VIVIANNA
Having three of my mates off blowing up a river made me anxious.
They told me that they wouldn’t reach out unless something was wrong, so no news was good news, but it didn’t make this nauseous feeling go away.
We’d argued over just the three of them going.
I thought they should bring more backup because we had no idea if they had guards watching over the place.
They all assured me it would be fine, but that hadn’t made me feel any better.
“Viv?”
“Hmm?” I answered, shaking myself out of my thoughts to meet my friend’s gaze. The expression on her face told me that I’d missed the fact that she’d been talking to me. “I’m sorry, Nev, I just can’t seem to stop worrying about the guys.”
She smirked at me and cocked her head to the side. “Can’t say I’m surprised. A female with child doesn’t like to have her mates away from her for very long, and they’ve been gone all day. Trust in them. If something went wrong, they would have called for help.”
“But what if they couldn’t reach out to me being so far away?” I blurted, my anxiety reaching the boiling point. “What if they’re out there dead or dying and I don’t know it?”
Neveah grabbed my shoulders and looked me dead in the eye. “Breathe, Viv. Take a moment to feel your mate bond. Do they feel alive?”
“Yes,” I answered right away, having been checking in on them like that all day.
“Aright, then you have your answer. If they are alive, there is nothing short of death that would keep them from coming back to you,” she assured me, then pulled me into a hug.
“I’m talking to you as much as myself, alright?
I’ve lost a mate, and it’s the worst feeling in the whole world.
I’m amazed I’m still alive. Even though I know Nick went to pick up supplies that Chad sent, it still sends me into a panic every time I’m not with him.
The two of us will just have to stick together and keep each other from doing something crazy. ”
I laughed, knowing the guys already thought the two of us together meant that crazy was bound to happen. “Sounds like a plan. Thank you, Nev. It’s so nice to have a real friend who understands this crazy world we both exist in.”
“Right back at you, girl,” she said with a wink.
“Now, for the thing that we were discussing before you so rudely tuned me out. It seems the attacks that are happening on the smaller labs have gotten them to pull all their important research and scientists into one place, like we hoped. This means our people got called into the lab today, so whatever voodoo Darius pulled in combination with the attacks, worked. The women that we’ve saved are getting put into various safe houses, with members of the rebellion that can’t fight but want to help.
It seems this crazy plan of ours is rolling along just as we hoped.
Now that we have eyes inside the place, that is the last cog in this crazy network of moves we needed to make. How have lessons been going with Gams?”
Letting out a sigh, I flopped onto the couch in the meeting room that we’d been using as our hub of information and planning.
“Good, I guess. All of it is meditation and breathing, with no action whatsoever. How the hell am I supposed to fight with ancient magic if all I know how to do is breathe right?”
“That, cachorro, isn’t the question you need to be asking yourself.
What you need to be thinking is why I’m having you do all the breathing exercises,” Maria admonished as she entered the room, carrying a tray filled with food.
“You both missed lunch. I wasn’t about to have you miss dinner as well. ”
I smiled at her, loving how she acted so tough, but her heart was that of a grandmother, warm and loving. “Thank you,” I said, taking a plate from her. “So why is it that you have me doing all the breathing and meditation?”
She glanced at me down her nose. “Can you tell me where your power comes from?” Opening my mouth, ready to spout out the answer, I paused, realizing that I didn’t actually know.
“See, cachorro, if you don’t know yourself inside and out, then you’ll never have control over what power you do have—alpha or ancient magic.
Being able to find your center and learn how to manipulate your power the way you want to makes the rest easy.
If there is no control, there is no skill. ”
Now that she explained her craziness, it did really make sense, to the point I thought I might work on it more myself later tonight.
Seeing as I couldn’t shift, this was the most important thing for me to figure out…
that and how to get there. Everyone else was going shifted, but from the scouting we’ve done, it doesn’t look like we could take an ATV, or something like it, through the terrain, not to mention it was way too loud and would announce my presence.
“Who figured out that we couldn’t shift during pregnancy?” I asked, catching both of them off guard.
Maria blinked at me confused. “Who told you that?”
“Ah, everyone.”
“This early, you can still shift. It’s when you start showing and your belly gets big that it’s dangerous.
That is an old wives’ tale told by men to keep their women locked away from others, since they become overly possessive while their mate is with child.
It’s dangerous because the child doesn’t shift when you do, so a human baby is far too large in our wolf form and can cause problems. I’m sure the fact that we are having a hard time with pregnancy to begin with adds to the tall tale wanting to keep our women and children as safe as we can,” Maria explained, making my jaw drop.
“Are you telling me they kept me in a drugged coma, claiming it was to keep the twins safe, but it was all a lie?” I yelled.
Maria’s brows snapped up to her hairline at my outburst. “On that I can’t speak with any authority, but twins are one of the rarest things to happen.
I’m not in any way condoning what they did, but it would ensure you stayed calm and compliant while they did everything else to you during that time.
Would you have let them pump you full of drugs that would change both your genetic structure as well as theirs? ”
Well, when she puts it that way, it’s hard to argue, isn’t it? I know for a fact if they hadn’t kept me locked up inside you, I would have done something about the situation, that’s for damn sure.
I had to agree. There was no way that I would have willingly let them keep me from my mates, locked away in some lab in another country.
“So I can shift right now without harming the baby?” I questioned, still not believing it.
“Do you think I would tell you to do something that could kill your little one?” Maria challenged.
“No…”
“Then either take me at my word or don’t, I can’t control what you do.” Neveah snorted at this, giving me an eye roll at that statement. “Oh, don’t even get me started with you, darling. When are you going to give me grandbabies?”
Now Neveah looked worried, having the attention all on her. “Ah, well… I guess I’ve just been waiting for things to calm down before we really try.”
Maria gave her a disapproving look and seemed to have something to say about that when Orion burst into the room.
“Viv, I need you to come with me—now,” he bit out, Okami’s black eyes looking at me.
Nodding, I got up and took his outstretched hand as we raced through the lodge and outside into the night air. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”
“I just had a vision,” Okami snarled as we ran toward one of the ATVs the ranch hands used to get around the property. “They’re bringing Hope to the lab.”
At this, I dug my feet into the ground, pulling him to a halt. “What did you just say?”
“I saw a vision of a woman with Hope in her arms, in the back of an SUV, being told they would be at the underground entrance to the lab shortly. Our little girl was never at the lab. Faulk lied to you. They’ve been using it to waste our time while she was out in the world.
We need to get to her before they actually make it to the lab. ”
I still couldn’t wrap my head around this information. We might have had the chance to get Hope back sooner, but we’ve been so laser focused on this one location we didn’t bother to try and look elsewhere. “Do the others know?”
“Yes, they are already on their way. I got a hold of the other three that were out that way. Seems they were on their way back, but turned around, and will head them off since they’re closer. Now, hop up. We have to take the long way around,” Orion explained, gesturing for me to get in the ATV.
Shaking my head, I ripped off my clothes and shifted, ignoring Orion yelling at me to stop.
Once my paws hit the ground, I was off, pushing myself to max out my speed, even flattening my ears in case that helped.
Soon, Orion was right by my side, growling at me.
“What the actual fuck, Viv? Do you know what you just did?”
“Believe it or not, shifting doesn’t harm the baby this early,” I stated, shoving him out of my way as he tried to dart in front of me to slow me down.
“Who the hell told you that?”
“Maria.”
“Remind me to kill her when we get back, because that is absolutely not true. I’ve seen women lose pups by shifting,” Orion countered.
“What’s done is done. You can have that fight after we get our daughter back.” Then a thought hit me. “We should just attack the lab now. If they’re expecting an arrival, then they’ll open up the door for them and we can infiltrate that way.”
“That would throw the whole plan that we’ve been working on for the last few days out the window.”
I glanced at him as we raced through the pastures and leaped over the stream. “Being unpredictable makes it far harder for anyone to rat us out, and if we’ve been betrayed, then they won’t be able to give them a heads-up on this change of plans.”
Orion didn’t answer me but when I felt the pack link go wide, pulling in everyone, I knew he agreed with me.
“Change of plans, people, we’re hitting the lab tonight—right now.
Christian, get everyone ready and on the move.
Neveah, make sure your inside people know to expect us and prepare the welcome package. ”
“You got it,” Christian answered.
“Nick just pulled up with the supplies, so we’ll get those sorted as fast as we can and move out,” Neveah said. “Don’t have all the fun without us.”
The connection fell silent as everyone went about their tasks, but I needed to hear from my mates, so I closed the wide link and pulled on my mate bonds. “Everyone alright?”
“Yes, love, we’re alright. Had some excitement but got the job done just as we planned, although it seems like we won’t be playing by the original rules,” Tav said with a chuckle. “I’m guessing you made the call to push the plan forward?”
“Figured we’re going in to get Hope, why not take the bad guys down while we’re at it?” I answered. All my mates shared their agreement with my plan. “We should be catching up to the others who left before us soon, but you three will definitely get there first.”
“Wait, I thought you had to take the long way. How are you meeting up with us?” Bentley inquired.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Orion muttered. “Someone is filling her head with stupid ideas.”
“Maria,” they all said together.
“Knock it off, you guys. Maria has no reason to betray me or lie to me about anything. She’s had so many opportunities to do so and hasn’t, so when she told me it was safe for me to shift this early in the pregnancy, I believed her.
Now, why don’t we focus on the fact that our daughter needs us, and we have assholes to kill? ” I ordered.