by B M Griffin
He brought his hands to the buttons on his shirt. “Oh, I can remedy that real quick.”
Megan put her hand over his at his shirt. “As much as I love that idea, I’ve already wasted half the day in bed, and we really do have important things we need to go over with the pack. We need to make a decision and soon.”
Jared released a slow breath and ran his hands over his head. “Yeah, you’re right. I was just hoping to pretend things were normal for a little while longer.”
“I know,” she said. “Me too.”
****
Megan hadn’t expected the whole pack to be downstairs having lunch together, but she guessed it made sense considering everything that was going on lately and the decisions that needed to be made. There were tables set up throughout the downstairs area to make room for everyone to sit and eat. It was actually a nice sight, Megan thought to herself, to see the whole pack together enjoying a meal and just spending time together. If they could just find a way to defeat Kevin and his pack of jackasses then they could enjoy more days like this. Megan wanted that for them all.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said to Jared, “I love seeing everyone here together like this, but shouldn’t we be focusing on getting a plan together before Kevin’s pack changes locations and we have to start all over again.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a few people posted outside that school you told us about. If Kevin’s pack moves, they will let us know and follow them. I don’t need you disappearing on me again to go find them, so I’m not taking any chances of losing them.”
Megan rolled her eyes at him. “You don’t have to worry about me so much. I’m not a fragile human anymore, remember?”
“That will never happen, but it doesn’t mean I don’t trust you to fight for yourself. Would you not be worried if I went off on my own while some psycho was out there that you knew wanted to make me his newest plaything?”
Megan huffed. “Fine. Point taken.”
Megan made herself a plate and Joanna called her over so she went to sit between her and Kelly. Jared joined Adam and a few of the other guys, and judging by the way they were all leaning in toward each other and speaking in hushed tones. Megan was sure that they were discussing plans for going after Kevin. At least that’s what she hoped they were discussing. The idea that they would not go after them at all was still something she was afraid Jared was considering.
As soon as Megan took her seat between the two of them, both Joanna and Kelly slapped her on either shoulder.
“Are you crazy?” Joanna chastised her.
Megan looked between the two of them. “What the hell?”
“Joanna’s right,” Kelly said. “You can’t just keep disappearing. Jumping into the line of fire every time you get an itch.”
“I wasn’t trying to put myself in danger,” she answered.
Joanna crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Megan. “Yeah, well hun, you sure aren’t very good at that, now are ya.”
“I wasn’t in danger,” she argued.
Kelly grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing Megan to look at her. “Anytime you are near that S.O.B. you are putting yourself in danger, girl. Hell, given everything that’s happened lately, just being out wandering around by yourself is dangerous. None of us should be gallivantin’ around alone while that demon thing is out there after our pack.”
Megan was stunned. She had expected Jared’s reaction when she came home, even Shayla’s concern had not been a surprise, but she really hadn’t anyone else in the pack to be so concerned for her safety. She was a new member. Sure, she’d been around for a couple of months spending time with Jared and Shayla, and she considered the pack to be her pseudo-family, but she’d never imagined that her actions would affect them so much.
“If you mess around and get yourself hurt or killed,” Joanna added, “I swear I’m gonna rip your carcass up from whatever hole you land in and kick your ass myself.”
Megan blinked back tears. Their acceptance and concern for her made her feel like more than a member of the pack; she felt like family. “Trust me, I have no desire to end up hurt or captured, but I want more days like this. Days where we can all get together, only without the threat of some evil jackass hanging over our heads. I want us to get together to celebrate birthdays, and weddings, and babies. Not just because we are all safer under one roof.”
Kelly squeezed her hand. “Trust me, we want the same things, we just don’t want to lose you in the process.”
Megan looked across the room and met Jared’s eyes. He smiled at her and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling in return. She pulled her new friends into a hug. “I know you’re right. I’ll try to be more careful in the future. I guess I have been a little quick to want to jump in front of the storm lately.”
“Ya think?” Joanna said, and the three of them laughed until the whole room focused on them. It felt good to laugh, and Megan prayed they would have many more opportunities to do it in the future.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Jared
As much as he hated to break up the good time everyone seemed to be having, the reality was they had a big enemy out there and they needed to come up with a game plan. Megan hadn’t been wrong in saying the best result would be for Kevin to be eliminated. Knowing that was the best possible end result was one thing, but finding a way to make that a reality was something completely different.
All the pack leaders gathered in the meeting room, and Megan was right by his side. Jared had no clue which way this meeting was going to go, or what decisions would be made, but they needed to come to an agreement on how to move forward before the end of the day. He already knew Megan’s thoughts on the situation, and if he could put aside his concerns for her as a protective mate, he knew what she’d said last night made sense. That didn’t mean that he or Adam had been wrong either. Sure, it was better to go after Kevin and his pack while they had the element of surprise, but he still didn’t have a clue how they could take Kevin out. They already thought that Shayla and Adam had killed him once and that had clearly proved to be untrue.
“If we know where those assholes are hiding, I don’t understand why we haven’t already hit them,” Allen said.
Zack gave Allen a fist bump across the table and Jared wanted to roll his eyes. Those two were both in their thirties, but Jared swore certain parts of their minds stopped developing when they were teenagers. “Allen’s right,” Zach said. “We need to get there before they have a chance to come for us again. I’m sick and tired of those assholes attacking us in our own home.”
“I don’t know how we’re gonna kill that demonic thing Kevin turned himself into,” Joanna chimed in, “but I do know I don’t wanna sit around and wait for them to corner us in our own backyard again. This is supposed to be our safe place.”
“Yeah,” several people agreed at once.
Jared held up his hand to get everyone quiet. “Look, I agree with what you're saying, but did you hear what Joanna herself just pointed out? None of us know how to kill Kevin.”
“He’s right,” Shayla said, standing from her chair. “It took everything Adam and I had to send him off last time, and obviously we weren’t able to kill him. And he’s even stronger now. I don’t completely understand how it is he’s become whatever he is now. Made a deal with the devil or something, but whatever he is now, he stopped Adam and I before we could get close enough to do anything to him. Hell, he kidnapped Adam so easily. I want him out of the picture, trust me. I hate nothing more than a man on a power trip who has to hurt others to feel big, but I’m just out of ideas for how to take him down.”
“I have an idea,” Megan said. She followed Shayla’s example and stood up next to Jared to speak. The sideways glance she sent Jared’s way made his skin crawl, and he could feel his wolf just beneath the surface raising his hackles. That look told him he wasn’t going to like this new idea of hers before she even opened her mouth. “The problem when Kevin showed up here the other
day was that neither Shayla nor Adam were able to get close enough to him to touch him. To send your fiery gifts into him to take him down, so to speak, because he stopped you before you got close enough.”
“Exactly,” Shayla agreed. “We couldn’t even get near him before he incapacitated us.”
“Right,” Megan said, “but what if you could get close enough? Then you might stand a chance of taking him down again, right? You’re stronger now than you were the first time you tried to kill him. If you could get to him, do you think you could kill him?”
Shayla let out a loud sigh. “I mean, it’s possible, yes. I do have better control of my gifts now.”
Megan met Jared’s eyes for a moment and he heard her voice in his head, “Try to have an open mind,” she spoke in his mind, then she turned to look back at Shayla and Adam. “I can get you close enough. We can stay back, make sure he doesn’t see us. When the time is right, Jared or somebody there can let us know. Shayla, you can hear anyone’s thoughts if you want to so it would be easy for them to tell us the best moment to hit. Then, I can drop you right on top of him so you two can work your magic.”
Adam stared at her for a minute before meeting Shayla’s eyes. “It could work, babe. If she can get us that close, I think we have a good chance of ending him for good this time. Megan’s right, you’ve never been stronger.”
Jared stood up, looking back and forth from Adam to Megan. His instinct was to put a stop to this plan right away, to keep Megan as far away from Kevin as possible. Hell, he’d love to lock her in the silver cages in the basement like he did the first time Kevin attacked their house, but that was out of the question. Megan would never stand for it; besides, she’d probably just travel out of there with her newly developed gift anyway. He finally let his eyes land on Adam. “Are you sure you can take him out?”
Adam looked at Shayla for a long moment before he turned back to meet Jared’s stare. “I’m as sure as I can be. You know I’d never put Shayla in harm’s way if it can be helped, so that will just have to be enough for you to trust us with this.”
He felt a hand on his forearm and Megan’s touch calmed his nerves, but just slightly. She was asking him to let her put herself in the line of fire again. She’d been asking that of him so much recently, and so far he’d reacted like a jerk each time. He knew that she wanted him to put his faith in her, prove to her that he believed she was strong enough to fight for their pack. To fight to save him and all of these people she had grown to care about. Jared knew what it meant to her to be able to save those she loved when she’d been denied that opportunity so many times in her past. Knowing all of that did not make it any easier for him to give her the support she needed, but life wasn’t always easy, was it? Especially not when you were mated to women as strong as Megan.
Jared turned to face Megan and took a deep breath before he said, “Then we will make it happen.” He looked back at the rest of the people in the room. “We’ll attack at sunrise. Go get everyone ready, and rest up because this is gonna be the hardest fight we’ve seen yet.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Megan
Megan is shocked when Jared agrees to her plan of attack. She had been preparing for a colossal argument since she walked through the doors and took her seat next to him. She knew he was still afraid; afraid that Kevin would be too strong, afraid Adam and Shayla wouldn’t be able to take him down, and most of all she knew he was scared that she would get hurt in the process. Despite his words that fear was written all over his face, and she could feel his rattled nerves through their bond.
In truth, she was glad to see that fear on his face because she didn’t want him to hide his emotions from her in any situation. The fact that he was willing to put his faith in her despite his fear meant the world to her. She hadn’t thought it possible to love him more, but she knew in that moment she had been wrong.
Everyone piled out of the room to get ready for the early morning attack, while Megan stayed behind waiting for Jared. Shayla and Adam were the only ones besides themselves to stay.
“Before we leave, I just wanted to say that we appreciate you putting yourself out there for the pack,” Adam told her.
“Yes,” Shayla agreed, “and we want to make sure that you understand, we only want you to get us to Kevin so we can take him down. You need to drop us and leave. We can’t risk you getting hurt. You are the bravest person I know and it’s one of the reasons I love you, but you aren’t invincible. If you were to get tangled up with us and Kevin,” Shayla looked like a chill ran through her, “I just couldn’t live with myself if we hurt you in the crossfire. Okay?”
Megan hated the idea of dropping her friends off in the hot seat and just dipping out and leaving them there with no way to quickly escape if needed, but she couldn’t deny that Shayla was right. If she got tangled up with Shayla and Adam while they were doing their thing then she would be toast. Besides, other than the advantage her traveling ability gave them, she didn’t have anything to offer when it came to fighting Kevin herself. Taking down that demonic ass-hat would take a lot more than increased werewolf strength.
Megan nodded in Shayla’s direction. “I’ll drop the two of you and get out of the way, but you have to promise me that if anything goes wrong you will call me back so I can get you out of there ASAP.”
“I can promise you that,” Shayla agreed as she pulled Megan into a tight embrace.
“We’re going to make it through this,” Megan told her. Shayla squeezed her a little tighter.
“I know we are,” Shayla said. “We’ve got too much to live for.” She pulled back and smiled at Megan and Megan returned her smile, and they both turned to look at their mates.
“We sure do,” Megan agreed.
When Shayla and Adam left the room, hand in hand, Jared moved in front of Megan and took her face between his hands. He held her like she was made of porcelain, but the love that she saw in his eyes told her he just needed her to be safe so she didn’t allow herself to get upset. He knew she wasn’t easily broken, but fragile or not, they were about to walk into the danger zone and she couldn’t fault him for being worried for her safety. She was afraid for him, too.
“This is going to work,” she told him.
Jared leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I believe in you,” he spoke against her skin.
Those words, they meant everything. She reached up and grabbed his face, then pulled him down and crushed her mouth against his. The kiss quickly became heated, both of their chests were heaving with their heavy breaths and Jared’s erection was pressed hard against her hip. Megan had to pull herself away before they got too carried away where they stood. Before she knew what he was doing, he bent down and scooped her up in his arms. Megan laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he practically ran up the stairs and tossed her on the bed. Making love with her mate all night sounded better than sleeping any day.
****
The next morning came too soon and despite her bravado, Megan was a bundle of nerves. She was fairly certain her plan would work. She had complete confidence in Shayla and Adam, and knew that if she was successful in getting them close enough to hit Kevin with their combined power that they could take the monster down. She just had to make sure she got them close enough, no matter what. Kevin needed to be taken out and this was very likely going to be their one and only chance to get it done.
The pack gathered downstairs once again, but this time there were no tables, nobody enjoying a meal with their friends. This time they were warriors waiting for their Alpha to lead them to war. Jared and Megan made their way downstairs and stood just on the inside of the front door facing the pack joining Shayla and Adam.
“When the best opportunity presents itself, I will let you know,” Jared told them. “Make sure you’re listening for us, Shayla, because you’re the only one who can hear the whole pack and if I am unable to say when to come, then I’ve instructed the other leaders to be on the lookout and le
t you know.”
“Got it,” Shayla said.
Knowing that Jared had made arrangements for others to alert them when to attack Kevin in case he wasn’t able to himself made the full weight of what they were about to do hit Megan in the chest like a wrecking ball. Her heart was thundering inside, but she had to maintain her composure and try to keep her anxiety hidden from Jared. If he sensed her fear then she was certain he’d put the brakes on their whole plan. She needed to remain confident and keep believing in herself the way everyone else was.
Jared pulled her into his arms and she buried her face in his chest and breathed him in; letting his scent filled her senses and erase her anxiety. She would do this and they would take out Kevin for good. She would do this for her pack and for her mate. Jared leaned down and gave her a slow, lingering kiss.
“After tonight, we’re going to take some time away from here. Just the two of us, wherever you want to go,” he said.
She smiled. “That sounds wonderful.”
Jared turned to face the rest of the pack. “Now, let’s go take care of these assholes.”
Several shouts and cheers sounded throughout the room, then Jared turned to open the door and the pack filed out leaving Megan, Shayla, and Adam behind to wait for their queue. For their plan to work, Kevin couldn’t see them coming, and that meant they had to hang back until just the right time to strike him down.
“I love you guys,” Megan told them.
Both Shayla and Adam wrapped their arms around her in a group hug. “We love you, too,” they said.
Then they waited.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Jared
They headed for the old abandoned school, and when Jared spotted the sign that said High Tower Middle School he spoke to the rest of the pack with his mind, “There it is. Hit them hard and fast. We’ve got the advantage. Let’s take them down!”
