JAYCE

I watched as Draven scribbled on the map as two other alphas and various other members from the three different packs looked on.

“Here’s the arrow—here,” Draven stated drawing an illustration of an arrowhead on the map and then divided it up between the 4 original shifter territories. “The Black Ridge rogues are out.” He placed an “X” in the center of some uncharted territory on the map. “No one knows where their shelter is in Canada, but we’re going to find out. Chances are, that’s where they took hostages—women and probably children and babies too. Now here we are and here are our different territories, split up equally when we branched off into our respective packs.” He circled the area. “Timber Rock has the valleys and we’re closest to the main town. Crystal Lake has the area west of here and Iron Ridge has the eastern region, which is respectively the most mountainous region of them all. At all times…”

As Draven spoke like the true alpha leader he was, the other two alphas listened carefully and intently.

Once all the interim plans were made, Cliff, the alpha of the Crystal Lake shifters stated, “We’re missing women. Not as much as your packs, but we couldn’t account for everyone after we were chased out of town. We just thought they left the region to get away from the ban created by Lakely’s Law and decided not to return. As far as getting back our women, I say we take some men, a few from each pack and raid them. Keeping them out is one thing, but in the end, we could lose our people forever if they have our girls.”

Draven nodded. “Let’s say we start with three men from each pack. We’ll take rotating shifts scouting out the camps and shelters. When the time is right, we’ll go in and retrieve what’s ours before that pack vanishes altogether.”

After the meeting, our run and hunt lasted just under an hour. This was our town. These were our mountains and we would protect it for our future generations. I was just as excited about coming together with the other packs on a common goal. I envisioned that we’d stay separate packs for the distant future, but we still had one common agenda.

My run ended back at Draven’s home. He was waiting under the huge tree in the front yard. There was still a wooden swing hanging from the tree where we used to play together as brothers. Draven had lots of renovation done on the home, adding another thousand square feet and even having a ten-foot tall fence erected around the yard by some contractor named Silencer.

“Hey.” I grabbed my jeans from the tree limb where I had hung it earlier. “You okay with all of this?”

Draven was already dressed. “I have to be,” he commented. “I wanted to thank you for taking care of that problem for us.”

“It’s my duty.”

“I hate that we have to bring down our own kind, but he caused a whole lot of problems for us.”

“Not to mention all the men and women he murdered in the process. He could’ve killed more people. He would’ve,” I added.

I tried not to think about how he ran my mate down in the forest. I was still so worked up about it that my fists curled tightly. I didn’t regret what I did. I’d kill him again if I had to. I likely would’ve killed him that same night I found Violet if I’d seen him.

“Will Violet be alright?”

“I’ll take care of her.”

“Are you leaving?” Draven asked quietly.

“Where’d you get that idea from?”

“She’s your true mate, cousin. I can’t be mad at you if you want to leave to be with her,” he replied.

“She wants to stay actually. I think she’ll be happy here and that’s what matters the most.”

Draven smiled. “Whew, that’s good.”

I gave him a bear hug and nudged him playfully in the gut. “Man up, big cousin. I’m not going anywhere. Remember the promise you, Treyton, and I made to each other when we were kids.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “Blood brothers until the day we die.”

“And that’s the truth. We swore mutual loyalty to each other. Violet is part of that now. We’ll show our kids the way just like grandpa did us.”

“Kids? I ain’t having no kids,” Draven retorted.

“Oh yes, you are. Don’t make me do this on my own, cousin?”

“Don’t rush me. I’ve got time.” Draven chuckled, threw his arm across my shoulder and we walked up the pathway to his home.