Chapter 27
THE PACK RETREAT REVISITED
I find Jasper in his father’s room the next morning. It’s barely light out and what sunlight is slipping through the gap in the curtains is minimal, but it shines in a single beam across Jericho’s legs and onto Jasper’s face.
He looks like he’s praying.
“Hey,” I say quietly, not wanting to disturb the air.
Jasper puts a hand on his dad’s knee then turns and gives me a small, sad but hopeful smile.
“They’re about to move him,” he says. “Just wanted one last moment with him in case . . .”
I step to Jasper and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “He’s going to be fine. We all are.”
He places a hand on top of mine, his arm crossing his body.
“We should get moving too,” he says and stands.
Outside in the hall Jasper speaks to his father’s attendants, and I watch through the closing door as they tuck Jericho’s sheets in a little tighter before lifting him to the moving gurney.
The last thing I see before the door clicks shut is Jericho’s unmoving face, his eyes closed softly as if he’s only sleeping.
Wake up, Jericho, I think. Wake up.
“Have you got everything?” Jasper asks as we move back down the hall toward the living room.
“It’s by the elevator.”
“Great, meet me there, I just have to grab my bags.”
Jasper grazes my cheek with a kiss and turns toward his bedroom while I continue to the living room, where I’m surprised to find Tobias sitting on one of the curving navy sofas, reading some document from inside a manilla folder and looking strangely nervous.
The papers are quivering in his right hand while his left hand rubs his bouncing knee.
“Oh, hello, Max,” he says, startled when I approach. “Just waiting to assist with the alpha’s transfer upstate. Are you and Jasper on your way?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Jasper’s just getting his bags. Are you okay?”
“Me?” he says, looking around like there might be someone else in the room. “Yes, fine, fine.”
“Good.”
I cross through the living room to the elevator doors, where my little roller suitcase is waiting.
“Terrible times, these are,” Tobias says, because I guess he wants to make small talk. “Really terrible times. I . . . I’ve never experienced anything quite as harrowing in my tenure as pack secretary.”
He toys with one end of his curling mustache.
Maybe I’ve mistaken his desire for chitchat with a nervous need to communicate.
“You’re right,” I say, trying to comfort this forty-something-year-old man. “It’s pretty scary. But we have Morven and the plan now, so . . .”
“Yes, yes.” His eyes dart about the oval-shaped coffee table in front of him before he shifts forward so he’s sitting on the very edge of the sofa. “You know, I was thinking something.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“Well, it’s a stressful time not just for us but for, well, for the whole pack, and one thing that I thought could, well, lift morale would be—well . . .”
I’m about to throw him down a well if he doesn’t spit it out. “What, Tobias? What are you thinking?”
Here he stands, shuffling around the coffee table to approach me.
“There’s nothing quite like a marking ceremony to raise people’s spirits, is there? You and the young alpha cut quite the silhouette. I was thinking perhaps making things official could help bolster the pack.”
I’m too stunned to speak. My mouth flaps uselessly as my head shakes slowly.
“You—you want—me and Jasper to have a marking ceremony, while we’re on the brink of war—to make people happy?”
“Well, yes! Happy people aren’t quite as frightened, you see, and if the pack thought you and Jasper were confident enough about your success in this battle that you saw a future for yourselves after it, then the whole pack could share in your confidence.”
“But I’m not,” I snap. “Confident. I’m not sure we’re going to get through this.”
Tobias literally steps backward, his mouth twisting into a horrible shape.
“Oh I see.”
“No.” I rub my face. “That’s not what I mean—of course we’re going to get through this, we have to. But I don’t see how now is the right time for a marking ceremony. Plus, don’t you think orchestrating the whole thing would be a bit of a distraction?”
Tobias’s horrified expression softens into a thoughtful one, almost like he’s been scheming for a while and now gets to share his whole plan.
“Well, that would be the point, dear boy. And it wouldn’t be a distraction for me.
Once I’ve seen the alpha safely to the retreat, there’s not a lot else for a pack secretary to do.
I’m not a warrior or a strategist, you see. ”
I study his face for a minute. Can he be serious? Or is he, like all of us, looking for the best way to contribute and feeling like what he has to offer is insufficient. His expression is hard to read, a mix of hope, desperation, cunning, and fear.
“Is it okay if I say I’ll think about it?” I ask.
“Of course, of course. Take your time. Though, well, not too much time. The full moon is in three days.” He claps his hands together as if he’s already watching me walk down the aisle or whatever. “Oh it would be a boon for the pack.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Hey,” Jasper says, entering from the hall with a large black duffel over his shoulder. “We all set?”
I try to show him with my eyes how freaking thankful I am for the distraction. “All set.”
“Everything okay?” Jasper looks between me and Tobias.
“Oh everything is just wonderful,” Tobias says.
“Great.” Jasper narrows his eyes at the mustachioed man. “My father is ready to be moved to his transport.”
“Wonderful, I will attend to him immediately.”
“Thank you, Tobias.”
Jasper nods at his subject, then Tobias scurries rat-like away from us, disappearing into the hall.
“What’s going on?” Jasper says, studying my expression now.
“I’ll tell you later,” I say. “Shall we?”
The elevator pings as we arrive in the basement parking garage and step out onto the concrete.
“My car’s over here,” Jasper says, taking the lead.
As we make our way across the lot I hear another ping, and through the square columns I notice a service elevator door opening.
Tobias steps out, manilla folder held at his side, followed by Jericho’s team of healers and security wolves, who are surrounding the gurney.
Jericho lies motionless as they wheel him out of the elevator and toward the back of a large black van with no windows.
“They’ll be right behind us,” Jasper says from a couple of meters ahead of me, and I have to shake myself back into the present. I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped walking to watch. Jasper is watching me watching. “Come on, we should hit the road. We still need to swing into Brooklyn to get Omar.”
“Right,” I say, somehow unable to pull myself away. Jericho has been slid into the back of the van with Tobias and the healers. Two of his security wolves are closing the doors. I watch until they jump into the front seats and the lights flick on. “Coming.”
I hustle to catch up to Jasper.
Trees and fences whoosh by as we speed upstate.
Omar is in the back seat, resting his head on the window with his eyes closed.
Clearly, the early start hasn’t agreed with him.
Jasper is back in the driving seat, and while I kind of miss being behind the wheel, I’m glad to have this moment to stare out the window and take in the scenery.
The last time I made this drive was with my mom and Katie on the way to the Blue Moon Festival that started everything. I had no idea then that my life would change so irrevocably, so completely.
Back then I was just a kid, wishing I didn’t have to take part in a dumb mating ritual, and now I’m sitting next to my pack’s future alpha, the guy I’m in love with and who, after way too much angst and hesitation, loves me back.
I let my forehead rest against the glass and enjoy how the coolness spreads through my skin.
I wish Jasper and I were heading to the pack retreat for a couples getaway, to spend some time in the woods where we met, canoeing on the lake, eating s’mores around a fire, retracing the steps of those early days when we couldn’t have been less on the same page, instead of driving to what is soon to be repurposed as a battleground, to fight for our pack and our way of life.
There’s a lot I wish was different about this moment, but as I turn my attention from the passing woodlands to Jasp, backlit by the rising sun, I also feel this deep sense that life has turned out pretty amazing.
Without reading my mind Jasper instinctively moves his hand from the gearshift to my knee.
“Not long now,” he says, and I slip my fingers between his.
We take the turnoff to the retreat, just like last time.
The narrow path that leads through the trees, once marked with welcoming flags and banners, is now empty.
This could be any other dirt road, winding through any other forest. Finally, we emerge from the tree line to the parking lot.
Unlike last time, when hundreds of cars filled the lot, the only other vehicle present is Jericho’s black van.
“Huh, they beat us here,” I say.
“Must have overtaken us while we went to pick up Snoozy back there.” Jasper gestures toward the back seat with his head. “We should go see how the journey affected my father.”
“Sure.”
“We here?” Omar croaks and I look back to find him blinking his tired eyes open.
“Yep,” I say. “Welcome to the pack retreat.”
With a crunch my foot hits gravel as I step out of the car.
Before unloading our luggage, I walk up the short incline, through a line of trees to the top of the hill that slopes down toward the campsite.
The last time I was here the place was buzzing with movement, wolves with luggage all heading toward the cabins that sit behind the massive lodge at the center.
Now the buildings are empty and the world feels quiet.
Behind the cabins is a field and beyond that the lake.
Even the surface of the water is more still and clear than I remember.
In the distance are more woods and rising from the treetops are the gray, rugged mountains.
Though the summer sky is clear, a dark bank of clouds hangs over the mountaintops, like something ominous is waiting to descend.
“Look familiar?” Jasper asks, stopping at my side with his bag, dropping it in the dirt.
“Yeah, but it’s strange. I thought it would look different for some reason.”
Jasper nods. “A lot’s changed.”
We slip our hands into each other’s. “You ready?” I ask.
He waits a moment, taking a long breath. “I’ll get there.”
Omar brings up the rear, so I head back to the car and gather my things, and together the three of us head toward the camp.
Flashes of memory spring to life before me.
Katie and I staring in awe at the sheer number of wolves all giving off ridiculous amounts of pheromones, and all looking fit as hell.
Eleanor, the camp volunteer who would turn out to be so much more unhinged than our first impression belied.
The first time I laid eyes on Aisha Miller, or at least, the first time I’d seen her not on stage.
The bonfire where I got too drunk and had to be helped back to my cabin by Jasper.
Capture the flag and eventually the Mating Run itself.
As we enter through the front doors of the Alpha’s Lodge, the smell of pine hits me and I’m taken aback for a second.
We wander through to the great hall, which was once lit up like Christmas but now sits in shadow, the antler chandeliers motionless and dark.
I stop in the middle of the room, looking up at the balcony where Jasper arrived that first night, the alpha’s son on display.
Though of course we’d run into each other before—literally—this was the moment I knew in my heart I was doomed to love him forever.
Not that I knew it at the time or could admit it to myself. But something about that moment stirs a strange feeling in my chest, like my heart is expanding.
We were so far apart back then. Him up high, stoic and unmoving. Me, staring up at him, awed and dumbstruck.
“What’s up?” he says, a few feet in front of me.
“Nothing,” I say. “Just memories.”
He reaches for my hand, and I take his, bridging the space between us.
Back through the winding halls we go, depositing Omar into a guest room.
“This place is wild,” he says, taking in the opulent surroundings, the bulky four-poster bed, the paintings on the walls, the thick carpet.
“Let’s meet out front in an hour and prepare the ritual,” I say.
“Will do,” he responds.
Jasper and I pass more doors and wander down more hallways. Tomorrow this place will be full of gamma wolves and pack officials, the cabins will be occupied by soldiers, and the retreat will feel as busy as I’m used to. But for now, it’s just us.
We figured it was best if we came up with Jericho before the others to perform the ritual, so the images I plant into Walter’s mind are as based in reality as possible.
If I were to see hundreds of wolves moving around, setting up their lodgings, making fires, it would be harder to convince Walter that we’re here with Jericho and only a limited security team.
Further down a long corridor a door is open and spilling light into the hall.
“My father’s room,” Jasper says, increasing the pace of his steps. “I’ll just check if everything went well.”
Jasper ducks inside when we reach the room and is met by Tobias.
Healers are fussing around the bed, and security wolves are positioned at the windows and on either side of the door.
It’s sort of hectic, so I wait in the hall.
From here I can see the foot of the bed, and Jericho’s feet under the covers.
Thankfully, Jasper seems relieved. He pats Tobias on the shoulder then rejoins me in the hall, closing the door behind him.
“His condition hasn’t changed,” he informs me. “The transition went well.”
“Phew,” I say, miming wiping my forehead.
“Let’s get settled in, then we should probably jump straight into the ritual. We don’t have much time before everyone else arrives.”
After we’ve dropped off our bags in Jasper’s room and gotten changed into something closer to hiking gear, we head back through the lodge and outside, where Omar is waiting, a leather bag slumped on the ground by his feet.
“You all set, Cuz?” he asks.
“Oh yeah,” I say, although my heart is thumping really freaking fast. A lot is relying on my ability to enter the Lunar Plane and plant convincing images in Walter’s mind, ones that he’ll believe.
The whole plan is dependent on me and my blood-wolf powers.
Jericho’s life, the safety of the pack. It’s all down to me. There’s no room for error.
“Where we doing this?” Omar asks, glancing around, a stranger in these environs.
“The amphitheater?” Jasper suggests. “It’s where we pray before the Mating Run, high levels of lunar energy.”
Omar nods. “Great. Lead the way.”