"They knew we were there, though. So, I'm wondering who they're working with."
"My guess is Remus."
"Do you have a plan?"
"Aside from finding Grigori Remus and ripping his throat out?"
"You know, if it was anyone other than Remus himself, I'd say that was a good plan, but do you think you can actually, you know, beat him?"
Blake narrowed his eyes.
"Come on, this is me. He's fucking Remus. The original Alpha of one of the oldest werewolf nations. He's powerful. And so are you, but he's got the power of the ages behind him."
"He does, but so do I. I have Tirigan."
"That's not a fair fight," he said casually.
"I'm not challenging him for right to rule his pack. I'm protecting Woolven."
And gods help anyone who tried to hurt Blake Woolven's pack, because no one else would be able to.
Blake would do anything to protect the pack. Strike any deal. His only moral code was the pack above all else.
"You know I don't have a problem with it. Hell, send him poisoned Milk Bones for all I care. Just gauging where you are on this and how concerned I should be."
"You should be very fucking concerned."
"So noted." He took another drink. "So if killing Grigori Remus is the only plan we've got, where is he and how are we going to do it?"
"We're not. Because even with Tirigan, I don't know if I can win. But Antony can."
"Rommulus? They're brothers, Blake."
"They are. But if you'll recall, Grigori voted to have Marchessa put to death. He's a direct threat to Antony's mate."
"Do you really think he'll kill his brother?"
"I think Antony Rommulus would take great joy in wreaking carnage and mayhem on anyone who even sniffed in Marchessa's direction. We just have to get them together. Antony is hunting him, and while he's powerful with a lot of resources, Grigori knows him like the back of his own hand. He doesn't know Woolven. I bet we can lure him out."
"If they're moving on us, they might be on the way here already."
"That's my problem. I need somewhere safe for this to go down. Somewhere our pack will be safe. Randi. Maribella. Belle. Noah." He sighed. "Warner. He shouldn't have to go to war again. He's already lived through it. He's already made sacrifice after sacrifice."
"Yet, he'll continue to give whatever is required because that's what pack does. That's what it means to be Woolven," Parker said quietly.
"I knew what I was doing when I sided with Rommulus on this. It was right, but that doesn't make it any easier."
"What are you looking for here?" Parker suddenly asked.
"I want your opinion."
"Drew's your Beta, not me. I'm just Baby Woolven."
"No, you're not. You're Parker Woolven. You're my brother. And my friend. Where Drew is the voice of caution, you are the voice of action. Always have been."
Parker was shaken by the revelation. He hadn't realized his words carried that much weight with his brother. He'd always seen himself as the screw up. The extra. "Then what's Warner?"
"The voice of experience."
Parker scratched his head. "I don't know what to say now that I know you're taking me seriously."
"I've always taken you seriously, little brother."
"I'm realizing that. Now, I feel like I should watch what I say."
"No, fuck that. It's why your words are valuable. You don't measure each one. It's organic."
Parker grinned. "Does it drive Drew batshit if you listen to me instead of him? That would really make my night."
"Sorry, no. He doesn't usually care one way or another. You know how Drew is. He speaks his piece and then he's done. He'll roll with my decision, whatever it happens to be."
"Damn." He pressed his lips together for a moment. "If they're going to be bold enough to march on Aphelion, knowing who and what our allies are, you know they're bringing the big guns." He was quiet for a long moment that stretched out between them.
"Are you saying we should run?"
"I'm saying that we should be prepared. I'm saying we need Westwood to come up with some teleportation voodoo for everyone in case things go south. I'm not a coward, I'll fight whatever they throw at us, but retreat to keep the pack safe? It might be our only option."
"You might be surprised to know that's what Drew said."
"Well, wonders never cease."
"Are you good for this? Are you a hundred percent?" Blake studied him.
"Better than."
"Your mate?"
"Honestly? Distracted, but it'll be okay."
"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"
"Both. She's fierce and strong, but she's still innocent in a strange way, too."
"Yeah, I can see that about her. Tirigan will be a good ally to have."
"Remus has vampires aligned with his cause and I'm sure he'll scare the piss and vinegar right out of anyone he could've recruited. Kumarin's no longer a threat."
"Kumarin is in little pieces in a federal laboratory." Blake flashed a predator's smile.
"Just desserts, I say. We should probably see what new toys David has prototypes for."
"I'll leave that to you, little brother. Since you like to play in his laboratory."
"Indeed, I do." he grinned. "Indeed, I definitely do."
"I don't know how Warner did it. All those years at war. All that fighting. He kept us all safe. He kept Woolven Industries afloat. And he and Westwood raised us. Taught us all we know."
"Are you feeling guilty for taking us to war, because you didn't take us to war. Grigori Remus did. You're doing what is right. What War and Westwood raised us to do."
"It doesn't always feel like that."
Parker had always known that the mantle of Alpha was a heavy one, but his brother seemed to bear it so effortlessly. As if it had been sewn just for his shoulders.
"You're not just the Woolven Alpha, Blake. Your Randi's mate. Noah's uncle. My brother... you are the pack. The pack is you."
"I am yours. You are mine," he said quietly.
The same words they said to all those they loved.
"So let's kill that motherfucker and get back to long days rolling in the grass and drinking by the pool, shall we?"
Chapter 15
There'd been a shift in the air at Aphelion.
Where once it had felt like a safe haven, there was a tension in the air. A weight that hung heavy around them all.
They were mobilizing for war.
And Belle was afraid.
She was afraid for all the people at Aphelion who'd come to mean so much to her.
She was afraid for Randi and the baby.
Emmie and Noah.
Drew and Warner.
And Parker's crazy ass. Belle had seen firsthand the lengths he'd go to. She didn't quite know what to do with that kind of love. It terrified her more than the forthcoming war.
She'd only just realized how much her father loved her, and it had been quite the shock to her world view. She'd never thought what he felt for her was love.
Belle had gotten almost everything she'd ever wanted. It was so close, she could feel it. So close she was living it.
But this war, it could take it all be taken away from her in a matter of moments.
There was nothing she could do. This wasn't like when she thought Tirigan was chasing her. To stop him, all she had to do was leave. There was a firm, definitive action she could take that would change the course.
With this, all she could do was stand and fight. She didn't know if it was enough.
Belle didn't understand how humans did it, as much she wanted to live as one, she didn't know how they allowed themselves to love so wholly, so completely.
To be human and to love was to know loss.
Thinking about this time with Parker, she knew she wouldn't trade it for anything. Even if she knew going into it that it was going to...
It would end. She would live forever, and Parke
r only had part of that forever.
Then all that was left was darkness.
Was the Asakku murder that would need a leader.
A hand on her shoulder startled her and she bared her fangs. When she identified Randi, she felt sheepish.
"A bit on the jumpy side, honey?" Randi maneuvered herself down into the chair next to her and closed her eyes. "The weather is perfect today. The sun is warm, the sky is blue and the breeze smells like that apple orchard on the next hill."
Belle realized she'd come out to enjoy the sun, but she hadn't even noticed its warmth on her skin.
"How do you do it, Randi?"
"What do you mean?" The other woman stretched her legs and arms, and it reminded Belle of a cat.
"Living with death."
"I guess you could see it that way. But no one really knows what life is going to bring us, do we? You're hard to kill, but you can be killed. It's easy to see the what kind of loss the passage of time with bring us when that's all you've had for so long. The sure tick of the clock. Damn it, I want a truffle."
A table appeared in front of them set for a lovely garden tea with Royal Albert Old Country Roses china. There were plates of truffles and a bloody mary with an actual bloody beef liver that had been filleted into bites and skewered with toothpicks that had little flags marked with a "w."
Randi narrowed her eyes. "We can blame Parker for this."
"Oh, how so?" She was rather delighted, actually.
"He gave Blake the bright idea to have Westwood bespell the house to provide snacks whenever I asked for them. If I say it out loud, it shall appear."
"That could be really handy." She reached over and picked up the drink.
"I swear, I'm going to have twins. One is going to be a bouncing baby girl and the other is going to be a truffle baby."
"That's never been a concern of mine. This reproducing thing with tiny versions of myself." She shook her head. "But I'm pretty sure that when you're making a whole other living being inside of yourself, you're entitled to as many truffles as you want."
"I think it's a wolf thing. I'm actually not too big on chocolate. I like sour things, when I'm in the mood for a treat. But Noah?" She shook her head. "There's this cute little candy shop run by a sugar fairy down in the village and he actually crawled inside the display case."
Belle laughed. "Oh my gods. He's so adorable, though."
"The bigger versions aren't as cute. You should ask Parker about when Drew damn near lost his mind thinking Emmie had been hurt and that little sugar fairy was flinging chocolates at his snout to get him to cool off. Parker couldn't even tell the story without laughing so hard, I thought he was going to break something."
"That poor little sugar fairy! She must've been terrified."
"Gin is made of stern stuff, but I imagine so. I might've been a little afraid."
"The people in the village, are they all like...us?"
"Yeah. Woolven protects the village and gives nonviolent supes a place to live in relative safety. Hidden from human eyes."
"This attack that's coming, how do we protect them?"
"You're already Woolven to the core." Randi squeezed her hand. "They have their own defenses. The village will disappear from our world when the attack comes and it won't return until it's safe."
"That's some pretty serious defense."
"Westwood is kind of a genius. I adore her."
"Me, too. She calls me child. I'm probably older than she is and I still like it."
"I don't know that I'd ever ask that woman her age, but she might, actually, be older than you are. She was a witch when the world was new."
"I don't know. Most people who are as old as I am aren't..." She looked for a delicate way to phrase it. "Well, they're brown people, like me. Or darker."
She laughed. "Tirigan is awfully pale."
"Yeah, all the melanin he ever had died a screaming death." She grinned. "It would be interesting to know, though. It was always thought that Ur was the first city. But as long as I've lived, there's so much I don't know."
"I think Westwood is from another dimension. I'm pretty sure she committed some great sin to be sent here."
"I can hear you," Eleanor Westwood said as she appeared in a seat across from them with a teacup in hand.
Randi sniffed. "I never say anything about a person I wouldn't say to their face."
Eleanor cackled, sounding a bit like the cliché of a wicked witch and she obviously knew it. "I'm not telling you my age. There are some things a witch just doesn't share."
"What, is it like your true name and it gives us power over you?"
"No, I'll just have to listen to age jokes from the boys, and I'll be busy chasing them all over Aphelion with a newspaper smacking their snouts when I have more important matters on my plate." She took a sip of her tea. "Really, ladies. With these wolves, you can't let anything slide. Not even once. You give them a little lead on that leash and they end up ravaging the countryside."
"Okay, just tell me this one thing. I don't need exacts…are you older than me?"
Eleanor just smiled. "I will only say that there are many more dimensions than this one."
Belle nodded. "Okay, I can live with that."
"If it actually offends you, I'll try not to call you child."
"No, it's okay. It's kind of... nice. I never got to have a grandmother."
In place of the matronly woman who smelled like vanilla and sugar suddenly sat a seductress with long black hair and bright red lips. She was so beautiful, it hurt to look at her.
"Show off," Randi muttered.
"It's okay if Grandmama looks like this, isn't it?"
Belle laughed again. "You know, if I'd known you when I was a child, I'd have asked you to do that all the time. Switch back and forth. It's delightful."
"It upsets Drew and Blake. Which is why I like to do it."
"What about Parker?" Belle asked.
"Oh, he's positively unfazed. As long as I keep giving him those little sugar cookies. Here, ladies." She produced two cookies that looked like little gourmet wolves. "Eat up. Randi, yours has everything your pup needs. And you, well, there's nourishment in yours that I've made from Tirigan's blood. It's been scrubbed of memories, so you should be fine. But it's like taking your vitamins."
"A vampire on a vitamin regimen. Okay. Why not?" Belle shrugged. "Stranger things have happened."
"I actually came to you both for a reason. There's no reason to panic, but--"
"It's starting, isn't it?" Belle blurted around her bite of cookie. It was actually one of the most delicious things she'd ever put in her mouth, and she could tell her body would not only be able to process it, but it actually did nourish her. This woman was a genius.
"Yes. You should go ahead and finish your tea, but then come in behind the walls. We need to talk strategy. Oh, look. Ondrej is making another pass around Aphelion." She pointed up.
Belle saw her first real, live dragon.
Then three more followed. One of them looked as if it had been fashioned from solid gold. She gasped. "They're so beautiful."
"And deadly as fuck," Eleanor said. "Their Alpha fire will burn almost anything. So I've been working in my laboratory and keying some spells and potions to protect you. You'll have a distinct advantage if you can walk through dragonfire."
Her stomach knotted in it on itself, and a prickling awareness skittered up her back like a hundred spiders. She tried to brush it off as only fear, but it was more than that. It was a sense of foreboding that seemed as solid as any of them sitting there. It had a place at the table.
Something evil, truly evil, was coming.
Eleanor looked up and their eyes met at the same time. The witch had felt it, too. She didn't know if she found that comforting or terrifying.
"It's close. We should get behind the walls."
Belle swallowed hard. There was so much she still wanted to say, so much she wanted to ask, but it all got stuck on her tongue like
a tough piece of gristle.
"Don't be afraid of yourself, child. I believe Parker gave you a piece of truth. Your monster is beautiful."
"You heard that?" Her eyebrows shot up.
Eleanor laughed. "No, he told me what you're struggling with. And, please don't be upset. He was looking for my advice for how to best help you."
"I'm not angry." Her issues were probably obvious to all of them, anyway.
"What you did in St. Louis was--"
"An atrocity," she interrupted. "But I'd do it again."
"As I expect you would. Human morality doesn't apply to us. When the Big Bad comes for those you love, we are capable of awful horrors. And it's best that the we don't let the Big Bad forget that. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I always say."
Black clouds began to gather overhead and lightning crackled around Westwood's fingers. "They've come for my boys. For my little loves. Do you think for one minute I would hesitate to unleash all the power of hell on anyone who tried to trespass here?" Westwood's voice was suddenly deeper and echoed with the power of the ages. It rattled the trees as the wind picked up in a fury. "Do you think I wouldn't burn their bones from the inside out and laugh while they roast alive? And do you think I will lose one bit of sleep over them? Their screams will be music I dance to on the sunny morning after."
Her words brought something dark and dangerous to life inside Belle. The monster that she'd thought lived in her blood was awake, and she was hungry.
"Yes, that's it. Come forth. Come stand with me, and we'll defend our home."
Randi was equally affected and Belle watched as the warrior form overtook the pregnant woman. It was a thing of graceful beauty, horrible in its power, but awe-inspiring, too.
She was all predator now, with a giant gaping maw filled with razor teeth dripping with venom.
And yet, in her eyes, beneath that primal hunger, just like with Parker, she saw the essence of who she'd come to know as Randi.
That was when Belle knew it was time to surrender.
They were coming for everyone and everything she loved. They were going to take this from her, and the monster she was wouldn't allow it. Wouldn't sacrifice herself or those she loved for any idea of what was right and wrong.
The Mate Mistake (The Woolven Secret Book 3) Page 14