I said, “Okay.”
“You need anything?” she asked me, like it was nothing. Like it was nothing.
I shook my head. Wiped the sweat from my brow. Feinted left when Joe came at me. Spun once. Knocked my fist into the back of his neck. Sent him stumbling.
I said, “Nah. I’m good.” Because I was. I was fine. I was okay. The unknown was coming toward us, a monster capable of horrendous things, but I was with my family. The sun was shining overhead. There were a few clouds in the sky. I could hear birds. Could smell the trees and grass. It was green. It was all so fucking green that even the violet edges of it were distant because we were pack. We were stronger than anything that could come at us, and if Richard Collins showed his face, it’d be the last thing he ever did. If Robert Livingstone came smelling of ozone and lightning, we would rip the magic from his skin and he would be nothing more. This was a promise. Because of Joe. Because of what he was. To his pack. To the people like Osmond. To me.
I was focused.
I didn’t ask the questions I should have.
Why Gordo’s father would be with Richard Collins.
What they wanted.
What they were after.
(Who the weakest link was. Who would be the easiest to take out first. Who could be torn away. Who was kind and beautiful and not deserving of such a fucking cowardly act, a monstrous thing that—)
Mom said, “I’ll be right back.”
And Joe came at me again.
Thomas watched with careful eyes.
Carter and Kelly snarled and snapped.
Osmond pointed at two of his Betas and they followed my mother.
They were big guys.
I thought nothing of it.
We were safe here. On Bennett land. In Bennett territory. With a witch’s wards and a forest filled with old magic that I would never understand. I didn’t need to, though.
Because my Alpha did.
And he would protect us.
I knew something was wrong twenty minutes later.
Mom was pack. She was.
But it wasn’t the same as it was with me.
I was tied to the Bennetts.
The bonds between us were strong. When the moon was full, I could hear them whispering in my head.
But that had passed.
It was a new moon.
And she didn’t have the bonds we had.
She was tied to them because of me.
The wolves were within me.