30. Weylin
30
WEYLIN
I sat in the tactical office, watching the live feed as our newest and young recruits ran through the live simulation. The office was a small room, comprised of a long stainless-steel table and over a dozen screens above it. Controls on the desk allowed us to move the camera, set off triggered traps or dummies, and communicate through the speakers.
Rain used the simulation center to run through many scenarios, whether in wolf form or human. It was up to the gammas to decide the best fit. Young recruits always tended to revert to their wolf form. If they made it through the testing, our training would ensure they were comfortable in combat in either form.
“Screen five, who is that?” I asked.
“Two seventy-six,” the training gamma next to me stated. He was the one who’d selected the recruits from different clans.
“Send him home.” I leaned into the screen, watching the wolf inspect the room he was in with extreme caution.
“He showed promising results on the written test,” the trainer explained.
I shook my hand, reaching out and pressing a button, setting off a spring trap doll that jumped from a box. The wolf scrambled in fear before catching himself and then attacking.
I gave the trainer a pointed look. He only covered his face as he circled the recruit’s number on his notepad. “He’s all eyes, not using any of his other senses. Never mind, that Chucky triggered his flight response at first, but it also triggered his fight response second, and there was no reason.” I sighed. “Now I need to replace another Chucky.”
“Maybe go with something a little less… possessed.”
“Nah, the vets love watching the youngins lose their shit over Chucky. Gives them something to look forward to when they have to review the footage.”
Meet me in Kage’s office , Rainor called through the link.
Oh! He was back, which meant Lila was back from working at the precinct.
“Bossman calls,” I said, standing from the wheeled office chair. “Once they are finished here, upload the video. Then move them to the arena. I’ll have Gunnar examine them. Keep your eyes on screen two, she shows promise.”
“Will do.” The trainer gave me a little salute before I left.
I got into the elevator and reached out my feelers. This was something new I had started to do. I was searching for Lila in the building. I could sense Kage and Rainor right away—they were always there, at the back of my mind. Unless one of us cut off the link, which didn’t happen too often.
It wasn’t until I was three floors below her that I felt Lila. The first time I tried this, she’d had to be on the same floor as me. Then it was one floor away, then two, and now three. I was stretching and training the ability. It wasn’t anything like the link that belonged in my mind. This, Lila, came from my heart's power. It was a feeling, similar to the first time we touched, only on a smaller scale. Warmth spread through me, and I always knew exactly where she was, something that pleased my wolf to no end.
After nights spent holding her, eating her, fucking her, and then days spent dreaming of holding, eating, and fucking, I was beginning to have a little obsession. Her scent alone drove me mad with lust. Her eyes had my wolf near purring with just a single glance. Her touch was a drug, and she was the dealer, enticing me back for more and craving her to the brink of insanity when she wasn’t around. It was an obsession that might be bordering on unhealthy, but it was an unhealthy habit I never wanted to break.
When the time was right, I would claim her. I would complete our bond, and I would feel the connection all the time. I’d be able to see what she was doing, where she was, and what she was feeling.
For now, I played this little exercise, stretching my heart's power until it sought her out. By the time the elevator made its way to the top floor and opened, I knew exactly where Lila was. Entering the waiting room, I found Emma and Lila with their heads bent together, whispering their gossip as they normally did. But when I strode right for Lila, grabbing her and placing her ass on the receptionist table, Emma let out a little squeak and turned her back to us.
Lila rolled her eyes at me but smiled all the same. “Was that your last day?” I asked.
“No.” She said it as if she had been saying it a dozen times a day for the last few days, which she had, but that was beside the point. I hated having her off our territory, even though she wasn’t far and we had a team close to her; it wasn’t enough. “Two more days.”
Weylin!
“Fuck.”
She leaned forward, giving me a quick kiss. “Tell them I say hi. Rainor was in a mood the whole way here.” She said it jokingly, but there was a hint of concern in her eyes.
That had me checking the link, unsure how I had missed Rainor’s anxiousness.
“I’ll be back.” I gave her one last chaste kiss before heading down towards the office.
“Oh, god,” Lila was saying in a hushed tone behind me. “I told you, if I’m not knocked up already, I would be surprised.” My ears twitched.
“Like I said…” Emma’s voice was even quieter, but I could hear her clearly. “You’re pure blood. I doubt you would conceive when you’re not in your heat. It just isn’t common with pure bloods.”
Was this what Rainor was anxious about? Lila was sick most mornings, but since she’d switched from coffee to tea, to her disdain, she had gotten better. I figured it was just the trauma of all she had been through recently. When I was in the orphanage, I used to vomit every morning, knowing what the day was about to bring me.
Kage would lose his shit. We didn’t have all the information about Lila’s pack, but it was extremely apparent she was of good blood. If he produced an offspring with her, the pack would be tripping over themselves trying to celebrate. Damn, that pup would be the fucking star of all the land.
The likelihood that my diluted blood would reproduce with her was low, but I’d rock the uncle gig. We’d attempted to trace my pack years ago. It was so muddled, there was no point. A typical rogue family blood—mix of everything.
I walked into the room, grinning and ready to whip out the cigars, about to congratulate my brothers, when I was met with the smell of fear and foreboding. Kage sat behind his desk, pushed away with his elbows on his knees and head hanging down. Rainor was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the wall, as if he had slid down.
I searched the link, but my mind couldn’t keep up, couldn’t comprehend. “Did this happen now or—”
“Thirty-three years ago,” Rainor said.
“The images in your mind…” I questioned.
“Pictures. I have teams there now, collecting the remains.”
An icy chill traveled down my spine, and I fell into the chair.
Kage was the one to stand up, walking over to the territory map. This one didn’t have the blacked-out names of the packs we had overturned, but in his mind, he was staring at the map that hung in his home office.
“Thirty-three years ago, Lila was born. At the time, I was headed to my first hunt with my father, an important one, one ordered by the council.” He stared at the exact spot on the map where Scarab Pack had been located. “I see now why he brought me along for such a risky mission. They were powerful. We flushed them out of their homes, brought weapons with us, caught them off guard, and attacked during their transitions. My father had said it was not a moral fight; it was a necessary fight.”
“As were most of his raids,” Rainor whispered.
“We massacred Lila’s pack. Many died by my hand, and my father fed me my first heart. Their pack leader. Lila’s father.”
“How can you possibly know all of this?” I asked.
“We got the information from the council,” Rainor said. “Along with an order that, if we suspect any Scarab to be living, we are to check them for a mark.”
I shook my head, knowing where this was heading.
“A birthmark,” he continued.
“Yeah, well, we all have it,” I snapped. “What will they do, then?”
“This just got more complicated,” Kage said.
“Our marks are different.” Rainor looked up at me, his eyes wide. “We didn’t have them since birth. They were seared into us by the fates, the day Lila was born. The link was created the day she was born, the beast showed himself the day Lila was born, her pack was massacred the day she was born. This isn't a coincidence!” Rainor snapped.
“So, the fates are fucking with us, again.”
He shook his head, getting to his feet, “Do you have any idea what is happening? The mess this is? The absolute chaos that is about to fall upon Cridhe?” His face turned red with anger, his eyes flashing red. “We are cut from the council. We are demanding they tell us the ability Scarab Pack held, and they are refusing. They are demanding access to our pack member files, and we are refusing. It’s only a matter of time until they find her,” he yelled. “They don’t wish to talk to her, Weylin, they want to eliminate her. Eradicate her. Whatever the fuck her power is, they are scared shitless. And by prying them with questions and forcing their hand, we just painted a big red target on our foreheads.”
“I’m not afraid of the council,” Kage said.
“Neither am I.” Rainor took a deep breath, calming the beast within. Straightening his tie and brushing his hands down his suit jacket, he finally said in a controlled yet shaky voice, “I’m afraid of losing her. We thought claiming her was a mistake. Enemies would go through her to reach us, to take down Cridhe. It’s the opposite. Her enemies, whoever they are, will use us to get to her.”
The very thought had me growling. “They could try.” I’d shred them. I might not be as savage as the beast, but there was a monster within me, nonetheless. I’d protect her with my life.
“That’s it, then… isn’t it?” Kage said, turning to face us with a heavily guarded face. “That’s the link, the markings, it’s why it came to the three of us.”
“Why?” I asked.
Rainor’s shoulders dropped as something clicked in his mind. “We are meant to guard her.” His face fell slack, calculating, formulating. I couldn’t keep up with all the thoughts flying through his mind, so I closed his thoughts out of mine. “It would make sense. If there was something within Lila that the fates wanted protected, why wouldn’t they give her mates? Hand selected, gifted with a link, and part of the largest, most powerful pack closest to her.”
“The only question now is, what is it they are trying to protect? Will it bring with it deliverance, or will it be the collapse of Cridhe?” Kage said.
“If balance isn’t upheld…” Rainor repeated the mantra he and Kage had said all our childhood.
I shook my head. “Chaos reigns on us, no matter what we do. So, now what do we do?” I asked. “Tell her about the council, the marks, the possible power she possesses? Because I can assure you, she has no idea. This all comes down to us having to tell her one thing.”
I reached out to Lila, stretching at the same time as opening my mind, wanting to know where she was, what she was feeling.
“We can’t say a word,” Kage said. “You think her trust will be as easily gained when she learns that her pack is dead, annihilated by the hand of Cridhe?”
It was at that moment that my heart flickered, a small blip within my chest telling me that Lila was not only nearby, but in the act of stretching out to her, I’d somehow opened the link to include her. Which meant…Kage’s words had accidentally flowed through me and to her.
“Fuck. Me,” I whispered. We had all felt it.
“How did you do that?” Rainor demanded. “I felt her. How did you—”
The door opened and Lila walked in.