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“There’s four rows, we can split up,” Callum said before resting a hand on Holt’s shoulder. “You can stick with me, then we can split up evenly.” For a moment my heart clenched, hating sharing my mate, but one look at the tightness in Holt’s body, I knew he needed this. It wasn’t jealousy exactly, it was fear that had me pausing. The fear that they were fated and we might not be, that he’d give me up for Holt if the opportunity presented itself. It was stupid, but a thought I couldn’t shake. And it wasn’t exactly fair of me, I had more mates than most, but my heart didn’t give a single fuck, they were mine and sharing wasn’t easy, but I had a feeling that Holt belonged here in his own right.
For a brief moment, I worried that Leven might not be a good choice to send in on these unsuspecting witches and wolves, but my mate could be sweet when he wanted to be, and from the gentle smile he gave the first witch, I knew he’d be okay on his own.
Stepping up to the first bed in my row, I almost felt bad for disturbing the frail witch lying there. Her eyes blinked open and she glanced at me expectantly.
“I’m sorry to disturb your rest,” I said in a soft tone. “But we are trying to figure out if you have anyone you’d like us to track down or contact, if you’d like to join the one coven we have contact with, or if you’d like to head back with our pack, which is now a mix of wolves and witches.”
She let out a long sigh before meeting my eyes, her own glossy with tears as she fought back the emotions threatening to take her over. “I watched them murder my family in front of me. I have no one to find. I’d like to join your pack.”
“What’s your name?” I asked as I wrote down her answer on the notebook.
“Theresa,” she answered softly. “From the Golden Hills Coven. We were one of the first to fall.”
“I’m so sorry for all your losses and what you’ve endured. But we’re doing everything we can to stop it from happening again,” I promised her, letting every ounce of my frustration out. “They still have my sister. I’ll find her and stop him no matter what it takes.”
“What was her name?” she asked gently, the sympathy in her tone making me uneasy. I shouldn’t be unloading on her; she’d been through enough. But the prospect of finding out anything about my sister had me answering.
“Meira. She’s a redhead, petite, feisty as hell.” The startled look on her face had my blood running cold.
“He’s looking for you. I know who you’re talking about, he’d drag her around as an example every so often. She’s tough, but I don’t think he harmed her more than degrading and hitting her,” she told me. It was nice to know she wasn’t forced into the mating pools or taken by the Grave Alpha for a mate, but the idea of him treating her like a slave had me biting back a snarl. “He used her as an example, telling us this is what happens when family disobeys him, when his victims don’t give in.”
My eyes closed as tears started to form. So he was looking for me and I was the reason Meira was in the position she was.
“Don’t. Don’t go there,” she whispered fiercely. “She’d be proud of you for evading him. Defying him makes him obsessive and that is his weakness. He can’t let it go. Use it to your advantage and those of us who are healed, can help. We all have our specialties, and I can detect lies. We can all help in some way. Plus, this division is what led us to this in the first place, we need to stick together.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I said, giving a reassuring smile before saying my goodbyes and moving on.
By the time I’d worked through my row I had ten more members for the Bluff Pack. Their answers were all the same, they had no one to look for and didn’t want to be alone or hide away. They wanted revenge in any capacity and already our packs had achieved more than anyone else had in the past.
I met the others back at the entrance and we stepped outside before saying anything. We all handed over our notes to Callum.
“I had ten beds, all who want into our pack,” I told him.
“Ours was the same,” he agreed.
“I’ve got a few names for Antonio to look into,” Torryn added. “But they still want in. Even if we find the others, they’re going to try and get them to join us too.”
“I had a few who also had people to find but only two wanted to go with Chloe, the others all said covens don’t hold the same meaning anymore,” Leven said. “We’re going to have to find a way to accommodate them all.”
“We’ll rebuild what we don’t have and add more to it. The Bluffs is big enough,” Callum reassured us. “I’ll get the names to Antonio now.”
“I wonder how long until they’ll be healed enough we can leave. I’m ready to get the fuck out of this heat,” Leven said as he glanced around, giving away that it was more than heat making him nervous.
Nyx had just walked out to catch his question. “They’ll be strong enough to travel by tomorrow. I’m giving another round of healing tinctures to them, then that’s about all I can do for them. The rest will take time.”
“Do we have enough vehicles now?” Holt asked as he pointedly glanced at our small lineup.
“No,” Leven said bluntly. “We’ll have to get at least a few passenger vans. But that’s no big deal.”
“Nobody will be left behind,” Callum reassured him. “We’ll get them home.”
“Good,” Holt said so quietly I almost didn’t catch it.
I watched as they all walked toward this security building again, but I couldn’t make myself follow. Not after the last meeting. I was frustrated and it felt so fucking wrong to be driving away from here without having a win. Sure, we’d saved lives, and of course that was important, but we were no closer to the Grave Alpha and his dark witch than we were before.
Needing a distraction, I turned and started to head for the kitchens. The courtyard was half empty as I moved through it, but I froze right in the center as a cold chill went up my spine. A slow itchy tingling ran over my skin and I looked around uneasily, the feeling of someone watching me so intense I could barely force myself to breathe.What the fuck is happening?
“Holt?” I called out, locking onto him just as he started to follow the others in. He took one look at me before running over, a panicked look on his face. My breathing was ragged and when he took a deep breath, realization hit him.
