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“He sleeps here, too, doesn’t he?” posed Iris, none too impressed. The cringed expression from her best friend gave the answer away. “I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.”
“So you’re still not warmed up to him then?”
“He’s fine, but I’m hardly going to sleep with him. I just met the man.”
“Okay, fine. Maybe you can bunk with me or something. We’ll figure it out.”
“You know what?” said Iris. “It’s fine, leave my stuff here. I’ll just have to kick Derek out later on.”
Already, a part of her wondered if she really meant it. It had been a long time since she had been with a man, and Derek was a rather striking specimen.
Ava laughed and nodded. “Fair enough.”
The two returned to the first floor, where Ava showed Iris the kitchen. There, they indulged in a hot mug of tea.
“So are you really here for good?” asked Ava, a look of innocent hope spilling from her doe eyes.
“Well, the answer for now is yes.” Iris sighed. “You were right about Derek being different from anyone I’ve known before. He seems to be good to the pack members here, and that’s refreshing to see.”
“Derek’s great. He doesn’t let the power get to his head. It’s a real display of someone’s character to give them power and see what they do with it.”
“True, so that’s why I’m willing to give it a shot here. I just have to take things slow. It’s never easy to leave a life behind, and I already did it once.”
Ava smiled as she brought her mug close. “It’s so good to have you here.”
“To new beginnings,” said Iris.
They both turned their heads to the window when a muffled commotion broke out. Rushing outside, Iris spotted shifters in wolf form rushing toward the porch while other members of the pack ran to greet them in their human bodies.
“The scouts!” gasped Ava. “Quick, let’s see what’s wrong.”
“What’s happening?” Iris heard Casey ask as they approached the group.
“There’s a wave of rogues coming this way!” answered Elias. “There’s too many of them to count.”
Iris stepped forward. “Grab the children and the weaker members of the pack and get them somewhere safe immediately!”
Ava and the others started gathering the vulnerable members while the scouts looked at Iris in confusion.
“Who are you?”one asked telepathically, still in wolf form.
“I said now!” she yelled. “Introductions later!”
They nodded and rushed to get into position. Elias ushered the kids into the house, keeping his gaze pointed at the tree line. His eyes widened.
“Here they come! Someone tell Derek they’re here. He’s with Mason and Maria!”
“On it,” said Casey, and he rushed into the house.
Several shifters came darting out of the trees, with one of them heading right for Iris. There was too little time for her to shift, so she grabbed a skewer that laid over the fire and speared it toward the beast. It fell to the ground, hollering in pain. The other attackers launched themselves at other pack members as Iris shifted. Growling, she broke toward a two-on-one assault as the offenders ganged up on Larissa.
She pounced on a rogue. It tried to rear its head up and snap at her, but Iris pinned it down and clamped her teeth around the beast’s neck, ripping its throat out as blood flew through the air.
A weight pushed her down from behind. She scrambled and broke free of a rogue’s grip, narrowly avoiding its teeth. Whipping around, she clawed at its eyes. The creature turned, tail between its legs, and ran back into the forest.
There came a child’s scream from the front entrance. Iris snapped her vision to the door and saw Bruce cornered by a rogue. He must have been hiding when they were rounding up the kids.
She rushed toward them as the rogue closed the distance between himself and the child. Snarling, his mouth opened wide enough to fit all of Bruce inside.
