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“This is… bullshit.” Callum kicks at the dirt and turns, striding several paces away from the group. He puts his hands on his head and draws a haggard breath. “Thank you for asking me to come, Dominic. This is the closure my pack desperately needs, but the last of the rogues that attacked us are dead, and the pack will need a new purpose.” He turns to look at each of us in turn. “My pack will put every resource we have into fighting with you. Whatever is causing this, whoever is behind these attacks… the East Terrace Green Pack will stand with the Jarreaus.”
Tasha lays her hand on her chest. Dominic looks stoic. There seems to be some animosity between the two Alphas despite their attempts to work together right now. This doesn’t seem like the time to question it, but I’m still curious.
After a moment of tense silence, Dominic nods. “We’ll take any help we can get, even from you.”
Even from you?
Tasha glances over her shoulder at me.Alpha Callum was courting my sister before she was bonded to Dominic. They rejected each other once but got a second chance and accepted the mate bond. There’s leftover tension, but Dominic will do what’s best for the packs.
Interesting. This is the side of pack life I missed growing up. Dominic’s willingness to swallow his pride for the good of his pack… My parents would never have done that. Neither would my brother. There are things about the allegiance to a pack that I still don’t understand, but it’s hard to demonize the shifters who are currently risking their own to help protect my mate and her family.
Seeing Tasha’s family has proven that I never got the full picture of what it means to be part of a pack—or a family. I’ve missed so much, and now that I finally have the chance to have these things with her, someone really thinks they’re going to rip it all away.
And for what? Some land.
Calm down. I didn’t realize Tasha was moving toward me until we’re toe to toe. She looks worried, and I realize I’m vibrating with anger. But nothing will calm me down. Not so long as war is brewing with my mate in the center of all this. Thiswillend here—one way or another.
24
Tasha
“You know if any of this isn’t what you want, Tasha, you can always come home,” Callum whispers, as if Paxton isn’t three feet away and listening intently to every word coming out of his mouth. He tried to pull me aside to talk, but Paxton has been like a shadow since Dominic instructed us to pack up. Dominic asked some ally packs to come help oversee the cleanup here so we can head back to the safety of Anchorage Lake Pack territory.
I’ve already given my sister’s mate permission to deal with the situation as he sees fit. As much as I want to be here every step, exhaustion is settling in. This has been a long day, and now that the sun is going down, I need space to digest everything we’ve learned—and all of the dangers that have yet to present themselves.
If Jeff Langston wants a war, he’ll get one. But I won’t stand by and let our rogues be his casualties.
There’s a solution somewhere, and I’m going to find it.
“Thank you for the offer,” I answer Callum, who’s still waiting, “but I’m not so sure my home is any one place anymore.” My eyes drift toward Paxton, my heart stuttering to a quick stop in my chest when he meets my gaze. My mouth falls open, but the words I want to say get caught in my throat.
I don’t know how to tell Paxton Glass he’s started to feel like home. But as he holds my gaze, eyes shining bright with affection for me—the same look I envied between Dominic and Tess—I have a feeling he already knows.
Callum clears his throat uncomfortably, as if he can sense he’s intruding on something personal. “I understand,” he says, “but the offer stands if you change your mind. So does the offer to help by any means necessary, Tasha. Don’t hesitate to call me, in a purely platonic way.”
He raises his voice at the end, so I have no doubt Paxton is making him nervous. Somehow, in the past few days, I’ve managed to forget what an intimidating image my mate projects.
“Thank you, Callum.” I can’t resist wrapping him up in a quick hug. I can hear Paxton growl behind me, but I ignore him. Callum was like a brother to me for years. As a Beta’s wife, I spent a great deal of time with this man. I admire him as a leader, but I’ve never had stirrings of anything more than that. If anything, there was a time when I thought he and my sister were well-suited to each other.
That time has passed. Now, I can’t imagine her with anyone but her domineering, possessive mate. Dominic isn’t perfect, but he looks at my sister like he wants to worship at her feet. He protects her.
He loves her.
Despite what a long day this has been, my musings about Dominic make me look at Paxton with fresh eyes as I walk toward him. A part of me wonders if he’s capable of looking at me the way Dominic looks at my sister. I didn’t intend to mark him while we had sex, but I can’t take it back now. The pain of a rejection post-marking would certainly kill both of us.
We have to learn how to be mates amongst the chaos we’re currently living. I have a feeling this scene on Sovereign Pack land was meant to be a warning. We’re fighting an evil we haven’t even begun to understand yet.
If I want to survive this—and help our kind survive this—I need to know I can have calm at home.
“Are you ready to go now?” Paxton asks, closing the last few steps between us as if I’m not moving fast enough for him. I can also hear a pinch of annoyance in his tone that’s been building all day. He slides his hand up my back to cup the back of my neck, and I tilt my chin to look up at him in time to catch the flicker of concern cross through his dark eyes.
“I’m ready.”
I don’t have a choice—I have to be.
* * *
Paxton is silent as he drives one of Dominic’s cars up the road to the Luna Sovereign house. I’m having a hard time thinking of it as home at the moment. I can feel myself on edge, staring out at the shadows in the woods and wondering what dangers still lurk close. My palms are sweating slightly, and my right leg bounces nervously.
