by Angel Nyx
Lily
When they first entered the building, Lily was a little nervous about meeting the team he’d spent so many years with. They knew him in a way she never would. Would they approve of her? It wasn’t like her to care so much about what others thought but these people were important to him. “I have to say, I’m pretty lucky too. I mean, have you looked at him? He’s hot,” she said with a wink at her mate. “But, seriously, I’ve seen how controlling some Alpha males can be with their mates. Declan doesn’t try to control me. Not too much anyway.”
“Something tells me if he did that, there would be hell to pay,” Echo said with a laugh.
“Hell yeah, there would be. When my father tried that shit, I disappeared for six years.”
“Oh yeah, I definitely like you,” Sasha said.
“Me too—she’s feisty—she’ll be keeping Dec on his toes,” Steele put in.
“Keeping our esteemed leader on his toes is a good thing,” Holden said with a grin in Declan’s direction.
“All right, all right, I’m beginning to regret bringing Lily here to meet all of you. Where’s the respect for your leader?”
“We’re just showing you how much we love you,” Nikolai deadpanned.
They all laughed at that. “Yeah, yeah,” Declan grumbled and shook his head.
“Now I know why you like them so much; they’re definitely an interesting group of people,” Lily said after a moment.
“Hear that, guys? We’re ‘interesting’,” Steele joked. “My job here is done.”
Sasha shook her head at him. “He can be serious when he needs to be. The jokester is Steele’s way of dealing with shit.”
“Don’t lie to the woman, Sasha. Steele is a jokester to the core; he just knows how to be serious when he needs to be,” Echo countered.
“I don’t know much about what all of you have done as a team, but I have an idea that some of it is pretty dark, so if Steele managed to keep a sense of humor with that, then the joking isn’t a bad thing,” Lily said softly.
Five sets of eyes turned to look at Declan. “You have told your mate almost nothing?” Nikolai asked. “There are things she should know, Declan—things that could come back to haunt you.”
Declan growled. “I hadn’t gotten around to that yet. We’ll sit down and talk when we get back to the apartment.”
Lily was suddenly nervous again. That sounded ominous. “Okay,” she said and didn’t push him for an explanation right then.
Declan
Declan watched his mate interact with the people he’d come to think of as his pack and couldn’t help but feel proud. She’d been nervous when they first arrived, but within minutes she was bantering back and forth with them as if she’d known them for years. What surprised him, however, was the way his team reacted to her. He knew they would like her, but it was more than that. They were treating her with the respect and regard given to their Alpha’s mate. They weren’t a real pack, not officially, but it felt like they were, and they accepted her like it was natural for them to do so.
He watched as Sasha and Echo got her talking about her childhood, what it was like growing up in Montana and how she’d adjusted to the different climate when she moved to New Orleans, and he couldn’t stop grinning. Lily was so animated sometimes when she talked, and she’d clearly loved her childhood, even after she lost her mother.
“She’s a good woman, Boss,” Steele said, watching the trio as well. “She fits in well with us.”
“She does, doesn’t she?”
“The perfect mate for our Alpha,” Nikolai said, stepping up to his other side. “You know that is how we look at you, da? You’re not just the leader of our team, you are our Alpha.”
“We may be a ragtag pack of misfits, but we’re still a pack,” Steele agreed.
“Best pack an Alpha could ever ask for,” Declan confessed.
“Aw, Boss, you’re gonna make me cry.”
Declan shook his head at Steele. “Go back to what you were doing; I’m taking my mate to lunch,” he said and headed to where she was talking with Sasha and Echo. “Excuse me, ladies, but I’m going to steal my mate from you so I can take her to lunch.”
“It was really nice meeting all of you,” Lily said. “I look forward to talking with you more,” she added before she said good-bye and let Declan lead her out of there.
Lily
By the time they got back to her apartment, Lily was consumed with curiosity. She’d resisted asking about some of the things Declan and his team had done before they left Special Ops, but it hadn’t been easy. Now that they were safely tucked away on her sofa, she couldn’t keep her curiosity to herself, but she wasn’t going to just bombard him with questions either. “Thank you for taking me to meet your team. I like them; they’re definitely different.”
Declan chuckled. “Different. That’s one word for them. I’m glad you got along so well with them,” he said and wrapped his arms around her so he could hold her close. “Did you happen to notice the deference they showed you? Much like the deference a pack shows their Alpha’s chosen mate.”
Lily tipped her head up to look at him. “Yeah, I did. It felt a little odd but natural at the same time.”
“That’s because you’re an Alpha female, doll. They saw it and responded to it.”
Lily thought about it. “I guess you’re right. I never thought about myself that way before, but if I wasn’t an Alpha, I wouldn’t have had the courage to take off when my father gave me his ultimatum.”
“Exactly.” He kissed her brow, then shifted to study her face. “You sure you want to hear all the gory details about my past?”
Lily swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Declan
Declan watched his mate. He could tell she was nervous about learning all of his dark secrets, but she was determined to know everything about him. Damn, she was the perfect woman for him. It took him a long time to go through the story. He started with being approached when he was eighteen by a government official. He’d gained their attention due to his success on the wrestling team in high school. He’d had no idea when he took the offer and exactly what he was signing up for.
“Within weeks I was being pushed harder than ‘I’d ever been pushed and I’ realized it was exactly what I’ wanted and needed. When I’ graduated from high school, I’d’ felt like I was floundering because I didn’t have a solid direction for my life. Special Ops gave me that direction. It wasn’t easy but it was what I needed.”
As he started talking about different missions, he realized he didn’t want her to know that he was a killer. But she needed to. “I have blood on my hands, Lily. I should have told you about this long before now. These hands have been used to end the lives of so many men and women.”
Lily looked at him. “Were they good people or were they men and women with evil in their hearts?”
“None of them were innocent. They were murderers, rapists, torturers. They kidnapped men, women, and children, put them through hell, turned their lives into living nightmares, and would have continued to do so if me and my team hadn’t taken them out.”
Lily moved on the sofa so she was kneeling next to him. She took his face in her hands and leaned in to kiss him. “You have nothing to be ashamed of then, Declan. They weren’t people, they were monsters—animals that needed to be put down. You might have killed a lot of people, but you’ve saved so many more from suffering.”
Declan stared at her. In his wildest dreams he couldn’t have imagined that she would be this accepting. “Damn, woman, you really are perfect, aren’t you?”
“Hardly. All I had to do was put myself in the place of one of their victims to know that you did the right thing, the only thing you could do in order to make sure they couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
Declan kissed her soundly and held her close. She might not think she was perfect but he sure as fuck did.
Lily
Lily had sat there next to Declan as he�
��d told his tale. That was how she looked at it, at first. A tale. A story. But it didn’t stay that way. It became very real when he told her about the warlords he’d killed, the rapists, the murderers, the men and women who thrived on the pain of others. Men and women who were so morally defunct that they were monsters.
She could hear the pain in his voice when he talked about their victims. The ones that hurt him the most were the children. Innocent lives shattered by violence and pain. They were forced to grow up too fast because of the things they were forced to endure. Those were the worst.
Later that night, when they curled up in bed together, she nuzzled him and kissed his jaw. She thought about all the things he’d shared with her. When he’d finally stopped talking and looked at her, she’d seen the fear in his eyes. Fear that she would no longer look at him the same. Fear that she would be repulsed by the things he’d done. That was how she’d known he’d taken no joy in the things he’d done, the lives he’d ended. If he’d been proud of it, maybe she would have shunned him, but he wasn’t, and that made her love him that much more. “Why don’t you check out of that hotel tomorrow and just…stay here,” she whispered against his skin.’
“Are you asking me to move in with you, doll?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Consider it done,” Declan growled and held her tighter.
“Maybe it’s crazy. We haven’t known each other all that long, but I like having you here.”
“If it is, we can be crazy together, because I like being here. Get some sleep, doll.”
“I like that. We can be crazy together.” She laughed softly and yawned. “You too, Declan.” Lily fell asleep with a faint smile on her face.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Declan
Declan was in shock. Caine had asked him to come out to the compound because he needed to speak with him. He’d figured the leopard wanted to formally thank him for the help he and his team gave the Pard with the Red Moon Clan. He was right, but he’d not expected the form that thank you took. He walked into the apartment he now shared with Lily and heard her in the bathroom.
Lily stepped out of the bathroom in her robe. She’d hopped in the shower while Declan went to talk with Caine because she had to work and figured she could get ready while he was gone. They had plans to get something to eat together before she went to work. “Hey, you’re back. What’s wrong?” she asked at the look on his face.
Declan glanced up at her, and his dazed look slowly turned into a grin that threatened to split his face wide open. “Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s perfect. Caine wanted to thank me and my team for our help.”
“O-o-kay?” She was still confused by the look on his face.
“We’re officially the Ghostpoint Pack, and a chunk of Black Water Pard territory now belongs to us.”
Lily stared at him. “Wait, what do you mean ‘belongs to us’? Us, who?”
“Us. You, me, my team. We’re officially a pack and allies with the Black Water Pard, part of New Orleans, and the area northeast of the city is now ours.”
“Oh my gods,” Lily squealed and pounced on him where he sat on the sofa. “Wait, how much of New Orleans is ours now?”
“Everything east and northeast of the eight hundred block of the French Quarter.”
“What? Son of a bitch. That means we have to move. Fuck. I like my apartment.”
“It is cute, but it’s also a little small, don’t you think?”
Lily sighed. “I suppose you’re right. It was fine for one person, but not two. I guess I get to start looking for a new place to live.”
“We should look at houses. For sale.” He watched her face.
“You want to buy a house? Are you serious?”
“Yes, I do, and yes, I am.”
“Okay.”
Lily
Lily was stunned. Not only did they have their own official pack, complete with territory, but Declan wanted to buy a house together. Things really were working out. When she got to work, she found that they had too many people scheduled, and since, out of all the staff, she needed the pay the least, she decided to take the day off. She was going to have to fix the schedule though to make sure that didn’t happen again.
Since she had the free time, she decided to make a phone call she’d been meaning to for days but hadn’t had the chance to until now. She sat in Emile’s office and settled back in his chair. Hell, she was starting to spend more and more time in that office, taking care of things her boss should. He was dealing with some family drama so she was fine with that.
She dialed the number her father had given her and sat there drumming her fingers on the desk while she waited for the other end to be answered.
“Hello?”
Lily arched a brow. The voice on the other end came out tentatively. “Casey? Hey, it’s Lily.”
“Lily? Oh my God. Your father told me he gave you my number, but I really didn’t think you would ever call.”
“Why in Goddess’s name would you think that? Wait, don’t answer that. I took off without a word to anyone six years ago; of course you’d think that.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“I’m sorry I disappeared like that. There was so much going on and…gods, I feel like such a horrible person because you were still working through what happened and I abandoned you.”
“It’s okay, Lily. I mean, it was rough, yeah, but…we all knew he gave you an ultimatum. I knew that if you’d had a choice, you would have stayed. You wouldn’t have taken off like that. And you couldn’t call me or contact me because, if he’d found out, he would have ordered me to tell him where you were, and I would have had no choice but to obey.” Her voice cracked a little, betraying her emotions.
“I still feel like a horrible friend,” Lily said softly. “But thank you for that. How are you doing, Case? I mean really. Don’t give me this ‘I’m fine’ bullshit. Tell me the truth.”
“I’m…doing. Some days are better than others. It’s hard knowing on any given day I might run into Garret.” Garret Michaels was Jacob’s biological father, but Casey preferred to call him the sperm donor. “Jacob is getting so big, you should see him. You won’t even recognize him as the toddler you last saw.”
“Casey, you don’t have to stay there, you know. I know that being in the same town with that piece of shit, risking running into him every time you’re out, it can’t be easy. Why don’t you and Jacob come to New Orleans? We have our own pack, well, it’s a ragtag group of misfits, but we’re still a pack.”
“We? Who is ‘we’?”
“Well, you know my father sent someone to fetch me and bring me back there, right?” When Casey said ‘yes’, she continued. “His name’s Declan; he’s Liam’s older brother—the one who left right after he turned eighteen to join some secret government organization…and he’s my mate.”
“Oh wow. If you hadn’t taken off like you did…that could have gotten really ugly when he returned and you were married to a different pack member. What do you mean you’re a ragtag group of misfits?”
“Our pack isn’t just wolves. There’s me and Declan, of course, and one other wolf, Steele. Then we have a grizzly shifter named Holden, two jaguar shifters named Sasha and Echo, and a Siberian tiger shifter named Nikolai. We’re allies with the Black Water Pard; they claim half of New Orleans while the other half is now our territory.”
“Whoa, that really is a ragtag group of misfits. How do you all get along?”
“The others worked with Declan in Special Ops, so they already had a close-knit bond between them. They took to me the first time we met. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m with Declan or if it’s also because I’m an Alpha female and they sensed it.”
“I’ll think about it, okay? I don’t want to make any rash decisions, and Jacob gets a say in it too since this will affect him just as much as it would me.”
“That’s all I ask, Casey. You have my number now, so keep in touch, yeah?�
��
“I will. You keep in touch too. You’re the one who went and disappeared before, after all.”
Lily laughed at the teasing tone in the younger woman’s voice before they said their good-byes and hung up. By the time she hung up with Casey, Lily really felt like she’d accomplished something. Sure, Casey wanted to get her son’s input on the move, but she had the feeling it wasn’t going to matter. Casey would be coming to New Orleans, and she was going to need a place to stay until she got back on her feet. “Time to find a house,” she said softly and headed home. She would use her computer to search for something in the area.
Hours later Lily had a list of houses varying in bedroom size and price that she would show to Declan so they could decide which ones they wanted to go take a look at. It was crazy to think they were already talking about buying a house when their relationship was still fairly new, but it felt right. They were in love, they were living together; she didn’t need a wedding ring to know he was dedicated and committed to her.
When she thought about the path her life had taken since the night her father gave her his ultimatum and she’d chosen to disappear instead, she was happy with where it had led her. Sure it had taken time to get to this point—six long years to be exact—but she was happy. She had a great job, amazing friends, a pack she could be proud of, and a mate who loved her just the way she was.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lily
Three months. Lily couldn’t believe that three months had passed since the day Declan walked into her life. She’d fought their attraction so hard and now, looking back, she couldn’t help but wonder why. He completed her in a way she’d never expected to feel. He supported all of her hopes, desires, and wishes; he never made her feel like she should keep things to herself, and he loved that she went toe to toe with him on issues that mattered to her.