Grant hated to see Elizabeth go, but he drove her quietly back to the pathway that lead from the nearby road she had pointed him into the series of tunnels that lead to the clubhouse. They kissed goodbye quickly and he sped away, leaving her to duck into an undergrowth that would lead her down into her underground path home. He had learned a lot during her overnight visit.
Now, he had some tough decisions to make. He had Saul to answer to and he had plenty answers to give to him. The problem was that during all this time he had invested in making Elizabeth fall for him, making her trust him, it was him who had slowly fallen under her spell. She was mesmerizing. He could see himself developing much stronger feelings for her. In fact, he wasn’t sure he hadn’t already.
“Grant, you fucking idiot,” he said aloud as he drove home, Elizabeth ever present on his mind.
He didn’t know what to do. There was so much information that had developed overnight. Amanda was having a shifter baby, the first in twenty-five years. They might be able to hide that for now, but how would they hide it once the child was born. Would the child be locked inside for its own protection as Elizabeth was? Would they take it and go?
He doubted that running was an option for them. This was Aspen’s family, his uncle, though he hadn’t been seen publicly in some time was still very much in charge of the club. Aspen was the face of the club, the workhorse, but his uncle was the backbone, the joints that held every arm and leg together. Instead, they would stay and protect their new addition the best they could, both of their new additions as Elizabeth was one as well in a way.
On top of that news, there was the details about the attack. He had known those tracks out the back were funny and that it was odd that no wolves had been found. Now, he understood. A number of the shifters had gone out the back and across the snow in order to create the appearance everyone had abandoned ship. In fact, no one had really left.
All but a key number were sent down into the tunnels, which he could assume included a safe room along the way to its hidden exit. The ones that remained sealed them in so their exit couldn’t be noted and then ran out the back to redirect attention away from them. Once out on the road beyond, their footprints had been lost, but it was his guess that had they taken a closer look, they would have discovered they had gone nowhere at all, but instead doubled back, creating a mass of prints in all directions and ducking back into the tunnels with the rest.
There was a reason that the Silver Wolves had survived all these years even as their numbers dwindled. They were fewer, but they were incredibly cunning. They had been well prepared for the inevitable. Still, why not just leave? Why not just start over somewhere else and let the Dire Wolves have this place? Of course, he knew the answer to that. It was pride and stubbornness over all else. Shifters were a fiercely tenacious lot who were unwilling to give up anything they deemed their own because someone else thought they should. They’d fight until not a one of them was left standing.
And at the end of the day, packs like the Dire Wolves never stopped with one conquest. If they managed to take out the Silver Wolf pack, they would revel in having fostered their extinction and spread like wildfire further and further into other territories, taking out every pack that got in their way. After all, wasn’t that what had happened to his pack? He might have gotten the blame, but he had not been the guilty one. He had not been the one that had brought about the demise of a single member of his pack.
“What have you learned?” Saul asked later on the phone.
“Not much. I know they ran when we attacked and they will run again. We just need to make sure they are cornered next time. I’ve made progress with the girl and just need to get in with Grant Lowery, gain his trust. I’m getting there.”
“Not much news, doesn’t sound like. I don’t have time for dallying Grant. I put you on this because you are mostly unknown around here, but I also selected you because you are sharp and I know you will find a way. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I won’t,” Grant told him, ending the call.
There was a threat in there, one he couldn’t ignore. He had already lied to him, not a complete untruth but a lie of omission, which was just as bad in Saul’s book. If he told him about the pregnancy though, there was a good chance he would do something rash to Amanda, perhaps to every female in the group as a precaution. Grant needed to think all of this through. Last night with Elizabeth had been earth shattering. It might have been her first time being physical, but it was his first time being so completely lost in a woman that he couldn’t imagine having her yanked away from him again.
So, now the question became about how did he protect her without getting himself killed by the Dire Wolves in the process - himself and the very ones he now felt he needed to protect. The more he considered it, there was only one solution. He couldn’t do this alone and there wasn’t an option on the table that might not get him or someone else killed. Still, if he wanted to protect Elizabeth, he had to protect her pack. No one should have to lose their family. He knew that better than anyone.
He sent her a text. He didn’t wait for an answer before getting into his car and leaving.