Page 122 of The Alpha’s Heir

“So… Lieutenant…” Jacques asked as he parked the Humvee where I directed. “Are all wolf shifter females as hot as Meg?”

I smiled when I heard my mate growl after I’d left them in the vehicle. My wolf made me stop outside the border. I’d never brought this many people back home, and it felt strange to take them into Cerberus Territory without announcing their arrival.

I was sure Kera would accept them.

But we can’t take any chances.

Right.

I approached the border on foot, debating leaving them out here while I ran home, but then thought better of it. I couldn’t leave them alone. They’d be safe, but like my wolf said, we couldn’t take any chances, especially not after all that I’d seen in the last few days.

Kera’s howl in the distance made me frown.

Why? My wolf cocked her head to the side.

“What’s wrong?” Roman asked as I walked back to the military vehicle.

“We have to wait here,” I said, feeling stranger than I’d ever felt in my life at realizing I couldn’t just drive down the same road I’d traveled a hundred times before. “She’ll come to us.”

It took a little over an hour for Kera to meet us at the border. She looked well, and my wolf sniffed, not sensing any distress. My mind had been racing, thinking up all sorts of scenarios where the gods had done something to my pack.

“Is there a problem?” I asked her through our pack link…

My wolf shook her head. That’s not the pack link.

We still had the connection, but it wasn’t pack anymore. The familial link let us speak telepathically to each other, but I didn’t feel that compulsion to recognize her as my Alpha, and she stopped short of crossing the border as she approached.

“What happened?” I blurted out, wondering if the gods had done something after all.

“Nothing happened.” Kera smiled as she looked toward the group behind me. “Well, other than you making your own pack, I guess.”

“Oh no…” My eyes widened. “I absolutely did not start my own pack.”

“Didn’t you?” Kera sniffed. “You smell like full Alpha now. It’s a good thing you stopped at my border.”

I frowned as I realized what I’d done.

Why had I stopped? That wasn’t like me.

What the hell is happening?

“It’ll get easier,” Kera reassured me. “I’ll be here to help… But on this side of the fence.”

“This can’t happen.” I lowered my voice so the humans didn’t hear. “They aren’t wolves. They don’t need a pack. I do. And I want to come home.”

Kera’s hands twisted behind her back as she looked over the ragtag crew of military guys, their girlfriends, wives, Yemen’s grandparents, and the two young witches in my care.

We’d stopped and picked up a lot on the way here. It’d been a crowded trip.

“Everyone needs pack,” she said. “You can come home to visit whenever you want, but maybe it’s best this way.”

Her eyes bored into mine as my aunt used our family link to communicate so no one could hear us. “I sent Alec to Fenrir and Trish back to Cadejo with Jaxon. The gods are still here. I don’t know what they have planned, but you need to protect those witches.”

I looked at Charles and Sarah, feeling my wolf bare her teeth at the thought of any harm coming to the two.

“All right, Alpha.” Kera nodded. “I’ve got to get back, but let me know if you need anything.”

“Where the heck am I supposed to put them?” I asked, feeling like I’d been dropped with a pup—or a pile of pups—and no nursing mother in sight.