Nico pulled up and rolled his window down. The obvious look of relief on the men’s faces when they saw their alpha had returned was both heart-warming and scary. They were desperate for leadership. The flicker of fear was in all their eyes. Nico put his hand out the window to shake hands with one of them. “Zeke. How are things? We’ve heard the reports.”
Zeke shook his head and gazed back down the road that we’d just come in on. “Had some issues early this morning—big truckload of good ol’ boys came by. Had a bunch of hunting rifles and stuff. Yelled at us that we needed to turn ourselves in or they were gonna drag us down to the facility in Tampa. Did a few donuts in the grass and fired some rounds into the air. Nothing egregious, but it’s still early. We’re a little worried about what might happen tonight after they’ve had a few beers in them.”
Nico sighed in disgust. “Okay. Where are Luis and my dad? I need to get a full update from them.”
Zeke pointed up the driveway. “Pretty sure they were actually at your house last I heard.”
Nico leaned forward and patted Zeke on the shoulder. “Stay alert. You all are doing a good job. We’ll work on getting you some relief, so you can catch a nap and some food. Thank you, boys.”
Zeke gestured for the man inside to open the gate. “No problem, Nico. Glad to have you back.”
“We’ve been gone less than four days, and they look strung out,” Felipe said from the back. “This is not good. The stress is gonna start eating at people. And then they’ll make mistakes.”
“They’re doing all they can,” Nico said. I could hear the strain in his voice. He’d noticed it, too but didn’t want to vocalize it and give weight to the thought.
A few minutes later, we were out of the van and walking up the path to Nico’s house. I walked beside Nico while the other three unloaded our bags. Inside, we found Luis and Carlos sitting at a table, poring over a map. Luis saw us first, and a relieved smile spread across his face. Carlos jumped up and ran over to hug Nico, pulling me into the embrace as well. “My boy. Welcome home, son.”
It was so strange. Like Felipe had said, we’d been gone a total of about three-and-a-half days, but it felt like we’d been gone a year or more. The whole reunion reminded me of the welcome people got after coming home from being at war for years. Everything had changed while we were gone. The sensation that we were tipping over the edge was like a bright hot ember in my chest waiting to burst into flame. That was what the world was right now too. Ready to set itself on fire.
“Have we gotten in touch with the other alphas?” Nico asked as he sat at the table with Luis and his father.
Luis nodded. “As soon as I got off the phone with you.” Luis gave Nico a look that I couldn’t read. “They’re all pissed. Pissed and scared, but they won’t admit that. Not every pack is as stable as ours. Some of them can’t show weakness, or an up-and-comeror rival will challenge for leadership, but it’s there. I don’t want to say terrified, but it’s on the way there. Mostly what showed through was anger.”
“No shit,” Nico barked, laughing humorlessly. “I’m fucking furious. As an alpha, the one job you have is to protect your pack, your family, and your lands. The royals have made all three of those things much harder. They’ve pinned our backs against the wall.”
Sebastian and the others, having dropped our bags on the foyer floor, joined us at the table. Sebastian rubbed his face and said, “I’m keeping an eye on news reports. They haven’t implemented a state of emergency yet, but the signs are pointing that way. They have already announced the forty-eight-hour time frame, though. We’re perilously close to being totally fucked.”
Luis’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wait. What the hell happened at the cave? You haven’t told us how that went down yet.”
The five of us shared a look. Tiago leaned back in his chair, shaking his head, and Sebastian and Felipe nodded toward Nico and me to tell it. We gave an abbreviated version of everything that happened. Luis and Carlos listened intently, but when we told them what was actually in the vial, their faces fell.
Luis pounded a fist into the table. “Son of a bitch,” he hissed. “Is this whole witch thing even real? We’re getting dangerously close to Halloween stuff, right?”
Carlos held up a hand for him to slow down. “I will say one thing, I have never met a witch, but I do know for a fact they are real. They aren’t what legend says they are, though—eating children, living with black cats, and all that. But they are rare enough that they might as well be nothing but legend.”
Luis rolled his eyes. “Okay, sure, but can they live for fucking three or four hundred years?”
Carlos shrugged. “I don’t know. Possibly? Who knows.”
My own thoughts were turned inward. All I could think of was how fucking crazy Edemas must have been to create this broad and elaborate game. A game he wanted to play on the royals. My blood was boiling. I’d risked my life, the life of my mate, and our friends, all to help a long-dead werewolf king get his jollies off. It was twisted and sick.
One thing had happened since I’d swum out of that cave. All my hesitation was gone. If the vial was real? There was no longer a question of whether I would destroy it or drink it. Viola had erased one of those ideas. She’d proven how strong her organization was. They’d bent the entire world to their will. I needed every ounce of strength I could get to take her down. If we found that vial, I wouldn’t hesitate to drink it. I’d made my decision.
89
NICO
After what Luis had told me about the way the other alphas were reacting to the situation, I knew I needed to set up a conference call with them all as soon as possible. We had to get a sense of what their plans were if things really went sideways. A quick mass text was all it took. They wanted to be on the call in thirty minutes.
As alphas, Tiago and Maddy sat in on the call with me. Luis, Sebastian, and Felipe went to relieve the men at the guard shack. It only took five minutes for all the alphas to jump on the call, and it took less time than that for me to realize Luis’s description was accurate. Everyone sounded tense and worried. Some were full of false bravado, but their underlying fear was obvious if you read between the lines. Most of them had plans for what to do in case the government really did declare a state of emergency once the forty-eight hours were up, and they came for us all.
A few packs said they’d stand and fight, but most of us tried to talk them out of it. We didn’t need martyrs—we needed to stay alive. I wasn’t willing to believe that all was lost yet, that we were at our last stand. This was not The Alamo or Thermopylae. Notyetanyway.
By the time the call was over, I was both disheartened and revitalized. A strange combination. Hearing how beaten down everyone seemed was gut-wrenching, but that also fired me up. I wanted us to come out on top, and I refused to believe this was the end. If anyone could lead us out of this, Maddy could. She was the key, and I’d do anything I could to ensure we were successful.
I glanced across the table at Tiago. “You didn’t say much during the call. What plan does your pack have?”
“We purchased some abandoned land from the National Guard a few decades ago. That’s where our pack lands are located. The place has a ton of underground bunkers that were built back during the heyday of the Cold War. I’ve spoken to my son. His plan is to have everyone move underground. He’s been making preparations for over a week. My boy is smart, and he saw the writing on the wall. We’ve got provisions laid in that can last a year comfortably, maybe eighteen months if we ration. If we need to hide, that’s what we’ll do.”
