by Morse, Jody
Colby took a deep breath. Troy was willing to sacrifice his own cousin if it meant that he got to keep Davenport on his pack.
Glancing over at Emma, he wondered: How are we going to beat them?
I don’t know, but we will. We have to, she told him.
Turning to Troy, Colby said, “Challenge accepted.”
Even as he said the words, though, he wasn’t so confident that they were going to win.
“Do you want to do this right now?” Troy questioned. “Or do you need some time to strategize?”
“We need time,” Emma replied quietly. “Can we take Davenport with us, though? We’ll bring him with us when we fight your pack tomorrow. If we lose, then he’s all yours. But if we win, then you have to say, out loud, that he’s free to be a Tala, and we get to take him home.”
“I don’t know if I can trust you,” Troy said, scrutinizing her. “How do I know that you’ll bring him back with you?”
“Easy,” Colby replied. “If he’s really meant to be an Ariel, you’ll be able to find him even if we don’t bring him back.”
“That’s true. That’s how I found him in his crib in the first place,” Troy murmured. “Fine. You may go to 132 Cosgrave Street. That’s where Davenport is. Bring him back with you when we meet here tomorrow night around ten o’clock.”
“Okay,” Emma agreed as she turned away from him. Colby followed after her.
“Oh, and Tala?” Troy called after them. “You should know that we now have twenty-seven pack members.”
Colby gulped. How were they going to do this? That was all he could wonder as they left the woods and began to make their way to the address Troy had given them.
Maybe Emma was right. Maybe they should have called Samara and Declan earlier, but now it was too late. Things had gotten way too out of hand.
No, they couldn’t call their friends. They needed to do this on their own.
Chapter 24: Emma
“What do you mean you accepted this challenge?” Bennett questioned with raised eyebrows. “Are you two morons?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “We had to accept it. There was no other way.” She hated that this was what they needed to do to get Davenport back and she wasn’t even sure how they were going to do it. But it didn’t change the fact that it was what they needed to do.
“The two of you are going to end up getting yourselves killed,” Bennett replied, shaking his head. “I think it would be much smarter to call Samara and Declan. They could round up the rest of the pack to make sure that you all beat the Ariel pack.”
“Calling them isn’t really an option,” Colby quietly told him. “He said it has to be just the two of us.”
Emma didn’t say anything. Maybe they should still call everyone. Samara and Declan deserved to know about the mess they had gotten Daven in. It was all their fault. But, at the same time, there was still a part of her that didn’t want to admit that all of this had happened since Davenport had been under her and Colby’s care. Maybe she was still paranoid that what had happened was a sign that she wasn’t going to be a good mother.
She wondered if she should really be fighting. She was probably pregnant, after all. If she got injured during the fight, something might happen to the baby . . . wouldn’t it?
But she couldn’t make Colby try to defeat the Ariel pack all on his own, either. That would just be cruel. He would probably die, and their child would grow up without a father.
“Hey, Colby? Can you go and get the mail? Neither of us has gotten it for the past few days,” Emma said, trying to create a distraction, even though she was pretty sure that they actually had gotten the mail.
“Okay,” he agreed before turning away from her.
Once she heard the front door open and then close, she turned to Bennett. “I have a question for you, but you can’t tell Colby I asked.”
“Oh, you’re keeping secrets from your beloved? How scandalous.” A grin spread across his lips. “You can count me in. I won’t say a word.” He pretended to zip his lips.
Emma took a deep breath. “If I happened to be carrying a child, would I have a miscarriage if I were in a brutal attack?”
Bennett’s eyes widened. “Are you with child?” He snickered. “That is quite a secret for you to keep from your mate, I must say.”
“I’m not pregnant,” Emma replied. “I’m just asking you a hypothetical question.”
“Perhaps you are, but what would spark your interest in this particular occurrence unless you were, indeed, pregnant?” Bennett stared at her curiously.
“Bennett. Answer me before Colby gets back in here,” she snapped at him.
“That’s what I thought.” Bennett tried to grin at her playfully, but his smile faded. He stared at her evenly for a few moments before saying, “Well, if there happened to be a pregnant werewolf, and she got into a fight, it’s most likely that, as long as the woman lived, the baby would live, too.”
“I don’t see how,” she commented. “Wouldn’t getting hit in the wrong place cause a lot of trauma?”
“Well, it would if that wolf were a human. But since our bodies heal themselves at a very rapid rate, the body would be able to heal itself quickly enough to ensure that the baby was safe,” Bennett explained. “However, in the event that the mother was killed, the baby would also die, too.”
Emma bit down on her lip nervously. She would be putting both of their lives at risk.
But Davenport’s life was already at risk. Who knew what the Ariel pack would do to him if he stayed a member of their pack? They could turn him into a crazy, evil werewolf or worse: they could hold him against the Tala pack until he eventually died.
No, Emma wasn’t about to let that happen. She was going to show up the following night, just as promised. More importantly, though, she was going to make sure that she stayed alive and that Colby stayed alive, too.
She heard the sound of Colby’s footsteps on the front porch. Just as the door was pulled open, Bennett turned to her with a serious look on his face and whispered, “Don’t worry, Emma. Your secret is still safe with me. I won’t say a word to Mr. Colby.”
She shot him a small smile, knowing that she could pretend all she wanted, but Bennett was that annoying.
“Hey, Em? There wasn’t any mail in the mailbox. I think you got it yesterday, didn’t you?” Colby questioned as he came back into the room.
“Oh, maybe I did,” she replied, feigning surprise at her forgetfulness.
Colby turned to Bennett. “I just realized something, Ben.”
“What is it, Colby?” the spirit asked with raised eyebrows.
“We were going to try to come up with a strategic plan to figure out a way to fight them tomorrow night, but it’s going to be really simple. All we need to do is call on you and the rest of the Trusted Ones. You all can protect us, right?”
“Well, of course we can. However, I will need time to go gather as many of the other trusted spirits as I can,” Bennett replied.
“Then, you better get a move on,” Colby told him. “We’re going to need all the help we can get this time.”
“I shall return,” the spirit replied before making himself invisible.
Chapter 25: Colby
That night, Colby couldn’t sleep. There was too much on his mind for him to sleep and too much for him to think about to even be in the same room as Emma. So, he decided to crash on the couch and watch some Family Guy episodes. When he got to the third episode that he’d already seen about ten times, he grew bored of watching TV.
He picked up Emma’s diary, which was resting on the coffee table in front of him. Flipping through the pages, he turned to the last entry in the diary. It was dated six months earlier.
Dear Diary,
I used to try to figure out when the first day I fell in love with Colby was. The spoiled part of me could easily say it was when he bought me that blue sapphire ring. I know he made it seem like it was just to pacify me, but the ring came from the bott
om of his heart. That wasn’t when I fell in love with him, though.
It wasn’t when we first met, either. I mean, I’m not going to lie. I actually used to find the boy pretty obnoxious. There was a reason I gave him his nickname. I chose Colby Jack, because I thought he was cheesy. Truthfully, it was a cheesy nickname, too. I can’t believe it actually stuck with everyone in school.
No, I didn’t always love Colby Jack. It might surprise you, diary, but I totally don’t believe in love at first sight. What I do believe in, though, is love at first sight when you’re a werewolf.
The moment I laid eyes on Colby for the first time after I’d made the change was when I knew, for certain, that Colby Jack was the guy who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I didn’t want to admit it at first—and not just because it was weird to think that two people who were so different could be fated to end up together—but because I’d never felt that way before. I’d never felt the intense, magnetic pull that comes along when you’re mated with someone.
What happened with Samara and Luke scares me every day. If I have to live forever, I want Colby to always be by my side. I don’t want something to happen to him, for him to be taken from me too early.
If he must go, I hope we go together.
OK, I guess that’s enough depressing stuff for me to write about today.
xoxo,
Emma
By the time he finished reading her diary entry, tears were rolling down Colby’s cheeks. He wiped them away, feeling sort of stupid for crying. He wasn’t just a man; he was a werewolf. He wasn’t supposed to cry, but how could he not? Emma’s diary entry hit too close to him for that particular evening.
Because, as much as he really didn’t want to admit it, there was a chance that he could die the following night. Or, even worse, Emma could. Like Troy had said, there were twenty-seven pack members, which would be hard enough for the whole entire Tala pack to ward off. But knowing that it was just him and Emma—as well as whatever Trusted Ones Bennett was able to round up—made it an even scarier reality.
As if he were reading his mind, Bennett appeared in front of him at that moment. “I have unfortunate news.”
“What is it?” Colby asked with raised eyebrows, dreading to hear what the spirit had to say next.
“I was unable to round up many spirits,” Bennett replied. “It’s probably going to sound silly to you, but many of them are on vacation.”
Colby gaped at him. “Vacation? Are you serious?”
“I know it’s hard to imagine werewolf spirits lounging on a beach in Mexico, but some of us have lives, too,” Bennett explained. “We don’t just hang around waiting to see who we need to come to the rescue for all day, every day.”
“But you don’t travel . . . do you, Bennett?”
The spirit shook his head. “Traveling was never my thing. Most of my spirit friends enjoy their travels, however. We’re able to do things that might have been dangerous even when we were werewolves, since no one can kill us now. We can cross over onto any of our enemies’ territories without worrying about an attack. Where do you think Nadia and Dante have been all week? They’re vacationing at Mount Everest.”
“I see,” Colby replied, setting Emma’s diary back on the coffee table and cracking his knuckles nervously. “So, now what are we supposed to do? It feels like this whole fight is a lost cause. Maybe Emma’s right. We need to just call Samara and Declan.” He sighed. “They’re going to be so disappointed in us.”
“In you? They’ll be most disappointed in me. I was the one who let them kidnap the baby out from under my watch in the first place,” Bennett pointed out. Shaking his head, he added, “I don’t think you should call them. I think I have an idea.”
“Do you?” Colby asked with raised eyebrows. “I’m all ears.”
Chapter 26: Emma
Meanwhile, Emma was having a really, really vivid dream. In her dream, she had just woken up in bed. Meagan, Colby’s mate was there. She was transparent-looking in her spirit form; her light brown wavy hair fell over her shoulders gracefully, and her light eyes had a sparkle to them.
“Emma, you need to stop worrying,” Meagan told her, her voice silky and smooth. “It’s all going to be okay.”
Emma sat up in bed. “How do you know?” Frowning, she added, “And how are you here, in my dream?”
Meagan’s thin lips tilted into a slight smile. “I have my ways. But right now, you shouldn’t worry about that. You need to worry about how you’re going to stay strong enough tomorrow to make sure that baby comes home with you.”
Emma glanced over at the crib, where Davenport was sleeping soundly. She knew that Meagan was right. As worried as she was about the whole thing, she needed to be strong. She needed to be brave. “I’m just worried.”
“And that’s to be expected, but just know that, most importantly, you need to trust Colby. He’s your mate. He’s going to do everything he can to protect you, but you need to be honest with him,” Meagan told her gently.
“About the baby, you mean?” Emma asked, glancing over at her sharply.
Meagan nodded. “He deserves to know, Emma. Knowing that there’s going to be a risk for both of you tomorrow, you need to tell him the truth. You can’t risk dying without ever telling him.”
Emma sighed. “How do you even know that I might be pregnant?”
Colby’s first mate laughed. “I have my ways.”
“Bennett told you? I knew he was a blabbermouth. Fine, I’ll tell Colby,” Emma replied with an eye roll, even though she hated being told what to do.
“Good. And Emma? I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll be there to help protect the two of you, along with Bennett and the other spirits. The odds are going to be in your favor. I must go now, but stay positive.”
Before Emma had the chance to say anything else, Meagan had already disappeared.
Opening her eyes, Emma glanced around the room. It felt like Meagan had really been there, in the same room as her. Even though she made Emma feel better, what if she had only been dreaming?
Either way, she was about to climb out of bed to go look for Colby, who was no longer lying next to her, when their bedroom door was opened and he came into the room. He sat down on the bed next to her and gave her a tiny kiss on the lips.
“Why do you seem so chipper?” Emma asked, raising one eyebrow.
“Because. Bennett just made me realize something, Em. You know how much I hated the idea of killing those people from the Ariel pack tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah,” she agreed. She hadn’t liked the idea of killing anyone, either. It seemed unfair that they needed to die just because their Alpha was a douchebag.
“Well, we don’t really need to kill them,” Colby explained. “I mean, that’s not to say that we won’t need to kill someone, but we don’t have to kill four innocent Ariel pack members.”
“What are you saying, exactly?” she asked.
“I’m saying that the only one we actually need to kill is Troy,” Colby explained. “Think about it. If I kill Troy, then I’ll automatically be the Alpha of the Ariel pack long enough to make sure that Daven will get to stay a part of the Tala. No one else will need to be killed, and it will be way less messy.”
“Yeah, unless they all get pissed off at you for killing their Alpha,” she pointed out. “If that happens, then what? Are we going to kill all of them?”
“I don’t know. We’ll worry about that when and, most importantly, if it happens.”
“You talk like her,” Emma murmured.
His light blonde eyebrows lifted questioningly. “Who do I talk like?”
“Meagan.” She took a deep breath. “She came to visit me . . . in my dream. At least, I think it was a dream. She told me that she’s going to be there tomorrow to help protect us.”
“She did?”
She nodded. “Yeah . . . she did.”
“How do you even know what she looks like? How did you know it was her?”
�
�She came to visit me once before,” Emma explained. “It was back when I was having doubts about you . . . about us.”
Colby stared back at her, his blue eyes wide. “When was this?”
“It was around the time we first started dating, I guess. I just felt so weird about everything, you know? It was like you’d already gone through the whole mating thing once before—”
“We didn’t actually mate,” Colby reminded her.
“Yeah, I know that. But even if you were never together sexually, you actually had a mate before me, and I just felt like I wasn’t good enough, you know? I thought that even if we did get into a relationship, it would never amount to what you had with her. You know, that whole first love, first mate bullshit.”
“Emma, you know that’s not true at all,” Colby said gently. “Even though there’s always going to be a place in my heart for Meagan—and a heart-shaped patch on my fur—we were both so young and naïve. It was a first love, yes. But I loved her in a different way—in a more adolescent way—than I love you.”
Emma forced a small smile. “I know and understand all of that now. But it took Meagan coming to visit me and telling me all of that on her own for me to really understand it. I guess I also sort of wondered, back then, how I would feel if you were my mate first and then you ended up with her instead. It would have sucked, and I guess I just sort of felt like it wasn’t fair for her.”
“A lot wasn’t fair for her,” Colby agreed. “She wasn’t meant to die the way she did, but I really believe that her death happened for a reason. It helped us all understand what Jason was capable of, and in a way, it lead me to you. I’m not saying that I couldn’t have been happy with Meagan if she had stayed my mate for life, but . . . you have no idea how happy it makes me that I got a second chance with someone who’s absolutely perfect for me.”
She darted her eyes away from him. Here he thought she was perfect for him, but how was that possible when she hadn’t even been honest with him? “I have something I need to tell you,” she said quietly.