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No alpha’s mate would leave. Not without mourning, without a goodbye. Was that why Olcan had gone hard, beyond when he could have saved himself?
He’d never know.
With Olcan’s mate gone, Kodiak was free to choose his own mate, but his pack wasn’t going to like his choice. And being alpha? He didn’t want it that way. He’d wanted to be the alpha, but he’d wanted to win the position on his own merit, not have it handed to him. Not like this.
His mind whirled with conflicting tasks that all needed to be done. He closed his eyes for a moment and put everything in order.
“We take a moment,” he said, “to mourn. And then we take care of wounds that need help, and we build up our resources and go after them.”
His gaze fell to Tamaska who started to edge away. Their eyes met and she stopped, bowing her head.
There were things he wanted to say, things he needed to say, but right then he didn’t have the luxury.
Instead, he turned to Ash.
“Ash, you need to work out how the vampires got past our defences. Reset everything. Nothing gets into the clubhouse alive. Got it?”
“Yes,” Ash nodded, then moved around the room, finally bending to pick up her blood-covered laptop. “I’ll get it working.”
Kodiak trusted her, so that was one small worry off his mind. She’d do what she could, probably go above and beyond. He turned his attention to the others, all standing there injured and tired. Their long night wasn’t even close to ending.
“Once you’ve done that, you know what to do for the ones who….” He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
She touched his arm. “I will.” And then she left the basement.
Kodiak breathed out heavily. As wolf shifters, they had certain protocols in place to avoid drawing human attention. They couldn’t exactly have a normal funeral for their fallen packmates, and if too many of their members went missing, the police would come asking questions that could never be answered.
To avoid that, Ash would hack into the government’s files and update their packmates’ records to readDeceased due to natural causes. They’d always done that after losing one of their own to the vampires, but they’d never had to deal with casualties of this scale.
Ash would know how to change their records so no humans would feel the need to investigate. The last thing the pack needed was to deal with nosy humans when they were being so brutally attacked by the vampires.
There would be those here who’d blame Tamaska for this carnage, and for the death of Olcan.
He added that to his growing list.
It would be something he’d have to sort. Not just because she was his, but she needed their protection. And they needed her to work out what the fuck was so important about her regarding the opal.
Why had Amdis marked her?
None of this was her fault and yet, along with some of the wolves, Tamaska would blame herself. Shoulder blame that wasn’t hers.
She’d get angry, lash out at him, because it hurt.
And he… He wished a lot of things. For her not to be in pain, for this to be over, for the dead to live again. But he couldn’t make any of that happen. And ending this meant wading in deeper.
This time, though, they needed to be prepared.
Everything else could wait.
Right now they needed to get things done first. Important things to the pack.
He made eye contact with Shota, who had a bullish air about him, black and fierce and full of sparking anger. The man wanted a fight.
Fuck.
Shota’s mouth twisted in a snarl, and he eyed both Kodiak and then Tamaska with something like hatred.
One more thing to deal with.
