Meg
“Can you believe that happened?” Roman asked me, still in shock as he relayed the events of the night.
“I’m a wolf shifter, and I still can’t believe half of the things that are happening lately,” I told him.
He shivered, pulling me close, as Marcus drove the Humvee outside the city walls. “I’m glad to be leaving.”
“Me too.” I glanced behind us, watching as Sarah and Charles scooted closer on the backseat. The two of them were instant friends. I figured that would be the case, with magic flowing so strongly in their blood.
“There are more like them in there,” I told Roman.
“I know.” He nodded. “Let’s deal with one thing at a time. Right now, I could really use a nap.”
We all could. It’d been a long few days, and we were heading back where we started. But this time I was coming home with a whole bunch more people, a witch and a warlock, and a tank with a big gun I still had yet to shoot.
Though I did want to shoot it someday.
Katrina caught my eye. “Are you sure this is okay? You can leave us in the Fringes. I’ll find work out here.”
“Absolutely not,” I told her. “You’re coming with me. I still need to get you those books.”
*
The drive back to Cerberus was slower than before, especially when Daisy scolded Marcus for being awake for three days straight and made him take a nap so Jacques could drive.
I agreed, already liking Daisy and her sharp, no-nonsense ways. We were going to get along great.
“So… Lieutenant…” Jacques asked as he parked the Humvee where I directed. “Are all wolf shifter females as hot as Meg?”
I smiled when I heard my mate growl after I’d left them in the vehicle. My wolf made me stop outside the border. I’d never brought this many people back home, and it felt strange to take them into Cerberus Territory without announcing their arrival.
I was sure Kera would accept them.
But we can’t take any chances.
Right.
I approached the border on foot, debating leaving them out here while I ran home, but then thought better of it. I couldn’t leave them alone. They’d be safe, but like my wolf said, we couldn’t take any chances, especially not after all that I’d seen in the last few days.
Kera’s howl in the distance made me frown.
Why? My wolf cocked her head to the side.
“What’s wrong?” Roman asked as I walked back to the military vehicle.
“We have to wait here,” I said, feeling stranger than I’d ever felt in my life at realizing I couldn’t just drive down the same road I’d traveled a hundred times before. “She’ll come to us.”
It took a little over an hour for Kera to meet us at the border. She looked well, and my wolf sniffed, not sensing any distress. My mind had been racing, thinking up all sorts of scenarios where the gods had done something to my pack.
“Is there a problem?” I asked her through our pack link…
My wolf shook her head. That’s not the pack link.
We still had the connection, but it wasn’t pack anymore. The familial link let us speak telepathically to each other, but I didn’t feel that compulsion to recognize her as my Alpha, and she stopped short of crossing the border as she approached.
“What happened?” I blurted out, wondering if the gods had done something after all.
“Nothing happened.” Kera smiled as she looked toward the group behind me. “Well, other than you making your own pack, I guess.”
“Oh no…” My eyes widened. “I absolutely did not start my own pack.”
“Didn’t you?” Kera sniffed. “You smell like full Alpha now. It’s a good thing you stopped at my border.”
I frowned as I realized what I’d done.
Why had I stopped? That wasn’t like me.
What the hell is happening?
“It’ll get easier,” Kera reassured me. “I’ll be here to help… But on this side of the fence.”
“This can’t happen.” I lowered my voice so the humans didn’t hear. “They aren’t wolves. They don’t need a pack. I do. And I want to come home.”
Kera’s hands twisted behind her back as she looked over the ragtag crew of military guys, their girlfriends, wives, Yemen’s grandparents, and the two young witches in my care.
We’d stopped and picked up a lot on the way here. It’d been a crowded trip.
“Everyone needs pack,” she said. “You can come home to visit whenever you want, but maybe it’s best this way.”
Her eyes bored into mine as my aunt used our family link to communicate so no one could hear us. “I sent Alec to Fenrir and Trish back to Cadejo with Jaxon. The gods are still here. I don’t know what they have planned, but you need to protect those witches.”
I looked at Charles and Sarah, feeling my wolf bare her teeth at the thought of any harm coming to the two.
“All right, Alpha.” Kera nodded. “I’ve got to get back, but let me know if you need anything.”
“Where the heck am I supposed to put them?” I asked, feeling like I’d been dropped with a pup—or a pile of pups—and no nursing mother in sight.
Kera waved her hand at the unclaimed territory between us and the city of Ethica. “It’s about time someone took care of this land.”
My aunt… My old Alpha… walked away as my mate came up and wrapped me in his arms.
“Is everything okay?” He held me close, kissing the top of my head.
No… It is not…
I took a deep breath as I stared at the barren landscape of rolling hills and aspen trees, trying to trace the path of the river in my mind’s eye and already working through where the border needed to go.
“We’ll be fine.” I patted his arm, feeling his steady warmth behind me. “But we’re going to need some tents.”