Chapter 45
Elodie
Istared around the big, empty bowl clearing behind the castle, wiping the sweat from my brow as I surveyed everything we’d managed to put together.
Frankly, it was impressive what a whole passel of she-wolves could do on short notice.
The space had been transformed from an empty space to an outdoor theater.
Hundreds of benches and a dais had been constructed, and it was all lit by torchlight.
Tonight was the gathering, with more than half the world’s wolf packs already having descended, Kane was ready to make his opening remarks.
We still had just over a week until the night of the battle, but he wanted to thank everyone for coming together, to try to make this a bonding experience for all the wolves in the meantime.
Personally? Waiting on a war where quite a few of us could die?
Not my idea of the time for singing Kumbaya.
But people were weirdly sentimental. I’d seen dozens of emotional reunions just this morning, as wolves from all around the globe arrived and saw distant friends, family, and even acquaintances.
We were a long-lived species, so there were some who hadn’t seen each other in hundreds of years.
Frankly, it made me itchy. I fucking hated waiting, knowing the other shoe was about to drop and drop hard.
It was funny because, as a maiden, most of my life had been spent waiting.
Waiting for a call to go out on, waiting for someone to need my skills.
You’d think I would be really damn good at it.
This was a different kind of waiting.
My stomach cramped sharply, and I resisted the urge to bend over and put my hands on my knees.
It was happening more and more frequently, especially as Valens and I had both been so busy during the days, with none of those casual touches, the pheromone exchanges that had been keeping my hormones in check since he found me that day in the knights’ hall.
No, I’d been hanging close by the marked females, working in lockstep with Galyna and Dakota to keep our girls safe.
I might have been on leave, but duty didn’t take vacations.
And frankly? I didn’t want it to. Valens had confided in our closest Blackwater circle about his newfound brand, his new talent for reading magical enchantments.
He’d been working around the clock, searching for any and every advantage he could bring to our side of the fight ever since, and matching wolves with magical weapons for the coming battle.
And when that day’s work was done, he dove in with the builders to put in even more hours on providing safe accommodation for everyone staying on the grounds.
It felt like the tasks before us were never-ending, exhausting, and not at all going to get done in time.
So, I threw myself into the familiar with all I had.
I woke up before sunrise to do my exercise forms with Galyna and Dakota, sparred until we were all breathless, and then jumped into protection detail, helping with whatever the women were working on until we were all safely tucked into the family wing at night, with one of us taking rotating guard duty at the mouth of the hall.
They gracefully didn’t harp at us for being overprotective, even though Leigh looked like she wanted to bite the head off anyone who breathed in her direction.
Okay, not everyone. One late night when I’d walked down with her to the kitchen for a snack, she had confided in me that she was glad they’d stayed.
We’d achieved a kind of rhythm amid the chaos. It was comforting, even if I was itchy.
Another sharp pang nearly doubled me over, and I finally gave in to the urge to drop my hands to my knees.
I pretended I didn’t notice when Fiona sidled up next to me, as if I was just stretching my back.
She wasn’t blind or stupid, so it didn’t exactly work.
“Do you want me to get Oli? She wouldn’t want you to be in pain. Bri either, for that matter, but she’s been swamped by constant visitors most of the afternoon. For you, she’d make an exception.”
“No, I don’t need either of them to stop what they’re doing.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that. If I were feeling whatever you were just feeling that made you double over, would you go and get one of them for me?”
Damn her, she knew I would.
When I straightened, I glared at her.
“That’s a yes.”
I stopped her as she spun to go get Olivia. “Please, don’t. Yes, it hurts, but it’s bearable. And I don’t need anyone clucking like a mother hen and telling me to go lie down. There’s too much work to do, and a finite clock on getting it done. It’s just heat cramps. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
She squinted at me, probably noticing the sheen of sweat on my forehead despite the cool evening air.
“I won’t go get Oli on the condition that you take it easy the rest of the night. You double over again, I’m going to be the mother hen you’re afraid of. Capiche?”
I snorted. “Fine, capiche.”
Satisfied, she threw an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a side hug. “You know, you could also talk to Valens about how you’re feeling. I’ve been reading up on wolfy stuff, and the more physical contact you have with him in the run-up to the heat, the less pain you’ll have.”
I paused, looking down at her in surprise. “Why are you reading up on heats? As a djinn, you won’t ever have one, right?”
She shook her head, lifting her marked palm. “My daughter will one day. I don’t want her to feel like there’s anything she can’t talk to me about, even if it’s a wolf thing. I didn’t have that with my family. It’s important to me.”
“Goddess, you’re going to be a great mom one day. You’re already a great friend now. You know that? You may not have been born for pack life, but you make it look easy.”
She smiled out over our pack mates, considering the compliment. “You guys are my real family. When it’s right, it’s right.”
“Amen, sister.”
“On to more important business! I need food. Stat. I’m dying of starvation, and I have it on good authority that you didn’t eat breakfast when the rest of us did, and we missed lunch getting the clearing set up for tonight.”
My stomach growled, a different kind of hunger loudly announcing itself.
“That’s settled, then. Come on, we’ll get the others. I might need your sword to retrieve Bri,” she admitted with a sigh, pointing out the flock of women surrounding the high alpha mate.
“Now that’s a job I can do.”
Fiona gathered up the rest of our pack’s she-wolves while I extricated Brielle from her throng of fans.
We walked together back up to the castle, the mood light. We were all satisfied with a job well done.
“Did you guys see the posters someone put all around the castle?” Shay asked, shooting a bright grin back at us from where she led the group.
“No, what posters?” Bri asked, exhaustion dragging her voice down.
“Oh, just that there are going to be games after the official gathering ends. There was quite an exhaustive list. Wrestling. Sparring. Card games from all over the world. Oh! Somebody wrote strip poker for singles at the end of the list.”
Fiona snorted at my side and added under her breath, “Not sorry I’ll miss that.”
But I heard a wistful sigh on my other side and shot a surprised look Dakota’s way. “Don’t agree? Got it in mind to strip for strangers?”
The younger maiden blanched, and I felt bad for teasing her.
“Look, no judgment. Just don’t go alone, okay? Male wolves in large groups can get territorial, and we’ll need to keep our heads. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun. Galyna’s on hallway duty tonight, right?”
She nodded. “I would like to go out, have a little fun before things get too serious.”
I resisted the urge to tell her they were already ninety percent of the way there.
Fuck, who was I to judge a little harmless fun when she was off duty? Nobody, that’s who.
“Well, you should go, then.”
“Just not alone. I will, thanks.” She flashed me a bright grin, her usually happy personality right back to the surface now that she had plans for the evening.
And me? I was just glad that some of the jealousy and bitterness I’d felt toward her when she’d shown up had faded. She was a sweet girl, and I didn’t want animosity with any of my sisters.
We made it back to the castle as dusk began to settle over the countryside, a magnificent sunset painting everything in red, pinks, and golds.
I paused, taking a moment for myself to just breathe and soak it in. I tried to ignore the little voice in the back of my head that said we didn’t have many sunsets left.