Hale couldn’t disagree with that theory. He’d already written off the tussle in the alley as random chance. Tamm had run and Hale happened to be the werewolf who’d chased him. But that fight in the forest had felt different. Like Tamm had been looking for him specifically.
“Connor might be onto something,” Hale murmured, taking another big bite of pancakes. They had just the right amount of chocolate chips in them. “Maybe we should use that to our advantage.”
Even with his attention focused on his breakfast, Hale could still sense his three pack mates exchanging concerned looks.
“Meaning what, that you intend to put yourself up as bait or something?” Mike asked. “Try andlure the Balauri to come after you so we can, what, ambush them? Hopefully before they kill you.”
Hale ate another strip of bacon, realizing his idea had sounded so much worse when Mike said it out loud. “Something like that,” he finally said.
“Truthfully, I wouldn’t necessarily be against the idea,” Mike admitted. “Except for two major problems you seem to be ignoring.”
“Just two?” Hale asked drily, surprised Mike hadn’t gone into a complete rant about this admittedly not-very-well-thought-out scheme.
“Yeah.” Mike gestured toward Hale with a slice of toast. “First, there’s the issue of how we’d deal with those guys even if we’re able to lure them into a trap. Or am I the only one who remembered that we still don’t know if these things have a weakness we can exploit?”
“Good point,” Connor muttered, polishing off the last of his eggs and then using his toast to wipe the plate clean. “It might be something we want to put some thought into.”
Carter snorted. “You think?”
Hale chuckled, turning his attention back to Mike. “You said there are two problems. If not having a clue how we’ll take down these guys is the first, what’s the second?”
Mike frowned. “If you decide to purposely make yourself a target, you run the risk of Karissa becoming collateral damage. Since the two of you aresleeping together now, that’s something you have to consider.”
Hale almost choked on his pancakes. “How did you know we’re sleeping together?”
Mike tapped his nose. “Her scent is all over you.”
Hale should have known that, but he was so used to having a crappy sense of smell that he rarely thought about what it was like for everyone else in the Pack. “You’re right, we are sleeping together, and yeah, I obviously wouldn’t want her getting caught in the middle of things if the Balauri come after me. Karissa has enough problems to deal with. She doesn’t need to get involved with mine.”
“They aren’t only your problems,” Mike pointed out. “They’re the whole pack’s. And if Karissa needs an assist, let us know how we can help, and we will.”
As they ate, they batted around ideas on how they might be able to defeat the Balauri, each suggestion worse than the last. They finally gave up half an hour later after realizing that they weren’t going to stumble across an answer. The scariest part was that they’d almost certainly be facing the Balauri again soon, whether they came up with a way to deal with them or not.
It wasn’t a comforting thought.
After their server refilled their coffee, the conversation shifted to Karissa, Hale giving the highlights of the threat she was facing. He kept Karissa’s connection with Athena out of the discussion butwas still able to get across exactly how dangerous Thomas Bagley was on the off chance that any of them ever had to face him.
“Okay, you can consider us suitably warned,” Connor said. “Now, enough about the bad guys. Tell us what’s going on with Karissa. How did you two finally end up getting together?”
Hale’s first instinct was to tell them everything, to shout to the heavens how perfect Karissa was and how amazing it was to be with her. And about his worries. But there was a part of him—a small but very insistent part—hesitant to be quite that open. Still, these were his pack mates. If he couldn’t talk to them, who could he talk to?
So he told them about how he’d asked Karissa to stay at his apartment and the lengthy conversation they’d had about how he’d become a werewolf.
“She handled it way better than I thought she would,” he admitted. “After that, everything all seemed to fall into place.”
Hale expected his pack mates to tease him since they all liked to rag on the other members of the Pack who’d found their soul mates. Instead, the three of them sat there looking…well…a little worried, he supposed was the best way to describe it.
“What?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” Mike said, then frowned. “It’s just that I can’t shake the feeling you’re holding back alittle. I mean, it’s clear you’re crazy about Karissa, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that you’re still not all in.”
Hale wanted to say that wasn’t true at all, but he simply couldn’t get the words out. Once again, he couldn’t help but replay the thoughts he’d had earlier that morning as Karissa lay there sleeping in his arms.
“Did you bring up the topic of soul mates yet?” Mike asked when he didn’t say anything.
All Hale could do was shrug. “Karissa just learned about werewolves,” he explained, playing absently with the handle of his coffee mug. “And while she’s cool with it, I don’t want to push my luck. One major hurdle at a time and all that.”
“Hurdle?” Connor repeated, looking at him strangely. “I wouldn’t call having a soul mate a hurdle to get over. What aren’t you telling us?”
