She flicked her gaze up to Rab. “He is quiet on the matter,” she told him.
Rab chuckled, shaking his braid. “Then we will be quiet too.”
“I’ll go!” Arrow stepped into the open circle, grasping his spear and looking out at the shapes into the trees. “I will go at first light to lend help to the new Wolf City alpha. A new alpha who is different from past ones. When he learned of our crisis, he used his military to give thousands of pounds of food and firewood. I will help that alpha ashehelped us.” He stamped his staff on the ground, and a single tear leaked from my eye.
Arrow knew it wasn’t Sawyer who approved that food delivery. It was his dad, but there was too much bad blood there. I could see it. He was trying to make them think differently about this new alpha and I loved him for it. Sawyer was different, and he would be a different alpha than the ones before him.
“I will stand with Arrow.” A man came out into the open, wielding a badass looking blade. All of these men were seriously sculpted from stone, hardened warriors in the best shape of their lives.
“New alpha? What’s new about someone who’s been bred to hate us for a millennium?” someone yelled from the trees.
Dammit, I wish it were lighter out and I could look that bastard in the eyes.
Thrusting my left hand into the air, I let the light catch on my giant engagement ring. “The new alpha, Sawyer, is my fiancé, mytrue mate.” I stopped talking because they’d gasped at that. “And he knows I’m half Paladin. He doesn’t care. If we work together, both of our packs can benefit.”
It was like it was the knowledge they needed to throw themselves behind the cause. One by one, I heard them.
“I’ll go!”
“I’ll fight with Arrow.”
“Screw the vampires!”
Relief crashed into me. I’d made a promise to Sawyer, and I was keeping it.
Or was I?
I’d said thatIwould be back by morning with warriors. But now…
“Come on, I’ll show you to the guest house.” Astra pulled my hand and it sank into me that I was going to stay here.
Nerves churned in my gut and I’d completely forgotten Sage was there until she stepped over to me, wide-eyed and wearing a half shredded t-shirt and sweat pants. “You’re staying here? What have you done?”
I … followed my heart and it split me in two. Again.
Arrow raised his fist into the air. “Go home and tell the warrior of your household … we leave at dawn!” And a chorus of the Paladin equivalent of anoorahrang out, but it was more of a gutturalouh ouh!
I walked over to Arrow and stood before him as my wolf nuzzled against his leg. He grinned and dropped his hand down to rub the top of her head. I swear sometimes she was more dog than wolf.
‘I resent that,’she said and I bristled, still not used to our bond.
‘Sorry.’
“Thank you. Truly,” I told Arrow.
He bowed his head to me. “Thankyou. For coming home.”
Home. That word on his lips felt so right, so much so that it made a stone sink in my gut. In what world could Sawyer and I get married and live together if I were alpha of these lands? I shook off that problem for future Demi.
I didn’t want to ask how many warriors they would get by morning, I just had to trust it would be enough. Arrow, being Rab’s brother, seemed to have a lot of pull in the community, and I knew he’d just stuck his neck out for me and I really appreciated it.
I made my hand into a fist and held it out to him. He frowned and I grinned, grabbing his hand and banging them together. “Fist bump. Goodnight. I’ll be up first thing to see you all off.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “City girl.”
I smiled and Sage inserted herself between us. “She’s marrying my cousin FYI, butI’msingle.”
I smacked her arm and Arrow looked down at her, confused for a second, then her words seemed to dawn on him. “Oh, I’m mated,” he said, and Sage frowned, stepping away from him with a pout. Every male here was distracting eye candy. I wasn’t going to deny that, and clearly Sage had noticed.
