“We’re not,” Declan assured her. “I’m going.”
“So am I,” Logan said.
“Me too,” Asher said.
“I’ll join you,” Saxon said.
The color drained from Elyse’s face as Madison stuck her thumb in her mouth. Saxon smiled at her, but Declan sensed his reluctance to leave his family behind. However, Lucien would be the first one out the door in search of him, and Saxon would go to find him.
“You should stay with your mate and child,” Declan said. “If we’re forced to abandon the compound, it will be better if you’re here with them.”
Saxon gazed from him to his family before bowing his head. “You’re right.”
Elyse’s shoulders hunched forward, and she sighed. Before she became pregnant, she was a fierce fighter, but her family was her priority now, and she didn’t want it separated.
Declan didn’t blame her; if he had a family, he would do everything in his power to protect it. However, he never planned to have a family. He was too fucked up for that, and after what happened with his father, and thenhim, he couldn’t risk having a child.
Chapter Six
Declan buriedthe memories battering against the wall he’d sealed them behind as he shifted his attention back to the map. Now was not the time for the past. He knew he had to learn from the past, but he couldn’t dwell on it. Dwelling on it would only drive him mad.
The only thing he had any control over was the present, so dwelling on the past and worrying about the future were pointless endeavors—although there were many times when he found himself walking the paths of his past before recalling he couldn’t alter them.
“I’m going too,” Killean said.
“It’s better if you stay here,” Declan said. “We’re already taking some of our best fighters. We can’t take anymore.”
“Iamgoing,” Vicky stated.
“Not without me,” Nathan said.
“Yes, without you. You’re staying with Wyatt, and Iamgoing.”
Nathan looked as if she’d socked him in the gut, and then red began to suffuse his face. The couple stared at each other, neither of them willing to back down.
Gazing between them, Declan couldn’t decide if he should say something that might diffuse the situation or back out of the room. The others shuffled around him, and he felt their unease as they tried to decide how to react.
“I’m not letting you go out there alone,” Nathan said.
“Then it’s a good thing I won’t be alone, and you don’t get toletme do anything. I’m going to look for my sister.”
“And what about our son?” Nathan demanded.
“Don’t do that,” Vicky hissed. “Don’t use him against me.”
“I’m going to unpack some of my things from Mexico and get ready for this trip,” Declan said.
“I’ll help you unload that tequila,” Saxon said, and draping his arm around Elyse’s shoulders, he hurried her toward the door.
Declan didn’t listen to the murmured excuses of the others as they followed him out of the room. Ronan closed the doors on Vicky and Nathan’s heated discussion.
“I don’t envy him,” Ronan said.
“He never should have said he wasn’t going tolether go,” Kadence said.
“I’m not even that stupid,” Killean said.
Simone nudged him in the side with her elbow. “You better not be.”
