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“Am I needed at Curaidh?” asked Sean.
“No. We were able to hold them off without any serious injury to any of our people. I’ll tell you this, they’re a bunch of fucking fanatics. Anyone who wasn’t killed outright bit into a cyanide tablet and was dead before we could question them.”
“If I may,” said Reynolds. “Winter, get some of our tech people to put together our latest defense scenarios, and let’s get them to Curaidh.”
Sean nodded. “If we have to, we can use Curaidh as a fallback position or a safe place for the non-combatants.” He looked at Winter. “I don’t suppose there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that you might be one of those non-combatants.” Winter snorted at him. “That’s what I thought,” he said, resigned.
“Hamish, did you hear Reynolds? He’s got people coming in. Make them welcome and start opening up the other parts of the castle. Let’s bring our villagers in quietly. I don’t want anyone out alone. And double the guard—both perimeter and patrolling.”
“It will be done, Alpha,” said Hamish.
Sean ended the call. “We might have wanted to keep this quiet, but there’s no reason now. If the League thought to scare me off…”
“They have no idea what happens when you poke a sleeping snow leopard,” said Winter, her eyes dancing with merriment.
She was enjoying all of this, and God help him, it turned him on more than a little bit.
“Let the resistance know that it has an ally in Curaidh, and once we’re secure, I’ll send out emissaries to secure the support of others. What was it your buddy Sun Tzu said?”
Winter grinned. “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
“In case the Shadow League missed it, the thunder has begun to roll.”
CHAPTER15
WINTER
Winter wasn’t sure when it happened, but things had changed—not just between her and Sean, but seemingly within Sean himself. Gone was the arrogant alpha who thought more of his own pleasure and satisfaction than anything else—or had he never been that way at all? And while he had wanted to send her to Curaidh, he had accepted that she wasn’t going. She was even beginning to suspect that he no longer saw her as a ‘non-combatant.’
The man who had forced her into a pair bonding was not the man she watched now as he went over plans with Colby and discussed various strategies. His idea to use Curaidh as a fallback stronghold was sound—it was also incredibly honorable, brave, and generous. It would allow him no plausible deniability with the League or with the Council.
Sean was still deep in conversation when he stretched out his hand to her, not as an afterthought, but more to have her join him. She could feel him purr down the link to her—an intimate invitation that no one else could hear. She could feel his desire not only for her to join in the strategizing, but to offer her comfort against the whirlwind of concern he felt not just for those at Curaidh, but for those at Windsong and in Mystic River, as well.
Winter curled into him, trying, for the first time, to return his purr down the link in order to offer him solace. He leaned over and kissed the side of her head gently, and she rubbed her head against his jawline. She had felt a part of Windsong since the time she had first arrived, but she now felt the call of her fated mate and was beginning to appreciate all that it could mean to her in the future.
“Sean, I’m not quite sure how to do this. It is obvious that Winter has accepted her role as your fated mate, but she is also my second-in-command and knows far more about what’s going on than anyone save me,” Colby paused and grinned at her. “And I’m not at all sure she doesn’t have a better handle on the big picture than anyone, including me.”
“In case you missed it, he’s about to ask you for something he doesn’t think you’re going to want to do,” Winter said in a mock whisper.
“I figured as much. I don’t think the alpha of Windsong is as subtle as he thinks he is.”
Colby rolled his eyes. “And you two aren’t nearly as amusing as you think you are, but Winter is right. I’d like to send her into town, specifically to The Workshop. I spoke with Derek Grayson…”
“The deputy here in town?” asked Sean.
“One and the same. He is also the younger brother to both the sheriff of Otter Cove and the mate to The Finder.”
“Deke Campbell is an interesting man,” said Sean.
“Any relation?”
“Very distant. The cave lions were once part of Clan Campbell, as were the snow leopards, until we weren’t needed and became an embarrassment centuries ago. I met him once when Command thought he could help my unit. Something of an enigma, but I liked him and he’s one hell of a warrior.”
“Agreed,” said Colby. “I believe he’s thrown in his lot with us.”
“What about your sister and her mate?” asked Sean.
Winter touched his arm and shook her head ever so slightly.
