Page 58 of Wolf Bound

The others are mostly quiet, but there's an anxious energy in the room. Penn starts fiddling with my hair, and nobody else so much as breathes too heavily. They don't like it.

"Say what you're thinking," I beg, needing to hear any of them say it out loud.

"I still don't like it," Alaric says first, his hands clenched. "They may be who they say they are, but she still worked for them.We don't know that she doesn't still have ties or affiliations with them. Hell, we don't even know if she's a good person."

"I'm with Alaric," Dray grimaces as he speaks. "She could still hurt Talia, or set her up."

"She can't."

I whip my head to look at Wes. "What do you mean?"

"Miranda is completely bedridden. While she survived, she's severely disabled from what they did to her," Wes explains. "And judging by her son's anger every time her disabilities came up, I don't think he has any warmth towards the cult at all."

Penn asks the question that's sitting on the tip of my tongue. "What did they do to her?"

"She was partially dismembered and then burned alive."

Bile rises in my throat so fast I can barely hold it back. Tears track down my cheeks at the horror of it all. The cruelty it would take to do something like that to another living being is so far beyond what I can imagine. It's disturbing.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Forrester asks, the rest of us too stunned to speak.

"It needs to happen while all the other packs are here so we can't all go with Talia." Wes drops that bomb with a grimace.

"Why does it have to happen during that? I'm not letting our mate go without all of us there." Drayton crosses his arms, his jaw ticking in frustration.

"Because Miranda is dying and this is our last chance."

"It'll be okay," I assure Drayton and the rest of my mates. "It'll be easier for me to slip out and do it. Plus, if anything goes wrong you can grab everyone already here."

"It'll have to be Forrester and I that go with Talia," Wes says. "The alpha, beta, and enforcer need to stay with the pack while it's going to be vulnerable with so many other shifters here."

Penn groans beside me. "He's right. We're going to need to be here to keep the peace and keep everyone safe. We have the most authority within the pack and the packlands."

"I don't like it," Alaric growls out.

"Sucks to be you," Forrester throws back with a smirk.

And just like that it was settled. Plans were in motion and things were starting to pick up quickly. A connection to my mother, more information on our enemies, and a chance to get the upper hand in a war we didn't even know existed not that long ago.

Oh Adessa, what have you guided us to?

Chapter Thirty-One

Talia

The air around the pack has been nervous and excited the past few days as we prepped for the other shifters to arrive. This kind of meeting, not only between other wolf packs, but other shifters as a whole is completely unprecedented. According to Wes, this has never happened before in any kind of recent documented history.

Drayton and Penn have been particularly busy the past two days as they get ready to play diplomats to the hierarchy of the other packs. Apparently packs isn't correct for all shifter types, but it's the easiest word for me to use to understand. Most of this is going right over my head and it's making me a little self-conscious.

"Hey, Talia!" Selene yells from across the dining hall. She waves me over where she's sitting with a few of the other pack members. I vaguely remember meeting them after the attack, but their names aren't coming to me as I walk over.

Wes follows behind me as my security detail for the day. Forrester has been working alongside his brother, but he's supposed to take over later tonight. The other three will be intermittent between them for today while everyone arrives.

"Hi Selene," I say as I approach, my cheeks getting warm from the nerves. Meeting and talking to people outside of my mates still feels so foreign and different to me.

"You remember Nathan, Justin, Lila, and Cole, right?" Selene points to each of them as she says their name and I want to hug her in appreciation. I do, in fact, remember them now that she's said their names.

"I do," I assure them with a smile. "How are you all doing? Is your shoulder feeling better now, Justin?"

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