My mouth popped open. “What? No!” I whisper-screamed. Nadine had it bad for Gear, I knew that, but leaving the pack wouldn’t make it better. Wouldit?
“Easy for you to say, Sloane!” she snapped, then looked like she regretted it. She was right though. It was easy for me to say, I had Logan and we were mates, sleeping next to each other everynight.
“I mean, why do you have toleave?”
She ran her tattooed hand through her hair. “Because I can’t bear it any longer. I’m done pining over him, and not being able to havehim.”
“Then have him! Screw the rules!” I told her. Keegan needed to rethink those rules anyway. They weren’t doing him any favors withDanny.
A tear leaked from her eye and she wiped it away. “He doesn’t want me. Said so this morning. He’s right, we’ve had this big built-up thing and the sexual tension just made me want him because I couldn’t have him, but that’s it. It's nothing special. Nothing one night together wouldn’tfix.”
I frowned. Was she high? Her and Gear were freaking perfect for each other, from their tattooed arms right down to the stupid jokes and lack of cookingskills.
“You don’t mean that,” I toldher.
She grit her teeth. “Well, he did. So I’mdone.”
Did Gear really say that? What an idiot. He was a fool if he thought he could get better than Nadine. Hell, even I had a tiny girl crush on her. No way was I letting her leave us, leave this pack. “Make him leave, not you,” Iprotested.
“Hah!” She barked out a laugh. “I’d never live that down. No, I just need a break. Keegan will get here with the new pack and he’s going to split them up. I heard Logan talking on the phone to him. There’s another alpha. I’ll join the second pack. Steer clear of dickfaceGear.”
She was also good at rhyming. Poor thing. Nothing worse than a broken heart. If she needed space from Gear, then I guess I had to be supportive. At least it was only to another pack on Isaac’s land and not another pack in a differentcity.
“Okay. If that’s what you want…” I didn’t know what else to say. Neither, apparently, did Roxy, because she just stood there looking as shocked as Ifelt.
“Let’s just focus on Lynn. She’s been having more and more Braxton Hicks contractions, and Eva said she has a plan in place for the labor nextweek.”
That was a relief. “What isit?”
Nadine looked thankful to have a change of subject. “She said the baby can’t swallow the spell without choking, so she’s going to make a bath and the baby can soak in it. There’s no guarantee it will keep the baby from shifting, so in the event it doesn’t work, she thinks Lynn should have her baby at a rental house a couple hours away. That way, if the babyshifts…”
I nodded. “It won’t bring the druids to our new home base.Smart.”
And scary. I was about to ask for more details when the crunch of gravel brought my attention to the small dirt road behindme.
I saw an old green pickup truck pulling in, the tires skidding to a stop. A tiny blond girl sat behind the wheel, barely able to look over. Roxy, Nadine and I shared a concerned look and started walking towards thevehicle.
As we neared, the door opened and out jumped a fourteen-ish year-old blond girl with a gun in her hand, raised right atus.
“Stop right there!” she shouted, no shake in her voice. This kid had used a gun before and wouldagain.
My eyes widened as we all stopped. What the hell was she doing? Who wasshe?
Her voice was familiar but I couldn’t placeit.
“You the one who called? About the skyborn?” she askedme.
That’s it! We’d called one address in Canada. Two, the number had said next to the information. Two skyborn. I’d spoken to her. The girl sounded young, said her mom was out but she’d relay the message. She didn’t want to video chat and had sounded skeptical even when I gave detailed information about my mother and ourlocation.
“That’s me. I’m Sloane.” I took a stepforward.
Her eyes creased as they fell to my shoulder and the tattoo that rested there. “Druid,” she spat and raised hergun.
“Whoa, whoa! Stop!” Nadine stepped in front of me. “She’s skyborn. Put that damn gun down,kid.”
Logan appeared out of nowhere in the woods behind her, stalking slowly like a cat about to pounce. He must have heard the truck pull up aswell.
Tears filled the little girl’seyes.
