by J. L. Wilder
“And it should scare them,” Marco said. “We have something no other pack I’ve ever seen has. We have an unwavering loyalty to one another that can’t be broken. The southern packs tried to break it. They did everything they could to split us apart, and it didn’t work. They’re even more afraid of us now that they’ve seen how strong we are. How unified we are.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Robby asked.
“Defend our land,” Ryker said. “It’s that simple.”
Sophie shook her head. “It isn’t simple at all,” she said.
“I agree with Sophie,” Chrissy said. “You know I’ll fight for this family, Ryker. But if there are as many of them as you say, and if they’re working with guns...that’s not a fight we can win. And we can’t gamble the safety of this family on the hope that we might be able to somehow win an unwinnable war.”
“We don’t have another choice,” Ryker said. “What can we do? Go on the run with nine infants in tow and more on the way?”
“Hang on,” Petra said. She turned to Sophie. “Is he saying what I think he’s saying? You’re pregnant?”
Tears welled up in Sophie’s eyes. Her pregnancy had been her lifeline this week, the only thing that had kept her from giving in to despair. Now, suddenly, it felt like a millstone around her neck. How could she hope to bring more children into the world when her whole family was already a target? How could she make the world a safe place for them?
Ryker was right about one thing. She couldn’t hope to go on the run. Her body would begin to change soon, and even walking would become difficult to do for very long.
She would have to count on her alphas’ plan to protect her.
Her packmates were looking at her with wonder and admiration. It was the moment she had been dreaming of since the mating ceremony—finally getting to announce to everyone that she was pregnant, that the family would be growing once again. But instead of being a fantasy, it was a nightmare.
They were about to be under attack.
Marco’s hand came to rest on Sophie’s shoulder. It should have been comforting, but it wasn’t. She knew he was just trying to chase away her fears.
“There’s nothing to be gained by panicking,” Ryker said, looking around at all of them. “What we need is to act.”
“But what are we supposed to do?” Robby asked. “How can we fend off such a large group—and one with weapons? If we could take them in a fair fight, we might have a chance, but we’ll never get near them. They’ll just shoot us, won’t they?”
“They would,” Ryker said. “But we’re not going to let them hang onto those guns. We’re going to take them.”
“How can we do that?” Chrissy asked.
“Carefully,” Ryker said. “But the first thing we need to do is set up patrols. I don’t want them getting within a mile of this cave. We’ll run the perimeter in threes, and I want one person standing guard here with Sophie at all times. Whoever’s not guarding or patrolling will be sleeping, getting ready for their next shift.”
“This is too much,” Sophie protested. “You can’t all give up your lives to guard duty.” She looked around helplessly. “There has to be something I can do to help too,” she said.
“There is,” Burton cut in. “Your job is going to be taking care of those babies, which is no small thing to have to do on your own. You won’t have any help, not until we deal with the southern threat, because everyone else is going to be needed for other jobs.”
“What about Cam and Petra?” Chrissy asked. “Neither of them are fighters.”
“We’ll keep them on patrols instead of guard duty,” Ryker said. “If they pick up a scent, they can run back here and report it.”
“That still puts them in danger,” Robby pointed out.
“I know,” Ryker said. “But we’re all in danger until this threat is dealt with, and we’re a family. We’re just going to have to shoulder the risk together.”
“It’s all right,” Petra said. “I’m willing to take the risk.”
Cam nodded. “I may not be as strong a fighter as the rest of you, but I’m ready to do my part.”
“All right, then,” Ryker said. “The first step is for us to divide into watch groups, and I think Burton and Marco and I should stay separated as much as we can, in order to spread the bulk of our strength. Why don’t I take the first shift, with Cam and Chrissy?”
Sophie had to admire the way Ryker was handling things. It was clear that he understood how much it would mean to Chrissy to be paired with her brother, so that she would be able to help watch out for him.
“Robby, Petra, and Burton will be the second watch group,” Ryker said. “Marco will guard. And we alphas will rotate, so there will always be an alpha on guard.”
Burton nodded. “That sounds fine,” he said. “My group should knock out for a while, then, so that we can be ready for our first patrol...when?”
“Four-hour rotations for now,” Ryker said. “We’ll modify it if we need to.”
Burton crawled into the corner of the cave and stretched out. “Get some sleep, Robby, Petra,” he called. “We’ll need to be alert when our shift comes up.”
Ryker turned to Marco. “We’ll let you know if we see anything,” he said.
“Don’t try to take them on alone,” Marco said. “Come back here, and we’ll go together if it becomes necessary.”
Ryker nodded. “Follow me,” he said to Cam and Chrissy, and set off at a jog.
Marco turned to Sophie. “Do you want to take a walk?” he asked her quietly.
“The babies,” she said. “We can’t leave them.”
“We won’t go far. And Burton’s here, if anything happens.” He reached out and took her hand. “I think you and I need to talk.”
The truth was, she was far too restless to sit still anyway. She allowed Marco to lead her out of the cave.
The leaves were beginning to fall in earnest now, blanketing the forest floor with orange and red and brown. They crunched underfoot as Marco and Sophie walked.
“How are you?” he asked her quietly.
“I don’t know,” she said. Fear and anxiety were beginning to catch up with her. “Do you really think that the southern packs are going to come for us?”
“Yes,” he said slowly.
“What makes you so sure?”
He turned to face her. “I’m glad they didn’t do anything to hurt you, Sophie,” he said. “You can’t imagine how glad I am of that. But it does raise questions. It makes me wonder what their purpose for kidnapping you in the first place could be. Usually, when a rival pack kidnaps an omega—”
“It’s to mate with her,” Sophie said. “I know. I thought that was what they wanted at first too. But they never showed any interest in me that way. The only thing they talked about was destabilizing you. They thought that taking me away would split up the family, and they sent those...those other women to tempt you, to pull you farther apart. That was all it was ever about for them.”
Marco nodded. “That fits,” he said. “All they wanted was to separate us, because they’re afraid of us. Because they know how strong we are together. They must think there’s a chance we’ll attack them or something. If they didn’t, they would be content to live and let live.”
“They do think that,” Sophie said, remembering. “They told me. They wanted to break you up so that you wouldn’t invade their territory. I told them you never would, but they wouldn’t listen.”
“It’s not your fault,” Marco said. “I’m sure they were prepared not to take your word for anything.”
“But they asked me other questions,” Sophie said. “They wanted to know what your fighting styles were like.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I said that you were all equally strong and that you would beat them in a fight. I said they wouldn’t have a chance.” She sighed. “But there are so many of them, I don’t see how that can be true.”
&
nbsp; “There are a lot of us as well,” Marco reminded her gently. “And we have more fighters than we do alphas. It’s uncommon for betas to be as strong as Chrissy and Robby are. We have an advantage because we’ve lived in the wild, and we’re more in touch with the animal side of our nature.” He smiled faintly. “Besides, we held our own against the bears.”
“Barely,” Sophie said. Another memory occurred to her. “That’s how they found out about us, by the way. One of the bears told them.”
Marco sighed. “I’ve been afraid of something like that happening, to be perfectly honest with you.”
“You have?” she asked.
“I wasn’t exactly sure what it was I was worried about,” Marco said. “But when the bears went south, I definitely felt a sense of dread. I had the feeling the decision to let them go was going to come back to haunt us.”
Sophie’s face burned with shame. “That was my decision,” she said quietly. “We only let them go because I asked for it. I’m so sorry, Marco.”
“No.” He stopped and faced her, resting his hands on her shoulders. “It isn’t your fault. Don’t believe that for a minute.”
“But if I hadn’t asked you to let them go, you and Burton and Ryker would have killed them that day, and this would never have happened.” She shuddered under his hold as the full weight of that realization sank in. “That means that if they attack us and anything happens, if anyone is hurt...I’m to blame.”
“No, you aren’t,” Marco said firmly. “Absolutely not. You may have asked us to let the bears live, Sophie, but we all made the decision together. We all agreed to let it happen. We are all equally responsible. If any one of us had believed that you were wrong, we could have done something about it, but we didn’t.”
“You didn’t agree with me, though,” Sophie said. “You didn’t want to let them live.”
“I didn’t want to let them live because I was angry,” Marco said. “Ryker and Burton felt the same way. I know that for a fact. We wanted to kill them for revenge, Sophie, not out of a desire to protect the pack. We didn’t anticipate this situation any more than you did. It’s pure coincidence that if we had indulged ourselves and sought revenge, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s not a sign that we were more thoughtful or responsible than you were. You can’t blame yourself for what’s happening now.”
Sophie looked at the ground.
“Hey.” Marco cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to look up at him. “I mean it. Don’t blame yourself. Okay? It isn’t your fault, and there was no way you could have predicted it.”
Sophie nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Marco said. “This plan is a good one. We’re going to keep the family safe. I promise. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
She wanted to believe that so badly.
But the southern wolves might be coming at any time. And they had guns, and they had numbers. It was horribly intimidating.
She turned toward Marco, wrapped her arms around his waist, and buried her face in his chest, trying hard not to think about the members of her family who were out there right now, putting themselves at risk.
Chapter Sixteen
MARCO
The days began to blur together.
Every time he was shaken awake, Marco rolled to his feet without thinking, shook out his exhausted limbs, and jogged out of the cave without putting on a stitch of clothing to take his turn running the perimeter that Ryker had established. The route took them a little over six miles around the cave, and the three who ran it always tried to distance themselves equally to cover as much ground as they possibly could.
Today, Marco was running about two miles behind Robby and two miles ahead of Petra. He had lost track of how many days it had been now, and of how many times he had been out on patrol. He was strong, but his muscles had begun to ache from overuse, and he was beginning to worry about his own ability to fight off the southern wolves if they ever did show up.
So far, there had been no sign of them. But he knew he couldn’t count on that to continue. There was no reason to think that this shift wouldn’t be the one during which they would show up at last.
The path they were running had become visible after so many days running it. He could see where his packmates had trodden. The earth was packed down harder beneath his paws, and the leaves that had once been there were largely cleared away.
Burton had been concerned about it when he had first noticed. “Won’t this alert the southern wolves to the fact that we’re running a perimeter?” he asked.
“Nothing we can do about that,” Ryker had said. “They already know where we live. It’s not like we’d really be giving them any information they don’t already have.”
Marco had agreed, but he had also flinched at Ryker’s assessment. He really didn’t like to remember the fact that the southern wolves knew where their cave was. It was the most uncomfortable part of this whole arrangement. They weren’t just prepping for an attack that might be coming if their enemy found them—they were preparing for an invasion.
Not for the first time, Marco questioned the decision they had made to stay.
He understood Ryker’s thought process. It would be too difficult to move the babies, and they would more than likely just be found anyway. It was better to defend their home rather than try to run away. And Marco had even agreed with that.
It was just that it was so hard to be certain he’d made the right call. What if something went wrong now because they had stayed? How would he ever get over wondering if it might have been prevented?
This is the same thing you told Sophie not to think, he reminded himself. All we can do is make the best decisions we can with the information we have. We can’t see the future. And we can’t allow ourselves to become paralyzed because we don’t know what the outcome of our choices will be.
No sooner had he had that thought, however, than something froze him in his tracks.
The reaction was so instinctive that for a moment, Marco didn’t even recognize what had caused it. He stood very still, heart pounding.
Then he caught the scent again.
Wolf.
And not just wolf. Gunpowder.
The southern packs were close by.
Immediately, a cold wave of logic swept over his mind. He had to let the others know what was happening. That was first. It was possible that they would pick up on the scent when they passed this point, but he couldn’t count on that. He had to get to Robby and Petra.
Fortunately, they were running in a circle. If he waited, they would come to him.
Marco fell back toward the safety of a large tree a few feet off the path and waited. His nerves had all but settled now that he knew the fight was imminent. His body craved action. Not only that, he wanted to exact justice on the southern packs for daring to touch his omega, to threaten the sanctity of his family. He would make sure they lived to regret it.
If they live at all, that is.
He heard pounding footsteps and pulled back a little farther off the road, but it was Petra, running past on her own circuit. As soon as she came into view, Marco launched himself forward into her path. She skidded to a halt and cocked her head at him.
He gave an exaggerated sniff, hoping to cue her to scent the air.
She did, and her eyes widened.
Marco nodded, then tipped his head in the direction of the cave. Go home. Tell them.
Petra inclined her head, then turned and raced away.
He hated to see her go, to send her off on her own. But he knew it had to be done. Someone had to get word back to the others. Marco and Robby were good in a fight, but Petra was less physical. She was the ideal choice to play messenger.
Robby came along about ten minutes later, and Marco stopped him as well and drew him back into the trees. Once there, he shifted and explained what he had done and where Petra had gone.
“So we’re going to have to find the souther
n wolves,” he said. “We’re going to have to hope they’re all together. Do you see? Because if they are, we’ve got the drop on them. We can take them by surprise.”
Robby nodded slowly. Marco could tell he had reservations, but he was choosing to trust his alpha. That was what mattered.
“Are you ready for a fight?” Marco asked.
Robby nodded again.
Marco resumed his wolf form, knowing that he would need teeth and claws now. The only advantage they had at the moment was the element of surprise. There were only two of them, and they weren’t armed.
It’ll be a miracle if we get out of this unscathed.
But he would do whatever it took to make the world safe for Sophie and their children again. He would lay down his life, if that was what it took.
He slunk through the woods with Robby at his right flank, carefully following the scent. It wasn’t difficult to track. The southern packs were clearly taking no trouble to cover up signs of their presence. Marco wondered whether that was confidence or just ineptitude. Were they unaware that their presence was as obvious as it was, or were they simply so sure that they were going to win this war that it didn’t matter who knew they were here?
No, he reminded himself firmly. No matter how it seems, they aren’t confident. I know they’re not because of the fact that they felt the need to split up our pack in the first place. That’s why they kidnapped Sophie. That’s why they sent those women up here to seduce us.
Hell, that was why they were attacking in the first place. They couldn’t leave Marco’s pack alone because they were afraid.
Because they know we’re stronger.
The thought gave him courage.
He came to a halt, and beside him, Robby froze as well. Voices were coming through the trees toward them.
“They’re not far from here,” someone was saying. “We’ll make our move at midnight. They won’t be expecting it then.”
“You don’t think they’ll have a guard posted?” another voice asked.
“Even if they do, it’ll be easy enough to take out the guard,” the first voice said. “And then we’ll be able to take the rest of them by surprise. But I’m sure they don’t think we’re planning on coming for them so soon.”