“Missed you the most,” I whispered.
I had barely seen my bestie since the day I left Delphi well over a year ago.
When we pulled apart, we both wiped at our eyes.
“You look badass, and slightly horrifying, like you eat raw cockroaches for breakfast,” she told me, which caused me to burst out laughing.
“Hey, if you’re hungry enough…” I shrugged and she smiled.
Eugene was next, pulling me in for a big bear hug.
“Sorry I couldn’t protect Sawyer better. They had a tracker on the ankle bracelet and he didn’t want to lead them into the bunker. He also didn’t want to leave you,” he murmured in my ear.
My heart thumped against my chest at that. That was Sawyer, sacrificing for those he loved. “You did fine. We’ll get him back. I have a plan.” I didn’t really have a plan, but I was going to get him back.Thatwas the plan. At all costs.
He pulled away from me and nodded, but I could see the shame written on his face.
Rab came to my side. “So the rumor mill started the second that all of the Paladin felt you claim the magic. The city wolves want to speak with you … and they are not pleased.”
Not pleased?
I looked down at my dirty unshaven legs, knowing I had blood on my chin from my broken nose which seemed to have already healed, and as much as I wanted to shower right now, it might benefit me to be seen like this. You didn’t fuck with people who looked like they’d just walked out of the bush and knew how to gut a bunny rabbit, right? Like Raven said, I looked like I ate cockroaches for breakfast. That was an advantage in my opinion.
“Lead the way,” I told him.
Arrow flanked my left, Rab my right, and Sage stepped up behind me.
“Mom, can you watch baby Creek for a bit?”
She nodded, her eyes brimming with tears.
I gave her a small, tired smile and followed Rab and Arrow. “Astra is getting treatment?” I asked Arrow.
He nodded. “Doctor says it’s severe dehydration and malnutrition. It’s keeping her from healing. She’ll be good as new by tomorrow.”
The tension I didn’t realize I was holding relaxed a little then. We walked down a long hallway and Rab cleared his throat. “Alpha, you should know that the city wolves have been talking for some time about escaping Magic City altogether and going to live in the human world undercover.”
Sage gasped behind me. “Hugelyagainst the rules unless banished, and even then only in Delphi and restricted areas of Spokane.”
I didn’t know the rules but that sounded about right. We couldn’t have thousands of wolves running around Washington State and beyond.
“Not to mention the humans in the supernatural hunter societies. They regulate that sort of thing,” Rab agreed. “I have told them this and they don’t care. They want fresh air and food.”
Human hunters in the supernatural what now? I’d heard rumors of them at Delphi but had never seen one. They were some uber religious Catholic group who were hell bent on wiping the “evil” out of the world. I thought they were a myth.
I tipped my chin to him. “And they’ll get their fresh air and food. In Paladin Village where we will all go together, as one pack.”
Rab smirked, Arrow too.
I didn’t care anymore about what anyone thought. The Dark Woods had freed me of all that shit. I wanted my people safe, and then I was going to get my man.
As we approached a large set of metal double doors that readmess hall, I could hear muffled shouting.
Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself and then nodded to Rab, who opened the door.
I was assaulted with a barrage of smells first: stale food, musty indoor wetness, and the general stench of too many people packed in one room. Then the sounds hit me. Angry screaming and yelling, mostly male voices, as I took in the scene before me.
There were thousands of people in this giant central room. It was a huge rectangle with a cafeteria kitchen on either side, and an area where you slid your tray along to pick up food. Behind the glass were some workers wearing hairnets and serving what looked like gloppy, nasty food. The tables in the middle of the room were giant. Each one sitting at least a hundred people.
