by Jenny Tia
I laughed and he snapped a look at me before softening and laughing too.
“Sorry, I’m a little shaken up.”
I squeezed him tighter against me, and he held me by the waist as we hurried inside behind our packmates.
Alpha Truitt stood on the stage at the far side of the Den. His brow was furrowed, and I could see his hands trembling by his sides as he looked over the crowd and motioned for us to keep coming forward.
Stretchers with newly wounded and already sick patients from the hospital lined the walls, and Stefan pulled me with him as he hurried over to his senior nurse.
“What’s going on? What can I do?” he asked.
“We’ll all be going down into the bunker below the Den. Alpha Truitt thought it the best place considering it has its own power and water supply. We’ll be staying down there until we know the surface is safe from humans.”
“Humans?” Stef asked. “Are you kidding me?”
I froze.
“Alpha Truitt just announced it. The attacks were from humans who survived the disease.”
Stef spun around and glared at me with wide eyes. “Did you know?”
What could I say? My heart sank, and I lowered my eyes as my cheeks burned red. I should have told him. I should have told everybody. Maybe with enough warning, none of this would have happened. Why had I trusted the protectors to keep us safe? Because I had a crush on one of them? I should have formed a community resistance group the moment Casius had told me about the threat. I growled and felt my wolf bristling.
Stefan tutted his tongue at me in disgust then spun back to face his boss, his back facing me. “I want to help. Put me to work.”
And then I was alone. Stefan rushed off to assist with the wounded, and I followed the crowd as it moved slowly toward the wide staircase that led down into the bunker, checking my phone every few steps. Still nothing from Casius. I clenched my jaw and dialed him again.
And again. It rang out.
And again. Straight to his voice mail.
My stomach knotted and my skin burned with anger. I hovered at the edge of the stairs and tried him one more time before I climbed down in the bunker where I knew my phone would lose signal. My hand shook as I brought my phone to my ear. After everything that had just happened, I needed him, and he was nowhere to be found. Surely, he’d heard what had happened? There were Everglow protectors here—they must have been relaying information back to our Supreme Alpha. Why wasn’t Casius checking in on me? Why wasn’t he checking in on Goldleaf?
I was about to leave a message on his voicemail and curse him out as being a pathetic Supreme Alpha Select, a stuck-up Everglow snob, and a neglectful mate when the ringing stopped, and I heard a tiny clip of his voice.
“Casius?” I cried desperately.
“Ju— Julian?” His voice was broken up by static, but it was him! My body shook with relief, and my anger immediately gave way to a rush of love. I heard myself sob, and I realized tears were streaming down my face.
“Baby!” he cried as the signal cleared up. “Can you hear me? Are you okay? Are you safe?”
“I’m terrified. But I’m so much better knowing you’re okay. You are okay, aren’t you?”
“I’m fine. I’m safe. I’m coming for you as soon as we get a handle on what’s happening. I can’t talk long, I—”
“It’s okay! I know. I just needed to hear you before we went underground.” I sobbed again and wiped at my tears.
Casius’s voice broke with emotion. “Get into the bunker. Stay vigilant. Be smart and safe, okay? I need you to. I need you.”
“I will. I promise.” A Goldleaf protector nudged me forward, urging me down the stairs. “I have to go too—”
“Julian. I love you. When this is done, I’m claiming you and moving you to Everglow. Being away from you is driving me fucking crazy.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, and through the terror and the pain, I smiled. “I love you too.”
The signal cut out and I was left with the echo of Casius’s words in my ears. I held onto the memory of his voice and the hope he’d left me with as I descended into what was a sterile, unnatural environment. But it didn’t matter. Not to me anyway. I could face any adversity, like Stefan’s cold shoulder, my family guilt trips, and the complete lack of mushrooms down there. I could face feeling alone, scared and guilty.
Because Casius would come for me soon.
He’d promised.
19
Casius
Nic and two other Inner Guard betas piled into the truck, and I pulled out onto Main Street then burned north toward the Supreme Mansion. No one said a thing. I glanced in the mirror and caught the betas’ faces looking forlorn and pale. I glanced at Nic and found him just as worked up. The news of humans shooting up a convenience store in Glendale the day before had shaken us all up, but today, after the attack on a further five towns, including Goldleaf, everyone was in a frenzy, and seeing my betas like that made me feel worried like I hadn’t before.
We pulled into the Mansion grounds and searched for a place to park among the dozens of trucks and dignitary cars that were crowding the place. The moment news got out about the humans, pack Alphas from all over Colorado had surged on Alpha Hughes’s door, followed by the Supreme Alphas from many of the other states in the country.
“Fuck. I still can’t believe humans attacked us. Why? Actually how? They’re supposed to be fucking extinct.”
“I’m sure we’ll find out,” I said.
“How can you be calm about all this?”
Calm? I almost laughed. Calm was the furthest thing I felt right then. Humans had targeted Goldleaf, my mate’s hometown. He could have been hurt. Fuck, he could have been killed. The only thing stopping me from tearing over there was the fact I knew he was safe.
“Humans, claiming redemption, shooting at us. That’s worth panicking about. You get that, right?” Nic squinted at me like I was crazy for not being carried away with worry.
I shrugged and double-parked behind an Everglow convoy truck. I bit my tongue, but I knew I’d been lucky having Hughes fill me in on what was going on before it had come to a head. I could imagine how shocking it was to have found out like this.
I took a steadying breath and reminded myself I was the Alpha Select and I needed to lead my team as such. “It is worth being worried about, you’re right. Panicked, no. We can get this situation under control, but only if we stay in control. All we can do is take it one moment at a time.”
Nic grunted, and the betas in the back nodded. They might not be convinced, but at least they knew my official position on it.
We spilled out of the truck and I glanced up at the Mansion. It seemed that all of the alphas were already inside, while protectors roamed the property and kept guard.
“Nic, join the patrols at the perimeter over there. You two, stand guard out front.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nic nodded then stripped before shifting and joining the hundred-odd wolves in the woods nearby. I gave the two betas an encouraging slap on the shoulder, and then made my way through the main doors of the Mansion and into the boardroom.
I sat between two Alphas of packs from far eastern Colorado, and quietly took in the presentation that Alpha Hughes was giving. It seemed he’d just finished imparting most of the information I already knew—the hawk shifter sightings of the humans, the wolf pelts… He notably held back any mention of his father Jebediah Hughes and how he may have been involved.
He went on to show information about shoot-ups that had happened in the six locations in Colorado, which so far seemed to be the only attacks. No other states had been affected… Yet.
“They’ve made it through our top security at the borders, and they seem to have a way to get in and out of our cities and towns without being undetected.” Alpha Hughes showed pictures of the damage they’d caused, including a shot-up café in Goldleaf. My stomach churned and I held onto the table as a wave of nausea moved through me
. It was the café Julian and I had eaten at so many times. The destruction sure wasn’t as bad as my imagination had suggested, but it still made me sick to think Julian could have been there when it happened.
“We need to move now!” the Supreme Alpha from New York thumped the table with a fist.
“Move where?” Alpha Hughes asked. “Move on the humans? Start the war they’re trying to lure us into?”
The Texas Supreme Alpha backed up the New York position. “We need to retaliate somehow. We’re sitting rabbits right now. Who is to say there aren’t more of these humans wandering through the prairies of Ohio right now? Or the bayous of Mississippi? Or the mangroves of Florida? Any of us could be targeted at any time.”
A murmur of discontent ran through the room. I had to give it to that Supreme Alpha. The guy had a political gift—he’d singled out the Supreme Alphas who quickly bought his line, and who started table-thumping with the same rhetoric. Soon, the whole room was full of shouting, demanding retaliation, a fast response and an end to the problem. A shiver ran up my spine. The terminology sounded way too much like Jebediah Hughes’s ramblings for my liking. I gritted my teeth and stayed silent until Alpha Hughes gave a warning growl, and the noise slowly died down.
“Please, Alphas! We are not starting a war. We will avoid bloodshed. Our first priority is to attempt a negotiation.”
“Negotiate what exactly?” the New York Supreme Alpha asked.
“A peace treaty.”
The Alphas from Colorado and surrounding states nodded in agreement, while a grumble ran through the rest of the room. I crossed my arms and swallowed. I agreed with Alpha Hughes—we needed to attempt peace, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that easy. War was looming, and I believed we all knew it. Anything we could do to delay it or soften it, was worth it, but we had to prepare for the inevitable.
I stood and spoke loudly. “No matter what we decide to do, we need to find their location. They’ve unquestionably moved their camp after they staged the attacks. If we’re going to attempt a negotiation or an intervention, then our first step is to find them. We’re wasting time debating what to do when we could be formulating a plan to identify their current location and numbers.”
The room fell quiet and all eyes were on me again. The Supreme Alpha from Texas looked me over. “And who are you, son?”
“Supreme Alpha Select of Colorado, succeeding Supreme Alpha Hughes, sir.”
He grunted in approval and nodded. “Well, Supreme Alpha Select of Colorado, you have a point.”
The room agreed, and all eyes turned back to Alpha Hughes.
“Do you have a plan on how to find the humans?” the New Yorker asked.
Alpha Hughes laughed. “Me? What do you think I called all of you smart Alphas here for?”
A chuckle moved through the room, and a brainstorming session began. As I sat down, Alpha Hughes caught my eye and winked at me. I let out a relieved sigh, and then worked with the pack Alphas to put together a plan.
Alpha Hughes had me stationed at the Supreme Mansion overnight to greet the scouts we recruited from other shifter clans, request their assistance, and debrief them on the plan we’d formulated. Dominic the hawk shifter was the first to arrive, along with three other hawks from his flock. They quickly agreed to the brief, and left before any other shifters arrived, keen to begin searching for the humans from the air.
The room quickly became full of shifters from different species, but it was the snake shifter, Leroy, who caught my attention. While I gave my report, my eyes kept being drawn to him—he was a tall, lanky man with long, silver hair and startling green eyes, sitting in the back of the room with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.
After I finished my debrief, the other shifters filtered out of the room and I went to approach Leroy, but he was nowhere to be found. A feeling of uneasiness rumbled in my guts, and I pushed through the doors to see if he was outside the Mansion.
Of course, Sloan stopped me in my tracks. “Have you seen my father?”
“No, but have you seen Leroy?” I peered over Sloan’s head and across the foyer, looking for any sign of the snake shifter.
“What do you mean no? All of these shifters are here, so he’s obviously running a meeting—”
“I was running the meeting.” I sniffed at the air and thought I caught the scent of a reptile.
“Oh, please,” Sloan said with a sneer.
I grunted and pushed past him, following the scent, but he kept right on my heels.
“He’s already entrusting you with that kind of responsibility? Even after you lost your mate?”
I growled as I picked up my pace and hurried down the stairs at the front of the main doors, but he managed to match my pace.
“It’s a pity, isn’t it? You must be devastated. But I guess you’ll have to find another mate before you ascend the throne… Someone a little closer to home.” Sloan ran his fingers down my spine, and it sent a shudder of disgust through my body.
I stopped short and snapped at him. “Stop.”
“Oh c’mon, Casius, it’s fate between you and me. The son of the Supreme Alpha, mating with the Alpha Select. It’s obvious. Stop playing dumb. It’s meant to be.”
His fingers trickled lower and almost touched my ass before I grabbed his wrist. I snarled and glared at him. “Stop. Julian is alive and well. And even if he wasn’t, I’m telling you, Sloan, I’m not interested in you, and I know full well you’re not interested in me. It’s time to end this powerplay of yours. Stop trying to fuck your way into a position of authority. Accept your position as an omega. You’ll be happier that way.”
“Oh, you don’t really feel that way,” Sloan murmured, reaching for me with his other hand and almost cupping my crotch.
“You heard him.” A growl came out of the dark, and we spun around to find Nic staring down Sloan with murder in his eyes.
With an exaggerated pout, Sloan tilted his head to the side and put a hand on his hip. “Sorry, Nic, did I make you jealous? Did I get too close to your ‘best friend’? Or is it me you’re after? Hm?”
Nic growled and stepped forward with an intimidating stare that even made me shiver. “Get out of here right now before I make you regret every sleazy word you’ve ever uttered.”
Sloan went to speak then seemed to think better of it. He turned back to me with a defeated sigh.
I dropped his wrist and he hurried off toward the Mansion. Nic laced an arm over my shoulder, and we watched as the omega squirreled his way toward his father’s residence.
I let out a relieved sigh. “Thanks, man. He’s such a nuisance.”
“It’s tricky dealing with the Supreme’s son when you’re the next Supreme Alpha in line, huh? Figured it wouldn’t matter as much if I was the one to teach him a lesson.”
I squeezed his shoulder and gave him a grateful pat on the back. “Hey, have you seen a snake?”
“You mean, other than Sloan?”
“Ha. Yeah. Leroy. He’s a snake shifter from out of town. He was at the meeting, but I couldn’t tell if he was on board with the plan or…”
“Or if he was going to leak the plan to the humans?” Nic raised his eyebrows.
I grimaced and nodded.
“I saw him sliding out of here a while ago, seemed like he was just heading home. From what I know about him, he’s a solid guy. I bought an alternator for my truck from him a couple of years ago. Good price, and works well. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
I swallowed and looked off in the dark woods. “Thanks, man. Yeah. I’m sure it’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. Two nights days went by with no word from Leroy, which worried me, but worse than that, the other shifters we’d recruited hadn’t been able to follow the scent from the human camp we’d initially located, nor from the towns they’d attacked. Alpha Hughes said the humans must have known we’d be looking for them and had done everything they could to shake us off. I spent the entire two days eaten up with worry
that Leroy—or any other scout—had opted to join forces with the humans and had filled them in on our plan. I barely slept and spent most of my time trying to run the stress out of my system.
On the third day, I entered Alpha Hughes’s office as soon as he got in and demanded he let me go and join the scouting efforts.
“Absolutely not.” He sat down heavily into his office chair, quietly groaning.
“Sir, please. I’m going out of my mind sitting around here doing nothing.”
“My successor isn’t going to put his life on the line—”
“And what about the lives of all of those shifters we’ve recruited? It’s unfair to expect them to put themselves on the line for us when I’m not out there doing the same.”
Alpha Hughes let out a deep, exhausted breath and motioned for me to sit down.
I didn’t budge, and he raised his hands in defeat, before leaning back in his chair and explaining his position.
“Right, so let’s say you go into the woods and you find the humans. But what if you were spotted? Which you may very well be. Even the best of us aren’t invisible, Casius… Well, it would be obvious to even the least aware human that you are valuable to us. One look at you or your wolf, and they could tell you’re a cut above the rest. Sure, they might take you alive—but where would that leave us? In a very negative position to negotiate a damn thing with them. They would have the upper hand because I—we—would do anything to get you back safe and sound. Or here’s the more likely alternative—they spot you and you end up as a trophy pelt around the neck of whoever their leader may be. Is that the legacy you want to leave behind?”
I sighed in defeat and lowered my eyes. I was about to offer a pathetic argument to bargain with him again when the doors flew open behind us and Nic rushed in with a huge smile on his face.
“What is it?” Alpha Hughes asked quickly.
“He found them.”
“Who?”
“The humans. He found them.” Nic motioned to the ground, and we looked down to find a five-foot silver snake that wove its way between Nic’s ankles. My jaw dropped as I watched it shift into a man. Leroy…
