Since buildings and warehouses were going to blow up all over the southeast, there was no need in trying to make it look like the ingredients to make the drugs had gone boom. Aaron planned to take everything out at once, when our enemy didn’t expect it. Law enforcement would figure out most of what had been destroyed had been part of the drug trade, and who knows what they’d think of the other buildings. Odds are, they’d figure out it was some kind of war between the cartels.
We met up with Ranger’s team first, and Kenny met us with his team a little farther away. Our van rolled into view as we exited the woods, we got in, and we were off.
We let mission control at Drake know we were good to go, and three miles later, we were given the go-ahead. Cora pushed a button and we heard, saw, and felt the explosion.
Ranger flipped his laptop open and went to one of the news sites, but they weren’t reporting on any explosions. It took nearly fifteen minutes for them to butt into the programming with breaking news, saying explosions had been reported in Atlanta and Knoxville. Over the next thirty minutes, they were reporting them in Chattanooga, Alabama, and two cities in South Carolina.
I’d known about Chattanooga and South Carolina, and one location in Atlanta, but there were three large fires going in Atlanta, and I’d had no idea about the forested areas in Alabama.
“We didn’t do all of that.”
“An associated group handled a few other places,” said Ranger. “They worked with us so the timing was right. All explosions happened within five minutes of each other.”
I shook my head. “We were careful to keep it so first responders wouldn’t feel the need to go inside and possibly be injured. No neighboring businesses with people in them, no reason to get close. How do we know the associated group did the same?”
Cora sent me soothing energy. “I don’t know which group it was, but I know Aaron would make sure that’s the case. He goes out of his way to make sure no good guys become collateral damage.”
I nodded. She was right, but I didn’t want to be part of anything that took out a first responder. This warehouse was in the center of a large concrete pad, with the nearest woods forty yards away, plus it had rained a few days before. The warehouse was a total loss, so they’d only spray water or foam from a distance. Aaron had assured me all targets had been analyzed and planned so first responders wouldn’t feel the need to go running in. Later, dead bodies would be discovered because a few of the other warehouses had people working at night, but it wasn’t known that workers were inside, and the explosions would be violent enough, there was no hope of saving anyone.
I was exhausted, but sleep wouldn’t come. We watched the news on Ranger’s laptop until the Drake van dropped us off at our house, and we all went into the old farmhouse to keep watching. The morning news came on the network stations with the explosions and fires their lead story. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called a possible terrorist. Eventually, once everyone realized the places hit were part of the illegal drug industry, everyone assumed this was a war between the cartels, but early on, the terrorism word was thrown around a whole lot.
27
Nothing happened in the following days. I kept expecting the FBI to show up asking questions, but no one came.
Cora and I worked out in the new field. I levitated to the top of the boulder to practice setting myself on fire, trusting the obfuscation spell would keep anyone outside of the meadow from seeing. It wasn’t really a meadow, but it’s what we were calling it.
With the energy of the Pack supporting her, Cora learned to levitate without my help, but she couldn’t form a light weapon.
It took a while to balance our energy. She had a hundredfold more power, and it felt like we could take on the world when we joined our energy fields. I was glad we’d first done it before she became Alpha, or I’m not sure we’d have been able to manage it. I could feel every member of the Pack through her. I didn’t need to give her as much of my energy anymore. We circulated it between us because we were used to doing it, or perhaps the bond required it, but neither of us were supporting the other with it anymore.
Mordecai showed up for our training every once in a while, but he stood to the side and watched without comment.
I’d gone out on a date with him once a week. Every week. He didn’t push for more, or it would’ve given me a reason to tell him this wasn’t working. The problem was — it was working. I looked forward to our dates, and I was sad to say goodbye to him the next morning, or sometimes the next afternoon. Sex with Mordecai is mind-blowingly, stupendously amazing.
I was also working three days a week at a psychiatric hospital, but I wasn’t sure it was going to work out for me long term. I knew I could help these patients, but dealing with the mentally disturbed takes more fortitude than I had in me at the time. However, this was a high-dollar hospital intended for the ultra-rich, which meant we helped family members as well as the patient, and once Marcus aimed me in that direction, everything fell into place for me.
I was on my way home from a full day at the hospital when Dawg texted with a request for me to call him on the encrypted app.
He got right to the point.
“Duke needs to talk to you and Cora before I invite you to another party. I don’t suppose ya’ll are free in the next day or two?”
“I’ll need to check with her, but we should be. Is this Pack versus lone wolf stuff?”
“Not versus, but yeah, we need to handle the politics. I didn’t invite you to the last two because I kept hoping ya’ll would call to set something up.”
I sighed. “We have an agreement with the hawks who guard the property during full moon runs, but she’s still putting it off with ya’ll, Randall, Nathan, and even Abbott. She had to formally work something out with Drake Security because so many of our people work there, but she’s holding back with almost everyone. Please don’t take it personally.”
He sighed, and it sounded more frustrated than annoyed. “The various shifter groups aren’t sure what to do with you. You aren’t a shifter, but you aren’t really a human mate, either. For that matter, you aren’t even a mate, and yet you’re bound to an Alpha as if you are, but then there’s the question of whether you own the Pack since you own her, or she owns the Pack now that she has her own source of power.”
“And Duke doesn’t want you having sex with me again until we figure it out.”
“Yeah.”
“Your place, our place, or neutral territory?”
His silence told me I’d probably committed a faux pas just by asking. “Never mind. I’m clueless about this stuff and I should probably talk to Cora. Thanks for being patient with me.”
“So long as you can tell me the MC isn’t going to be snubbed, and will be treated like a powerful entity on the local playing field, we’ll be okay.”
I sighed. “Cora’s the Pack leader and she makes those decisions. I haven’t heard her say anything either way, but I can’t imagine she intends to snub you. You’re on good terms with both Aaron and Randall, and those two get her full allegiance, so I don’t see that there would be a problem.”
He still didn’t say anything. I tried again. “You stood by my side when it could’ve hurt you to do so. I don’t forget those kinds of things. I can’t speak for Cora, and I won’t. She’s the Alpha and it’s her call. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It sounds like I need to get Cora to contact Duke, because I think this is above both of our pay grades.”
“It is. I appreciate your stance.”
My turn to sigh. “I’m sorry this is causing problems. Truly, I do thank you for letting me know.”
Cora was in the new house when I arrived home. The lights were on, and we were planning to move in another ten days. A week and a half. We both had a ton of things in storage, just waiting to be able to move them in.
And the Pack was ready to move us, when the day came. No need to hire movers.
She wore bike shorts and an exercise bra, an
d was painting a mural in her bedroom. Two walls would look like a forest, and I’d had no idea she was this talented. She’d used a projector on the wall and traced the original lines, but she was painting it to look real.
I told her about my conversation with Dawg, and I could feel her discomfort.
“I’m good with handling politics within the Pack, but I hadn’t foreseen how much I’d have to play a damned chess game with the other groups. I’ve put everyone off, saying we needed to wait until we had an appropriate place to entertain, but since we’re about to move in…” She huffed out a breath.
“Talk through the problems with me. I can’t decide for you, but maybe I can ask the right questions to help you figure out the best course.”
“My wolf knows Dawg is important to you, so we have to make sure his Pack is treated right. They aren’t Pack, but my wolf sees them that way.”
I immediately saw the problem. “But doing so will make the other groups think they’re getting preferential treatment.”
“Abbott is first. No matter what. If we do the MC, Randall, Nathan, Martin, Bran, and the Owls all within a few days of each other, I don’t think the order will matter as much.”
“How do we invite them?”
“Formal invitation, hand delivered by my second.” She sighed. “I need to buy the cardstock and the special printer that can lay down textured metallic print. Randall has one. It looks like a wedding invitation. Aaron’s colors are a shimmery green paper with burgundy type, which sounds horrid, but it fits him and it’s beautiful and masculine. Abbott’s is matte black with silver lettering. Randall’s is a semi-gloss pale green with a shiny hammered brass bold script font. Patrick chose a light sky blue with matte charcoal lettering, but there are glossy raindrops on the sheet and the lettering, so it looks like the sky with rain.” She took a breath. “I was considering hunter green with copper lettering, but then I wondered if we shouldn’t use something that reminds people of our light weapons.”
“No, this is you as Alpha, and it shouldn’t reflect me. I think hunter green with copper will be striking.”
“The living room and den are ready for furniture, right? We could go ahead and bring everything into those rooms. My bedroom will be ready by the weekend, and the closet people are coming tomorrow, right? We can start moving this weekend. It’s just the kitchen and bathrooms getting finishing touches, right?”
I nodded, and she shrugged.
“We really only need the living room, den, dining room, and kitchen to be ready for guests. I can invite people starting perhaps… two weeks? Three days after the weekend? That Thursday? If we can get everyone in and out in two days, we should avoid most issues with who went first.”
“What’s my role?”
She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Good question. We’ll need to bring Aaron and Sophia in as a ruling couple. Aaron and I have a verbal agreement already, but we have to make it official. They’ll be… crap. I’m putting them in front of Abbott.” She worked on a tree trunk, highlighting one side of each piece of bark, and then using dark on the other side to shade it. “I think it’ll work to invite Duke, Brain, Horse, and Gabby all at once. Horse and Gabby are a power all their own, but they’re part of the MC. I could do them back to back, but it seems better to invite them together. They’ll bring Bash, but he’ll just stand at the door.”
“And I just sit there and look pretty? Or do I stand at the door as your guard, too?”
She laughed. “I think we’ll put Kenny on the door and have Ranger at our backs. You’ll sit with me and telepath issues you see with wording. I need you to analyze everything from a legal viewpoint. You’re getting pretty good at that.”
She seemed uncomfortable. Was she finding a role for me because I really would just be sitting there and looking pretty? I sent her warm, loving energy. “You’ve been my support person for how long? Now I get to return the favor. This is your gig. Your show. I’ll sit by your side and help in whatever way you need me to. I’d considered suggesting I not be around for some of your official Alpha things, so there’d be no doubt you’re the Alpha and I’m not in charge, but that doesn’t feel right, either. I need to be seen supporting you.”
She nodded. “Yes. We’re a set. We’re bound.” She went back to painting. “Randall let me take pictures of invitations from most everyone in town. Do you think you can look over them with me, and then help me pick out a font? I know in my head what I want it to look like, but when I’ve looked on the font sites, I feel lost.”
“You’d mentioned naming our property, at one point. Homewood? Is that still on the table?”
She nodded. “Our home in the woods. Yeah.”
“Okay, so let’s pay Cam to make a logo for Homewood, and we can use that logo for Pack stuff, too. They’ve been calling us the Cumberland Pack, do we want that to stick, or shall we be the Homewood Pack? Either can work, right?”
She nodded. “The Cumberland Plateau stretches from Alabama up past Kentucky, and it keeps going but they call it something else up north. Still, we aren’t the only Pack on it. Calling us the Homewood pack makes sense. That could work.”
“Okay. I’ll call Isaac and get Cam’s number. What do I smell cooking?”
“I have both Crock Pots going — pot roast in mine, and the veggies with extra onions in yours. If you want to make the gravy, I’ll finish this section and join you in…” She looked at the wall a few seconds. “Fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll change clothes and get started. I’m debating between opening a bottle of wine or just fixing a Jack and Coke.”
“Rough day?”
“Different. I’m enjoying it more now, working with the families and patients, but this is short term, I think. It isn’t going to be fulfilling long term.”
“You don’t need the money.”
“No, but I need to help people, and this fell into my lap. Running a business and being responsible for rent, assistant, fish, cleaning people, and everything else…” I shrugged. “It would be too much right now. Maybe in a few years.”
28
After dinner, we looked through fonts and narrowed it down to two. I played with both in a graphics program, and we soon realized we needed a professional. I’d called Isaac earlier and asked for Cam’s contact information, and we put together an email to let him know what we were looking for, along with my sorry attempts at creating something out of fonts we liked.
“I feel like we’re in a holding pattern,” I told her. “And that’s good, because we have a lot to do before we’re ready to take on the bad guys, but it’s disconcerting.”
No sooner had I said the words than my phone went off, telling me someone was calling on the encrypted app.
Nathan and Aaron were on the screen, and I tilted it so they could see both Cora and me.
“Rinaldo is in Atlanta.”
“Does he know where I’m living now?”
“I’d like to think he doesn’t, but…” Aaron shrugged. “You should stay underground tonight.”
“What do we know?” Cora asked.
“Just that he’s here with lots of shifter and vampire security,” said Nathan. “I’d like to send someone to patrol your property tonight.”
“No,” said Cora. “The Pack will see to our safety.”
Nathan’s jaw muscle flexed, and she said, “If you want to come to see Kirsten, that’s different, but we can’t accept security from the Pride.”
“You both work for Drake, so we can send people without it getting into politics,” said Aaron.
“Politics, sure, but I’m working on appearances. The answer is no.”
“Fine,” said Nathan. “Ranger’s working an event downtown. I’ll send someone to relieve him, so he can come to you.”
“Much appreciated,” said Cora. “You’ll have the control room notify us of any further intel?”
“Of course.” Aaron ran his hand through his hair. “I know you’re both more than capable of taking care of
most threats, but this is Rinaldo. I worry.”
“Advice?”
Cora seemed to be doing good talking to him, so I sat and listened.
“Stay connected. You’re stronger as a unit.” Nathan shook his head. “Kirsten, I’ll be more than happy to turn this into a personal call. You only need to ask.”
“You haven’t let me know you’ve worked through your baggage yet. You’ve made it clear that you don’t want to be around me more than necessary until you do. We’ll keep ourselves safe.” The words were said devoid of emotion, and the therapist in me knew I needed to figure some shit out regarding the big kitty cat. “You hurt me, Nathan. I gave you more than I should’ve, and then you turned on me for doing what had to be done. I don’t hate you, but I’m not sure I can let you close again, even if you figure your shit out. We’ll manage without you.”
Somehow, I went from zero emotion to oversharing. Go me.
Cora put her arm around me and told him, “I appreciate the offer, but it’s important I handle this without help from others. I know you understand. If the two of you were still together, it’d be different.”
He nodded, and Cora disconnected before anyone could say anything else.
“Fuck.” This, also, was said with lots of emotion. I was on a roll.
“Yeah. I’ll call Ranger, Kenny, and Mac.”
“Mac isn’t our fourth strongest,” I noted.
“No, but we all work well together. So long as they have a way to keep Bethany safe, I’d feel better with both of them up here.”
She called Ranger, and since Bethany was out with Gen, it was easy enough for her to just stay with her for the night. He and Mac would arrive soon.
“Grab whatever you’ll need for tonight and tomorrow,” Cora told me. “We should head to the tunnels.”
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