CHAPTER NINETEEN || DANIEL
Islept a little, with Hunter on one side of me and Lee on the other, both of them doing their best to soothe me and make me feel safe. They didn’t understand yet that I was anything but safe. I wanted to lose myself to unconsciousness, but I only let myself sleep in fits and bursts.
In the afternoon, Reed and Harris called a pack meeting to debrief the events of the previous night.
We met in the mess hall, which I thought was strange—apart from pack breakfasts, we usually debriefed at Emma’s.
Or sometimes even at the fire pit—which had been Jeremy’s preference before Reed took over as alpha.
But when the three of us walked in, I understood why we needed the bigger space.
Harris and Reed had invited both Tamrand and Topher to join us.
A fae and a vampire in a pack meeting was almost enough to make me momentarily forget about my family insisting that I was leaving that very night.
Almost.
“The pack isn’t going to allow anything to happen to you,” Lee assured me, as though he’d just read my mind. “None of us are.”
“Once we tell them what happened, the pack will run those fuckers out of town,” Hunter added, his voice low. He gave me a reassuring smile. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Every single one of us will fight for you.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, trying to make myself believe that. With effort, I managed to return his smile.
“First things first,” Reed said, after we’d all gathered, standing and moving to the center of the room to face us. “We owe a very deep debt to Hunter, Lee, and Daniel. They were the ones who thwarted the Mara. Their combined skill and bravery ensured the continued safety of the pack and the town.”
“Let’s go, Daniel!” Lacey whooped, turning in her seat to beam in my direction, pride stamped across her face. “You’re awesome. Obviously, we all already knew that.”
“Hear, hear,” Emma said, nodding at Lacey. There was warmth in her eyes when her gaze met mine. “The pack is stronger with you in it, young man. Especially now that these sympathetic manifestations have died down. You are truly one of our own.”
Sarah added, “Those creeps didn’t stand a chance. And now they can’t hurt anyone else. That’s all because of you guys.”
Oliver smiled over at me as well and when his dark eyes met mine, he simply said, “Well done.”
But coming from Oliver—who was often quiet and reserved during pack meetings, especially now that Jeremy was gone—that was practically a gushing endorsement.
“It was a team effort,” I mumbled, my face suddenly feeling uncomfortably hot. “Hunter and Lee did most of the work.”
“Not at all true,” Hunter disagreed loudly, with a grin that went all the way up to his eyes.
He gave my hand a gentle squeeze, then announced, “If not for Daniel, we wouldn’t have been able to slay the Mara.
The fight would have gone really differently.
” His gaze slid away from the pack and met mine again.
“You made it possible. You’re magic, Daniel. You always have been.”
“Agreed,” Lee said firmly, a warm smile tracing across his lips. His voice dropped and he added, “And we’ll keep reminding you for as long as it takes.”
I met his eyes and smiled, some of the anxiety from the encounter with my family—and with the sudden attention of the pack—subsiding.
“You also aided us in maintaining our secrecy after the fight,” Harris put in, leveling a wide smile in my direction. His eyes were dancing with pride. “Thank you, Daniel.”
Reed, who was gazing fondly at Harris, his dark eyes filled with absolute adoration, nodded. He, too, met my gaze. “We don’t take anything for granted.”
“Of course,” I managed, feeling the strong desire to melt right into the floor. “It was no problem.”
I blinked back tears.
Had the pack ever publicly recognized me like this before?
While I struggled to control my breathing, so I wouldn’t become a blubbering mess in front of all of them, Reed added, “We also owe Tamrand and Topher a deep debt. They are here as well, because we wish to formally thank them for aiding us.” He paused, his gaze meeting with Tamrand’s.
“You told us how to destroy these creatures and helped us maintain the safety of our town.”
“This was the least I could do. It is my town as well,” Tamrand said stiffly, his back ramrod straight. Like me, it was clear he didn’t care for the attention. “But yes. You are quite welcome.”
Reed nodded at him, then turned to Topher. “You’ve also done our pack a great service. The Greens, who witnessed our pack in action, no longer remember anything that could put them—or us—in harm’s way. You helped us with Robert, as well. Thank you.”
Murmurs of “thank you” went around the room, though I could tell that the pack was less comfortable with Topher than they were with Tamrand. Until recently, the pack had thought vampires were soulless monsters. And old habits died hard.
“I’ve been monitoring him,” Topher said quietly.
“Robert, I mean. He’s doing as well as can be expected.
He was ill for several days, but he seems to be recovering.
And his memories are returning.” He paused, his expression becoming momentarily troubled, before smoothing back out.
“I had to remove his memory of the Mara attacking him. But I believe he will be fine, long-term.”
“We appreciate that,” Harris assured him.
Topher met Harris’s gaze and smiled, nodding.
Unlike the rest of the pack, Harris had formed a close friendship with a vampire before he became a wolf and understood firsthand that they were just people, like the rest of us.
Some of them were good, some not so much, and most were somewhere in the middle.
“Jensen will make a full recovery as well,” Harris added. He traded another look with Reed that seemed to convey volumes.
It was Reed who continued. “Harris and I have made the decision to reveal the true nature of the pack and the town to Jensen.”
Surprise jolted through me and I looked first at Hunter, then at Lee, and saw my alarm reflected on their faces as well. We weren’t alone, either. Shocked murmurs went around the room.
Reed held up a hand, and the pack immediately fell silent.
“It was a difficult decision,” he said slowly, his expression unusually troubled.
“Naturally, Topher offered to help us contain the situation.” He paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
“The secrecy of the pack is paramount, of course. However, it is time that the deputy becomes aware of what we do here. This is for his continued safety, for ours, and for the town at large.”
Harris put in, “We believe he’ll help us ensure the pack’s long-term stability and security. He’s a member of law enforcement, and in the past several months alone, he could have helped us prevent harm to the residents of Crescent Springs—had he known what we really do here.”
“How is he handling this news?” Emma asked, frowning at Harris and Reed. “What is the risk to the pack?”
“He’ll need time,” Harris admitted. “It’s a lot to take in, but he’s handling it as well as anyone can.”
Reed added, “He’s agreed to allow us the opportunity to fully explain ourselves.”
Emma pursed her lips, frowning at them. It was clear that she didn’t agree with their assessment. “And in the event that he cannot come to terms with the truth, can we expect that you will handle it?”
Harris’s gaze slid to Topher, his eyebrows raised in question, and the vampire nodded grimly back at him.
“Yes,” Reed said with a sigh. “We’ll handle it, if it comes to that.”
Emma visibly relaxed. As did most of the rest of the pack.
I wasn’t sure I blamed them. Jensen seemed like an okay guy—though I didn’t know much about him—but the idea of our secret exposed to a member of law enforcement was… troubling.
“Now, is there any other pack business that needs to be addressed before we end the meeting?” Reed asked.
That was a new thing, ever since Harris had arrived.
Between Harris’s tactical and investigative know-how and Reed’s willingness to be an alpha who actively solicited input from the rest of the pack, we were way better off than before.
The pack was almost as strong as we’d been before half of us had left in disgust after Jeremy had forced us to act like the very monsters we were supposed to be fighting. He’d had his reasons, but still.
Everyone looked around the room at each other, and no one spoke.
Hunter gave me a meaningful look that I understood as: we need to tell them what’s going on.
Lee gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Well, I guess that’s it,” Reed said. “Good meeting, everyone.”
“Wait,” I said, taking a deep breath and standing. My heart pounded in my chest. “Um. I have something.”
A heartbeat later, Hunter and Lee both stood up with me, the three of us creating a unified front.
Reed’s brows knitted together. “What is it? Is everything okay?”
“My family is here,” I said, deciding that the best thing I could do would be to jump into it directly. “They want me to come home with them.”
“Which isn’t happening,” Hunter said flatly.
“Absolutely not,” Lee agreed.
“Do you want to go with them?” Reed asked, his head tilting to the side slightly as he studied me. I understood, suddenly, that he was probably wondering if I was asking him for permission to leave.
“No,” I said firmly. “I don’t want to go with them at all. I want to stay here. This is my home.”
“Yes,” Reed agreed solemnly, nodding. “It is.”
“How powerful are they?” Harris asked.
As if on cue, the door to the mess hall flew open with a bang.
I whirled toward the sound.
And then my brother walked in. His lips twisted into a cold smile. “We’re very powerful.”
He was alone. No mom, no dad, and no Rowan. Just my older brother, broad-shouldered and dark-haired, his expression carrying the particular smugness of someone who had come to do damage and was looking forward to it.