Jet laughed. “Do your best.”

With a nod, I sucked in a breath, reaching for the two books that I’d found the most helpful. One of them was still open to that passage from before, and I let Jet look it over.

When he finished, Jet looked up at me with his brows furrowed low over his eyes. “New era? What do you suppose that means?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve been seeing Terrance attack, though. I can’t imagine that’s just a coincidence. He’s power-hungry and will definitely be upset if he learns that I’m not just your breeding slave or sacrifice. That we’re actually mates.”

Nodding, Jet took my hands in his. He met my eyes, the deep green vibrant and sparkling. An absent thought about what color eyes the baby might have filtered through my brain, and I had to blink against the tears. Terrance was coming. I just knew it.

And he wanted to hurt Jet. Hurt my child.

“He won’t—”

I put my fingers to Jet’s lips. “I know you’re trying to help, to make me feel less freaked out and overwhelmed, but I know this is real. Terrance and his pack are going to attack us. I think…I think we need to be ready. To tell the other and prepare.”

There was a beat of silence, and then Jet stood up, pulling me along with him. I stepped into his arms, laying my head against his chest.

“Okay, sweetness. We’ll tell them. I’ll call for a meeting with the entire pack.”

I looked up at him. “Really?”

“I told you.” He took my chin in his hand. “I trust you. So, yes. Plus, I’m not about to argue with hundreds of years of lore that speaks to the seriousness of your visions. We’ll protect our family. I promise.”

Pressing myself against him once more, I held on tight, squeezing myself against Jet like I might fall if I didn’t keep a hold of him. A lifeline, an anchor—he was it.

“So much is changing. I’m…well, it’s fair to say that overwhelmed is an understatement. Still,” I breathed deep against Jet’s pec, “this feels right. Not just us, which is, of course, wonderful, but the visions, the baby. I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life to be right here. Does that make any sense?”

He chuckled. “Yes and no. I’ll admit the magic stuff is a bit alien to me. But this? You and the baby and how you fit so perfectly here? Yeah, that makes sense.”

We stood there, and I wanted to stay in that moment forever. I didn’t want to face the turmoil ahead, but that’s not how life works, is it? Jet pulled my face up by my chin, laying a gentle kiss on my lips before stepping back and taking my hand.

“All right. Let’s go. We have a meeting to arrange.”

Chapter 20 - Jet

Gathering the pack into the meeting chamber near the front of the house was easy enough. The tricky part would be breaking the news to them that there were magicked shifters, visions, and another pack to worry about.

The room was full of hushed chatter as the last few members of the pack came in. Senna stood by my side, not a step down this time, and I squeezed her hand as the hum of nervous energy swam through our bond. MacKenzie and Kaiden were among the first to enter, and the healer looked up at Senna with an easy smile.

Knowing that my mate had someone else to turn to during all this made a world of difference. I was thrilled Senna had an actual friend. No person is an island, and every wolf—shifter or not—needed their pack.

Senna had been without a proper pack for too long. With what I was about to do it also meant that a voice of support would be found throughout the lower rungs of the pack instead of just from me.

“Edwards Pack!” I called out, and the entirety of the room fell into silence, the eyes of each person there fixed on me.

Senna’s hand trembled against mine, and I squeezed again. Even if it meant leaving this pack and fleeing somewhere, though, I’d never let anyone here harm her.

“Thank you for coming. We have, well, we have quite the situation on our hands. As you all may or may not know, the history of wolves spans centuries, and it has always been associated with the presence of the Völva.”

Voices spilled out in frenzied whispers. The magicked shifters weren’t something we talked about—a mysterious unknown that haunted pack legends, somewhat like the boogeyman for children.

“That’s enough. Calm down.” I held up a hand. “You should know that these myths of their existence aren’t fabrications or fables. The Völva are real, and while every shifter without a wolf hasn’t necessarily demonstrated those gifts, it’s my understanding that they all, in fact, are a Völva.”

"How can you be so sure of this?” A younger wolf’s voice cut through the quiet, far too pushy for my liking.

Glaring down at the young man—a stray we’d taken in a few years back, Sean—I spoke to the room while pinning him under my gaze, a bit of the alpha claim singing through the pack bond.

“It has come to my attention that some wolves aren’t ever taught about our ancestries. These packs have raised wolfless shifters like they are flukes, mistakes of nature, but nothing could be further from the truth.”