it had, he wasn’t going to back out.
“Flora?” he said as he opened the door to the room she had been staying in. For a split second, he wondered whether she had decided to run away after all, but before he could think about it any further, she was there.
“I’m here,” she assured him. “Did you finish your errands?”
“Yes,” he said, trying not to let the relief he felt seep through into his tone. “We can go pick up your daughter. Do you know where she’ll be?”
Flora nodded. Her face was tight with dissatisfaction as she answered. “She’ll be with my parents—Stella and Ben.”
“I take it that things between you and your parents didn’t improve when you moved away?” Camden asked.
“Ha!” Flora let out a short laugh—half-surprised, half-derisive. “That’s an understatement. Which is why we need to go back and get Sofia. As soon as we can, before they turn their ire on her in my absence.”
Camden nodded his head. He had hoped to have some time to plan this better, but he could tell Flora was itching to leave right away.
“Let’s go,” he said, holding the door open for her.
She seemed surprised by his willingness to help and eyed him suspiciously as she got into the car. Her foot tapped on the floorboards nervously as he pulled out his phone and sent amessage to his squad, letting them know to meet him just south of Ironbrand.
“Who are you texting?” Flora asked.
“My squad. If we’re going to get Sofia today, without having time to plan, then I’m going to need more eyes,” he explained.
She nodded in understanding, and the two of them settled in for the ride.
The drive back to Ironbrand was tense. Flora fidgeted with the hem of her borrowed sweatshirt in the passenger seat, and Camden made a mental note to get her some new clothes when they returned. It wouldn’t do much for her standing in the pack to have her walking around in men’s clothing, even if she did manage to pull the look off. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her, realizing just how good she looked no matter what she wore. His jeans were baggy on her, but her hips managed to keep them up without the use of a belt. He was reminded of a pop star from the nineties, although he couldn’t place which one he was thinking of.
“Why do you keep looking at me?” Flora asked, breaking the silence. “It’s not like I can run away while we’re in a moving car. You don’t have to keep monitoring me.”
“I’m not,” he replied quietly.
He was embarrassed that he had been caught by her, but he couldn’t stop stealing glances the rest of the way there. Flora was even more beautiful than he remembered, but there was a hardness to her that hadn’t been there before. She had clearly been through more than he realized in the time they had been apart.
Camden pulled off the main road and took a dirt path as they got nearer to the Ironbrand pack house. Up ahead, his squad was waiting for them. When they got out of the car, the confusion was evident on their faces.
“I thought we had orders to get their alpha?” Jasper asked. “Your message said you had a mission for us.”
“I do, but it doesn’t have to do with Alpha Sier,” Camden explained. “You all remember Flora?”
The men nodded their heads at her, and Marbles gave her an awkward wave. Flora had her arms crossed across her chest and a hard look on her face, clearly trying to look intimidating. Camden felt a pang of sadness that she felt she needed to be on guard with these men.
“Flora, this is Jasper, Marbles, and Thompson,” he said, pointing to each of them. “They are like my brothers, and you are safe with them. There is no one in the world more trustworthy than these three.”
“You’re gonna make us blush,” Thompson teased.
“That’s enough of that,” Camden said. “We are heading into a house at this address within the Ironbrand territory.” He passed them a piece of paper on which Flora had written Stella and Ben’s address. “Inside, there is a young girl. She is—”
He looked to Flora, realizing he had no other information about her daughter.
“She’s five years old and has blond hair and brown eyes,” Flora supplied.
