Page 57 of Alpha Exile

"We should stick around here to keep watch," I tell my mates, chewing lightly on my lower lip. "Delphine is sure to come back. Though when she does, I'd rather she not find the rest of my mates standing around and ripe for the picking."

"Our reforged bonds should prevent that though, right?" Bastian's voice wobbles with nervous energy. "I don't want her to put the Spirit Eyes back in me."

Poor Bas, who has been through Hell and then some. "She shouldn't be able to steal you now, at least not without a fight. If she could have, she wouldn't have waited until I was dream walking to do it—she was probably originally going to attack me first to get to you, until I gave her a perfect opportunity. That won't happen again."

"Still, we shouldn't stick around here," Finn says, casting his gaze around the cavern restlessly. "Something about this place doesn't feel like it's safe to stay in for long. We've already got these strange new abilities, and ghosts are warning Bastian about bridges and talking to him about forges. I'd rather not see what happens if we move in here."

He has a point. "Then we'll have the warriors come down here in shifts. We can mark the correct path on our way out, and send them in pairs so they're never alone. That way, if Delphine comes back, we'll have a warning."

Not that I like the thought of sending the warriors down here against an ancient hybrid, but as I reason, one of us can go with them for each shift. Kerry and I can try to weave some spells of protection and healing over them as well. And with Delphine's vampire army decimated, she won't have their energy to feed off of.

Even a bitch like her has to slow down if she gets her throat torn out by werewolf fangs. At least, that's what I reason to myself. Truthfully, I'd prefer to spend all my waking hours down here, waiting for her to show up so I can stab her in the heart with the dagger.

But I'm a leader now, and a lone one at that. I have other obligations, both to my pack and to my mates. Roarke needs me more than ever. I can't let myself obsess over killing her so much that I forget about everything else.

"Let's get what we came for and get out of here," Lance says, reaching out to put a hand on my shoulder. "You need to go home to recuperate and renew your strength and your power. We know now that Roarke isn't here—and we have the source of the magic that Delphine used to change him. It's time to sleep in our own beds again."

I nod, inhaling slowly and exhaling shakily. "You're right. I went to all that trouble moving my stuff to the rental house after the fire. I should find out if the pillowtop mattress I was promised is all it's cracked out to be."

Though I suspect I'll spend most of my time lying down on it in a pool of my own tears instead of deep asleep.

Kneeling down at the edge of the pool, I take care not to splash it as I dip the small water bottle beneath the surface. Cool, thick water courses over my fingers and streams eagerly into the bottle's neck, leaving beads of wetness on my skin as I pull back and twist the lid back on.

With that finished, I take a last long look around at the cavern. We all do, splitting apart to search it for signs of Delphine's plans, her next actions and her current locations. The darkness offers up no answers, though, and we have a climb ahead of us—those stairs will be much harder to go up than go down.

So I reluctantly turn my back on the fountain, store the bottle of its water at my hip, and set out to return to my own bed.

Though the truth is, home won't be home again until my heart is whole once more.

* * *

"I want to head back to the old house real quick," I tell my mates, shifting back to human form after racing across the land as my wolf. "There are some things I left behind in my bedroom, and I won't sleep well without them."

Finn shifts back quickly, striding towards me and placing his hands on my arms in comfort. "I can go with you."

"No—I want to go alone." I shake my head, imploring them with my eyes as they each shift back and come to stand outside the front door of the rental house, whose front windows glow, a sign that Kerry and Cat stayed up for us. "I've just got to look at a few things by myself. It's nothing big or secret, just... some of my father's stuff."

The letters he wrote, in that big old box. I realized as we headed back here that I didn't put it with the other boxes, and it got left behind in my old bedroom. For some reason I feel the urge to read his words, to hold the old pages in my hand and touch the indentations his heavy penmanship left behind.

"Be safe," Finn murmurs, kissing my forehead. "Howl if you need help."

"I will."

I hug him goodnight, then Lance, passing him the water bottle, followed by Bastian, and finally Kieran.

My first love holds me for a long moment, his breaths hitching unevenly against my chest, the warmth of his arms tempered by a deep well of grief within him.

"I tore him to pieces, Dee," he murmurs, turning his head to speak softly into my hair. "His blood trailed for over a mile. I did that to my best friend."

"It wasn't him," I insist, squeezing him tight and inhaling his scent, sweet like maple syrup with a spice to it that reminds me of my favorite rum cocktail. "He was possessed and moonsick. He attacked you, and would've attacked us as well. You did what you had to do to protect us all."

"But what about Roarke?" He leans back and presses his forehead to mine, eyes drifting closed. "I didn't protect him at all."

"We'll get him back." My voice is ragged as I say the words, struggling around a lump in my throat that feels as big as a fist. "I have to believe that this wasn't goodbye."

Our lips slide together, the kiss part familiarity and part comfort. Kieran's hand drifts to my neck and presses lightly, pulling me in and deepening the kiss into something possessive. Heat stirs within me, and I grab onto his shoulders, wishing I had the time to wrap myself around him fully and comfort him as only a mate can.

But there's a clearing of a throat behind us, and Finn ruefully reminds us, "You should go, Delilah, unless you want Cat to find out that you've come back and chain you here. Somehow I doubt she'll let you slip off on this little errand once she sees you—or any of us."

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