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And then there was Tyren.
Every day, he and Hugh, a boy of fourteen who had lost his parents in the first attack and now lived with Vianna and the other kids in town, came to training.
And every day, I turned them down.
Today, my grumpiness was high. I stomped into the clearing and got in his face. “Are you deaf?”
Tyren, who would soon be as tall as I was, puffed his chest and kept his gaze on my chest. “No, but I’m young and strong, and I can fight.” His eyes lifted briefly, meeting mine. “Let me do this, Shane. I want to. If it were you, you would have wanted this too.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Killian nudged my shoulder with his. “The boy has a point. You would have done the same.”
It was true. I would have, and the sick thing was that if my father were here, he would have been proud of me for wanting to protect the pack. Well, to be totally fair, I had been allowed to train with the army at fifteen, though I only started joining missions and fighting after I was eighteen.
But that was because I had been the alpha heir. My father had wanted to prepare me to be a good leader.
Right now, Tyren was my heir.
Deep down, I did feel pride for Tyren’s initiative and willingness. For his strength and courage, but after all we went through, the idea of putting him in danger shook me to the core. Because this wasn’t training like when I was his age. No, this was real training. With the crystals gone, with my curse still hanging over our heads, it was only a matter of time before trouble found us.
And I didn’t want him in the midst of it.
But butting heads wasn’t working. We had been apart for a year. He was having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that I didn’t leave because I wanted to. That I was kidnapped and taken from them.
I let out a long sigh. “You two can stay and train. However!” I lifted one finger and stared at both of them. “That doesn’t mean you will fight. If it comes to that, youwilllisten to me, and if I tell you to stay back, you will. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Tyren and Hugh said in unison.
I shook my head but decided to let it go for now. After that, we trained. I stayed with the novices, while Dom and Vallin helped the veterans. Killian also helped, suggesting tactics and maneuvers we hadn’t thought about. Vampire tricks that might came in handy.
After training, we separated for an hour. While the others rested before our next task, I went into my dad’s office in the town hall—my office now—and had a quick lunch while reading reports and listing more things to do. Fix this town, protect my people, find the crystals, break the curse … it felt like the list would never end.
It probably wouldn’t. I hadn’t paid much attention, but my father seemed to be busy, taking care of the pack. I hoped it got better, because I wanted to have some free time to spend with my family, with my mate.
I had sent a message to Rue, asking her to stay this evening with my siblings, and she had replied she would be glad to. I put my next plan into action: I carved out twenty minutes of my lunch-reading-reports time to set up things for tonight.
It wasn’t much, but I hoped she liked it.
On my way back from the forest, Killian found me and walked back to town with me. Several times, I had told him and Lavinia that they didn’t need to stay. This wasn’t their fight, their problem. The two of them had finally found their happily ever after, but it hadn’t lasted six months because of me. But they insisted they wanted to be here, they wanted to help—until we had the barrier back up, at least.
“Then we’ll come for visits,” Lavinia had teased. “And you better visit us too.”
Once things settled down, once the barrier was back up, once the curse was gone, and my people were secure and happy, then, only then, would I visit friends.
“I received news from Taos,” Killian said, bringing me back to the present.
As a prince of DuMoir Castle, Killian had many vampire warriors under his command, and right now he was using a bunch of them to help us. I would be forever grateful for that, because without them, we wouldn’t have enough hands to get everything done.
Taos was one of Killian’s vampires and he had been sent to track down Dixon and the crystals.
“And?”
“He hasn’t seen Dixon, but he talked to some people who had. He thinks he’s a day behind Dixon’s trail.”
“Good.” I nodded. Finding the crystals, putting them back, and bringing the barrier back was top priority.
Not just because of our safety, but because of everything the barrier did for us: It kept the frigid, northern Canada weather out, and it created a better schedule for our day—the sun had always set at seven in the evening on the dot, even though outside it varied from four thirty in the winter, and ten at night in the summer. It was June now, which meant we were closer to sun setting at ten, and that was unsettling. At least the weather wasn’t bad, though the air was already a lot chillier than before and the plants were showing signs of distress. We needed to find the crystals before winter came; otherwise it would be impossible to stay here.
We walked toward the main square, skirting the edge of the burned part of town. I didn’t know what to do with it. At some point, after everything else was done, we would have to just take it all down, dispose of it, and build some new houses. Not that we needed them right now, with our numbers, but in the future … hopefully, our numbers would increase.
