CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Keri
I sighed as I adjusted in the warmth of Blake’s embrace. It had been two days since I’d woken up and I’d been released from the medical center with strict instructions from Curtis to take it easy. Blake had assured him he would ensure I followed his instructions. I was just happy to be back in my room and Blake had slept beside me. After nearly dying, every moment with Blake I treasured because there had been more than a few times when I’d been convinced I would never see him again.
You awake? Blake asked through the mind-link.
I opened my eyes and smiled at him as I wrapped my arm around his waist. I was lying on my side, tucked into his arm with my head using his chest as a pillow.
You are so beautiful, he murmured.
I reached out and touched his lips with my fingers. Every touch and kiss meant so much more than it ever had before.
I love you, I said to him through the link.
I never tired of saying those three words to him and I never tired of hearing him say them to me.
I love you too.
He pressed his lips to my mouth and I groaned as I pulled him closer. I needed and wanted so much more. He smiled against my lips and I felt my stomach flip.
“You need bed rest and if you keep doing that you will be doing anything but resting.”
I smiled.
“I want you,” I whispered to him.
“I want you too, but you need to take it easy,” he reminded me. “You nearly died and I’m not taking any chances that you are going to screw up your recovery.”
“Fine,” I relented, understanding his concern.
There was a knock at the door and I rolled onto my back as Blake got out of the bed and pulled some jeans on.
He answered the door. It was Cade.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to you,” Cade said to him. The agitation in Cade’s voice made me nervous.
“Okay, give me a minute,” Blake told him before closing the bedroom door and turning to face me.
“There’s something wrong,” I asked, sitting up. The action pulled at the wound in my stomach and I winced.
“You need to take it easy. I have to go and talk to Cade and find out what is going on, so you need to stay in bed until I get back,” he commanded. I gave him a brief nod.
After everything I’d put him through I didn’t want to put any more stress on him and my health was worrying him at the moment. Werewolves healed quickly but because of the severity of my wounds it was taking longer for me to heal. I wasn’t used to being unable to do things and it was hard reminding myself that I wasn’t fully healed.
Blake pulled on his shirt and leaned closer to give me a quick kiss before he shoved his feet into his shoes and left the room to talk to Cade.
There wasn’t much I could do so I lay back down, waiting for him to return so I could find out what was happening. A dreaded feeling began to grow in the pit of my stomach. Cade was a strong alpha and he wasn’t easily scared, so whatever was going on had to be really bad.
I wanted to be running my pack but I couldn’t. I trusted Blake and that was the only reason why I was able to let go of the reins a little because I knew he would do a good job in my place.
I searched for any thoughts from my pack but there was nothing. Blake had them all keep their thoughts from me so nothing could worry me or stress me out. I waited anxiously for Blake to return. After thirty minutes I was about to get out of bed to go and find him when the door to the room opened and he stepped inside. Gone was the carefree and laid back Blake. His worried eyes met mine. The dreaded feeling in my stomach knotted tightly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked while I tried to sit up again.
He walked over to me to help me sit up in the bed and then he sat down beside me. I watched him as he ran a hand through his hair.
“What is it?” I asked, feeling impatient.
“More rogues have been spotted,” he revealed. My eyes narrowed as I continued to watch him. Rogues would always be a problem to a pack, so I didn’t understand why this time it was a cause for the fear in Blake.
“So?” I asked, wanting the whole story.
“Rogues have been spotted all over the territory,” he revealed, and I kept calm.
He rubbed his hands over his face as he stood up and began to pace. This was so unlike him and I began to feel alarmed.
“Tell me what’s going on?” I demanded.
Whatever it was, I had to know. He let out a sigh and turned to face me.
“Their numbers are growing. It’s unlike any of us have ever seen,” he revealed. “They are banding together and forming their own pack.”
It was shocking.
“But that’s impossible,” I whispered while it sank in. We’d never faced this problem before.
Under my father’s leadership, he’d managed to get some of the rogues to work together to form a group but that had only been possible before he’d been an alpha.
“I don’t know,” he answered as he began to pace again. “Cade thinks it might have been started by your father. He was an alpha so he was able to command the group of rogues to do what he needed. But somehow, without an alpha, the rogues have learned how to work together to get what they want.”
Understanding the full repercussions of what he was saying was hard because it had never happened before.
“But surely we have enough numbers to defend our packs?” I asked.
“But we have no idea which pack they are going to attack first,” he told me, and I finally realized the horror of what could happen.
If we knew where they were going to attack first, we would be able to concentrate our numbers at that point. We would be able to use werewolves from packs working with us, but that would all be a waste of time if we didn’t know where they were going to attack.
I rubbed my forehead, trying to figure out how on earth we were going to figure out which pack they were going to attack first. I looked up at Blake. My fear was mirrored in his eyes. Not only were we at risk but our friends and the people we loved were as well.
“There’s no way to know which pack they will attack,” Blake said. “Even if we even out the packs to try to give everyone similar numbers it won’t be enough to save a pack.”
The ache in my stomach reminded me that I was in no shape to be able to lead my pack and do my job. Even injured, sitting in my bed with the information, I couldn’t even come up with a way to save my pack or any of the others.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Blake.
He held the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again he looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
I swallowed my fear. Even as scared as I was, I had to remain calm. There was no way we could come up with a way to save ourselves if we panicked.
“We need to have a meeting,” Blake said. I nodded my head as I swung my legs over the side of the bed.
“No,” he said to me. “You have to rest.”
“Either you help me or I do this on my own.” I gave him my terms. There was no way I was lying in bed while this crisis was hanging over our heads. “Physically I can’t help, but there is nothing wrong with my mind.”
He studied me before he walked over to help me. He understood my need to be a part of things. As Blake helped me get some clothes on, I couldn’t help thinking that no matter what we tried to do we were fighting a losing battle.
Minutes later we left to meet up with everyone. There was a nervous energy in the air as Blake helped me walk to the meeting room. By the time we got to the door of the meeting room, I was tired already, but I was determined to attend. I couldn’t help feeling responsible for my father’s actions, which had seemed to set this whole thing in motion.
Curtis glared at me as I walked into the meeting room. He was already seated.
“You’re supposed to be in bed, resting,” he reminded me tersely as he shot Blake a glare as well.
Blake held his free hand up helplessly.
“There was no stopping her,” Blake replied as he helped me into one of the chairs surrounding the table in the meeting room.
Curtis gave me one last angry look before he shook his head. He knew me and knew that when I set my mind to something there was no changing it. Blake sat down beside me.
“Princess,” Kyle greeted, sounding happy to see me as he entered the meeting room. Blake shot him a look but Kyle ignored him and sat down beside me.
“Prince Charming,” I shot back, and Kyle playfully glared at me.
“That nickname isn’t good for my image, you know,” he explained and then he grinned at me.
“Especially if he has two broken legs,” Blake quipped from beside me, and I shook my head.
“I can’t wait until he finds his mate one day because there’s going to be some serious payback,” he muttered beside me.
Kyle chuckled and Blake shook his head.
Cade and Scarlett arrived.
“How are you feeling?” Scarlett asked as she sat down in a free seat across from me.
“I’m fine.” I gave her a weak smile.
Cade was the frosty one out of the group. He gave me a brief nod. Everyone else seemed to have moved past my deception but Cade seemed to still be wary of me. I didn’t blame him. I’d deceived the two people closest to him so I understood he wasn’t in a hurry to trust me again.
We started to discuss the threat of the rogues.
“So how serious is it?” Kyle asked while he interlinked his fingers on the table. He looked to Cade and then to Blake.
“It’s bad,” revealed Blake. “Their numbers have grown dramatically and it’s only a matter of time before they attack.”
Everyone was silent while they took in the information.
“They could be planning an attack already, for all we know,” Cade added.
I rubbed my forehead as I tried to think of a plan that would help us defeat the rogues and keep everyone safe. But no matter what scenario I thought up, there were risks—higher risks than I was willing to take with the people I loved and cared for.
I looked from Scarlett to Cade. My eyes went to Kyle, Curtis and then they finally settled on Blake. I loved them and I wanted to keep them safe, but I felt a growing fear that it was just not possible.
“Any ideas, anyone?” Cade asked. Everyone looked to one another.
“Joining packs won’t help this time,” Blake stated out loud. “The area we’d have to protect would be too great to be able to protect effectively without knowing where they were going to attack.”
“Where have they been spotted?” Kyle asked.
“All over,” Cade answered.
Silence descended while everyone contemplated a way out of this.
“Why not attack them first?” Scarlett suggested.
“That would be a great idea if they didn’t keep moving around. By the time we get the information, they’ve already moved,” Blake said.
It was confusing that a newly formed pack of rogues could be so good at hiding themselves.
“What about falling back to one territory and combining our packs?” Curtis suggested.
“That wouldn’t help the perception of other packs. It would be seen as a sign of surrender if we leave any of our territories,” Cade explained forcefully. He was a true alpha. It wasn’t in his blood to fall back. All he understood was fighting to win.
But he was right. If any of us showed weakness it would lead to endless fighting and protecting ourselves from other packs trying to take us over. It wasn’t an option and that meant we had no options.
“So the only way we can defeat the rogues is if we know where they are going to attack first and concentrate our fighters there?” I asked.
“Yes,” Cade said.
“It would still be risky because if we are wrong and they attack somewhere else they will be able to defeat us,” Blake explained as he looked at the others.
We could barely pinpoint the rogues’ location, so how on earth were we supposed to figure out where they were going to attack? I tried to stop the feeling of fear that was building up inside of me. There had to be a way to defeat the rogues and keep our losses to a minimum. A solemn silence descended while everyone tried to think of a plan, but the silences stretched with no one coming up with any way to try and get us out of the mess we were in.
“We’re in trouble,” Kyle said, speaking out loud what we were all thinking.
“Let’s all take a break and meet back in a couple of hours. Maybe by then someone might have come up with a workable plan,” Blake suggested as he gave my hand a squeeze.
Everyone nodded and started to stand. Something had been bothering me for a while and I decided that it was time to deal with it. Blake stood up beside me and was about to help me up when I put my hand out to stop him.
“Wait,” I said.
Blake stopped and I looked at Cade.
“I’d like to talk to Cade for a moment,” I said, feeling nervous. He was a very intimidating person when he wanted to be and I felt the full force of his stare as he stopped and turned to face me.
Blake and Scarlett looked between the two of us as I held Cade’s eyes, trying to keep my nervousness hidden.
“Sure,” Blake said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. He gave Cade a look and Cade nodded at him.
Once everyone left, the silence was deafening. I took a deep breath and released it.
“I know you still don’t trust me,” I started to say. “Hell, I don’t blame you. If I were in your shoes I wouldn’t trust me either.”
He folded his arms across his chest as he continued to listen to me.
“But I wanted you to know how sorry I am that I betrayed all of you.”
My reasons for betraying them didn’t count; it didn’t make the betrayal any less hurtful. Cade sighed and rubbed his chin and he was about to say something, but I stopped him.
“Let me finish,” I stated. And he kept silent.
“I need you to know that, irrespective of what has happened, I would never do anything like that again.”
His eyes bore straight into my soul and I waited for a response from him.
“I know,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair. He was always so reserved around me, so seeing him like this was an eye opener.
“What you did to them was unforgivable,” he said, and I felt my heart sink at the fact that despite anything I said or did, nothing was going to change the fact that he wouldn’t be able to forgive me for betraying the people that he loved the most.
“But finding out about your mother makes me understand why you did what you did,” he added, and I held my breath. I felt a pain in my chest at the reminder of my mother, who was finally at peace, and I felt a sting of tears.
I felt a heaviness that had been on my shoulders lift and I smiled at him.
“I understand that you want to prove yourself worthy of the alpha title,” he told me. “But no more heroics, okay?”
I nodded and I wiped a tear that had slid down my cheek.
“What happened to you nearly crushed them and I don’t ever want to see them in that type of pain again,” he said, and I felt a pang of guilt. “Besides, you’re one of the bravest people I know and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone. What happened is in the past and it stays there.”
His words touched me and I tried to keep my emotions from bubbling to the surface.
“Okay,” I said hoarsely, and he smiled at me.
Cade left and when Blake walked in he looked at my tear-streaked faced with anger, but I gave him a reassuring smile.
“I’m fine.”