— • —
Lina
The meeting room was buzzing with newfound hope.
Everyone was talking at once, voices overlapping in a wave of relief. Ryder had Knox’s location pinpointed on his phone screen, that little blue dot pulsing steadily somewhere deep in the southern wilderness. It was a lifeline. A beacon in the darkness that had threatened to swallow me whole.
I stared at that dot, my heart hammering against my ribs so hard I could feel it in my throat. That little glowing point on the screen meant everything. For the first time since Lucio had walked out of that bedroom with my baby in his arms, I felt something other than despair.
I felt resolve.
Something cold and hard settled into my bones, making me feel stronger than I had in hours. Like someone had poured steel into my spine. I wasn’t the scared woman who had woken up in a hospital with no memories anymore. I wasn’t the broken shell who had collapsed on the floor and screamed while her family was taken from her just hours ago. I wasn’t the helpless human that Knox had described to Lucio, the powerless creature who couldn’t fight her way through enemy territory.
Fuck that.
I was the Luna of this pack. And it was time I fucking embraced the role.
“Alright,” I said, and my voice cut through the noise like a blade. Everyone went quiet immediately, all eyes turning to me. Good. They should be looking at me. Their Alpha was gone, and someone needed to step up. “Here’s what’s going to happen.”
I didn’t ask for permission. I didn’t look to anyone else for guidance or approval. I gave orders.
“Cole.” I met his eyes, saw the raw determination burning there. He looked ready to rip someone’s throat out, and honestly? Same. “Get our best fighters together. I want wolves who can move fast and stay quiet. Not just the big guys who hit hard. We need people who can sneak in without being seen. We’re not gonna charge in there like idiots. This has to be smart.”
Cole nodded sharply. “I know exactly who to pull.”
“Good.” I turned to Sawyer. “Work with the Moonfang wolves. I want everyone on the same team, not two separate groups bumping into each other. We move together, fight together. Colecalls the shots until we get inside. After that, we do what needs to be done.”
Sawyer’s eyebrows rose slightly, like he was surprised I knew what I was doing. Join the club, buddy. I was surprising myself too. But he nodded. “Understood, Luna.”
“I want trucks that don’t look like pack vehicles,” I continued, the words coming easier now. Like something had clicked into place in my brain. “Normal ones. Nothing that screams ‘hey, we’re coming to rescue someone’ from a mile away. If Mary’s people are watching the roads, I don’t want them to know we’re coming until we’re already there.”
“We have contacts in Pine Valley,” Noah offered. “Humans who owe us favors. I can have unmarked vehicles here within the hour.”
“Do it.”
The room erupted into motion, wolves scrambling to carry out orders, phones pressed to ears, hushed conversations filling the space. It was weird, watching them all jump to do what I said. I’d never really given orders before. Not like this. Not life-or-death stuff.
But I wasn’t done.
I pushed back from the table and stood, ignoring the wave of exhaustion that tried to drag me down. My body was running on fumes at this point. Adrenaline and fear and anger, all mixed together into something that kept me upright when I should have been collapsed in a corner crying.
There would be time to fall apart later. After Knox and Blake were safe. After Mary and Lucio and Mira were nothing but bad memories.
“Where are you going?” Noah asked, falling into step beside me as I headed for the door.
“The armory.”
He blinked. “The armory? Lina, you can’t shift. What are you planning to do with-”
“I’m not going in defenseless.”
The pack didn’t usually use weapons. Why would they? Wolves had claws and teeth and supernatural strength. Human tools seemed kind of pointless when you could literally turn into a killing machine. But I wasn’t a wolf. I was a human woman walking into a fight against at least three hostile shifters, and I refused to be dead weight.
If I was going to do this, I was going to be useful. Or at least not a total liability.
The armory was located in the basement of the police station, the building right next to the pack building. On paper, Ravenshollow had a small law enforcement presence. The sheriff and a few deputies who handled traffic tickets and noise complaints. In reality, the “deputies” were all pack members, and the station was more of a front than anything else. Something to make the human authorities happy.
But it had gear.
