After an hour or two, I came bursting out of the woods into the fields behind Nico’s house and shifted back to my human form. It was always strange when I did. It was similar to how it felt to put on a comfy pair of pants after a long day, but I was also filled with longing to go back to being a wolf. It was definitely interesting, to say the least.
I could see the new alarm system on two of the trees at the edge of the clearing. It was part of the new advanced warning system Nico had installed. There were also sensors farther out in the forests and the other areas around the pack lands. The alarms were supposed to warn us if an aircraft was approaching so we’d have a few minutes to prepare. There had already been reports and videos on the news of Apache attack choppers and Blackhawks full of troops descending on shifter clans all over the country. I wasn’t sure whether the alarms would really work, but it made a lot of the folks in the pack rest a little easier.
On the walk back up to Nico’s, I wondered how he would even get to Croatia. Viola was definitely having us watched. We’d have an incredibly difficult time getting out of the country again. Nico and the others had been lucky the last time, but there was no guarantee that the Donatello guy would work with us again. Whatever we did, it would need to be an airtight plan.
Before I could even get back inside the house, I heard the raised voices. Someone was angry. I quickened my pace and walked in the back door to find the house abuzz with activity. Javi and the elders of his pack were there for a meeting. I’d known they were coming but hadn’t realized they’d be here before I got back. There were some tense faces in the crowd. We’d really only dealt with Javi and his crew since he’d decided to ditch his family’s centuries-long alliance with the royals. Theelders were similar to Nico’s dad and uncles in his own pack. Javi was the alpha, but they still held heavy sway in how their pack was led.
One older man with a thick heavy beard pointed at the television. “This is what we were talking about, Javi,” he hissed. “We knew they’d react like this. Their power and reach are beyond our understanding. We should have kept our heads down and done what they asked.”
Another man, slimmer but older than the first, nodded in agreement. “This could all have been avoided. Now every redneck in the country is out cruising the backroads, looking for shifters and popping off shots at them. If they kill one?” He shrugged. “All they have to do is say they felt threatened. It’s a disaster for our entire race. All because you two couldn’t do as you were told.” He gestured toward Nico and Javi. They both looked tense and pissed.
Nico looked at the men and the three others with them. “We did what needed to be done. Would you leave your mate to die? Would you?”
The five men looked slightly chastised, but the first man jutted his chin out defiantly. “We should have honored our vow. Javi made a decision, and we don’t think it was the right one.”
Hot anger coursed through me like lava through the earth. I stepped forward, tired of hearing these weak men, these cowardly men, berate Nico and Javi. I slapped my hand down on the table to get their attention. “Your vow?” I growled, staring down at the man who’d spoken. “What vow was that? The one where you were slaves to the royals? The one where they had you out kidnapping, murdering, and torturing innocent people? Or was it the one where you bashed babies’ heads in and slit the throats of children? Which vow was it?”
I kept my eyes locked on his. It only took a few seconds for his will to crumble. His gaze dropped, and his shoulders saggedslightly. He was well aware of the horrific things they’d done. Javi’s pack had been the tool the royals had used for centuries. They might have had others, but to lose a shifter pack as loyal as Javi’s was a huge loss for them. We couldn’t let them forget why they’d severed ties in the first place.
I sneered at the man who’d dropped his gaze, then threw a disdainful look at the other older men. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”
The thin man shrugged weakly. “We always thought what we were doing was for the safety of the pack. It wasn’t…” He sighed. “It wasn’t something we were proud of.”
“I don’t care what you used to be. We have to focus on what to do next, regardless of how loyal you were before the war. The royals are coming for all our heads, and that is not something that we can forget,” I said. “Get your heads out of your asses.”
I stomped away from them, leaving everyone in stunned silence, including Javi. Nico hurried to catch up to me as I stormed back out the door I’d come through. My teeth ground together as I tried to calm down. Those scared, old men had no idea what they were fighting. All they could remember was how easy life had been when they’d licked the boots of the royals. Javi wasn’t someone I wanted to spend a weekend with, but he’d at least had the balls to say enough was enough. Had he basically tried to sign my death warrant by sending his goons after me that night? Yes. But he hadn’t thrown the punches or slammed his boots into my sides. Those men were sadistic and enjoyed beating me. Javi had cut that cancer out of his pack and joined our cause. That helped, and it proved that the hold the royals had on his pack could be broken. His elders had to understand that. It incensed me that they’d even hint at the idea that they’d made a mistake.
Nico walked beside me, silent, letting me stew in my own mind. Soon my steps slowed, and we strolled around the packlands. Nico let the silence between us linger, allowing me to calm down fully. As we walked down the meadow toward the forest, he reached over and took my hand in his. He squeezed it once reassuringly. “I get it.”
“Get what?”
“That you’re frustrated at how shitty all this is. Even with your family and Abi back, we aren’t as safe as we thought we would be. Old men being scared is horseshit after everything you’ve been through.”
Frowning, I shrugged. “Keep going.”
He chuckled and turned to face me, forcing us to stop walking. “I know it pissed you off, but”—he pointed back toward his house— “those scared old men are still on our side. We need every single person we can get to help us defeat Viola and her organization. Especially with all the extra risks we have to deal with now.”
“We haven’t had any issues here yet,” I said. Nico broke eye contact with me and looked at the ground. He was about to tell me something I wouldn’t like. I nudged him. “What happened? Tell me.”
He sighed and forced himself to meet my eyes again. “We had some local cops stop by the security gate to ask if we had any feral shifters on the grounds. They didn’t press the issue or ask us if we were preparing to move to the holding facility down in Tampa, but the only reason they didn’t is that they probably still have some respect for our family. Dad always helped out whenever he could, and he’s done a lot of community service.” He shook his head sadly. “That goodwill is only gonna carry us so far, though. People tend to believe what they see on TV, especially when it comes directly from the White House. People all over town are gonna be scared. There are multiple shift packs in and around their city apart from this pack and Javi’s. There’s a panther shifter clan about an hour outside town, too. Clearidgeis a tinder box. It really won’t be long before we start seeing vigilantes making the rounds, as Javi’s guy said earlier.”
Ever since Viola had made her proclamation on the news, things had become tense all over the country. I shook my head and gave a weary sigh. “I know. I’m sorry. I just sort of snapped.”
Nico put his finger on my chin, lifting my head. “It’s all right. We need those guys, but he did need his ass chewed out.”
I snorted a laugh. “Thanks. I guess.”
Nico’s expression turned serious. “I’ve put a call in to a bunch of packs in the area. Their alphas are all coming for a meeting. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but if I know you, you’ll want to be there.”
He was right. I did want to be there. It would be easy to think of it as just the Lorenzo pack versus the royals, but that wasn’t the case. If Viola got her hands on that vial of blood, things would change in an instant. We still weren’t sure what her exact plans were for it, but deep in my gut, I knew it could only be bad. Bad on a level I couldn’t even imagine. It would affect all the packs: panther, bear, lizard—all of them, not just the wolf clans. If we were working on forming an alliance, I wanted to be there.
I nodded eagerly. “I do. You couldn’t keep me away if you wanted to.”
Nico leaned forward and kissed me, his lips giving off a comforting warmth that spread through my body. When he pulled away, he was smiling faintly. “I can’t promise how all this is going to end. All I can do is promise that I’ll do everything in my power to keep you and all the others safe.”
Once I calmeddown and got back home, the other pack had left. It was a relief. I really didn’t want to deal with those assholes again. Hopefully, they would pull their heads out of their butts and figure out right from wrong.
My parents were up in the guest room that had become theirs over the last week or so. Having them nearby was great. It had been a long time since I’d shared a roof with them, and it was comforting to know they were right down the hall if I needed them. Dad was on the bed, tapping away at his laptop, while Mom sat on a chair by the window, reading a book.
