by Amelia Jade
She could feel the same within Evan. His cock began to go hard under her, straining at the containment of his jeans and the pressure of her sitting atop him.
“I want you,” he growled.
Victoria opened her mouth to reply.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” she said angrily, her initial words forgotten as the mood shattered and reality inserted its pesky nose back into their lives.
“Just our luck,” he said with a tired laugh.
“Doesn’t change how I feel about you,” she said, kissing him full on the lips with the energy she still possessed. She was trying to tell him through that single act that he had better not forget about her, and that he had better come back after it was all over to take care of her.
From the way his fingers dipped between her legs quickly, caressing her through her jeans, Victoria assumed he got the point.
“I love you,” she said fiercely as they got up, giving him another hard, passionate kiss.
Then she stood up, straightened her clothes, and strode toward the door, telling herself internally not to be too mean to whoever was on the other side. It wasn’t their fault that the world around them was crumbling down.
“Yes?” she asked, managing—mostly—not to snap at them.
It was one of the Jade Crew bears. She couldn’t remember his name though. He was a little smaller than most of them, with a shock of light-blond hair.
“Hey Corey,” Evan said from over her shoulder.
The shifter in front of her flicked his eyes back into the room, jerking his head slightly upward in greeting.
That’s interesting, she thought, noting the direction of his head tilt. Men, she had noticed, generally dipped their heads in greeting to someone they didn’t know, or were not on good terms with. When they were greeting friends and comrades, they raised their head, usually from the chin, by way of greeting.
It was a subtle, but almost scientific difference. So Corey, by raising his chin at Evan, had acknowledged him in a friendly manner. She had expected them to be slightly more hostile after the way Evan had treated them, but perhaps in situations like this things like that were to be overlooked.
And men call us complicated, she thought with a mental snort.
“Garrett has called the meeting. Everyone who’s going to arrive is here by now,” Corey said. He looked lost for a moment, then nodded sharply and departed.
“Did you see that look?” she asked, waiting by the door as Evan adjusted his pants and put his boots on. She quickly slipped into her sneakers while he did so. “He’s scared.”
“We’re all scared,” Evan said as he gestured for her to lead and followed her out the door. They had been in his old room at the Ridgeback Lodge, which Garrett had kept intact during his time in jail. It was a welcome bit of privacy that she hadn’t expected, and the time away from everyone to just cuddle with Evan and absorb everything had done wonders for her mental status.
She was ready to face the oncoming storm now, as long as she had him by her side.
Evan’s hand slipped over hers just then, like he could read her mind. She glanced up at him and smiled when he gave her a wink. Leaning her head on his shoulder, she let him lead the way to the meeting.
Be honest, it’s not just a meeting.
It’s a council of war.
***
The meeting room was packed.
The pair of them walked in and took up a position with the rest of their crew on the left side of a cluster of tables that formed the center of the room. They had been pushed together to form one large, slightly rectangular table.
She recognized most of the Jade Crew, with Garrett standing at the head of the table. Corey, the bear who had fetched them, was standing at one end of the group. Along the right-hand side of the table were a bunch of women, and from the way they were looking at the Jade Crew, she took them to be their mates.
At the foot of the table were a half-dozen shifters she didn’t recognize, and they didn’t appear to be united, either. At the fore of the group was a massive shifter, and with a start she noticed he only had one arm.
The low muttering conversations came to an abrupt halt as Garrett cleared his throat. The Alpha she noted, had complete control over the room already.
Impressive.
“Okay, we all know why we’re here. Origin has been, for lack of a better word, invaded.” Garrett spoke firmly and without hesitation, despite all the implications in his words. “We know what they’re after. They are aware of this fact.”
“What are they after?” The question came from one of the unknown shifters.
The one with the single arm turned to face him. “They want the Dragon Stones. They will likely stop at nothing to get them.”
Garrett nodded. “Uriel is correct. If you are unaware, he is one of the Stone Bears, the elite group tasked with guarding the stones. This also means he has information we might not normally be privy to. Information he is now going to share.”
Victoria felt her eyebrows rise at the revelation of who the man was. He must be very formidable indeed to hold such a position with such a limiting injury. She notched her opinion of him up a few points as he began to speak.
“As I’m sure you are all aware, the dragons are governed by a ruling council. Much of what they say is suggestion only, but they can usually be relied upon to help deal with a rogue dragon. Unfortunately we have one on our hands, and the council cannot be found, nor are any of our communications being returned.”
Most of the mining shifters in the room were aware of this, and Victoria wasn’t surprised that they kept quiet. The only noises came from the other shifters in the room. They must be some of the randoms that live in town, the ones Evan told Jared to call to get out ahead of the invasion.
Uriel’s voice rose slightly, drowning them out. “Now what you might not normally know is that when a Dragon Stone is found by one of the mining crews, it is usually housed at Lionshead Mining head office. Every three to four weeks, a heavily armored and guarded truck arrives from the Dragon Council and takes the stones away for safekeeping.” He paused, taking a breath before continuing to speak, and Victoria sensed some very bad news coming from the way his tone changed.
“Unfortunately, we have not heard from the council in months, including their normal truck dispatches. This means that all the stones have been piling up in secure storage at the LMC office. Normally we house no more than perhaps two dozen stones. As of last count, there are now more than two hundred stones just waiting there.”
Garrett spoke into the rising noise as people spoke to each other about the situation. Victoria stayed quiet, more intent on what the leaders had to say than gossiping. She had—mostly—made peace with her demons, and knew what was coming and what she was going to do about it.
“We cannot let them get their hands on those stones. If they do, Luthor/Mirrnolax will use them to create an army of like-minded followers, and…well, things will get really bad for the rest of us,” he finished with a mild, helpless shrug.
Victoria sympathized with him. There really wasn’t much more he could say. If the enemy won, shit was fucked, to put it bluntly. They had to stop them, end of story.
“What about Ferro?” One of the women spoke up, a thick blonde with a commanding air to her that caught Victoria off guard.
“We’ve been over this before, Emma,” Garrett said, and she suddenly realized that the two were mates. “Ferro isn’t getting involved.”
“Why not?” Victoria didn’t realize it was her speaking until all the eyes in the room swiveled to meet her.
“Mirrnolax has seen to it. He’s holding one of Ferro’s family hostage to assure his neutrality. At least, that’s what we think,” Garrett said, admitting that they weren’t positive. “Ferro is notoriously hard to speak with. He hasn’t confirmed our suspicions, but he hasn’t denied them either.” Garrett answered the question, but he was looking down the table at his mate.
/> She saw several of the other women darting glances her way, and wondered what was going on. Her mind was elsewhere, however. Everyone seemed to be discounting Ferro, but he seemed like the only way to victory. If they wanted to survive, he would have to fight alongside them. Without a dragon of their own, they were screwed.
“So what do we do then?” Emma asked.
Garrett’s eyes narrowed.
“You do nothing. I admire your willingness to help, but you’re nine months pregnant Emma. You’re staying out of this, as are the rest of you,” Garrett said, pointing at the group of women at the table.
“What? You can’t just leave us here while you go off to die without us!” one of the others shouted, getting up from her chair. Victoria’s eyes widened as she saw the size of this woman’s belly. There were apparently a lot of pregnant women in the Jade Crew.
“We can, and we will!” one of the others said firmly before Garrett could reply.
“Quiet,” Uriel said, taking command of the meeting with one simple word. “You will have to hash this out between yourselves, but for now, we must ensure everyone else is up to speed.”
Victoria watched as angry glares from the women speared Uriel briefly before turning back to impale the men of the Jade Crew. She wanted to chuckle at the sight, but it wasn’t a laughing matter. These women wanted to fight for their homes, for their men, and they couldn’t. They weren’t equipped for it, and Victoria knew that, as they must as well. But that wasn’t stopping their determination.
“We know the plan,” Emma said, “So I guess we’ll go elsewhere instead of interrupting.” With a gesture the women followed her and angrily departed the room.
The others watched them go. As the door closed, Garrett sighed. She could see the resignation in his eyes. He didn’t want to have to exert command over his mate, but a shifter war was no place for a pregnant human female. They would be so hysterically outmatched it didn’t bear comparison.
“Basically the plan is to take our vehicles and make our way through back trails to the LMC office. The main road is cut, but there is an ATV and snowmobile trail that should allow the trucks and supplies to get through. We have word from Gabriel at LMC that he expects the attack in the morning. So we’ll take a few hours to grab some sleep, and then head out just before dawn. Be ready to leave at a moment’s notice though, okay?”
Everyone nodded and began to file out of the room. Evan stayed behind, his eyes drawn to the Jade Crew, and she realized this was one of the first times he had seen his old crew since being free. Not wanting to interrupt what was likely to be a rather awkward reunion, she left the room with the others.
Besides, she had her own ideas about what needed to be done.
Chapter Ten
Evan
He put his fists on the table and leaned his weight into it as the room cleared. Before long it was just him and his former crew.
“You’re positive about the numbers you saw?” Garrett asked, looking for confirmation once more.
Evan worked his jaw, wishing he could give a different answer, but he couldn’t. Nodding, he confirmed it. “We stopped counting at thirty trucks, but there were more.”
“Shit.” That was Russell, the new second of the Jade Crew. He had stepped up to replace Evan when he both wouldn’t and couldn’t do the job properly. Evan was impressed with the way Russell had taken to the command position, and seemed to be flourishing both as a leader and as a person.
“We’re working to get all the allies we can,” Uriel said. “Gabriel sent me over here to coordinate with you, while Raphael went to try and convince Marcel that he needed to act.”
Marcel was the Alpha of the Ruby Crew. They were polar bear shifters who spent all their time high up in the mountains where the snow rarely melted, and almost never came down to Origin or even the LMC headquarters unless absolutely necessary. There were nine of them, and they would provide a heavy addition to their forces, if their Alpha could be convinced that fighting was the right thing to do.
They hadn’t had much luck with that before then.
“What about Ajax?” Evan asked, mentioning the Alpha of the Emerald crew, staunch allies of the Jade crew in the ongoing fight for Genesis Valley.
“They’re already at the head office,” Uriel said. “Their resort was on the north end of town. As soon as we got your warning, they packed up and left. A good thing too, because the cameras they left behind showed they escaped by no more than twenty minutes.”
“So what are we looking at in terms of force dispersion?” Evan asked.
“Not enough,” Uriel said.
“It might be enough,” Garrett said. “We have the Stone Bears, the Sentinels, us, you, the Emeralds, and hopefully the Ruby folks, plus a smattering of randoms from Origin.”
“The Kedyns?” Evan inquired.
“They’re with the Sentinels,” Uriel said. “They’re ready to fight.”
“Any signs of Luthor?” Garrett asked, looking at Evan again.
“Nothing that I saw, but they were all in trucks. He certainly wasn’t flying overhead,” Evan said with a laugh. “Or if he was, we didn’t see him in the dark.”
Heads nodded around the table.
“So, best case scenario, we have somewhere between forty and fifty shifters on our side, including two gryphons.”
Joel, one of the Jade Crew shifters, whistled at the size of the force assembled to fight for their side.
“Against a likely minimum of one hundred to one hundred and twenty enemy shifters, including one First dragon,” Evan said.
Joel’s whistle died off abruptly.
“Exactly,” Uriel said with a jab of a finger in Joel’s direction. “The shifters alone we might have been able to handle, especially if Marcel and his crew join. The Sentinels are well along in training, and we haven’t had to cut a single one of them yet. There are a full dozen of them.”
“That’s a potent force,” Darren said, speaking up. The Jade Crew shifter had once gone through Stone Bear/Sentinel training, though he hadn’t completed it. But he did understand how hard it was, and had spent the past few months helping the Jade Crew learn some of the techniques he had been taught.”
“Especially with Marcus and Valen in the mix,” Cole added.
The others murmured their agreement.
“The real question then is how do we handle the damn dragon?”
There was silence.
“Well shit,” Garrett said.
Uriel grimaced. “Gabriel has a plan in place to ensure Luthor/Mirrnolax doesn’t get what he’s looking for. So maybe if we can eliminate his army, it’ll discourage him, buy us some time.”
Nobody acknowledged just how unlikely that situation as, but they all knew it was likely their best bet for stopping him without the help of the Dragon Council.
“I don’t know if there’s a point in worrying more about this tonight,” Garrett said at last. “Why don’t we all try and get some sleep?”
The group nodded, and Garrett and Uriel departed, conversing amongst themselves. That left Evan alone with the rest of the Jade Crew.
“Hey fellas,” he said after a time, unsure of what else to say.
“Evan,” Russell said, speaking for the group.
“Looks like we’re in this together now, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does,” Joel replied with a half-smile.
“Sorry it took me so long to realize who the good guys were,” he said, looking down at the table. He knew it was an awkward apology at best, but the situation was so fucked up he really wasn’t sure what else to say. He couldn’t go back and undo any of his past actions. All that was left to him now was to do the right thing, and that started with fighting alongside them. He was going to do that anyway, but Evan desperately hoped they would welcome him into that fight instead of simply accepting his presence.
There was a pause before Russell replied, speaking on behalf of the others again. “I think most of us were angry at first when everyt
hing went down. There should be no surprise there. But after you were put away, as time went on, I think we began to root for you. To hope that you would come around. I’m not really sure any of us could identify how that happened. Maybe it was all the women coming into our lives. I’m not really sure. But when we heard that they were going to give you another chance, we were mostly happy. A little nervous, because we had no idea what had happened to you up there, but happy. And when we heard that you had earned, not demanded, the loyalty of several of the others in jail with you, we approved.”
Evan’s head had come up as Russell spoke. He felt his mouth drop open and his brow furrow in surprise at the kindness, and then the content, of his words. When the other shifter finished speaking, Evan found himself at a loss, unable to speak.
He hadn’t expected anything like this. Being presented with what essentially amounted to a fresh start hit him deep. He opened his mouth to respond, then closed it. Twice more he tried to speak, and couldn’t. Finally he settled for looking each of them in the eye, ending with Russell. Then he nodded once. It was a simple movement, just a short, sharp dip of his head.
But to everyone present, it said so, so much more.
Evan could never be a member of the Jade Crew, not after all that had happened. But they would always be family to him, and now he knew they felt the same. Another weight was lifted from his shoulders, despite the looming battle.
“Beer?” Darren asked, walking over to a nearby fridge and beginning to pull some bottles from it.
“Please,” he said, moving around the table to stand closer to them.
Moments later he heard the familiar hiss-pop of beer bottles being opened.
Perhaps, he thought to himself, some good will come out of this.
