Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-five
Emery
“You need some sleep.” Phoenix nuzzled my neck.
We both did, but Phoenix had run to the bear camp and back. He had a meeting to plan a war… and—
“Oh fuck.”
Phoenix jerked his head up. “Did you just say a bad word?” A mix of humor and astonishment.
I nodded, unable to resist the rush of tears.
“Sweetheart,” Phoenix murmured, seeing them. “I’m sorry, but we can’t live in fear. I need to make sure Tia has a future. She won’t if I don’t do something now.”
Even if it meant her dad didn’t have a future?
But I didn’t voice the question, I couldn’t.
I knew the answer, and the physical pain that knowledge brought beat in my chest. I glanced down at her and took in the blue eyes staring at me.
She’d been quiet, so I thought she’d gone back to sleep, but as I gazed at her, it was almost as if she was listening. Could she tell?
“I’ve called a Gathering simply as a matter of respect. It won’t alter my decision.”
“And what’s your decision?” I managed to croak out. “You don’t know where they are.”
Phoenix paused. “Actually, I think I do. Do you remember the motel you stayed in the night you started your first heat? They’ve appeared there twice. I think that’s the portal.”
“You make it sound like weird time travel.”
He smiled. “Sounds like it, doesn’t it? But I’m starting to believe their existence is as much illusion as fact.”
“Meaning?”
I walked into the bedroom, sat on the chair, and bared my nipple. Tia clung on instantly, and it grounded me.
“Do you want a bottle for her, as well?” Phoenix asked, not answering my question.
“Yes, but a small one. Maybe a couple of ounces.” And it worked. She fed on both sides and then took two ounces of milk. Good. So she could take a bottle if she needed to.
“Go back to this portal thing,” I urged. We were talking about normal things as if that could put off what we really needed to know. What I needed to know.
Phoenix yawned, then stretched out on the bed after watching us. I could tell he was exhausted, even if he was trying to come up with an answer.
“Silver-skin legend is very old. They were once very powerful, and things got out of hand. Only shifters are strong enough to kill them by ripping out their heart.”
“But Alessandro let me go,” I pointed out. “If they’re as strong as you say, why give that concession?”
“Because he needed Rhys. We think they’re having the same problem with births that we are.
” Phoenix threw an arm over his face, and I glanced down at Tia.
She was still watching me. Almost expectantly.
Every other newborn I’d ever seen always fell asleep when they fed, but she just kept staring up at me.
“What do you want, little one?” I asked, half in humor, half serious.
It was almost as if she knew something I didn’t, and while that seemed ridiculous, I wasn’t sure it was wrong.
“Have you noticed anything different about her?” I said, feeling silly.
When I didn’t get an answer, I looked over at Phoenix, who was out for the count.
I glanced back at Tia, who’d shut her eyes, and I stood and settled her in her crib.
I didn’t get in bed next to Phoenix. Instead, I just returned to the chair and thought about everything I knew.
The vampires were insanely possessive about their offspring, as they called them.
They were cruel. Alessandro had only healed me and returned me because he needed Rhys.
I doubt I would be offered the same concession a second time. Or would I?
But when the trucks arrived, Phoenix would hold a Gathering and then declare war, and as the alpha, he would be the biggest target. I’d seen how fast they moved. I also knew he would be the one they went for first.
What else did I know?
That Rhys had returned to save me. That somehow Phoenix had promised to save him before he was thirty.
That the pack believed the vampires were responsible for the she-wolves not getting pregnant.
But that the vampires were having the same problems as the other shifters.
That their birth rates had dwindled. That by some miracle, I’d gotten pregnant because I was a man, and whatever happened with the heats only targeted women.
And that Phoenix was right. This couldn’t go on.
But what if Alessandro and all he was, was a sham? They were bound to have bigger numbers around their leader. They were immortal, but that didn’t make them invincible. Shifters could kill them.
I glanced at Phoenix and smiled when I heard the soft snore. I knew he would give his life for me and Tia in a heartbeat. How many other people could say the same?
I stood and paced as quietly as I could. I needed a plan. What did I have that the wolves didn’t? What could I possibly do to avert a war?
I had a thought that really I should be worried about my dad being taken, and I was in an abstract way.
He’d betrayed me unforgivably, but even before that, he’d never been a dad.
Not like I wanted to be. Not like Phoenix was.
It didn’t make his life worth any less, but I wasn’t considering going to find Alessandro because of him.
Fudge.
Yep, that was what I was thinking. I had maybe three hours to pull it off, two if Phoenix woke earlier.
I didn’t know how to contact the vamps. Maybe drive to the motel because I knew that had been the meeting point.
Was this ridiculous? I stood and gazed down at our daughter.
I wanted her to grow up as part of a strong pack.
I also wanted her to have the benefits of the human world.
I glanced over at my exhausted mate. I loved Phoenix with everything in me and questioned my sanity.
Not for loving him, but for thinking I could make a difference and stop those I loved from dying or living in fear.
I was a kindergarten teacher, for goodness’ sake, not some special forces SEAL that could dive into danger and save the world.
Although I’d challenge any serviceman or woman to manage my twenty-six-strong pack of five-year-olds and not wave a white flag by lunchtime.
I smiled because I knew I’d already made my decision.
The trick was going to be getting out of here.
All the access roads were manned, and they would fight to the death.
But the wolves weren’t expecting elementary warriors.
I bent down and brushed a kiss on Phoenix’s cheek, then on Tia’s, and let myself out of the bedroom to make a phone call and grabbed some empty bottles.
“You’re going to do what?” Danny squeaked out from the back seat of Gemma’s car.
I patiently repeated my plan.
“That’s not a plan,” Gemma said as she swung into the motel parking lot. “That’s like a suicide mission.”
I threw both my hands up in the air. “I’m all ears if you have a better one.”
“Is this a pregnancy hormone thing?” Danny asked, leaning forward.
“I’m not pregnant anymore,” I snapped back.
“No,” he said slowly. “But you’re breastfeeding. Hormones can be a killer.”
And in the middle of everything, I met Gemma’s gaze, and we both laughed. “Never change, Danny,” I whispered, and he reached over and took my hand.
“While we’re waiting, I want to talk about Danny and the bear,” Gemma said.
Danny gasped in mock outrage, but I grabbed the diversion with both hands. “You’re so good together.”
Danny sniffed. “He has wardrobe challenges.”
Gemma sniggered. “Which I’m pretty sure you can deal with. I’m more interested in how he’s going to fit in another way.”
“You didn’t just say that,” I said in horror.
“What?” Gemma arched a brow. “He’s huge, and Danny, well, isn’t.”
“What I want to know is if it’s true, they have knots, like in the books?” Danny asked in a smaller voice than I was expecting.
I probably turned crimson, and even in the dim dashboard lighting, Gemma saw it and laughed. “I think that’s an affirmative.”
“You’re just jealous,” I mumbled. “Anyway, Phoenix is a wolf. I don’t know about bears.”
“So, assuming they turn up,” Gemma said, “what do you want us to do?”
“Get the hell out of here,” I said as I looked up, and at least five vampires appeared out of nowhere in front of the car. “Tell Phoenix I love him,” I added as I got out. I saw Alessandro and walked to meet him.
“Not that I’m complaining about a new feeding supply, but why are you here?”
I was sick of playing games. “I came to stop a war.”
Amusement crossed Alessandro’s face. “I always thought humans had such an inflated opinion of themselves. He has the child. He won’t start a war for you.” But I knew he was wrong.
“I’m here to stop a war, not to start one.”
And Alessandro laughed. “And why should you think Draven’s son will behave any different from his father? No shifters would dare break the truce. We’ll slaughter the humans in their thousands.”
“No, you won’t,” I said conversationally, as if this was normal. As if we were swapping old war stories over coffee. “Because you can’t. Because there aren’t enough of you any longer, and we both know that.”
I saw anger flash in Alessandro’s eyes and knew I was right, but the yank on my hand gave me no time to register that as the world blurred.