Page 69 of Freed Wolfsbane

Rhys tilts his head back and forth as he thinks. “We have probably two hundred and fifty mages if we pull everyone from nonessential missions. That still doesn’t even get us up to five hundred supernaturals. With all the heavy artillery and weaponry they have, we need to at least match their numbers, if not exceed them.”

I turn to Rhys, shocked he’s willing to devote his own people to the cause. “Why are you helping us? The curse doesn’t affect you.”

He gives me a half smile that makes his face seem a little less harsh. “Sure, this curse doesn’t affect us, but what about the next one? The Knights are all supernaturals’ problem. Any chance we have to take them out or cripple their operations, we should.”

Shaking my head, I look down at the table and mumble, “But it’ll be dangerous. Mages could, and probably will, die in this fight.” A lump forms in my throat thinking about all the lives we’ll probably lose.

“I know, but many more of us will die if we sit back and do nothing.” Rhys’s hazel eyes soften at whatever he sees on my face. “This isn’t your fault, you know?”

Swallowing past my tight throat, I give him a small nod before looking down at the table. I logically know this isn’t my fault. The Knights are the ones who made the choice to curse us and keep trying to kill all of us.

But the thought of a thousand wolves and mages putting their lives on the line so I can break the curse makes me sick to my stomach. I know many of them will die, and I don’t know how to handle it.

Saint reaches over and grabs one of my hands in his. He squeezes me comfortingly, providing an anchor when I feel like I’m at risk of drowning in my worry.

“So we need more wolves or mages, then?” Bastian asks.

Vale nods. “Correct.”

Xander shoves a hand through his hair as he stares off in thought. “I don’t know what mages we can trust, but we should ask the Nightshades if they have any wolves they can spare.”

“Good thinking, but I’d be surprised if they have more than a hundred to lend us.” Vale seems to quickly mentally calculate how many people we have with the Nightshade pack’s wolves. “It’ll help, but we’ll still fall far short of what we need.”

“We could always ask the Russians,” Bastian suggests with a grin on his face. When Vale sighs and arches a brow at him, Bastian throws his hands up. “What? They’re a massive pack, psychotic, and kill for hire. The Russians would be awesome to have at our side.”

Malachi pinches the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Yeah, they’re also psychotic enough to kill our own enforcers and take over our pack while they’re at it.”

Bastian raises his eyebrows in shock before a small pout twists his lips. “Oh. Well, that’s rude of them.”

I snort at Bastian pouting about no one wanting to ask apparently unhinged wolves from Russia to help us. I have to agree with Malachi, though. That doesn’t sound like the best plan. I don’t really know much about the current wolf packs, but hopefully there are other ones we can ask.

“The Adler brothers still owe you a favor,” Jesse interjects from where he’s leaning back in his chair, scowling at everyone. “The last I heard, they had consolidated all of the bear packs in Canada. I bet they’ll have at least one hundred and fifty bears to spare.”

Sam grins and nods at Jesse. “Porter down in Arizona also owes you one hell of a favor. He wouldn’t have a prowl to govern without you. Those jaguars are sure sneaky, and a hundred of them would be really fucking helpful for getting Briar and the boys where they need to go.”

Vale nods. “I think this is worth calling in some favors. That brings us up to, what, seven hundred?”

Nodding, Malachi says, “I can get us the rest of the shifters.”

Lifting an eyebrow at his son skeptically, Vale asks, “How?

Flashing his dad a sharklike smile, Malachi throws an arm over the back of my chair. “You’re not the only one owed favors, Dad. I have several smaller packs that owe me and will be all too happy to get out of debt finally.”

Clapping Malachi on the back, Vale grins at him. “Good work, son. I’m proud of you.” He turns to Rhys. “When do you think your mages will be ready to go?”

Rubbing a hand over his face, Rhys says, “I can have everyone ready in two days. That gives us time to pull people out of assignments safely.”

“All right.” Clapping his hands together, Vale starts barking out directions. “Sam, Jesse, start contacting the packs immediately. Bastian, reach out to the younger Nightshade. You have the closest connection to them. Malachi, start gathering your shifters. We’ll plan to leave in two days at eleven in the morning. That way, we’ll get to Tunisia around nightfall. Do you have any way to reach out to your contact in Tunis, Bee?”

“Yeah, he gave me his phone number.” I was surprised the old man even knew what a phone was, much less was comfortable texting.

Vale gives me an encouraging smile. “Let him know when we plan to come and see if he can find enough boats for all of us. I will pay whatever the cost. We just need enough ships for a thousand people.”

I give him a nod and pull out my phone. Typing a quick message, I send it off to Jad and wait for a response.

Sam hops out of his chair and practically skips out of the room, like he enjoys nothing more than lording being owed a favor over people—or he’s just enthusiastic about killing some Knights. Either way, he’s much more excited about everything than I am.

Jesse rolls his eyes before he too stands up. He stalks out of the room like he’s ready to go murder someone, not just call to ask for a favor.

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