Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“If you are going after the witches, then I want in,” Cain snarled.
Damn. I had forgotten about his vendetta. And we had relied on him so much with the rogues.
How could I ask him to sit out?
“It could get bad, Cain. Killed kind of bad,” I said quietly.
Cain shrugged, “If we lose to the witches, I’m dead anyway.”
I looked over at Beenie and she shrugged, “He’s right.”
I nodded and connected to my mates in the link.
‘Cain wants in.’
There was a tense silence in the link before Derik came through– ‘And the children?’ he asked.
‘My mother and Galen?’ I said, ~’we could drop them off on the way to the mountain. Then they’ll have Galen, humans, and the vampires protecting them. Ryleigh and Vaughn too,’~ I said.
Another long silence.
Cain and Beenie were already packing things in the bag for the children. Like they knew what the answer was going to be. Since Beenie was involved, they probably did.
I started helping pack things, my stomach turning at the idea of them being away from us. But I couldn’t leave them in the city if there was no one here to protect them.
Not that I didn’t trust the pack, I did. But I wanted their focus on keeping the city from being taken.
So I kept packing things until I was sure they had everything.
Then I spent my day with them, waiting with Cain and Beenie on word of the witches and the summit meeting.
It was torturous. Especially with Brax’s head on the chopping block.
My stomach was in knots and I had to pretend it wasn’t.
I kept the link in my head all day. The mating one and the pack.
The pack was rife with orders and training. They were getting organized into groups, getting their positions. The warriors were anyway.
The others were putting personals in underfloor vaults, storing food and water there in case they had to hide. They were boarding up windows, stashing weapons throughout the city in case they were caught without them.
The young were being herded into the basement of the hospital.
I had wanted to use the mansion but it was too obvious. That’s exactly where the rogues were going to try and hit.
But the hospital had a basement and it had a single escape tunnel. A hidden one that we hadn’t blocked because it led out near the vampire territory and hadn’t been used since the war.
The basement could also be sealed off with a stone wall and reinforced bracing.
It was the last safe place the city had. Some of the women, the ones who could no longer shift and the ones who had pups too young to leave went down there with them.
The others all got ready to fight.
We had no back-up plan. It was fight or die.
None of us were willing to lie down and take whatever the rogues handed us.
It took all day and well into the night before my Alphas could spare a moment to come and check in on me with the kids. They had been in the link intermittently but mostly, they had been securing the pack and city.
My magic hovered around the gate, and I kept it there, monitoring all the activity at the wall. I felt them there, the rogues.
I sensed them in my magic. But it was patient like me. Waiting for the chance to strike.
I hoped I knew when that moment was.
“You will, Little Luna. After the lesson we taught you earlier, you should know to trust your instincts,” Kai said, striding into the room, bending down to where I was sitting on the floor and kissing me.
I smiled up at him and looked over his body.
He was sweating, glistening in the moonlight that poured in through the window.
His hair was down and brushing his shoulders in dark silky waves. His bright blue eyes were stuck on me with Enzi.
He sunk to the floor next to me, and she ditched me for her favorite in seconds.
Kai grinned and let her on his lap.
“No word?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No. But it doesn’t matter. We’ll be ready for the fight if it comes,” he shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. But to me, it was.
We had to hand our children over to be protected because we were going on a mission that might mean we wouldn’t come back.
Betraying the witches was not going to be taken lightly. But it didn’t seem to faze Kai.
Derik came in next, his face stern and rigid until he saw me. It softened and his shoulders sagged a little from their tight posture.
He came over to kiss the top of my head then went to Cain who was standing with Beenie at the window.
Beenie was holding a sleeping Alaric and Derik kissed him on the forehead too.
She handed him over and Derik curled his son into him.
“The pack is as ready as they can be. The council have their duties.”
“Do you think we can win? Even if the witches are on their side?” I asked.
Derik nodded, “We have to. We have you and Cain, that magic will counter some. The wolves can hopefully provide enough of a distraction to make it mean something,” he murmured, looking down at Alaric.
“Don’t forget Beenie’s killer touch,” Brax smirked, coming in shirtless like Kai, his hair in a half up-half down. He was just as sweaty as Brax and sat on the other side of me.
He leaned his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes.
“I’m not using anything but my claws in this war,” she glared.
“Touchy subject?” Brax taunted. Beenie sneered at him.
He chuckled and went back to relaxing against me as I leaned against the sofa.
“So now we just wait?” I asked.
Derik nodded, “The pack are eating now, having meals with their families at their stations.”
“And if we don’t hear from the witches, how will we get the kids to Mom?” I wondered, my stomach turning again.
Zale crawled over then, laying his hand on my thigh. I held it, smiling down at him as he smiled up at me.
His shadows moved around him, asking me what was wrong.
“Nothing, Sweetie,” I whispered.
What was I meant to say? That the rogues were demanding his dad’s head on a stick?
That tomorrow, if the witches didn’t agree to the summit meeting we were going to war? That I was going to have to say goodbye?
It was all too hard and tears welled in my eyes as Zale climbed in my lap. He curled up, laying against my chest.
Tears fell along my cheeks in a silent hope that we were going to get out of this. That we were going to be safe. For my kids. It was them who would suffer our deaths.
I did not wish that on them.
“I will get them there,” Cain said, “In a carriage, protected by magic that the rogues won’t sense. Then I will come back and help you fight,” he said.
That shredded my heart to ribbons. What if he didn’t make it? What if they left and were attacked? But how could they stay right where the rogues wanted them? Like bait.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?