by Chase, Eva
“It sounded as though we should be fine as long as we’re here,” he said. “Unless, I suppose, we stay longer than they’re expecting. They’re settled in about a three-hour eagle-flight from here. The plans I heard, they were talking about waiting until we were on the move again. It was clear they assumed that within the next few days we’ll be leaving here and heading toward the feline estate.”
“That is what would make the most sense,” Nate said.
Aaron nodded. “They want to catch us along the way. Make an attack with the advantage of surprise, on terrain they feel will skew the odds even more in their favor.” He glanced at me to add an explanation. “Normally we’d make it a road trip so we could stop and meet with a few of the more distant communities along the way. We save the jets for emergencies.”
“We could make an exception in a case like this, couldn’t we?” I said.
“But then we’d lose our chance of confronting them. As soon as we reach Marco’s estate, they’ll have to make different plans. They’ll move into a new position.”
“Well, where’s this prime terrain they’re hoping to catch us at?” West asked.
“I don’t know,” Aaron admitted. “Either they’d already decided and didn’t see the need to mention it to each other, or they haven’t decided yet and are waiting to see what actions we take first. I couldn’t tell from the way they talked about it.”
Marco brushed his hands together. “Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? Now we know where they are. We’ll go deal with them before they can set up their little surprise.”
“I agree,” Aaron said. “But the difficulty is how. They’re monitoring the area around the estate. They’ll know if we set off straight toward their camp and scatter before we get anywhere near them. I counted around forty of them there. From what the rogue prisoner said, that might be as much as half of their remaining number. If we strike, it needs to be in a way that ensures none of them escapes. Otherwise we’ll just have to deal with them again later.”
“I’ve definitely had enough of that,” West muttered. “Enough with the constant fleeing and regrouping. As long as enough rogues are out there to stir up trouble, none of our kin are truly safe.”
“Ren won’t be safe,” Nate said. He moved to stand beside me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “They’ve gotten away with too much already. It’s about time they faced some consequences.”
“An excellent sentiment,” Marco said. “It still doesn’t answer the question of how.”
Aaron rubbed his mouth. He looked so tired I wanted to tell the others to leave, to let him rest, but I knew from the determination in his stance that he wanted this settled. He’d waited out the rogues and spent the rest of the night flying back just so we could have this discussion. So we could come up with a plan of our own. I didn’t think he’d be willing to rest until he knew the information he’d brought back could be put to real use.
“We do have some advantage now,” Nate said. “We know they’ll be trying to spring something on us.”
“The trek from here to Florida is pretty long,” Marco said. “We can’t be on full alert constantly. I’d like a way to completely turn the tables on them.”
An idea tickled its way into my head. I straightened up next to Aaron. “You know what? I think we already have the answer right here.”
Chapter 10
Ren
“I don’t know about this,” Nate said as we tramped down the stairs toward the basement holding cells.
“We don’t have a whole lot of options,” I pointed out. “What are you going to do otherwise—leave him locked up and drugged for the rest of his life? How is he ever going to prove whose side he’s on if he never gets the chance?”
“I’d rather he was proving it in a way that didn’t potentially risk your life,” my bear shifter muttered.
“We can protect ourselves, can’t we? We’ll have our own sentries. We can withdraw if we need to.” I stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to face him. “Do you actually think it’s a bad plan, or are you just worrying about me?”
He frowned. “It’s the best plan any of us came up with. I won’t pretend it isn’t. But you can’t blame me for worrying.”
I patted his chest affectionately. “All right, I won’t. Just try to go easy on him. We want him to feel he can trust us, remember.”
Outside Orion’s door, Nate produced a key ring from his pocket. The guard on duty hung back as we stepped inside.
Orion jerked up at the movement of the door. He’d been sprawled on his back on the bench, his head lolling. The tranquilizer still glazed his eyes and dulled his reflexes. He swayed before managing to completely sit up. His gaze stayed on Nate, wary even though his narrow face stayed slack.
I could just imagine how his last conversation with his alpha had gone. But I didn’t want any grizzly behavior in here today.
I grabbed a stool from the hall and sat down across from the former guard. Nate loomed behind me, as if to give everything I said the extra weight of his authority. We’d decided it was probably better if I did the talking. Mainly because he wasn’t sure he could keep his temper.
“Orion,” I said, and the muskrat shifter’s eyes dropped to meet mine. “We might have a job for you. A way for you to redeem yourself with your alpha and your kin—to show where your loyalties really lie.”
Despite the vagueness of his expression, a spark of hope lit deep in his gaze. “What is it?” he asked. “What do you want me to do?”
“You’ve talked to the rogues before,” I said.
He nodded. “One of them.”
“So if we sent you out to talk to them, there should be someone in the local group who’d know who you are?”
“Yeah.” His eyes darted between me and Nate. “But I don’t know where they are. I told you.”
“That’s all right,” I said with a crooked smile. “We know where they are. You could just... happen to stumble into them after we pointed you in the right direction.”
He focused back on me, his head tipping slightly to the left. A furrow had formed in his brow. “And then what would I do?”
“Well, if you’re up for it... We’d pick a spot for you to lead them to. We’ll have a story for you to give them, something like that we’re going to be sneaking out of the estate and heading down a specific stretch of road, somewhere that looks good for an ambush. You’ll pretend you decided to side with them and you’re bringing this inside information to prove your worth. And then we’ll be the ones to ambush them.”
Orion was quiet for a long moment, just looking at me. “You want me to trick them.”
“They’re planning another attack on us right now,” I said. “They’ve already killed how many kin over the years? They support the people who killed the last alphas—my fathers. My sisters, who were only seven and nine years old. If any of them surrender, I promise you I’ll treat them fairly. But if they’re going to insist on fighting us, we can either fight back or lay down and die. And I wouldn’t ask anyone to do the second. Including you. That’s why I wanted you to have this chance.”
“Your dragon shifter is being incredibly generous,” Nate put in, his voice just shy of a growl. “As am I as your alpha, letting her bring you the proposition in the first place. Are you going to stay with us or fight against us?”
I shot him a look, and he grimaced but shut his mouth. “Or stay here,” I added, turning back to the muskrat shifter. “If you don’t want to take the risk, I’d understand. Maybe there’ll be another opportunity for you to show your loyalties. This is what we’ve got right now.”
Orion sucked in a breath. “I—I could do it. I think it could work. I can’t promise anything, but I—” He stopped and rubbed his forehead. His jaw worked. “I can’t think straight right now. But I know that I regret not coming to you as soon as they approached me, alpha. And, Serenity...”
“Ren,” I corrected him.
He looked up again, his eyes gone watery.
“Thank you,” he said. “For thinking of me. For trying to do right by all of us.”
“Will you try too?” I asked gently.
“Yes,” he said. “For my kin. For my alpha. And for you.”
My throat tightened at the emotion in his voice. “Then I should be thanking you.” I stood up. “We’ll have to let the tranquilizer wear off,” I said to Nate. “He can make a final decision then, when his mind isn’t so fuzzy. I want him to go understanding exactly what he’s agreed to.”
Nate didn’t look enthusiastic about it, but it wasn’t as if we could send his former guard off to consort with the rogues in his current state anyway. When we’d shut the door, he turned to the guard on duty.
“No more shots,” he said. “Let him come out of the daze. Keep a close eye on him. If he shifts or does anything suspicious, restrain him if you need to and call for me. When he’s had time to totally recover, call for me then.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard replied.
“You have your dragon’s sensitivity,” Nate said to me as we headed back to the main floor. “Do you think Orion actually wants to help, or is he just looking for any way to get out of that holding room?”
I thought of the former guard’s watery eyes and the wave of feeling that had coursed off of him at the end. “He really does regret what happened. He wants to be part of the kin again. I can’t tell how well his nerve will stand up once he’s out there with the rogues, of course.”
“I guess there’d be no telling that with anyone.” Nate sighed. “Well, we’ll see how he feels to you when he’s totally awake.”
“How long will it take for the tranquilizer to wear off?”
“A few hours at least.” He paused when we reached the top of the stairs. “So we have a little time. There’s something I wanted to show you here. It might actually be a little familiar.”
I perked up, my uncertainties about our plan momentarily pushed aside by a spark of curiosity. “What do you mean?”
He smiled. “You’ll see.”
Nate led me through a few hallways and up a broad staircase to the second floor. He opened a door to a large room in what was obviously one corner of the house. The first thing that caught my eyes was the sunlight streaming through two pairs of windows on the south and east walls.
I stepped inside, and my breath stopped in my throat.
It wasn’t just that the room was beautiful, although it was. The walls around the door were painted in reds and golds and glossy greens: stylized animals frolicking through a forest here, an ocean there, and up here by the ceiling puffs of dancing clouds. The designs stretched all the way to the windows, where trees and waves curled around the frames. The floorboards beneath my feet were polished to a shine so soft I almost felt as if I were walking on silk carpet.
I walked into the middle of the room and turned around. A warm, sandy smell hung in the air, like the kind of rock perfect for sunning yourself on during a hot summer day... if you happened to be a dragon. Like the actual rock that lay on the floor beneath the windows. A few chairs with plump cushions and wooden arms scattered the rest of the space.
Yes, it was beautiful. And also deeply familiar. Tears had sprung into my eyes.
“When I imagined bringing you to my home for the first time, I pictured the visit being a little more relaxing,” Nate said. “But at least before we go you can spend some time in here. It was your mother’s favorite room in the estate.” He took in my expression. “You remember it.”
“Yes.” I sank onto the stone slab. The sun-drenched warmth of its solid surface spread up through my hands. “She would bring me and my sisters in here when we complained about being bored. Sometimes my father—my bear shifter father—would come with us. What did she call it?”
“The inspiration room,” Nate said with a smile. “The first time I met her, she called for me to meet her in here.”
“Even though I couldn’t shift yet, I loved lying on this rock.” I eased myself down on my side, soaking up the stone’s heat and the beams streaming through the windows. “Sometimes she’d curl up around me here. All four of us would squeeze in together, or five if Da was there...”
I swallowed hard. Nate’s expression softened. “You don’t talk about them very much—your fathers and your sisters. You can, you know. I mean, if it’s too hard, you don’t have to. But if you want to talk to someone who remembers... I trained with your bear shifter father for four years before the attack took him. I didn’t know you or your sisters well, but I remember watching you playing in the courtyard when you were visiting.”
Watching us and wondering which of us would become his mate? And now here I was. The only one of my entire family left.
I swiped at my eyes and pushed myself back into a sitting position. “It is hard. Not just because it hurts, but also because... The memories don’t come easily. I don’t think there’s any magic suppressing them now, but when it’s been so long since I’ve practiced remembering them—I don’t know where to start unless I see or feel something that triggers them.”
Like that embarrassing breakdown when we’d first arrived. My face still heated at that memory.
But this place provoked better ones. I found, with an ache in my throat, that I did want to share them. To make them more real by conjuring those dead and gone.
I pointed to one wall. “My oldest sister, Temperance—she used to make up stories about all the animals. One time she spent hours connecting every piece of the painting into one epic tale. I never knew where she’d go with it when she started. The story came out totally different every time.”
My gaze fell on the chairs. “And my other sister—Mom always said she must have accidentally birthed a monkey when Verity came out. Verity couldn’t sit still for more than a few minutes. In here she’d climb up on the chairs and make a game of leaping between them, seeing how long she could provoke her dragon wings out for.”
“And Da...” I could picture him in my mind’s eye. Big and brawny like Nate, but longer in the face and even darker haired. My chest clenched up. “I always wanted to see more from the windows. He’d sweep me up in his arms and hold me right by the top, and tell me about all the things we could spot from here to the horizon.”
I felt the giddiness that had run through my little girl’s body. The joy of having my father’s attention focused all on me.
What would he, and my other dads, have thought of me if they could see me now? What would my life have been like if the rogues had never sent it brutally off course?
Nate ambled over and sat down beside me. I leaned against his shoulder. He took my hand, rubbing his thumb over the back. “You lost a lot,” he said. “More than any of us can understand. We each lost one mentor. Your whole family is gone. I have no idea what that’s like. But whenever you want to talk about it, you can come to me. To any of us. I think I can speak for the other alphas there.”
“Thank you.” Now that I had talked about my family, my heart felt a little lighter. “I actually think I’d like to spend a little time in here on my own before we go. If that’s okay.”
“Of course,” Nate said. “I should take care of a few things around the estate before we move on. If you need me, one of the attendants will know where to find me.”
He tipped my face toward his and kissed me softly. When he moved away my body was humming. I could feel his presence through our bond even after he’d left and shut the door behind him. While he was on the estate and that close to me, I didn’t think I’d need anyone’s help to find him.
I lay back down on the sunning stone and just drifted in and out of memories for a while. Weirdly, letting those fragments of my past rise up didn’t increase the pain of my loss. If anything, they soothed it. It was a heck of a lot better remembering the happy times. Why should my only clear recollections of my family be my fathers’ and sisters’ last moments of panic and torment?
When I sat up again, my nerves felt more settled. I touched the edge of my phone in my
pocket. I did have another kind of family that I wasn’t going to leave behind completely. I’d promised Kylie I’d keep checking in. The last thing I wanted was her figuring I’d ditched her.
Hey, Ky, I texted to her. Exciting times here. We’re going to take the battle to the rogues. I came up with a brilliant plan... Well, we’ll see how brilliant it is when we try it.
Her response came a minute later. Oh please. If you came up with it, of course it’ll work. I can just imagine your dragon self smashing all those assholes.
There was something pretty satisfying about that image. I wish you were here to really see it. I guess we’ll be near New York again before too long. We’re heading to Marco’s estate next, in Florida, and then West’s is up in the Northeast somewhere.
Oooh, Florida sun and fun! Where’s his pad?
I smiled. Apparently not far from Miami.
That figures. He totally looks like the clubbing type. Make sure you keep him in line, you hear?
Before I could answer, someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” I said.
An attendant peeked inside. “Dragon shifter,” he said. “Nate requests your presence by the holding rooms.”
Shit. It was already time to see just how brilliant my plan was. I sucked in a breath. Add another one to the many conversations with my bestie I was going to have to put off finishing.
“All right,” I said. “I’m coming.”
Chapter 11
Ren
It felt strange, being the only one of the shifters around me still in human form. I set my feet down as quietly as I could, moving with the others up the wooded hillside we’d chosen for our ambush. A loamy smell filled my nose. Furred bodies wove through the trees around me.
My mates and Nate’s kin who’d joined us had all shifted as soon as we’d left behind the vehicles, stashed off the road. It made sense, since in their animal bodies they could move faster and more stealthily, extend their senses farther, and just generally be more badass. Nate and Marco padded along on either side of me, West loping along ahead of us. Aaron soared overhead alongside Alice, watching for worrisome activity below.