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“But here’s the thing. They’ll be expecting us to find a shelter and hole up somewhere. They know you’re hurt, so they’d be surprised if we did anything else.”
“Yes, so? That’s what we’re doing.”
“Yes. Except not all of us should stay. Brandon will stay here with you and Rory, while Wyatt and I circle back and find those fuckers.”
“I’ll go with you.”
From beside me, I heard a noise and looked down to see Rory, only pretending to be asleep. His eyes were wide open and glaring at me.
“No,” he said. “Are you crazy? You were almost killed.”
I frowned at him. He had a bad habit of speaking out of turn and not respecting me as his Alpha. “I’m fine,” I protested, but Asher put his hand on my chest and pushed me back down.
“No, Lex, listen to your omega, because he’s right. Besides, if you go with us, who’s going to stay and watch over him?”
“Brandon’s staying. He can watch out for Rory.”
“And what if they had the same bright idea we had, and they come in force? They could rape him or even kill him.”
That shut me up, and I stopped arguing about it. Rory hummed happily beside me when he figured out I was staying and tangled his legs around mine again. I had to admit, it felt pretty damn good, so I didn’t protest any further.
Despite all my bold talk of going with Asher and Wyatt, I fell back asleep right away and had troubling dreams of being in a battle with the Igellan army, of all things. It had been a few years since I’d last fought in a battle against Igella, but in the dream, our war with them had never stopped. Like my dreams often did, this one seemed to go on and on, with first one side winning the battle and then the tide turning again. Once I must have yelled out, because I felt Rory’s grip on me tightened, and he began singing softly in my ear. It sounded like a lullaby and soothed me enough that I fell back asleep and the noise of the storm raging outside, the crash of thunder and the wind banging against the door faded into the sounds of the battle in my dreams again.
When I awoke, the storm had passed, and Asher and Wyatt had returned. Both of them were sleeping soundly, rolled up in furs by the small fire. Brandon and Rory were both awake and preparing food for us.
Rory noticed me first and poured the hot coffee I was smelling into a cup to bring it over to me. He sat down cross-legged beside me on the furs, as I sipped it, letting the warmth seep into my bones. “This is good,” I said, a little surprised, because none of us knew how to make decent coffee.
“Thanks,” he said and smiled.
“It’s a lot better than what we usually make.”
“That’s because none of you measure. You just throw in a handful or two and think that’s good enough.”
Since that was true, I had little to say to it, so I nodded at Brandon instead. “Did you talk to Asher and Wyatt before they went to sleep?”
“Yes. They found the camp and there was a fight. Asher didn’t tell me exactly what happened, but he said there was nothing more to worry about.”
“Good. We should still get out of here, though, as soon as they’ve slept a little.”
“Just resting my eyes,” Wyatt said, turning over and rubbing a hand across his face. He poked Asher beside him. “Ash, wake up. We need to be moving soon and try to get some miles between us and whatever is left of that pack. We did kill most of them, but a couple got away and ran into the forest.”
“Had they split up, like you thought?”
“Yes, a few of them did, but they came back once the storm really hit.”
“But we were waiting for them,” Asher said, continuing the story as he turned over. “Mostly betas in that group, though. They never knew what hit them.”
“So they won’t be following us?”
“Not likely,” Asher said. “Most are dead. I think the others had enough.”
“Were you able to find out what made them attack us?”
“One of them yelled something about the queen, and promised we’d be sorry. I cut his throat when he declined to say more.”
“The queen of Igella?”
“That’s what I thought.” Asher shrugged. “Like I said, he wasn’t very forthcoming.”
