Setting Boundaries (The Boundaries Series Book 2)

by Eva Harper

  I spun around quickly; my hands spread out in front of me. “Have you not heard me these past few weeks? Rush, that’s murder. Whatever way you want to spin it, it is murder.”

  “Protecting my pack is not something I take lightly,” he growled, head tilting to the side. “It shouldn’t be something you take lightly, either.”

  I grunted, lips pulling back. “That doesn’t justify anything.”

  “I know-”

  “No, you don’t,” I interrupted him, eyes set in a dead line at him. “You don’t understand. I thought that I would be an aunt one day. I thought that my sister and I would be able to grow old together with our mates. She’s gone because someone made the decision to kill whoever they saw as a threat. You’re just creating more people like me; you aren’t fixing anything. You’re creating more victims who will want revenge, and they’re going to come looking for you; for me.”

  Rush’s lip moved, but the rest of his body remained still, veins in his arms throbbing. “Can we just leave this alone?”

  “No, but you can leave me alone,” I sneered, quickly walking down the stairs in front of us. His loud footsteps came after me, and he grabbed my arm as I reached the bottom step.

  “You can’t leave every time something gets tough, Sloane.” He glared. “We need to talk about this.”

  “Is it really a conversation if you shut down every idea I have and always tell me no? You aren’t listening to me, Rush.” I grabbed his hand from my arm and squeezed it. “I know I seem like I’m some crazy hunter sympathizer and that I’m not looking out for our pack, but I am. Men like to solve things with their fists, but women think differently. If you widow every woman whose husband or brother joins the resistance, you aren’t getting rid of the problem, you’re creating an even bigger one.”

  “What makes you think it will only be men joining the resistance?”

  “It won’t be,” I agreed, speaking softer. “But if human women are anything like me, then they’re thinking about their families.”

  “And I’m not?” He pulled his hand from mine and moved past me. I remained on the bottom step.

  “I guess I just always thought our future children would grow up in a kind world, not a place where we wiped out anyone who doesn’t understand us. What kind of message are we sending to them if all we do is kill and take what doesn’t belong to us?”

  “What kind of message are we sending our future children if we aren’t alive to raise them or even create them?”

  We stood four feet apart from each other, but it felt like the whole room had grown between us and sprouted a river.

  “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” I grinned, and my eyes filled with warm, watery tears.

  “I shouldn’t have to,” he finally said, looking down where I imagined the river divided us. He started walking towards the front door, and my foot fell onto the first level of the house, desperate to keep him.

  “Rush,” I whimpered. He paused and placed his hand on the doorknob. “Please don’t go.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” he promised, head leaning against the doorframe. “I just need air.”

  “The air around me isn’t good enough?” I tried to joke, but my chest ached at the attempt.

  “I need to be alone.”

  He closed the door behind him and left me in the foyer, stumbling towards the door, clutching onto it. My forehead fell on the back of the door, and the warm tears that had gathered in my eyes left and dropped down my cheeks. My body shuddered, nose prickling with the quick descent of tears.

  A shoe touched the ground in the room, and I turned my head quickly. Jonah and Beckett stood in the doorway, frozen, not knowing what to do. I wiped my cheeks and nose and stood away from the door.

  “Luna,” Jonah wondered softly, a hand lifting to scratch his chin. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay,” I promised, brushing the wetness from my eyes. “We’re okay.”

  “He’s just stressed out,” Beckett offered me, kinder than he ever had. “With the hunters and everything, he’ll be back.” I grimaced, turning my head to distract myself.

  “Do you need anything?” Jonah asked, his face cringing.

  “I need your Alpha to understand that he isn’t always right,” I spat, surprised at how the words sounded coming from my mouth. “I need your Alpha to realize that I am his Luna, that my opinions should be valued, that I’m not just something to keep his bed warm. I am smart. I’m not just some silly girl.”

  Beckett and Jonah’s faces paled, and they exchanged a glance of surprise and discomfort. Their eyebrows motioned to each other, trying to urge the other to say something.

  “It’s fine,” I assured them. “Just continue whatever you were doing, I’ll fix this.”

  “Well,” Jonah said awkwardly. “We were actually coming to speak to Rush.”

  “About what?”

  Beckett bit his lip, and his eyebrows clenched.

  “You can tell me, I’m your Luna.”

  “Yes but-”

  “Tell me. Now.” I demanded.

  “Alpha Trissur called,” Beckett eventually said, not wanting to speak the words at all.

  “What did he say?”

  “That’s the thing,” a ghost of a chuckle left Jonah’s lips.

  “What did he say?” I said firmer.

  “There was another attack.” He looked down at his feet. “On the Rennen pack. Their packhouse was set on fire after it was doused with gasoline. Most of the pack died in the fire, they were a small pack, almost all of them lived in the packhouse. The survivors are taking refuge in a neighboring pack.”

  “He’s going to give the order,” I thought out loud, blowing out the breath I had been holding onto my hair.

  “What order?”

  “Rush is going to give the order to kill the humans.”

  Anxious

  Jonah and Beckett laughed strangely and exchanged a look. I pulled on a chunk of my hair, frustrated that there was nothing I could do.

  “Luna?” Beckett asked. I growled and paced the same three-foot area I had been walking between for ten minutes. “Talk to us, please.”

  “And say what?” I exclaimed, looking away from the floor and to their nervous faces. “I’m fifty percent of the leadership in this pack, and it might as well be zero. I can’t do anything to stop this. There’s absolutely nothing I can do. I might as well just sit back with a glass of ice tea and a nice book on the porch because that’s all I’m good for.”

  “You know that’s not true,” Jonah argued, stepping back slightly when I shot him a look.

  “Oh, do I?” I laughed loudly. A small head appeared behind Beckett, and Kenna’s short curls flopped in the silhouette. “Kenna?”

  She peeked out from behind the two men, eyes wide, mouth in a straight line. “Jonah mind-linked me; is everything okay down here?”

  “No,” Jonah murmured, not for my ears, but I still caught it.

  “No, Kenna, everything is not okay.” She wiggled her way in between the men’s shoulders and walked towards me. “We’re just murdering people out here, that’s the new plan!” Kenna stopped moving quickly and staggered back. “Did you want to join the group, Kenna? We’re going out and killing all the humans, apparently.”

  “Sloane,” she cautioned. “Please tell me you’re drunk again, or high, or something?”

  “No, no, I am perfectly sober,” I vowed, pointing my finger out at her. I knew my words were jumbled and aggressive and not making sense, but for some reason, I needed to say them. “In fact, I think I have more clarity now than I ever had before.”

  “Clarity…for killing people?” she questioned.

  “I don’t know anymore, Kenna,” I admitted, leaning my arms on the sofa nearest to me. “Is this what being a Luna really is-giving kill orders?”

  “Who are you ordering to be killed?” she nearly shrieked.

  “No one,” I moaned. “But if I can’t stop it, it’s the same thing as orde
ring them dead. It’s my job to protect this pack and the women and children, but where do I draw that line? I’m supposed to take care of my mate, but he doesn’t even listen to me, I don’t even know where he is.”

  “Okay,” she said patronizingly. “Why don’t we just sit down, and we can discuss this. Jonah will get us some ice cream.” She glared at him, and he quickly darted into the kitchen. “And, we will just talk about everything.”

  “No,” I denied, holding my arm out. “I can’t sit down, I need to keep moving, I feel like my heart is going to explode.”

  Kenna rushed to my side and grabbed my arm. “Sloane, that isn’t good, you really need to sit down.” I tried to unwind myself from her gently, but Beckett stepped forward and put his arm under my shoulder, leading me to the sofa.

  “No, please,” I begged as they shuffled me onto the couch. “I need to figure this out, innocent people are going to die if I don’t figure this out.”

  Kenna pushed my shoulder down into a pillow and leaned close to my face. “Sloane, this isn’t all on you. I know you care about the humans, many of us do, but you can’t take on full responsibility for them. That’s too much, it’s too big.”

  “So is the death of an entire race,” I argued, lurching forward. Beckett put his hand on my shoulder and pushed me down again, glaring at me.

  The front door opened, and loud steps thundered towards me.

  “What’s going on?” Rush’s frantic voice pounded in my ears. He leaned over the back of the couch, staring at Beckett to give him insight.

  “Sloane is freaking out,” Beckett said flatly, Kenna hit her arm against his. Rush came around the other side of the couch and sat beside me, Beckett and Kenna moved away but didn’t leave.

  “Sloane,” Rush cooed, brushing my hair away from my cheek and allowing his hand to settle there. “Just breathe, okay? I’m right here, we will figure this out. Just breathe.”

  “How can I breathe when we are damning an entire species to death?” I yelled, my face becoming red and hot.

  “Sloane,” Rush said more demandingly. “Breathe. Stop talking, and just breathe.”

  “There you go again, yelling at me, what to do, what not to-” Rush’s hand clamped down over my mouth. My eyes went wide and stared into his blue ones, looking at me with concern and authority.

  “Will you be quiet and breathe?” he scolded. I took three deep breaths through my nose, and some of the tightness in my chest lightened. He took his hand from my mouth and scooted closer to me. “Now tell me, calmly, what is wrong?”

  I moaned, leaned my head back, and shut my eyes.

  “Sloane, please,” he begged. “I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

  “She was freaking out about the human’s being killed,” Kenna told him. Rush leaned back and looked at her and Beckett.

  “There was an attack on the Rennen Pack,” Beckett said. “Their packhouse was burned down, nearly everyone died.”

  Rush growled and gutturally grunted.

  “But Sloane is worried about people dying,” Kenna urged, trying to make him pay attention to me. Rush grabbed my hand from where it covered my face and kissed the back of it.

  “Sweetheart,” he said softly. “I don’t want you to worry about this. I know that this is scary for you and that this war is a big thing, but I am right here. I’m going to protect you, nothing is going to happen to you.”

  I opened my eyes and glared at him, my lip snarling back. He looked surprised.

  “I’m not scared of the war; I’ve seen wars before-have you met my old Alpha? I don’t need you to protect me, I need you to listen to me,” I raged.

  Beckett stifled a laugh.

  “Sloane, I will listen to you.”

  “Right now,” I demanded.

  “Right now, I think it would be best if you went upstairs and laid down for a while.” Rush slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me to my feet.

  “No, right now, or you’ll go back on your word. I want you to listen to me in front of other people so you can’t tell me I’m silly or stupid. I want you to hear me.”

  Rush paused and then allowed me to settle back on the couch. He smiled at me. “Okay.”

  “Seriously? That worked?” I asked. He chuckled and grabbed onto my left hand. “Okay. Um, so I’ve been thinking and planning and reading up on all of our laws and human laws and everything in between. I think there might be a way that we can stop this war before it even begins. If we are the ones that offer them an olive branch, they might be willing to speak to us about more than war. Humans are ill-tempered, they’re quick to act when they’re threatened-just like we are.

  “I know that this can work. Both sides are just fanning the fire that’s been burning for a while, but no one ever asked how the fire got lit. There’s a way to fix this, I know it.”

  Rush nodded, taking into consideration all my words. “That’s a nice sentiment, Sloane. I just don’t know how we would be able to do that.”

  I sighed and glanced at Kenna. “I can get us a meeting with a human girl, the daughter of the man who attacked us.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rush questioned, his face becoming firm, voice becoming louder.

  “I know the man’s daughter; her name is Hazel.”

  “Sloane, how the hell do you know her?” There was a roughness in his voice, and I fought the urge to look away from Kenna and to him.

  “I met her in town,” I said softly, interrupting him when he began growling. “I had to go into a store, she was kind. Nothing happened, Rush.”

  “Where does she live?” he ground out between clenched teeth.

  “I’m not telling you until you promise me nothing will happen to her or her family,” I told him firmly.

  “Have you forgotten?” he spat, grabbing the top of my shirt and pulling it up a few inches to expose the thick scar below my ribcage. “Sloane, tell me.”

  “No.” I pulled my shirt out of his hand and placed it back where it was around my stomach.

  “Tell me,” he demanded, his Alpha tone sinking into his voice. I shuddered at the urge to obey him.

  “No, Rush, you can’t. It isn’t safe, they’ll hurt you, they have guns,” I whimpered under his intense gaze.

  “You’ve been there?”

  I shivered, unable to speak.

  “Rush, please,” I begged, putting a hand to my chest to still my pounding heart. He stood up, gripping his hair painfully between his hands. He continued to pace in front of Kenna and Beckett, who were frozen with the same naïve shock I was in. Rush’s head only looked up after the front door opened.

  I didn’t dare look at who it was when he growled, mouth open.

  “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here,” he spat.

  “Rush,” Cordelia pleaded softly. “Please listen to me. I need to tell you something.”

  “Then speak!” he barked.

  “The border guards have been trying to get in contact with you for twenty minutes. There’s a group of humans at our borders, about a hundred of them. They’re holding the guard’s hostage; they’ve got four of them with guns pointed at their heads.”

  Evil Has a Name

  “What sector?” Kenna screeched hoarsely.

  “Kenna?” Jonah murmured as he entered the room again.

  “Tell me what sector?” she screamed again.

  “East 1,” Cordelia bowed her head. Kenna jumped over the couch in one long movement and was running in wolf form out the front door. Rush ran after her, brushing roughly past his mother, who stayed looking at the ground.

  “Get out,” I told her as I passed her, following Rush, Beckett, and Jonah as they chased after Kenna.

  Rush had given her an Alpha order to stop and shift back. Beckett stripped his blue shirt off his body and handed it to Kenna as her small frame collapsed on the ground. She whimpered and stared off into the woods where the East sector was.

  “Kenna, what are you doing?” I a
sked frantically, helping her button the shirt around her body.

  “My father and brother have been volunteering their free time as Border Guards since the hunter attacks. My father is in the East sector today.” Her brown skin became flooded with tones of red and pink.

  Rush began stalking into the woods, Beckett and Jonah following. I noticed another group of wolves running towards them from the woods in the west, a group of pack Warriors who were notified of the situation.

  “Rush,” I called, running after his long strides. “What are you going to do?”

  “What do you think, Sloane?”

  I stopped running and fell back a few steps where Kenna was anxiously striding.

  The packhouse was situated to the East on the pack grounds, so the border sat relatively close to the house. It was a short walk, and as we got closer, the humans came into focus. Cordelia was underestimating the number; there were more than a hundred humans, dressed from the top down in black, hands filled with guns, crossbows, and knives.

  The knives wouldn’t be useful unless we were closer to them, and if we got close enough, the humans wouldn’t survive with a knife to defend themselves. The guns and crossbows, on the other hand, were very potent. Although our wounds started to heal faster than humans, there was no way for our bodies to recover from fatal injuries.

  Kenna froze after seeing her father on his knees, head bent in a row with the three other Border Guards. There were four humans, men, holding long guns to the backs of their heads, and four other humans with weapons drawn on them for extra protection.

  Hazel’s father stepped forward in the middle of the four men. He smiled confidently and allowed the gun strapped to his back to settle away from his hands.

  “Ah, and he brought friends this time,” he said, noting the group that was surrounding Rush.

  “What do you want?” Rush asked.

  “Not even a hello,” Hazel’s father noted sadly. “Straight to business, I see. That’s fine, I can appreciate a man who doesn’t have time for small talk. Your wolves have been creating some trouble around our parts of town.”