“When’s this baby coming?” Garrett asks.
“It’s a white wolf,” Mila says. “They don’t work on anyone’s schedule but their own.”
Hayden merely grins.
“How’s the scenting?” Mila asks.
“Getting there. Have you and Anna finished testing?”
“Nearly done. Eighty-nine percent of the guards have some level of cadmium in their tissues.”
Garrett releases a long whistle. “That’s high.”
“Too high. As for the rest of the pack, I’ve only found cadmium in ten percent of the shifters. In more kids than adults.”
“Why the kids?” I ask, concerned.
“Their systems don’t flush out impurities as easily, especially if they’ve only recently shifted. And the teens push their limits, meaning a lot of runs to and even over the border.”
“The guards spend some of their days corralling and getting them back in our territory.”
“Those were fun times.” A wry smile fills Garrett’s face. “Eachtime I got caught, I got lectured by the guards. It only made me want to try again, to see if I could outsmart them.”
“Now I understand how you became so good at infiltrating,” Hayden says.
Mila turns onto her side, struggling for a comfortable position. I’m surprised she’s out here at all instead of her house. But when I think about it, there is nothing more comforting than being surrounded by pack.
When I caress Garrett’s cheek, he takes my palm and kisses it, right where he’ll use the knife to blood-bond me in a week. I smile but say nothing as our eyes meet and we trade looks.
“We’re fortunate we caught theoutbreakas soon as we did,” Mila continues, well aware that we’re talking in public. “The guards’ cadmium levels aren’t as high as Angel’s. They’ll heal quickly. One to three weeks.”
“We’re lucky we caught it at all,” Hayden says. “That’s due to you, Angelina. No one wanted you to suffer, but it’s what saved us.”
I blush. “It’s nice knowing some good came out of my being sick, but I didn’t do anything.”
“You stuck with us. Didn’t give up on yourself or us. And you trusted my Mila to help you.”
“You feel like pack now?” Mila asks.
I face the Christmas tree and take in all the new decoration I’ve added with the kids. Figuring out how the WSSO used the cadmium was important, but it doesn’t feel as important as what the kids and I did together.
“What are you looking at?” Garrett follows my gaze. “There’s a lot of new ornaments on there. Is that what you’ve been doing all week?”
“Not just me. The kids, too. Couldn’t have done it without them. I think once I’m fully healed, I’ll resume working with Sadie Lynn. Not before. I don’t want to risk another accident like what happened with Alex.”
Garrett stands suddenly, eyes locked on one of the lower-hanging ornaments. My stomach tightens as he walks over to the penguin wearing the red scarf and white skates. His fingers hover before tracing the ornament. “This was for Marla.”
“I retrieved it from the garbage.”
“I don’t understand.”
“So no one forgets her.” I touch a nearby ornament, a glove the kids decorated with glitter and wrote the name Ray. “This is for Tiberius’ brother who died in a research facility. And over here…” I touch a piece of quartz painted with the name Matt the Rat. “Oh my, I should take this one down. The kids shouldn’t have writtenraton here.”
“No, leave it.” His hand covers mine, easing it away from the ornament. “We called him Matt the Rat because he always told on us as kids. He never minded the nickname. Matt took pride in upholding the alpha’s rules. He eventually became an enforcer. Did a hell of a job, too, until…”
Garrett’s voice drifts off. “I haven’t thought of him in years. You did all this, Angel?”
“With the kids, yes. We spoke to a good portion of the pack, asked for items that held meaning to their surviving family or friends. If they didn’t have a personal item we could hang on the tree, the kids created ornaments out of stones, pinecones… anything they could decorate and add the fallen shifters’ names.”
