48. Emily
C aleb loved me!
Never in a million years had I expected him to look at me like that while saying those words. Yet, he had, without even stuttering, without a hint of reservation. Somehow, despite the fact that I was barely a shifter and had so much more to learn, Caleb still loved me.
I’d been so struck with emotion, I didn’t know if I wanted to burst into sobs right then and there or straight-up tackle Caleb for some spontaneous lovemaking. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a real choice in the matter when the strange bell sounds ripped through our joyous moment.
Hard to have our own romantic movie climax when potential enemies were at the gate. I was hopeful about things, given Keller’s reports saying the investigation was going well, but the Black Hawks showing up out of nowhere, days early, wasn’t a good sign.
So, romance temporarily put on hold, Caleb and I hurried to Main Street, hoping we were somehow wrong.
We weren’t the only ones headed there, either. As we ran closer to the center of Camp Maplewood, more pack members joined us, and by the time we arrived, a sizable crowd had formed on either side of the street, framing the visitors’ dual trucks in a striking tableau.
“Shit,” Caleb growled. That wasn’t good. “Come on, we need to circle around to Zach in case he needs me.”
My stomach dropped at the suggestion. I didn’t want to see Caleb get hurt in some stupid alpha fight over a conflict centuries before he was born. I’d just gotten him as my mate! I hadn’t even had the chance to celebrate, so I wasn’t exactly keen on possibly losing him forever.
God, when had my life absorbed so much drama? I missed when my biggest issue was studying for my exams and worrying about pissing off my boyfriend. Granted, Caleb was a huge step up from Gavin, but at least I didn’t have to worry about him being torn limb from limb by another mythological creature.
“What’s going on here?” Zach asked. We hadn’t quite reached him, but the sheer force of his alpha voice caused people to back up, which helped us navigate our way closer.
At the sound of his voice, one of the truck doors opened, and Tayen calmly stepped out. “We’re not here for any trouble,” he stated.
“Showing up in our territory with backup and no warning?” Zach said caustically. “Funny way of doing that.”
“I understand how it looks, but we need to talk. Somewhere private.”
“You realize I’d be a fool if I spent time alone with an enemy alpha in my own territory?”
“I’m not aiming to challenge you,” Tayen said firmly. “You said you wanted unity between our packs? Well, this is the time to test that. I’m asking for your trust. Right now.”
I was still so new to my senses, but I tried to listen as hard as I could, and I swore Tayen’s heartbeat was alarmingly steady. Typically, the pulse beat faster when someone was telling a lie.
“Where’s Keller?” Zach asked after a moment’s hesitation.
“We can discuss that. If you don’t want to trust me, we’ll turn around and go home right now, but I promise, that’d be the worst thing for the both of us.”
There was something strange about his tone that told me something was going on, even if I didn’t know what it was.
“Come with me,” the Lincoln Hills Pack alpha said tersely. Then his gaze landed right on Caleb, and he jerked his head in a gesture that told us to follow along.
Well, telling Caleb to follow along. But as far as I was concerned, unless I were given a direct order to sit tight, I’d be my mate’s shadow tonight.
My mate.
It felt so strange to think of that phrase and have it come true! After far too many months of denying it, of telling myself that I was wrong and he felt nothing else towards me, I could say the words: Caleb was my mate. Mine. My inner wolf preened herself with pride, letting out a happy rumble.
We hurried along as Zach marched away, but we weren’t heading towards his house. Instead, we beelined straight towards the Chapel.
However, the whole procession stopped when the rest of the vehicle doors opened and at least ten Black Hawk members got out.
Zach paused, turning to look at the descending shifters. “Is the escort necessary?”
“Yes” was all Tayen said in return.
“They stay outside.”
“Alright.”
Real verbal, this one. I kept my snarky comment to myself, however, and scented the air as best I could. I didn’t smell aggression per se, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
My skin itched the same way it did before a bad storm, like I could feel the lightning before it struck. The lovely storybook mood Caleb and I had made together vanished entirely, and I wondered if we were on the brink of war.
The entire walk to the chapel was incredibly tense, with no one saying anything. There was just the scuff of our shoes against the ground and slight whispers from the people at the edges of the crowd. Surely Tayen and his men weren’t stupid enough to try and attack Zach in the middle of his pack. Any attack would be a suicide mission unless they planned on somehow silently doing away with Zach and Caleb.
But as we approached the door, someone stepped in front of Zach. I wasn’t exactly surprised to see it was Carl, his face gray, his scent a mix of fear and aggression.
“Please, don’t do this, sir,” he growled as his bright green eyes locked on Tayen. It was nice to see him glower at someone aside from Caleb for once.
“Step aside, Carl,” Zach ordered.
“But the Black Hawks?—”
Zach’s next words were so layered with alpha tones that my stomach did multiple flips. I’d never get used to that.
“I said, step aside. Do not make me repeat myself.”
Although it was always clear Zach was a leader, it still surprised me when he showed his more dominant side. He knew how to step up when he had to. Carl did as he was told, because of course he did, and we proceeded through the doors.
Once we were inside the Chapel, we headed straight towards the back until we finally entered a meeting room. There was a long table in the middle with four chairs on each side, plus standing room behind a line of chairs. From the moment we were inside, I sensed something had changed.
“Caleb?” I turned to my guardian, but I didn’t even need to ask. As usual, he read me so easily.
“This room is soundproofed,” he answered.
Oh.
Now my nerves were more strung out than ever. What was going on?
There was dead silence as everyone took their seats: Tayen on one side; Zach, Caleb, Lucas, and I on the other. I hadn’t even noticed the older man slip in as well.
“Alright, spill,” Zach said calmly and carefully once we were all seated.
“I apologize for the circus, but it was necessary. I’m not sure who to trust beyond my inner circle and yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we’re all in danger. More than we’ve ever realized, and we have anything from hours to a few days to stop it.”
I could smell the whole room react, so I held my nose so I wouldn’t make a sound. Caleb had mentioned my senses petered off as I grew desensitized, and I was looking forward to that happening.
“It turns out your Keller has a nose for trouble on him. He figured out my pack has a mole in it. Yours may as well. I wish I’d time to figure out who. I swore Keller to secrecy, though, and then we put on a huge fight, with me ordering him imprisoned while I stormed here.”
That was an awful lot. My mind was reeling. I wasn’t alone in my confusion, because Zach held up both hands. “Slow down a second,” he said. “You’re talking about moles and being in danger? What exactly is going on?”
“What’s going on is this Gray fellow,” Tayen said.
I didn’t need super senses to feel the way Caleb reacted. He sat up even straighter, his darker skin quickly growing pale.
“I’ll admit, we always dismissed him as a problem of your people, not ours,” Tayen continued. “We’ve done our best to keep him out of our territory, but figured he was karma for Lincoln Hills. Little did I know he was using the fringes of our territory to transport whatever he needed out of state. The tension between our packs was a key advantage. It turns out he’s not just some unethical loan shark. Guns, wolfsbane, silver weapons, drugs, even girls—you name it, he’s been peddling it, and even occasionally selling to humans. We had no idea how deep it went until we isolated the officers who held your man, Caleb. They ensured your new shifter ended up in our custody.”
My mind was going into overdrive as I tried to keep up. Gray, the man Caleb owed, wasn’t just some local gangster who’d blackmailed my mate, but a criminal on a grand scale.
Now my stolen jewelry wasn’t a big deal if it had bought safety from such a man. He was trafficking shifter girls? Not for the first time, I was incredibly grateful Caleb had found and chosen to protect me throughout everything. He’d made some serious mistakes, but I knew my life would be a million times worse if it hadn’t been for his intervention.
“What are you saying, exactly?” Zach asked.
“I’m saying this gangster, the one we allowed to exist, was taking advantage of our conflict and using it to his benefit,” Tayen said. “But that wasn’t enough for him. A plan’s been in the works for at least a couple years to further the divide, increasing his territory in the process. As far as we can tell, for a while, it was the only plan. However, things changed rapidly. Somehow, it got leaked that the long-lost daughter of the somewhat infamous Garrick family was not only found but healthy, and about to go through her change.”
At that, Tayen’s midnight-black eyes landed on me. “We fully believe his separating you from Caleb wasn’t to punish him, but rather to get you alone,” he told me. “At first, we just thought it was to get another girl to sell, but after some digging, well, it was Keller who put together the pieces.”
Were my parents that big a deal? What did it matter whose daughter I was? It wasn’t like they could pay a ransom now.
“You realize how hard this is to believe, right?” Zach asked.
“I do, because I was in your shoes not long ago, but your man convinced me after he and my most trusted scout went to a shifter dive bar on the fringe of Lincoln Hills territory.”
“That’s where I met him,” Caleb said, sounding so incredibly drained. I felt terrible for him. I just wanted to wrap my mate up in a blanket and get him hot chocolate until he could smile and forget his past, but I knew it didn’t work that way. Our pasts were never content to simply let us go. Somehow, trauma’s ramifications always found a way to rear their ugly heads.
“Exactly. Keller figured we’d find someone in the know there.” Tayen let out a bitter laugh. “He did. Gray wants to use the girl to marry into the Lincoln Hills Pack and have a legitimate claim to challenge you as alpha.”
It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room. That was what Gray had wanted all along?
“Are you saying he’s trying to get a whole pack under his control?” Zach asked.
“Yes,” Tayen answered. “And I have no doubt that as soon as he clinched any leadership here, our pack would be next on the chopping block. I don’t know if he’d try to eliminate or somehow assimilate us, but as you can imagine, I’m not keen on either. Think of the amount of damage that man could do with so many shifters in his grasp. We’d end up destabilizing the entire state. Everyone we love would be affected. No one would be safe.”
“You’re assuming he could just beat Zach,” Caleb spat. God, the tension was like a physical presence, climbing across my skin in a prickly wave.
“You’re assuming Gray would approach this with any honor, which he wouldn’t, and by that, I mean he isn’t ,” Tayen countered. “It turns out our mutual ‘friend’ has more connections than any of us knew. Gray was mighty pissed when we picked up your girl, then at once returned her to you. He’d counted on a fight starting, where she’d be easy to grab, or our refusing to give her over, starting a custody battle he could manipulate to his own ends.”
I could see it now, all playing out in my mind’s eye. For a moment, I was right back in front of Bray’s house, watching two groups of shifters in a confrontation. But instead of Zach diffusing things, the tension only escalated, and soon the shifters were engulfed in a massive fight. In the furor, it was easy to imagine the mobster carting me off, my cries for help unheard over the battle. Then Gray could forcibly mate me, show up claiming he’d found me, and bing, bang, boom—I was a part of Lincoln Hills.
I liked to think I’d protest or find a way to tip someone off, but I’d already seen what an alpha’s voice did in the hands of someone responsible. Caleb mentioned back when I was first learning about shifters that new wolves were especially susceptible to the influence of others. I wouldn’t have even considered protesting.
How fucking grim.
“We appreciate you bringing this to us,” Zach said after another long pause. “I’m glad to know peace between us thwarted an outside threat, and I’m happy to put together a plan to deal with him. I suppose what I don’t understand is your urgency. If I didn’t know better, you were warning us about a bomb ticking right under our feet.”
“Because I am ,” Tayen said . “Yes, we inadvertently ruined Gray’s original plan, but we just pissed him off. Keller and my scout discovered that he’s gathered a force of mercenary shifters and plans to attack this campground. Taking over with a legal alpha challenge is out—he’s hoping for a forceful coup.”
“Are you certain?”
“Completely. That’s why I came here as fast as I could without tipping off the mole. I had to give both our packs as much advantage as I could.”
“How can you be sure they don’t know?” Zach asked.
“I don’t, but I set up a fight with Keller to provide subterfuge. I owe your man more than words can say.”
“Where is he now?” Caleb cut in for the second time. He risked a glance over at Zach, but he didn’t mind. The alpha was far too troubled by the insane revelation Tayen just dropped on us.
I understood that technically, Tayen could be lying, but I didn’t believe it. He was radiating worry, anger, and stress, and there were other factors at play as well. I still had to work on my scent perception, but it smelled like he was telling the truth. Besides, how did he benefit from lying? I didn’t know enough about internal shifter politics, yet this was about as good-faith as could be.
“I don’t know exactly, and that’s for all our protection,” Tayen said. “I rushed Keller off with my brother and right-hand man to the Inara Pack up in Wyoming. They’re small, but we can use all the help we can get. I also wanted a safe place for our young, old, and anyone not fighting. Either he’s reached there already and talks are underway, or he hasn’t. I hope to God the latter isn’t true.”
“You... you didn’t have to do all this, and for that, you have my thanks.” Zach drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a long exhale. Meanwhile, my chest could hardly accept more oxygen. “But if we have no idea when Gray will strike, we need to ready ourselves.”
Zach’s voice was perfectly calm yet full of steel. It was like I saw his leader side take over in real time. “Caleb, send the word to my inner circle that I want them all to make their way to my home in the next hour. Tayen, I’d like your men there as well. If you have a mole—and it’s likely we do as well—let’s play this as subtly as possible and send away as many of our elders and young as we can without arousing suspicion. Vacations, hospital visits, fleeing to Inara—whatever it takes.”
He stood up, his face full of determination, and I understood again why he was such a good pack alpha. “History has divided us, but tonight we are allies. Either we come together and fight off this gangster with delusions of grandeur, or we fall by our own hubris. War has come knocking on our door, and there’s no room for shades of gray.”
Well, I picked a hell of a time to become a shifter, didn’t I?