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ChapterFive
Leven
The steady rise and fall of Garren’s chest was reassuring. I knew at this point I was being a mother hen, but I didn’t give a fuck and I knew no one else would judge me for it either.
My phone vibrated in my lap, and I glanced down at the security thread going strong.
Carlo:East street is clear
Antonio:Bluff edge is clear
Daniel:No signs of it at the front gate
Daniel:Don’t worry, Alpha, we didn’t go outside alone to check. I’ve got Jones and Seaver with me.
Callum:Good. I’ve checked every flower bed. It’s just his. Nyx, check inside yours.
Nyx:I’ll kill him if he did. Well, he’s already dead for fucking with our elder.
Leven:Garren’s stable. What can I do?
Callum:Coming to you now
Since Garren was sleeping peacefully, I quietly slipped out of his new room at Callum’s. It was strange being all in one house like this, but it worked. Callum’s house was great, and it was big enough that Garren’s room was on the opposite side of the house from ours, including Callum’s playroom, meaning things didn’t have to get weird, even with shifter hearing.
I made it to his living room just as he walked in with Vanya. They looked exhausted. And who could blame them after being up half the night and morning looking for possible poison growing on our lands. It felt like we’d been violated. When I got my claws on that tracker, there’d be nothing left of him to recover. Now we just needed the location and name of who was behind all this so we could ship his bloody body to them.
“You okay there, big guy?” Vanya laughed, coming over and swiping her finger over the wrinkles on my forehead from frowning so hard.
I grinned. “Just thinking about butchering the tracker and sending the mystery pack a present.”
“I’m both terrified and in awe,” she teased. “And I’m starving. Who’s hungry?”
“Everyone,” Callum said around a yawn. “I need a fucking nap but I feel like there’s too much to do. Hell, we have to start training our pack.”
“And you can’t do any of that without sleep, Alpha,” I countered. Generally I was the only one who could get through to him when he was like this. Callum may have dimples he flashes around and charmed anyone he chatted with, but he was also fiercely protective and a leader you’d be proud to serve behind. It wasn’t easy for us to feel so out of control like this, especially him.
“You’re right. We sleep in shifts,” he agreed as the front door crashed open and an angry Nyx stormed through to meet us.
“He fucking sabotaged my medicinal plants!” he thundered. “Years of cultivation and proper care down the fucking drain. I can’t salvage half of them and I’m going to have to uproot and throw out almost all of it. Wolfsbane and weeds have choked them to death and are strategically infiltrating my healing beds. I’m talking well-manicured too, cut down low enough so I wouldn’t notice. I swear if he didn’t have magic on his side, I’d say we have a mole.”
We all blinked at him, stunned by the news. It was obvious right away that the tracker thrived on mind games, from a cat and mouse chase to apparently systematically rendering us weaker.
“What can we do to get healing supplies then?” Vanya asked. She was all business, pulling a notebook from Callum’s junk drawer and grabbing a pen. “Shipments?”
“We have non herbal ones,” Nyx answered. His lips curled in distaste. I couldn’t blame him, sometimes human healing came with chemical smells that burned my nose, but we couldn’t be picky now. Not when our pack was on the line. “I also have a few sprouting in temporary pots, so in another season we’ll be back to functioning.”
“Don’t replant them yet and check your sproutlings,” Callum told him. Vanya smiled softly at the two of them. It was adorable how things like respecting each other and just being normal, caring wolves pleased her.
“Any word on the network?” Vanya asked as she blinked away her adoration. Callum walked away and returned a few minutes later with his laptop.
He worked in silence as Vanya started grabbing out food to cook. Seeing her grab steaks out, I went out back and started the grill. I needed something to do; this sitting around idle and waiting for the tracker to make a move was bullshit.
Callum didn’t speak up until the seasoned steaks were on the grill and Nyx and Vanya were busy making sides. I had the door open so I could hover between.
“Zoey asked if we could have a security meeting tonight at six our time,” he announced. “She’s got some new information for us.”
“Done,” I said without skipping a beat.
