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ed at that, but I saw the shine in his eyes of unshed tears. “Guys, we can do this. The mating, making the pack, it’s made me see what I didn’t want to see. We’re strong, crazy strong, as a pack, in what’s between each and every one of us. I know this looks bad, but we’re just gonna have to trust each other. Work together. Put to one side any of the bullshit that gets in the way of that. This is our watershed moment as a pack. This is where we show the world our strength.”
For a moment, there was only the sound of the breeze and bird calls and the view of my Finn, standing there in front of the pack, asking them to follow his lead. My eyes ached to look at him, it clawed at my heart what we were asking each other to do as well as seeing this Finn back online. I took his hand and felt it—that seductive throbbing sense of purpose running through him into me.
“All threads converge here,” Brandon said, eyeing Leifgart. “I haven’t had any new visions since we’ve come here, but what I did…” He glanced at me and then back over at Leifgart. “It always came down to here.”
“I’m with you,” Hawk said. “What they do in there…that ain’t right. I would never be able to sleep at night knowing we did nothing.”
“This is dumb,” Slade said. “Of course it's dumb, but it always seems stupid to rise up against the omnipotent bad guys. That’s what this place runs on.” His eyes scanned the hovels in the distance. “Fear. I’m with you, Aaron, one hundred percent. I want this planned out, I want contingency plans to save Jules at the very least, but…” He sighed, then scratched at the thickening scruff on his chin. “I don’t think we’re gonna get it, so what do we do?”
“Same as always,” Aaron said with a shake of his head. “The best we can.” His eyes scanned the pack before coming to rest on me. “I’m starting to understand that vision now, those guys and their pack just walking into the wolf’s mouth. I love you.”
He was facing me when he said it, but I think everyone sensed how broadly that statement was applied.
“Very touching,” Sylvan said drily, “but I can alleviate some of your concerns. We can’t go to my contacts until nightfall. I suggest we sit down, eat some of the food we found in the saddlebags, and then start going over as much of the battle plan as possible.”
There’d been some back and forth after that, as the guys nutted out the details. I sat down on a fallen log and watched the questions and answers fly—Jack and Slade hammering Sylvan for information and clarification, Finn providing direction about what to do, conferring with Aaron on every point.
And I worried. That was my full-time job anyway, wasn’t it? I rubbed at my face, wanting to interrupt, or draw Finn away and just roll my body in his to try and make his belief in us take root in me. But he was needed, they were all needed, and so here I sat.
My head jerked up when I heard footsteps, and I admit, something inside me twisted hard when I saw it was Hawk. I thrust my hands between my thighs to stop them from reaching out for him, but he came to sit by me and took my hand.
A welcome wash of calm filled me at his touch, and my shoulders finally inched down from around my ears. God, Hawk was like a warm blanket and the sea on a summer day all at once. He swallowed me up, stroked all my jagged edges flat, and then lulled me with his embrace. I turned to look at him.
“Thank you. I really needed that.”
“It’ll be OK, Jules. You needn’t worry. We’ve made it here, finally. We’ll get the guns, make a run for the guys, and get the hell out of here. Fuck, if the Great Wolf is on our side, maybe she can just open a portal for us, ferry everyone straight home.”
A stone of anxiety was dropped into the pool of calm he stoked inside me. I remember the way the White Wolf looked when Lonan only partially appeared, growling in defiance, but forced to run away in the end.
“And what’s to stop the Black Wolf from eating us whole? She helped us just now, and you saw him. Where we’re going, that’s his home.”
“Then we’ll do whatever’s needed. Strength comes from the pack,” he said. “Close your eyes, love.”
“What?”
He pulled me so I was straddling his lap, a million points of contact between my body and his.
“Close your eyes, quiet that chaotic mind of yours. We are your pack, Jules. Lean on us. Don’t sit here worrying yourself ragged. Give it up to me.”
How do I describe the way it felt as my arms went around his neck, when I buried my face in his hair? He was so easy to overlook, so easy to discount, with the other big personalities in the pack, but this was Hawk. He held the weight, the strength of a boulder, and that felt so odd as I clung to him. To be able to throw all my fears at someone, and have it provoke no other reaction than to draw me closer. Tears pricked at my eyes as he moved to take hold of me, with all of my teeming emotions battering him, and he didn’t move except to hold me closer.
“I love you,” I said. I wanted to say something eloquent, to try and honour how much I appreciated, needed his strength right now, but that’s all that would come out.
He smiled like I had given the most stirring of speeches.
“And for that, I’ll fight the fucking world to keep you safe, Jules. Every time.”
Then he stroked my face and kissed me, and for now, it was all OK.
I’d been in a whole lot of ridiculous situations since I came to Sanctuary, but none more than me trying to sneak into the Volken outskirts under cover of dark.
“Get that luscious arse of yours down,” Slade hissed.
“It’s down as far as it can go,” I shot back. “What do you want me to do? Get down on my hands and knees?”
“Later?” Aaron said, managing to move like some kind of extremely swole gazelle, getting crazy low to the ground for a guy his size. “Definitely, but right now, you need to get down.” He pushed a firm hand on my tailbone, then patted my aforementioned arse when it was satisfactory.
“Get down,” I muttered to myself. “There’s fuck all light down here and hardly any light pollution. They’re not going to see me.”
