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“Thank you,” he murmurs close to my ear.
It feels wrong having him thank me when I don’t see any other choice, but I lean into him because it’s hard maintaining any kind of strength. Watching my sister fall apart more and more for every minute Jimmy doesn’t come strolling through the basement door is breaking something in me.
“Will he come?”
Callum catches my eyes in the mirror. “He’s sending a team. His Beta assures me they’ll send plenty of wolves to handle the problem.”
“It’s too late though, isn’t it?” I whisper.
He’s silent. I know he doesn’t want to answer me, doesn’t want to admit aloud what we both know. But I need to hear the words. The only way to protect my sister is to prepare myself. She was there for me when I needed her, now it’s my turn to return the favor.
“You’ve always been honest with me, Callum. And I became part of your pack out there to help protect it. Please give me this. Let me know what we’re dealing with,” I plead.
“We’ve lost too many members of the pack. Even once the other pack gets here, I’m not sure what will be left to salvage.”
I can read between the lines. I finally became a member of this pack, and now, after tonight, there may not be a pack left. Jimmy isn’t the only loss we’ll suffer. This town that became my safe haven will never be the same.
Chapter Seven
Tess
The air turns charged the moment the other pack steps foot on our pack land. I can hear the calls of the wolves we have left letting Callum know help has arrived. Then I tune the rest out. I don’t want to know who’s here. I don’t want to know whetherhecame with them or not, despite my wolf’s differing opinion on the matter.
He’s helping us.
No,I correct her,he’s helping the pack.
“What’s happening?” one of the elders asks from a chair in the corner. He looks to Callum for answers. Everyone else is blocking the mind link at Callum’s request. It was too troubling to listen to. Too traumatizing.
I kept listening for longer than the rest of them, somehow feeling like it was my penance for leaving Jimmy behind. I can’t even look at my sister anymore. She hasn’t stopped sobbing, and now knowing I chose Callum over trying to help Jimmy…
I can’t help but feel that sort of family betrayal is unforgivable. When she knows what I’ve done, there’s no way she’ll ever forgive me.
The longer we’re trapped down here, waiting for some sign of relief from the battle waging outside these walls, the more anxious I feel to get as far away as possible. It doesn’t help that I know it’s Dominic Parker’s men out there fighting on our behalf. The man I hate most in this world is responsible for saving the people I love.
That’s hard to swallow.
Don’t be bitter, be grateful,my wolf urges.
Never.I’ll never be grateful to the man who stole something precious from me. Our mates make us the wolves that we are, and without one, I’ve had to be twice as strong. Twice as smart. Twice as fast.
And now, in the new worst moment of my life, all of that is still worth nothing—because I couldn’t save someone I loved.
“Come here,” a gentle voice says. And then a moment later, again, “Come here.”
It takes me a second to realize she’s talking to me. I glance over at Ms. Margaret, one of the most respected elders in the pack. Age has made her shrink in on herself, so much so that she’s barely bigger than I am. I move to her side and kneel beside her chair. Everyone else settled for folding chairs, leaving her the one nice armchair down here.
“Something is wrong,” she says directly to me, her words too quiet to even be heard by the other shifter ears in the room.
“I know.” I knew from the moment Callum mentioned the rogues didn’t seem to be one united group. Rogues aren’t known for playing well with others, it makes no sense that such a large group of them would have converged on the same place with no planning. Not when they work so hard to avoid each other usually.
“Your family, where do they hail from originally?” She studies me peculiarly as she reaches out to stroke a lock of my hair.
I have to blink at the conversational whiplash. “The North Summit Pack,” I say slowly because I know we’ve covered this before. We spoke about it when Callum first introduced us.
“No, dear. Your family. What’s your ancestry?” She narrows her eyes as if she can read my heritage if only she looks hard enough. The attention makes me shift uncomfortably, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see Callum take notice.
He takes a step in our direction, but Ms. Margaret must see him as well because she holds a hand up, stopping him in his tracks. Callum might be the Alpha, but elders get their fair share of respect in a pack.
