‘She saw you kill Vicon, but I wasn’t there to show what he did to me, to testify on your behalf, so they sentenced you to death.’Tears filled my eyes and a deep sense of regret washed over me. ‘Sawyer, I’m so sorry.’Sawyer spent a year in prison because I’d chosen to go to the Dark Woods and take the alpha trial. I chose the Paladin people over my own mate.
‘You didn’t know I would be captured. I didn’t know either. There’s no sense in living in the past. You got me out.’
My lip quivered and I knew now wasn’t the time for this conversation, but I felt so awful that I hadn’t been there to support him. Shaking it off, I faced Luka again. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
Over the next hour we devised a plan that accounted for all the parts that needed to be dealt with. The women and children who were not in fighting shape, the queen, the vampires, fey, and witches occupying Wolf City who needed to be expunged. The trolls that Marmal needed to bring in. All of it. It was like a detailed clock with all the cogs and wheels turning. Everything would need to work for this to be pulled off.
In the end, we had a solid strategy. Marmal left with Pearl to fetch the trolls, and the others departed to do their part.
It was only Luka, Sawyer, and me now.
“Once I kill the queen, will you be king?” I asked Luka. Thinking of ripping her head off gave me satisfaction, but I wanted to know what would happen after, politically.
I wouldn’t be opposed to that. He seemed cool, and we could all work together for a more peaceful future between the vampires and werewolves.
He chuckled. “I wish it were that easy. The Drakes are many. The queen is one of sixteen siblings. I have dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins who will all be vying for the position. Only the most powerful can be crowned, which of course is me.”
Of course. Luka wasn’t lacking in self-confidence, that was for sure. “How are there that many of you if you can’t reproduce with each other?
His gaze flicked to Sawyer’s, and he swallowed hard. Again, I’d touched a nerve.
‘He has a dark past. He’s been through a lot,’was all Sawyer said.
Shit. Now I felt bad. I was about to change the subject when he spoke:
“My family is a legacy family, purebred, obsessed with genetics. That means they stay human and purposefully keep having children and then change us when we reach the age of twenty to forty, freezing time in our bodies forever.”
My mouth popped open. Legacy family? I’d never heard of such a thing—wait, so that meant…
“There are human Drakes?” I gasped. They were popping out little Drake vampires like farm animals! It was one of the craziest things I’d ever heard, and also kind of genius if you were concerned with royal lineage.
He just nodded, a deep sadness washing over his features before it was removed by a calm and stoic expression.
“So once the queen dies…?” Sawyer brought both of our attention back to the task, and my cheeks heated with shame that I’d made his friend relive something dark.
“Once the queen dies…” Luka seemed to enjoy the topic change. “There will be a month of mourning. No leadership talk can even happen until that’s over. And during that month all the cousins and uncles and aunts will be trying to assassinate each other so that they can be chosen next.”
I sputtered in shock at his words. “That’squitethe dysfunctional family,” I offered, and then regretted my words.
“You have no idea,” Luka said dryly, seemingly unperturbed by my bluntness.
“So you’ll hide out in Spokane for the month, take your chance with the hunters?” Sawyer said.
Luka reached up, stretching his arms over his head. “That’s the plan.”
Were we really doing this? Taking back Wolf City, killing the queen? Could life go back to normal somewhat? I’d been in survival mode for so long, I didn’t even know what normal looked like anymore.
“As soon as Marmal gets back with the trolls … we attack,” Sawyer announced. “The queen knows we’re out of prison. She’ll be expecting retaliation, and I don’t want to give her the time to plan.”
I nodded in agreement. The first war we’d lost because we’d relied too much on technology and guns and helicopters and fancy modern things. All of which the witches had brought down the first day. This time we were smarter, this time we would bring downtheirguns, and fight them with brute pack strength.
You couldn’treallyever preparefor war. You were neverreallyready to risk your life and rush into battle willing to kill someone. There was a deep place inside of all of us, that place where the fight or flight response came from, that prepared you as much as it could, but you had to push yourself the other half of the way. I stood at the open gates of Paladin Village, bringing myself the other half of the way, readying myself for war, where anything was possible.
Marmal had just shown up with over two hundred troll volunteers, all ready to defect from Troll Village, which was currently battling a famine, and live in Wolf City once we restored it. Sawyer had agreed that the future of Wolf City was a shared space where everyone who helped to liberate it was welcome. Witch, troll and werewolf, both Paladin and city, would live in harmony and create a new future that was hopefully unbreakable.
“I’ll go in the front lines with the trolls as they disarm the vampires of their technology,” Walsh said, snapping me from my thoughts.
Sage and Walsh had been slipping each other awkward glances, and I knew they still hadn’t talked about whatever it was that was still between them. Now just wasn’t the time.
