Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Leo and Mira waited on the front porch of Adam and Cinder’s home on Sunday evening. He was excited for the planned shift and hunt with her family, but clearly not as excited as his mate. She was bouncing on her feet and watching the road for her family.
“They’re on the way,” Leo said with a chuckle.
“I know! I’m so excited!”
He put his arm around her and drew her close, smiling before he kissed her. “Me too, sweetheart.”
“Not just for the shift and hunt, which is already very cool, but talking with them and the alphas about them sticking around.” They knew her family planned to stay in Thorn Hollow, but the details were sketchy at the moment, and they were both looking forward to getting things finalized.
Engines sounded in the distance, drawing close, and after a few minutes, two trucks appeared, parking in front of the house. Mira hopped down from the porch and greeted her family, hugging her mom and sister.
“Welcome,” Leo said. “Adam and Cinder are waiting in the house for us.”
Mira joined him on the porch, and they led her family inside the large home to the family room, where Cinder and Adam were sitting on two chairs. Drinks and snacks had been set on the coffee table, and more chairs had been spread out around the couches so everyone could sit.
After the greetings, they all sat, and Rami said, “Thank you for inviting us into your home and territory.”
“You’re Leo’s family by mating, and that makes you welcome here,” Adam said.
He glanced at Cinder, who gave him an encouraging smile.
“We know you’d like to get to the shift and hunt, so we’ll cut through the chitchat and get right to it.
Officially, we would like to extend an offer for you to join our town.
You wouldn’t be pack members, but you would be allies.
That gives you access to our hunting grounds, protection through the security team, and a say in the things that happen in the town that affect everyone.
You’d still be your own clan, but allied to us, and vice versa.
We have two homes that are available on a street near Leo and Mira’s home, and in exchange for utilizing them as living quarters, you’d be working at the garage and dealership, and part of the security team in various capacities, with a salary provided from the pack’s general fund. ”
While Adam shared the rest of the details with the clan, Leo held Mira’s hand, quietly marveling at how quickly her biological family had changed their nomadic ways to stay close to her. He’d never had family want to change everything for him, although his friends would in a heartbeat.
“The spell kept us apart from our daughter far too long,” Auron said. “Now that she’s free of it and we’re together, we will happily step into life in Thorn Hollow in every way that we’re able.”
“You’ll be a great addition to our town and ally of our pack,” Cinder said.
Loose plans were made for Leo and Mira to officially become mates in the eyes of the pack during the September full moon, at which time she’d become a pack member.
The clan discussed their preferences for work—such as her mom and Selene working around town and helping pack members who needed assistance with cooking and cleaning, and the males working both at the dealership and around the town in security and other areas.
He hadn’t realized how much he wanted her family to stay until they’d agreed to it and things were settled with the pack. Mira was over the moon to have her biological family close so she could spend time with them.
They all shook hands on the new arrangement before heading outside.
“Having wings in the sky is going to give us a huge advantage when it comes to the security of our territory,” Adam said. Not only could Rami have wings in his human form and still fly, but so could Mira’s brother and uncles.
“You can do that too,” Theron said to Mira. “It just takes practice to be able to stop yourself from shifting all the way to the gryphon.”
“Let me figure out this flying in my gryphon form first,” she said with a laugh. “Then we’ll work on the other stuff.”
“I’ll leave you to your shift and hunt,” Adam said. “The security team is patrolling around the area as usual. But if you see anything out of the ordinary, alert them right away.”
“We will,” Rami said.
Their group walked away from the alphas’ house and into the woods, heading for the clearing where the pack celebrated full moons and performed ceremonies.
Mira hugged her parents, and her sister and brother joined in. “I’m so glad you’re staying,” she said.
“Your alphas are very gracious people,” Layla said with a smile at Leo.
“We’ll head back to the alphas’ house to hang out,” Selene said. “Be safe.”
“Have fun,” Mira said, waving as they turned to go back to the alphas’ house.
“Ready, sweetheart?” Leo asked.
“Definitely.” She squeezed his hand and stared up at him, her eyes luminous. “I’m so glad you’re here with me. I’m so glad to be yours.”
“I’m glad to be yours, too.”
They moved into the shadows to strip and shift as her family followed suit, and in no time, Leo was shaking out his fur and letting out a happy yip, and Mira was her beautiful gryphon, white fur gleaming and dark wings outstretched.
They joined her family and he prowled along with her father, Auron, the white lion, and kept watch as the rest of her family helped her work on taking to the sky.
The first time she swooped over Leo’s head with her eagle’s cry of pure joy, he leaped into the air and let out a howl.
He’d honestly never been happier than he was at this moment, surrounded by his mate and her family. She’d found her family, but he’d found one too.
One filled with immediate acceptance and love, something he’d been missing for most of his life.
* * *
Leo’s paws hit the earth with a steady rhythm as he ran with Auron. It had taken a while before Mira was able to get into the air with her wings and stay aloft, but once she’d figured it out with help from her family, she was unstoppable.
He’d never run with a lion before, let alone had gryphons and an eagle flying overhead.
It was pretty damn cool.
Her brother and uncles flanked her, four pure white gryphons with dark wings and eagle’s heads, looking like myths come to life. He was so proud of her.
As the two of them ran beneath the gryphons, the ground suddenly trembled and a sharp hiss split the air.
Then fire exploded across the ground. Leo skidded to a halt, separated from Auron by a wall of fire.
He laid his ears down and backed up, the scent of chemical accelerant making his nostrils sting.
Heat slapped at him, singeing his fur. He turned to run away from the wall of fire when flames erupted in another line, boxing him in.
Mira shrieked a call for help and swooped down, her wings beating back some of the flames as she hovered over him. She tried to grab his scruff and lift him, but couldn’t get him off the ground.
Auron roared and darted to the side. Mira lifted into the air, and Leo followed Auron, racing away from the worst of the fire and following the twin lines of flames that were billowing black smoke into the night sky.
They moved along the inferno, looking for a break in the flames.
Heat licked at Leo. He howled for his pack.
The smoke was thick and obscured his vision, but he finally saw a wall of flames thin enough that he was able to burst through them, rolling through the brush and extinguishing his fur that had caught fire.
The pack howled an answer that they were coming to the rescue.
But Leo didn’t have a chance to catch his breath before a new danger emerged.
Males poured from the trees as security alarms screeched in warning. The males were armed with rifles and blades.
Brent Foley’s people.
Auron and Leo leaped forward. Leo barked at Mira, hoping she knew to stay out of danger. Her airborne family dove down to attack.
Leo glanced over his shoulder, aware that the flames had cut them off from the pack. Foley might not have known they would be hunting tonight, but he’d known there would be people in the territory, and cutting them off and driving them right to his armed people was pretty damn clever.
For a psychopath.
Leo slammed into the nearest male, tearing through cloth and flesh and disarming him before moving to the next nearest male.
Auron was a blur of white fur and sharp fangs, with the gryphons diving from above and hauling people into the air and tossing them away.
Rami scraped his talons across a male’s face, his screams cutting through the melee.
Pack members came in behind the humans, subverting the walls of flames and bringing claws and fangs to help. They tore into the humans, scattering them. The forest was pure chaos. Gunshots cracked, embers popped, and screams filled the air, mixed with howls, calls, and roars.
Mira swooped low right in front of Leo, striking a male who was raising his rifle at Leo. She ripped the weapon from him with her paws, sending it sliding into the underbrush.
He pulled a blade from his hip and grabbed at her tail as she flew by, jerking her backward.
She screeched in dismay as she tumbled to the ground.
Leo leaped at him as the male swung a blade at her belly. He clamped his jaws down on the male’s arm until bone cracked, and he bellowed, beating his free fist against Leo’s head. Leo shook him like a doll, the bones crunching with the motion, and tossed the male aside.
Something dark caught Leo’s attention, and he saw a male swing a heavy pipe at Mira as she rolled to her feet. He hit her side with the pipe, and she shrieked, her body lifting into the air with the force of the blow, and then hitting the ground.
His vision hazed with red.
He lowered his head and growled.
How fucking dare that male hurt his mate!
He launched at her attacker, taking him down by the throat and biting hard, blood spraying across his muzzle.
Leo turned into a full-blown protector, taking down male after male who seemed intent on coming after Mira.
Her family joined him, her dad slashing with his thick claws, the gryphons and eagle attacking from overhead.
The pack helped beat the males back, the momentum shifting as the humans realized they were losing. They broke ranks and fled, stumbling over their dead.
Leo stood next to Mira, panting hard, blood dripping from his muzzle. Around them, the clearing was littered with the bodies of the humans. The pack howled a victory, and Leo joined in, the sound carrying to the stars above.
The gryphons landed next to Leo, Mira, and Auron, adding their call to the echoing howls.
Adrenaline pulsing through him, Leo shifted back to human, as did her family. Mira panted on the ground, eyes glazed in pain. She wasn’t bleeding, but she’d taken a pipe to the midsection.
“Shift, baby,” he said, touching her head. “It’ll heal faster.”
“You can do it, honey,” Rami said. “Just let go of your beast.”
She began to shift, stopped for what felt like forever, and then finally shifted back to human. He knelt next to her and touched her abdomen. “Is anything broken? Do you need the doctor?”
She hugged him, crying. “I…I’m okay! Are you okay? I thought we were all going to head to the afterlife!”
“I’m fine,” he said. “We’re all alive and that’s the only thing that matters.”
He held her close, thanking the fates that she, as well as he and her family, were safe.
That had been one damn close call.
Pack members arrived to put out the blaze; the accelerant was mostly burned out, but trees and brush were still smoldering. Their group returned to the alphas’ house, finding Adam and Brick shifting back to human and dressing swiftly.
“Without your air assault,” Adam said, looking at the gryphons, “I don’t know what might have happened.
Those assholes were lying in wait for us, and they knew just what to do to cut off the group.
It took us way too long to get around the fire and come in behind them.
Thank you for protecting my pack members and your family and helping us take out those anti-shifter humans. ”
“We’re allies,” Rami said. “We’ll fight to the death for your people.”
“We will for yours, too,” Adam said.
Cinder and Mira’s mom and sister brought clothes for everyone to change into. Mira hugged her family, sniffling and wiping at stray tears. Leo stood with Adam as Brick took security team members into the woods to round up the dead bodies to burn in the fire pit.
“We won the fight,” Leo said. “But Foley is getting more and more dangerous. I don’t know what he’ll do next.”
“I don’t either,” Adam said. “All we can do is our best to be prepared. I’m fucking thankful for your in-laws, I’ll tell you that.”
“Me too.”
There had been some close calls during the fight.
But he, Mira, and her family had survived, and no pack members had lost their lives.
Mira joined them, thanking Adam for fighting alongside them, and then she hugged Leo tightly. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said.
“I’m glad you’re okay, too.”
“Let’s not have anything terribly dangerous happen for a long while, okay? I don’t know if my heart can take it.” She smiled at him, her eyes luminous with unshed tears.
“I think we could definitely use some peace.”