When our Hungarian convoy arrived back at the Pack Caelestis castle several hours later, it looked little different from when I’d seen it the week before. Still burned, still broken. But now it teemed with activity. Everywhere I looked, wolves worked in concert. There were no fewer than six on the roof, closing up the massive hole up there.
Priceless stained glass was still gone, but new, plain glass was going in to weatherproof more rooms. Overseeing it all was the harried butler, Cristian, with Gael at his side. Gael didn’t look very happy, but it was surprising to see him at all given the plan when we’d left was that he was going to take Leigh and run. Yet there he stood, barking orders and trying to calm the older shifter.
Knowing it would take a while to get everyone settled, I secured my SUV with the weapons and crossed the overpacked driveway to where Gael and Cristian stood.
“Hello again, Cristian. Gael, I’m surprised to see you still here.”
Cristian greeted me with a curt nod, then turned and strode off to yell with ear-piercing volume at one of the men installing a third-floor window.
Gael and I both winced as the pane he’d been trying unsuccessfully to install fell, shattering against the flagstones below with a brilliant smashing sound.
“Fiona had another seizure. She saw me there, at the final battle.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t think of a single valuable thing to say as that sank in.
It meant the whole fate of the omegas of the future was riding on this war. There was no one last holdout, no one left to carry the torch if we lost.
Fuck.
He shook his head sadly. “It’s probably for the best. Leigh was beside herself. Didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to abandon her pack. She said we’d win or lose together.” He sighed wearily, running a hand over his tired expression. “It’s the alpha in her, and I do understand it. But the baby…” His eyes were haunted when they met mine.
“I know. I know.” I gripped his shoulder, leaning on physical contact when my words failed. “It’s going to work out. I don’t know how, but it is. Goddess help us.”
“Goddess help us.”
Another crash, and he sighed. “I’ve got to go rein Cristian back in. Kane gave strict orders—sealed and functional, not pretty. This is a war camp, not a beauty pageant. Cristian’s having a little bit of a tough time letting go of the way things have always been done.”
“Good luck, man.”
“Thanks.”
He strode off, calling for the butler, who turned around red-faced and furious to lay into Gael next. I headed back to our convoy, ready to put myself to work for the pack, only to be struck still by the sight of Elodie exchanging a laugh in the circle of giggling ladies as they pulled luggage out of the back of theirown car. It was innocent, a simple moment of friendship and camaraderie among pack mates.
But it was also a light moment in a sea of gravity, a reminder of why we were fighting.
We were really off to the races now. I clenched my fist as a buzz of energy lit me from the inside out, the guardian’s mark over my breast heating slightly as if to remind me it was there for better or worse. I intended to make it for the better.
Hours later, I was dog-tired and bone weary, dragging myself back to the family wing of the castle. But when I went to walk into my old bedroom, a screech from the inside froze me in my tracks.
“Who’s there?” I asked, the door barely cracked.
Dakota’s face appeared at the door, wide-eyed. “Oh, it’s you. Umm… They gave me and Galyna this room because they assumed you’d want to be moved into Elodie’s room,” she stammered. “If that’swrong, well, I can grab my stuff and we can both go bunk with her, I guess?”
I sighed. Of course they’d consolidated. There were already three additional packs here besides Blackwater and Caelestis, and very few livable rooms.
“No, I should have checked before letting myself in. Sorry to startle you.”
“No problem.”
She hastily shut the door back in my face, and I turned to the hall, letting my nose pick up the soft, lingering scent of my mate.
I found her door with ease, that perfume of hers calling to me even though I could tell it had been some time since she’d been in the hallway or had touched the door.
Just in case, though, I knocked this time.
After a few moments, I heard soft footsteps, and she opened the door, a vision of perfect softness wrapped in a simple blue bathrobe.
“Hey,” she said, pulling the door open wider so I could come in. “I hope you don’t mind, they asked me if you would be sharing a room, since your sister is rooming with the single Hungarian women. I said it would be fine, but I’m second-guessing that now because you look exhausted, and we haven’t discussed?—”
