There were more guns than we needed. There were more varieties than I knew what to do with. We loaded ourselves up with as much as we could carry before carting it all into the house.
My uncle's wolves were waiting in the foyer when we came in. All sixty of them. Some stood along the walls, others sat around the foyer. Closest to the door was Rodney, Riley's brother. Rodney grinned as he walked up to us and started relieving us from our burdens. Following his lead, others jumped in to assist, and we had the truck unloaded in a couple of minutes.
Afterward, Rodney turned to me. I knew we both wanted to skip the formality and greet each other because we hadn't seen each other in years, but rules were rules and there were some we just couldn't ignore.
Rodney held his hand out to me. I accepted and shook his hand, knowing for the first time in my life that I was the stronger wolf. I looked from our hands to his eyes and saw the surprise in his face.
"Mating did you a world of good," he said in a soft voice. I nodded. I hadn't realized how much had changed since our union. He bowed his head to me, which was an eye-opening experience. When he let go of my hand, we hugged. "I'm proud of you," he whispered.
I nodded and squeezed him for a moment before I released him. "Thanks," I said.
He nodded before he turned and looked at Riley. "Hey! It's my little brother!" he let out a robust laugh before the two of them walked toward each other. They hugged. "How does it feel to be in a relationship again?"
Riley chuckled. Like me, he was a bit of a womanizer until his mate came along. "You didn't notice?" he asked.
Rodney smiled. "I noticed," he said. "I'll admit, I'm surprised. How long has it been?"
"Few days."
"Wow…"
Rodney's mate and wife, Amanda, stepped forward and put a hand on Riley's shoulder. "Congratulations," she said before she looked at me. "How are you, Wolfie?" she asked.
"I've been better," I replied.
She gave me a sad smile. "I'd imagine," she said. "It sucks a bit when your pack's attacked."
"Just a bit," I said with a strained smile. Ceres stepped up to us and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Manda, I'd like you to meet my mate. Ceres, this is my cousin Rodney's mate, Amanda."
Ceres smiled as she and my cousin shook hands. Amanda's eyes widened. "Nice to meet you," Ceres said.
Amanda hesitated before she pulled her hand away. "Yeah," she replied. "Um… wow…." She looked between the two of us. "This pack is lucky to have both of you in it," she said. "Really lucky."
It took me a moment to realize what happened. Between her reaction and Rodney's, it made sense. Everyone set an expectation for me in terms of what I'd be as an adult. I just surpassed everyone's expectations. I'd become stronger than my father. Stronger than all of them.
It was the boisterous laugh from Riley and his brother that brought me out of my stupor. The three of us looked over at them. Rodney shook his head, his laugh chuckling away, and then looked at me. "So, this show you're running; I hear it's going to be a bloody one?" he asked.
I nodded. "I promise lots of gore."
"Mmm, Witch guts! My favorite!"
We laughed before Rodney began the introductions of the people he brought with him. He saved the pair my uncle wanted us to keep for last.
I recognized the man from Rodney and Amanda's wedding almost ten years ago. He'd come as the date of the human girl my aunt and her human husband adopted. Since Jana wasn't here, I figured they probably broke up a while ago and Daphne took her place. Rodney kept in touch with Declan for whatever reason after the fact.
I looked at Cynthia. "Have you shown everyone around yet?" I asked.
She nodded. "They all have bunks."
I gave her a nod. "Okay," I sighed. "Everyone, go ahead and make your way downstairs. We're waiting for nightfall before we get started. Rod, come on and let me tell you the plan. Scythia, will you make sure everything is secure? These boxes are the guns and other supplies we're going to need tonight."
She nodded before she and Hunter went to work. I led Rodney, Amanda, Ceres, and those others who were high enough in the chain of command to follow to the library. Once there, I explained the plan, the guns, and the radios. In this one room, I had almost every leader I wanted. Richard, Cynthia, and Hunter were the only ones missing. Richard would hold the clinic. Ceres would hold the house. I would take a team to Brenda's last known location, and everyone else would cover the other houses. I would need three more team leads to cover the rest, but I didn't see that as an obstacle to overcome.
I pulled out the map the Vampire gave me and spread it out over my father's desk. The red circles over the confirmed addresses made things easy. "Okay," I said. "Who's where?"
Luke pointed at the one house I cared about. "Brenda," he said. I took a closer look and realized that she'd set up shop in Alan's house. I was already too familiar with that house for all the wrong reasons.
"Okay," I said. "I want everyone in position by ten-thirty. We'll sneak into the houses and round up everyone inside. I want at least one on each exit to make sure that no one escapes or interrupts—although I'd prefer two. I want all Witches in a centralized location within each house and I want every room searched from top to bottom to make sure no one is hiding out. I want them helpless and begging for mercy when we kill them. I want them to know they fucked with the wrong pack when they fucked with us. I want them slaughtered. All goes well, and we should all be in and out within twenty minutes. We have radios to maintain contact and enough guns to cover everyone who doesn't have one.
"Now, we know the Witches have been celebrating their victory all day, so they may be pretty intoxicated by the time we show up. That'll work in our favor, and I'm tempted to buy them all a keg to keep the party going. It should make our job easier."
"What's your plan for the locked doors?" Rodney asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know about you, but I can turn a doorknob with enough force to break the lock," I said. "Also, this is Adamsville. People don't lock their doors here."
Rodney nodded. Who needs keys or lockpicks when you have brute strength? "So, what now?" he asked.
"Divide the teams and pass out supplies," I answered. "When we're done with that, we wait."
Chapter 13 ~Ceres~
Where do you go when you have to cook enough food for almost two hundred hungry Lycans? The diner your family owns. We didn't bring everyone with us; just enough for the cooking and carrying. The thought of that many people traveling, even though the diner had the capacity for it, turned our blood to ice. The last thing we needed was a sign saying SURVIVING LYCANS HERE. After all, Brenda still wanted us dead.
Since the twins didn't know the first thing about boiling water, they came with us to carry things. Mira came with us because she had started to feel lonely and scared. We wanted to make sure that she knew we cared about her and, for Wolfgang, spending as much time with the people he cared about had become more important to him than ever before.
As for me, I enjoyed the time away from the house with my favorite people. Even those who couldn't cook helped with dinner, which was why Riley tossed a can of beans to Selena and asked her to open it.
She stared at the can as if it would somehow open itself, so long as she found the right spot to glare at it. She looked at it from every angle, which was when Mira started to laugh. The sound made the rest of us look at her, and then at Selena.
"The can opener's in the drawer," Riley told her.
Selena looked at him with that helpless, deer-in-the-headlights expression. She offered the can to me and I realized that she'd never opened a can without a pop top.
Riley covered his laugh with a cough, even though he couldn't hide his grin. "You don't know how, do you?" he asked.
She gave him her best glare. "Of course I do!" she protested. I smiled as I fished the can opener from the drawer and held it out to her. Her eyes narrowed. "You're making me do this, aren't you?" she asked.
I shrugged.
"It's one of two things," I said. "Either you know how to use and there's no issue, or you don't and there's no better time to learn. There isn't a maid out here to open it for you."
"Thanks for throwing me under the bus," she muttered. She slammed the can down on the counter and took the opener from me. She took a moment to examine both items and try to determine how to affix the opener to the can. After a moment, she hit the can with the opener and looked at Riley. "Don't just fucking stand there watching me look like an idiot!" she snapped. "How do I open this fucking thing?"
Riley gave her a patient smile. "It's easy," he said as he passed the job of stirring to someone else. He stepped up behind Selena and placed his hands over hers, the same way Wolfgang taught me to make pancakes this morning. He guided her through every step of the process. "See how the blade is over the lip?" he asked. She nodded. "Squeeze the handle together. Turn the knob."
She turned the knob until the lid popped up. She let out a sound of surprise and laughed. "I did it!" she cried. She looked at me with a grin, which only made me laugh. My laugh turned her grin into a glare. "That was fucked up," she said.
And that's when the bitch in me rose up. Rationally, I knew this wasn't the time or place, but there was no stopping the words. "That was fucked up?" I asked.
"Okay, let's not do this here," Wolfgang said, reaching out to grab my hand and turn me toward him. The effect of his touch calmed me down in an instant. I took a breath and closed my eyes. I had to try very hard not to look at Selena because if I did, we would have out it right here, in front of everyone.
I hated all of this because I made Wolfgang look weak while she made Riley look stronger. I wondered how long we had until people wanted Riley to fight Wolfgang for the right of succession again. After all, he stepped in when Wolfgang stepped out. It wasn't a far leap now.
I met his eyes for a moment before I turned and left the kitchen through the back door. The receiving area was also part of the parking lot behind the diner. There were no deliveries today, of course, Nothing came in around the full moon. Leon made sure of that.
The cold air and the mundane world around me helped some of my anger, bitterness, and jealousy recede, but not by much. The worst part of it for me was that I wanted to hate Selena and Riley for what they did, but I couldn't because I loved them. Riley was like another brother to me and Selena was always my best friend and sister. I couldn't hate them for their choice, even if their choice wasn't a conscious one. I couldn't even hate the result of their choice.
I should be happy for them.
I should be excited.
Wolfgang came out as tears started to burn my eyes. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, enveloping me in a cocoon of his warmth and scent. "Shhh," he whispered in my ear. "It's okay."
I shook my head. His fingers threaded through my loose hair as he kissed my crown. It took me a minute before I was able to look up at him. "I really hate myself right now," I confessed.
He nodded. "I know," he said. "It's hard not to resent them, and, because of that, it's hard not to hate ourselves for doing it."
I cleared my throat. "We have to try again soon, don't we?" I asked.
He shrugged. "When you're ready," he promised.
I shook my head. "We don't have time for me to be ready."
"Then what do you want to do?" he asked.
I sighed. "When this is over," I said, nodding to myself as I tried to pretend I'd be okay with starting over. "When this shit with the Witches is settled and everything's calm again… we'll work on another baby."
Wolfgang nodded. "Okay," he agreed before he kissed me.
Riley and Selena were gone when we went back inside. Sophia gave me a weary smile. "They went back to the house," she told us. "Lena didn't want to be here anymore."
"She shouldn't have left the house anyway, I muttered as I went back to peeling potatoes.
"They didn't mean it…."
I closed my eyes and tried to count to ten before I responded. I met Sophia's gaze and knew that my eyes were amber. "She didn't just slip and fall on his dick to get pregnant," I said. "They made a decision, whether they intended to or not."
"Right, but it's their decision," Sophia argued. "It doesn't affect anyone else."
I let out a bitter laugh. "Sure it doesn't," I spat. If she believed that, she was more naive than I ever believed possible.
"I have to believe it," she whispered.
I nodded. "Then I won't hold it against you."
She gave me a smile before she hugged me. She looked at Luke. "I'll catch a ride with Wolfgang," he said before she nodded to him. They shared a quick kiss before she left, following her sister because that was the only way they survived.
We carted the steaks and sides back to the house and down to the basement, where someone had set up a few tables. We set everything out buffet style and people walked up for their dinners. Custom dictated that the highest members of the pack ate first, but with the situation being what it was, we let that rule fly out the window. Wolfgang and I, as the highest members of the pack in the house, wanted to make sure that everyone was fed before we ate.
When everyone had their plates, I looked around and saw Selena and Riley sitting together. Sophia was with them, and, by default, so was Luke. A pang of guilt hit me for a moment, and I wondered if Wolfgang resented me for their presence because they took his best friends away from him.
Wolfgang reached for my hand and led me over to Rodney. He, Amanda, and the two members of their pack who were sent to join ours sat together on the floor.
"Hey," Rodney said with a grin as we sat down with them. "What's up, man?"
Wolfgang shook his head. "Nothing new." He smiled at everyone. "So, tell me what's going on?" he asked. He looked directly at the other couple, Declan and Daphne. "What's your story? How'd you end up here?"
Declan let out a heavy sigh. "Um… do you remember me?" he asked. "I was at their wedding. With Jana."
Wolfgang nodded. "I remember," he said. He turned to me. "Jana is my aunt's adopted daughter," he informed me before he looked back at Declan.
Declan nodded. "Well, anyway, we broke up a few months later. Daph and I have always been friends. At the time, she was dating my adopted brother because I was too wrapped up in Jana. She and Jeremy broke up the night Jeremy told me they were dating. That was also the night I found out that I was adopted. I went to see Daph because she was the only other person I knew who was adopted—at the time, I didn't know about Jana," he explained.
"And how did you find out about being Lycan?"
Daphne sighed. "We found our birth parents," she said.
"Did you always know you were adopted?" I asked Daphne.
She shook her head. "My parents dropped that bombshell on me when I was sixteen. Declan found out two years later. When we found our birth families, they told us that there was a plan to unite two warring packs in their area. They wanted us to do that because there was some prophecy that said we would. No one wanted to follow us because no one knew us. Things went south from there, which was when Declan called Rodney. We figured that, if nothing else, we could just get away from the pack and start over. I'm sure that there are Lycans out there somewhere not in packs. We figured we could be like them.
"When we got to Moab, we realized that we'd just left one pack to find ourselves in the middle of another. Rodney offered us a place in Desert Moon, but again, no one accepted us. Since we failed and fled our original pack, they looked at us as nothing more than intruding Vargulfs."
"I can't see us turning down any Vargulf wanting to join us in the near future," Wolfgang said. "We need a lot of wolves to get our numbers back."
"No doubt," Declan replied. "Trust me, we're thankful for the chance. The world is not kind to wolves without a pack."
"It's far less kind to wolves who have Witches right behind them," Wolfgang said before he took our plates to the trash.
I watched him walk away from the conversation before I looked at D
aphne. "Where will you be tonight?" I asked.
"Here, most likely," she replied. "I'm three months pregnant, so throwing myself into the thick of it isn't the smartest idea."
"No, it isn't," I said as that familiar sting struck me in the gut. "You'll stay down here in the basement with the other mothers-to-be," I informed her. I tried to ignore the little green monster that reared its ugly jealous head again. Every time someone mentioned the word baby, I wished for the deaths of every Witch on the planet. I wanted blood, vengeance, and retribution.
How acrimonious of me.
I pushed that aside and continued to get to know Declan and Daphne. They were a few years older than me and had so much more secrecy in their lives that it made me appreciate what my parents did for me.
Daphne's adoptive parents were the Roulet and Rusalki to her biological parents. They didn't trust any random person to take care of her, so they chose their Guardians. Nothing but the best for their Volsunga.
Declan's parents were the Skvaeoi and Scythia. Two other prominent members of the pack were supposed to adopt him, but there was a mix up in the paperwork and he fell through the cracks. A human couple adopted him instead. Once Daphne's adoptive parents tracked him down to a small town in Arizona, they moved to the same neighborhood and the two of them grew up together.
It was in that town where Declan met Jana, the niece of Wolfgang's aunt's husband, who came to Rodney's wedding and introduced them. The chances of them meeting Rodney was so astronomical that I had to believe in fate.
Fate led them to Rodney. Fate led me to Wolfgang. Fate led my father to my mother, took him away, and led him back again. Fate seemed to be a cruel mistress and she played with us as if we were nothing more than puppets on strings. As fate also brought us to this room, I began to wonder what else she had in store for us. Would the wolves unable to find a home have a purpose here? Would Declan's presence in the raid tonight prove vital to its success?
I looked at the room of gathered people. How many of them wouldn't survive the night? How many of the men going out tonight had a mate here who was either pregnant or defending the house? How many of us would see the dawn?
Vanilla Moon: Acrimony Page 13
