Page 7 of Pack Rage
I also knew it was necessary, but I couldn’t get the words out. Then I remembered I didn’t have to.I get it, Bearman,I thought to him, as the others quietly spoke about the logistics of feeding and housing the Mountain troops once they arrived.I’ll be okay. Save Luke. Save Margarette and Bradley. Get Finnick to help. And… you know. If you can.
His eyes gleamed with love and resolve. “I’ll have to start out as soon as possible, and drive through the night. The rest of you can plan. I’ll find a way to delay the vote. I’ll buy your parents some more time, Glen.” He sighed. “And yes, my love, I’ll try to find where they’re keeping your psychotic little stalker.”
“How will you delay it?” Glen asked.
“I can pretend that I’m considering putting my pack under Council rule again, but insist on a revision of some of the wording of the vow.” Brand smiled. Well, he bared his teeth, anyway. It was a terrifying expression.
I loved it.
“If that won’t work,” he went on, not smiling now, “I can tell them the truth. That my pack doesn’t support the new ways, and that the North American packs stand to lose three thousand Mountain shifters if they won’t work with me.”
“Three thousand?” I asked. Mountain had six thousand or so shifters. “What about the rest?”
Brand’s smile turned to a full-blown snarl. “They seem to have forgotten, when they insisted I come now, that only half the pack calls me Alpha. They’ll be greedy for the whole pack.”
“Half the pack is on its way here, Alpha,” Dean said. “What do we do with them when they arrive?”
“Whatever Flor says. She’s their Alpha Mate.”I sputtered, until he stopped me with a kiss. Then he stood, with a nod to Dean. “Call Dad and Patrick on the sat phone and tell them what I’m doing. See if they have any good ideas.” Dean nodded and jogged off. “Sergeant, I’ll stall for as long as I can. I’m going to need you to plan some sort of attack, or rescue mission, if I get stuck inside. Work with Flor. Listen to her if she has one of her wild ideas. She’s sneaky.”
I grabbed his arm as he tried to step away. “Brand. What if we can’t come up with a way to get you out? To get all of you out? What if they lock you up, like the Hilliers?”
He hesitated, his eyes gleaming a tiny bit brighter for a second. “I don’t think Finn will let that happen.”
“That piece of shit,” Glen snarled.
Brand kissed the top of my head. “Finn is a lot of things, brother, but?—”
“A cheating asshole for one,” Glen interrupted. “We can’t trust him. Flor, you don’t trust him, do you?”
“I do,” I said, surprising myself as well as Glen. “I know he hurt me. But I could tell… I thinkhewas being hurt. Hurting himself worse. Whatever he did wasn’t his choice.” I wrapped my arms around Brand for one last kiss, then whispered, “Tell him that for me, when you see him. Make sure he knows I get it.”
“How can you be so forgiving?” Glen asked as Brand pulled away.
“I lived a long time in a pack where people had to do terrible things to protect the ones they loved. Where pride and dignity were as out of reach as… I don’t know, filet mignon. Don’t get me wrong—if it turns out hechoseto do that, without being coerced? I’ll snip his balls off, dry them into raisins, and wear them as earrings for the next few decades.”
I forced myself to turn away as Brand left the dining hall, not sure I could watch him walk away. Not sure I could bear not being with him.
But I would have to.
I felt a surge of love in our bond as the door shut behind him, and then Glen’s arms around me. I pulled away after a moment, knowing I needed to keep busy, or I’d collapse. I’d slept the night before, but was still exhausted. Fear had a way of sapping energy, and I had been afraid for my mates and myself for a long time now.
“Break it down for me, Sergeant. What resources do we have, if it comes to a battle?”
“Half of Mountain will be here in the next few days. We could divert them to Eastern, but it will still be after the full moon. Our own troops are nowhere near ready. We have thirty-two starved Southern males, seventy-six untrained Southern females. The Tenebris pack has twenty-four left alive after the battle.”
At least six of their small group had died. “I’m sorry for your losses.”
“They died with honor, serving their Alpha,” Glen said quietly. “The moon will sing them home.”
Sergeant nodded. “We still have three gravely wounded. Flor, that number includes your mother.”
“Mama?” I remembered Torran stabbing her with a silver blade. I’d assumed it was a superficial cut, since she’d kept on fighting like she was fine. When I said as much to Sergeant, his eyes gleamed with pride and sorrow.
“Lily’s pain tolerance is higher than any shifter I’ve ever seen. She was tortured for years by your father.”
“Don’t call him that.” Callaway had never done anything to deserve that title.
“By her mate, then. Torran sliced across her midsection with silver. Her liver is compromised. Flor, she may not live through the week.” His expression was haunted. My mother was his niece, and he’d only just found her again.
