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“I’ll be back way before then,” I promise. After all, I’m not planning on being there for more than a day or two. With over a week left, I’ll be back in time to spend the next Luna with my mate.
Ryker’s dark gold eyes gleam down at me. “You better.”
I reach out, taking his hand in mine. Rubbing the side of my finger against his knuckle, I purposely meet his gaze, letting my love for him shine through. “I will.”
With his other hand, Ryker cups the back of my head. I part my lips for him, accepting his kiss, and returning it with as much feeling as I can. I may not be the best with words—as stubborn as I am, it took me way too long to confess that I loved him—but I put my devotion to him in that kiss.
When we finally break apart, my mate seems a lot more settled. His wolf had calmed down, his possessive side finally taking a backseat to his alpha nature. Being an Alpha isn’t just about barking at packmates and giving them orders. It’s about keeping them safe and protected.
In our own ways, that’s exactly what we’ll both be doing. Just… Ryker will be doing that in Accalia while I deal with the situation in California.
We got this. Wicked Wolf Walker doesn’t know what kind of box he opened when he started this over the summer, but between Ryker and me, we got this.
The kiss does something to my mate; the kiss, or maybe my promise. Either way, the matter is settled. I’m heading to the Wolf District with Jace and Duke, and we’re leaving in two days.
To save some time, Ryker figures that flying is our best shot. As much as I want to hop in my Jeep, slam my boot on the gas, and speed all the way across the country, I know better. It’s a three thousand-mile trip from coast to coast, and if I could drive non-stop—no sleeping, no eating, no bathroom breaks—it would take me at least forty-eight hours. Since I’m a supe, but not one of the undead, I need those things. Two days will easily become five or six, and Trish has already been gone for long enough. A flight that’s over and done with in half of a day… yeah. The sooner we arrive at the Wolf District, the faster I can snag Trish and bring her back to Accalia with me.
Ryker makes all the arrangements, from the airplane tickets to the car I’ll rent when we arrive in California. It’s another way for him to be involved, and if he knows when I’m leaving and when I’m scheduled to come back, I’m sure he’ll feel better.
Besides, I have something I have to take care of that I have to do by myself. And I really, really wish that Ryker could do this for me, but he can’t. This responsibility is all on me.
So, while my mate deals with the humans at the airport, I pick up my phone.
It’s time to call my mom.
* * *
It takes a lot of explaining,and my stomach aches to hear the fear in my mom’s voice when she realizes that I’m willinglygoing to face Jack Walker, but eventually she agrees to help me. Honestly, I have my real dad to thank for that. If he hadn’t jumped in on my side, I don’t know if I could’ve convinced her on my own.
Thank goodness for my mom’s habit of using speakerphone. My dad heard everything, and though it’s not like he’s happy about me going to the Wolf District, he’s another alpha. He had to figure this would happen sooner or later once I was grown, and he’d spent my whole life training me for this exact scenario.
With Paul on my side, my mom reluctantly understands that this is something that I have to do. Besides, if the male who taught me to go for an enemy’s heart thinks I’m prepared to face my bio-dad—not like I plan on fighting him or anything—then what excuse does my mom have for trying to ground me?
Which, yeah, she totally did. I chalk it up to her omega nature, trying desperately to do anything to keep me safe. It’s still kinda ridiculous that she tried. I’m twenty-six, mated, and haven’t lived at Lakeview in almost a year and a half. Even my dad muffled his laugh when she tried.
It took a while to get her to turn around. When I finally do, she realizes that it would be better to help me than to hinder me, and with utmost reluctance, she tells me all about the Wolf District. So, thanks to my mom’s directions, I know exactly where to go as soon as our plane lands in California.
I’m glad she gave them to me. From some of Ryker’s allies, we had a pretty good idea where the Wicked Wolf’s territory was located, but my mom is one of the only shifters to make it out of the Wolf District alive. The Western Pack is the type that demands loyalty; its psychotic Alpha has no problem eliminating anyone who rises up against him. The only thing that saved my mother was her omega nature. Jack Walker never believed she’d risk her life for her freedom, or that she loved her pup enough to risk escaping when us both being put down was a pretty likely outcome.
But she survived. Because of her, so did I. She sacrificed so much to escape her ex-mate, so I expected her to put up a fight when I told her that I was heading out West to face him.
I’m an alpha. Like my mom, I’m an Alpha’s mate now, too. I can take care of myself. If Ryker could be convinced to let me go with only two other shifters watching my back, I hoped that my mom would understand.
Yeah, that would be a nope.
It took my dad jumping in, gently reminding my mom that the decision was mine. Since I made it clear that nothing was going to stop me from finally going to see the male who sired me, it was their duty as my parents to prepare me for the trip. Trying to convince me that I shouldn’t go wasn’t going to work. He knew that, and after my mom got past the worst of her protective instincts, she realized that.
She couldn’t stop me, but she could prepare me. My dad, too. Warnings about Jack Walker, the kind of wolf he was, the way he ran the Wolf District… and where precisely it was located.
Most shifter packs are insular. We keep to ourselves. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t interact with the outside world. Like how Ryker had to buy tickets from a human airport or how most of the goods we have in Accalia come from the human city set on the other side of the mountain.
The Wolf District doesn’t.
From what my mom can tell me about living there when I was still a pup, it was a community built on the shifters relying on each other. Walker liked to think of himself as the untouchable leader, like a feudal lord who had his serfs do his bidding. They grew their own food for him, hunted meat, made their clothes, bartered, and shared. There was a square in the center of the district that was a community spread of food for those who didn’t want to eat by themselves, and each wolf did precisely what they were told in fear of being the next victim of their Alpha.
Because of that, it’s a massive patch of land, but it’s also hidden away. Before my mom left the Western Pack, Walker’s territory butted up against the Lakeview Pack. From the rumors that spread in the decades since, once my dad relocated the Lakeview Pack from the West Coast to the East Coast, Walker claimed that territory, too.
It was still a good thirty miles from the airport we landed at.
When we first planned this trip, I was all for going on foot once we touched down. Jace, too. Surprisingly, it was Duke who had put his big paw down. Driving would be safer, especially since none of us knew the terrain. If we approach as wolves, Walker might not take that as an aggressive mood. He sent his wolf in his skin, so that’s how we would arrive.
Plus, if we find that we have to make a quick getaway, a car works in our favor. Trapped in the enclosed vehicle, it’s much harder for us to leave a scent trail for any shifters to follow. I learned that one the hard way when Shane hopped in a car and drove away from Muncie when I was chasing him in my fur.
I agreed, but only if I could drive. No arguments from the others, so Ryker included a rental when he planned our flight.
The four-door Sedan is rough. There’s a reason why I’ve always driven a Jeep. I need my freedom, and being enclosed with two male wolves just makes me realize I miss my mate desperately.
We’ve only been separated for eight hours and I’m already wishing I could turn back. It’s not night yet—thank you, three-hour time zone difference—but the pull of the Luna on my wolf is a bitch.
Damn it. I hate when Ryker is right.
