Page 32 of Wolf Crowned

Brandon shifted, leaning so his elbows were on the table. “I’ll need to get into his office. I can have all the documentation ready. I’ll just need to know where to put it.”

Lincoln banged his palm on the table as he cracked a smile. “My dad has a safe. That’s where you’d want to put it.” He laughed out loud as he shook his head. “I bet the passcode is still the same. He’s never changed it.”

Mom cleared her throat loudly. She hadn’t spoken up until now. She’d been leaning against the kitchen counters, listening. She stepped forward and put her hands on the back of mine and Mark’s chairs. “I don’t like any of this.”

I opened my mouth to protest. We had to do this, but she held up a hand. “This is going to be dangerous and all my children will be running off to take part in this plan.” She swallowed hard as tears misted her eyes.

I reached behind me and gave her hand a squeeze. I wanted to promise that we all would be fine, that we’d all come back, but I couldn’t promise that because I didn’t know. This was dangerous, by far the most crazy thing we’d done yet.

I held her clammy hand tight and twisted so I could see her. “Mom, we are going to fight like hell.”

She gave me a tight-lipped smile as a tear trickled down her cheek. “I know you all will. It doesn’t make it any easier. You will always be my babies even if you are grown.” She gripped my hand tightly for a moment before letting it go and retreating back to the counter to lean against it.

I cleared my throat and pointed to the very edge of the paper on the opposite side of the table. “We will create our diversion here. We have to think of who we want to fire off the gunshots.”

It was yet another decision I still had to make.

Add it to the ever growing to do list.

Sherriff Adam had offered to help. Him and possibly a few deputies were the logical choices, but it would be asking a lot of them, and could get them in trouble with the law if they were discovered.

I needed to think on it more.

I circled my hand back around to the blue squiggles on the paper that identified where the water was on the property. “The rest of us will come up this way. We will give about two to five minutes before we start to make our move after we hear the gunfire. That way most of the pack is in the wrong area.”

Mark traced his finger along the distance between the water to the compound. “It’s a longer track to where we need to go this way.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the map. He wasn’t wrong, but we’d chosen this way for a reason. “It will allow us to get closer to the property without being detected. The water will mask our scents, with the distraction, we should be able to get to the compound before anyone is aware of our presence.”

I motioned to Brandon. “We will also make sure that he’s not alone. A small team will go with you inside the house and then we’ll join back up when we leave.”

Mom covered her mouth with her trembling hand, but it didn’t stifle the sob. When we all looked at her, she sniffled and stood up tall. “I think that this is going to work.”

A smile tugged at the corners of my lips. Her confidence renewed mine, and I sat up straighter, meeting her eyes. “It is going to work.”

We didn’t have a choice if we failed we would likely never get another chance.

Mom brushed some loose hair out of her face. “Are you having men stay back here at the pack just in case?”

I nibbled on my chapped, cracked lips, wincing when I chewed on a particularly sore spot. It was a delicate balance of who to take and who to leave behind. We needed to make sure that we had enough men to protect the pack, but also to pull off our strike.

I swiped my tongue over my lips. “I’ve been going over the numbers, Mom, but haven’t come up with anything yet.”

Lincoln rocked back in his chair so it was just on the back legs. “It’s risky, but if we take everyone with us, I think we have a much better shot at winning.”

I agreed but... “But that leaves everyone here vulnerable.”

My gaze drifted to my mom. She looked older somehow like the past few weeks had aged her at least a decade. The worry lines on her face were more pronounced and the dark bags under her eyes made her face hollow. Her usually well kept hair had flyaways and her apron was crooked.

She had lost my brother and my dad in such a short time. While she’d thrown herself into doing stuff for the pack, she was grieving.

Mom picked up a dish towel from the counter and dabbed at her eyes. “Scouts and the security cameras should be able to give us enough time before anyone can strike. We would have enough warning to leave.”

She pushed back off the counter and put her arm around my shoulder. “You were right to keep us here. I shouldn’t have questioned you about it. This is our home.”

Home. It was such a funny word. It’s the place I’d carved inside my heart where my family, mates, and pack lived.

I glanced around the kitchen. It was nothing like that one we had at the main house before the fire. This was quaint, small, barely any workspace, and the pots and pans probably should’ve been thrown out a few years ago, but it was our land. Our property. The only home I’d ever known. And I was proud that she finally agreed with me about staying.

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