“How are you going to become a vet with a toddler, Eva?” her father called to her retreating figure.
“I don’t know, Dad,” she shouted, not looking back. “I guess I’ll figure it out, like I’ve done everything else.”
“Are you okay?” John whispered as they neared the cabin.
A sob escaped her. “No.”
She’d never had her father turn on her like that. Never seen such disappointment in his eyes, and the worst thing was, she had no idea how she was going to prove him wrong.
“I need to become a vet, John,” she whispered as he opened their front door.
John turned her toward him and cleared the tears from her face. He gazed at her with an affection that tugged at her heart. “You will, Eva. And so much more.”
Her brother had Mathew in his arms when they walked in, pain written all over his expression. “I’m sorry, Eva. He’ll come around, I’m sure.”
“Will he?” Her words trembled as she struggled to swallow her hurt.
“Of course he will. He’s our dad. He’s just stressed about the house and me, and he’s not over Mom…. It’s all just come to a head, and you happened to be in the way when it did.” Zackary put Mathew on his feet. “I’m going to leave you guys to it. And for the record, sis, I’m happy for you.” He reached the door, looking back with a smirk. “And John, what I said still applies. Bye, Matty!”
Thankfully, Mathew had decided everything was okay and gone back to his toys. Plodding over to the sofa, Eva sighed and flopped down with a big huff. “John, feed me,” she mumbled, swiping at the remnants of her tears.
With a smile, he did just that, placing the tray of food on the coffee table in front of her.
“Pancakes and Pop-tarts.”
Eva pressed a hand to her heart dramatically. “You’re the best.”
“You know, Eva, you kinda just told your dad you love me before you actually told me.” His grin was wicked, his eyes alive with laughter, and Eva wanted nothing more than to drag him back to bed and show him just how much she did love him. But Mathew crashed his cars together loudly and reminded her things weren’t as simple anymore. As if reading her mine, John glanced at Mathew then back to her. “We’ll have help, Eva. A whole pack full of help. Once Matty knows we aren’t going anywhere, he’ll open up to other people.”
She nodded. “Hey, Matty, come eat.” John sat beside her, sticking nearly a half of a Pop-tart into his mouth. “Hey, John.” She hooked her finger on his chin, tilting his head her way.
“Mmm?” he mumbled around the food, causing her to laugh.
“I love you.”
He grinned, showing her a mouthful of food.
“Don’t do it,” she said breathily through her laughter.
“I wouve uo, too.”
Clutching her tummy, Eva tried to catch her breath, Mathew joining in with their amusement, and though Eva’s heart had been in a million pieces only moments ago, John had somehow found a way to pick a few bits up and make her feel nearly whole.
Chapter 32
Bass
Bass had never expected this job to be easy, but some days his brain was at risk of exploding. If it wasn’t real life and death problems he was navigating, it was family squabbles he had no place in, yet found himself in any way. Like the Eva, John, and Tim situation. Bass wasn’t sure what he was expected to do. He wasn’t exactly an expert on functional family dynamics; his father had been a narcissist at best and a psycho the rest of the time. He had vague, hazy memories of a man who’d smiled and treated his mate and son with respect, but they were fleeting glimpses of a life that was nothing more than imaginary.
He certainly didn’t know how to help John handle his current predicament. Eva hadn’t been swayed into taking Mathew on; he’d been there. He’d watched the emotions play over her face and the silent argument she’d had with her fears. Eva might be human, but she was no coward, and though her instincts terrified her, she was facing them anyway. Bass couldn’t ask for a better addition to his pack. The fact she was human made no difference to him. He’d given up fighting change a battle or two ago.
“He can’t take them, right? You’ll not allow it, Bass?” John asked, as if he, a young man of twenty, somehow possessed the power to stop a father from taking his children back to the home they’d left to find help. Bass had helped Zackary. The kid wasn’t going to have an easy ride, but Bass was sure he’d stay in control of his wolf half. Whether he could blend back into his old life was another story, but it wasn’t for him to decide. He was alpha, but not their makers. That was where his father had gone wrong.
“He’s their father, John,” Bass answered gently.
“I don’t care,” John growled, pacing the cabin as the other enforcers and senior soldiers watched his unusual display of anger. John was one of the most inhuman members Bass had, but it didn’t make him cruel. He was simply more in tune with his wolf’s nature than most, and therefore usually took great effort in keeping his emotions in check.
An angry wolf was a dangerous wolf.
“I’m not sure physically stopping Tim from leaving is going to help your situation. I will, however, talk to him about the importance of Zac staying here.”
“And Eva?” John asked.
“Is a grown woman, John, and has already made her intention quite clear.”
“Give them all time to cool off, John,” Tyler added. “Look what happened with Regan’s parents and me, and we’ve managed to speak… a little.”
“And anyway,” Bass jumped in before John could counter another argument, “all he’s asked for is to go home and pack up their belongings. Not take his children away, and I’m pretty certain Zac said he wasn’t leaving. So really all we need to decide on is whether Tim needs pack protection while he’s away.”
Bass was unsure about which call to make. He sensed Tim needed some alone time to deal with his wife’s death and his children’s new lives, but it didn’t mean there wasn’t at risk of Indiana hunting him. Though why Castor would send someone to harm Tim was beyond Bass. It seemed unnecessary, but Castor had done many pointless acts in an attempt to get the upper hand.
“How long is he planning to be gone?” Nico asked from his position sprawled out on a giant bean bag. His shoulder had been giving him grief today. Bass had caught him more than once grimace as he’d shifted position, not that it would slow him down. Battle was on the horizon. Bass could almost taste the blood destined to be spilled, and he needed every able-bodied man ready to act.
“He said a week, maybe two. I honestly don’t think he really knows. He’s going back to pack away his dead wife’s things…. It’s not a quick task,” Bass explained.
“Stop making me feel sorry for the guy,” John muttered
Quiet laugher filled the air before they settled down and got back to the discussion. “I can’t speak for everyone else,” Noah began, pushing off the wall he was leaning on, “but we don’t have weeks. We all know it and feel it.”
Bass had to agree with him. Tension was rife, bloodlust at its peak. Everyone could feel Castor and his men breathing down their necks. They were at a crescendo, and very soon, whether they wanted it or not, they’d all be fighting for their lives and the land they called home.
“Then let him go. Follow him until he’s over state line just to be sure Castor hasn’t had him followed and then turn our attention to more pressing matters,” Tyler suggested.
Bass studied the men and women in the room. “Are we all in agreement?” Nods and murmurs followed all round. “So that leads me to my next question. A question I want the people in this room to decide on because I can’t be trusted to make a decision without my emotions clouding my judgment. Katalina and I are due to leave tomorrow afternoon and spend one night with her family before visiting her parents’ graves and returning that evening. We made this plan before Castor was in the wind and before we took his bargaining chips. Should I tell Katalina she can’t go?”
A sigh sprea
d around the room. Gazes cast to the floor as they contemplated the reality of informing Katalina she couldn’t visit her parents’ graves on the first anniversary of their deaths.
“It’s also her birthday too,” Nico said. “Aren’t we planning a party for her?”
Bass shook his head. He’d thought about it, run it passed her several times, and even thought of doing it without her permission anyway, but Bass feared Katalina would never want to celebrate her birthday again. “She doesn’t want to, Nic. She doesn’t even want a cake with close friends.”
“She needs to go, Bass,” Nico answered, his knee jiggling with tension. “I think it will break her if you don’t let her go.”
He’d seen the desperation in her eyes, felt the weight of her emotions through the bond they shared. Katalina didn’t think she was making it out of this war alive, and the only way she could accept that was having one last chance to say goodbye to her human family and the person she once was. She’d never said the words aloud, but she didn’t need to. Bass knew her, and his greatest fear was that she was right, and he’d be left without his heart, and a pack to protect, when all he’d want to do was join her in the afterlife.
“So, she goes and you stay?” Jacob asked. “Won’t it be just as bad?”
“I say you go as planned. We can hold the fort until you’re back. It’s one night. We owe you this much,” Tyler said.
“You owe us nothing, Ty,” Bass replied.
Emotion filled Tyler’s gaze. “I owe her, Bass. Without Kat, I wouldn’t be here with a mate from River Run.” His words quietly hummed with gratitude and the love he had for his mate.
“I second that,” Logan said, speaking for the first time. He lifted out of his chair and walked the length of the room and back, surveying every face he passed. “We’re giving them this.” He paused in front of Bass and took his shoulder. “You’ve been fighting since you were a child for us, Bass. It’s time we gave a little back. Dark Shadow might have changed, but it still stole her parents from her. And if we can’t hold Dark Shadow together for two days, then we don’t deserve you both.”
Bass’s father had taught him emotion was weakness, love was to be twisted and used. Loyalty was a laughable commodity, and leadership was gained through fear. It saddened Bass in a way that his father never knew the privilege of having a pack who loved him as much as he loved them. They were a family, one who would die for each other. They all shared the lows and equally the highs, and it made whatever was coming a little easier to bear.
“Thank you, brother,” Bass murmured, touching foreheads with Logan. “You’ve no idea what your words mean to me.”
“I think we do.” Nico laughed. “We all see through the mask, Bass, to the sweet and squishy center.”
“I’d rather not think about his squishy center,” Noah teased. “But, I do agree with Logan.”
John stood taller. “It’s agreed then. They leave as planned tomorrow at noon, and I’ll take the lead until he returns.”
The anxiety which had been growing for days eased to a quiet hum; at least, he’d be able to give Katalina this.
He longed for a time where the pressures of war wouldn’t come between them. The simple life she deserved, and he hoped beyond hope they’d be given a chance to find it, or at least a life a little less deadly. He’d fight fate itself if he had to, but one way or another, Bass would make sure Katalina made it through the coming battle.
He’d turn the world red, burn it to the ground. She was his, and no one was going to touch her.
Chapter 33
John
Having worked a full day, it was late when John returned home, and Eva and Mathew were asleep. Padding silently into the room, he took a moment to watch them and absorb the heartwarming view into his soul. Eva slept, curled around Mathew’s tiny form, both subconsciously on his side of the bed as if being surround by his scent comforted them.
They’d given up putting Mathew into bed in the other room. He either wouldn’t sleep or simply joined them in the night anyway. Nightmares plagued his dreams, and John could only guess at the horrors that haunted the little boy’s mind. But when he was wedged between them, they weren’t as frequent, and both he and Eva wanted to do everything in their power to lessen the heartache in Mathew’s life.
He hadn’t even been in their life for a week, and John couldn’t imagine Mathew not being there. The blue-eyed boy had stolen a piece of his heart as quickly as Eva had, shifting his world once again and leaving him scrambling.
Mathew had become better with other people but didn’t tolerate being away from either of them long, and as much as John wanted to protect him from any more pain, he feared Mathew could lose yet another parent before the fight was through. War never claimed the evil, but the innocent. It was the ones left behind who suffered—the mates, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends who bore the scars. And as the wave finally peaked, bringing with it relief and foreboding, John prayed to anyone who’d listen to not let his family be the pawn in Castor’s game. He’d only just found them—the missing parts of his heart—and he refused to believe he’d never see a day where Eva was finally his mate.
He had to believe in the future. It was the only way he got up in the morning.
“John?” Eva mumbled, shifting slightly, her lids heavy with sleep.
“Go back to sleep, baby,” he whispered.
She reached for him. “Come to bed.”
Reaching over, John kissed her and then ran a hand through Mathew’s soft curled hair. “Soon. I’m just going for a run first. I need to clear my head.”
Sleep fading from her eyes, a line appeared on her brow, and Eva rolled over fully. “Everything all right?”
He brushed her hair from her face, letting the golden silk strands fall through his fingers. “Sleep, Evaline. Sometimes a wolf just needs to run.”
Rolling back over, Eva tucked Mathew closer to her. “Okay,” she whispered. “But not too long. I missed you today.”
He’d missed her too. He wished they had the luxury to enjoy each other some more before things became so intense and dire. But sometimes, all that was left to do was hold on for the ride, and take every snippet of happiness, even if it was crowded with the bad.
The next morning, he was given the brightest of joys, snuggled up in bed, Eva in his arms, their energetic bundle of fur prancing around the bed as if he was king.
“You know,” Eva said, laughter in her tone as Mathew batted at his feet under the covers. “I’ve never seen you in wolf form. Not up close anyway.”
Smiling, John climbed out of bed and pushed his boxers to the floor as Eva sat up, curiosity brightening her eyes as he shifted into his wolf form.
Her breath caught as she jumped up onto her knees. “You’re so much bigger up close.”
Growling his approval, amusement danced through his veins as Mathew growled back, his tail wagging high in the air. Leaning back, John then leaped up and onto the bed, his cub, dashing between his legs as he crept slowly toward Eva and nuzzled at her neck.
“It’s so strange,” she murmured, tentatively touching him. “Human logic tells me I should run, but all I really want to do is hug you like a big fluffy dog.”
He grumbled in response. He was not a fluffy dog but a big scary wolf.
Kneeling upright, Eva wrapped her arms around him, and he pushed against her touch, taking pleasure from the fingers trailing through his fur.
“Everyone says you’re scary.” She held his head in her hands. “But you’re not.”
Licking her into a fit of giggles, her nose screwed up as she fought him off, and Eva flopped back onto the bed, breathless. “Okay, okay, I take it back. You’re the scariest wolf I know, and I know a whole pack of them. Two, in fact.”
He nipped at her for that comment, gently pinning her with a paw, and covering her face with his tongue as Mathew jumped up and did the same, yipping his delight as they both attacked Eva with love.
“Eww, gross
. Enough, enough. You guys win. No more dog breath, please.”
Shifting back, his human laughter erupted from his throat, his heart close to bursting. “I love you,’ he murmured, pulling her into his hold as he sat against the headboard.
Smiling in return, her hand brushing his chin, she looked up at him. “I love you too.”
Jumping into their laps, Mathew shifted before them, a boy once more. Reaching up, he placed one hand on John’s cheek. “John.” Then another on Eva’s. “Eva.” His smile split his face, his big blue eyes so trusting. “Matty.” Plonking his butt down, he wiggled around and curled up across both of them. “John, Eva, Matty,” he repeated, before closing his eyes and drifting back to sleep.
Eva sobbed, hiding her face in his chest. “He talked, John,” she gasped. “He talked.”
Wrapping an arm around her, he kissed the top of her head, then pulled the duvet up to cover Mathew’s naked body. He wasn’t sure how it was possible to be blindingly happy and petrified at the same time, but Eva and Mathew had perfected the skill within days of entering his life, and he hoped it would never end.
“Yeah, he did, didn’t he.”
Chapter 34
Eva
“Damn it!” Eva croaked as the sippy cup fell to the floor, and milk splattered everywhere.
“Hush now, Evaline. There’s no use crying over spilled milk.”
A gasp slid out from between her lips and Eva slumped forward, bracing her hands on the kitchen counter as tears welled in her eyes.
“Oh, honey, what did I say?” John’s mother, Addison, murmured, rubbing a hand on her back.
Eva waved her off, sucking in a breath as she did. “Ignore me. I’m overly emotional.” Looking up, she attempted a smile. “My mom, she used to say that…. It’s nothing. I’m fine. This week has just been a lot, and I’ve missed my mom so much, and now my father isn’t talking to me, and I’m just making a big mess of everything.”
“You’re doing a brilliant job, Eva.”
“Am I?” she cried. “Because I have no idea what I’m doing. Half of the time it’s like I’ve stumbled into a dream and this dream, God, it’s so perfect it hurts, and then in the next breath, I’m frozen with fear.”
Wolf Queen (A New Dawn Novel Book 6) Page 19
