“Och, nay. I’ll not be having my friends up there alone. You bastards can count on me.”
Alder’s Scottish brogue was such a stark contrast to the nearly accentless voices of my fellow North American wolves, and there was a wave of arousal that pinged the back of my mind as a few of the Edwards women heard it.
I was fairly certain that no one else really noticed it because I’d always been a bit better at scenting hormonal changes. It was why I’d become a healer.
As the two of them approached, Cade clapped Alder on the shoulder and then stood before Grayson, doing the same.
“You know me. Tradition can get fucked. I don’t have time for bad actors, so let’s show these assholes who they’re messing with.”
Rowan was the only one to still be waiting with the others. When the crew of Alphas turned toward him, he smirked. His fanged smile glinted in the light as much as his especially pale skin, and he walked forward with a swish of his long black hair.
“Just waiting to make a proper entrance into the crowd, darlings. I simply can’t resist a flair for the dramatic.”
Grayson rolled his eyes and laughed, and when the full council of Alphas stood before the Edwards and Williams packs, they turned to the wolves as one.
“Thank you.” He stood there with them, and my chest pinched. “We need to find those wolves. It’s their constant roaming around that’s made it so difficult to track them down. But if we all have wolves searching throughout our territories—”
“We’ll find them,” Alder cut in with a grin. “You got anything of the rogue bastards that we can use to track the scent.”
Jet nodded. “Yes. We have clothing stained with blood we’ve been using. I’m sure there is more here. In the lab, maybe?”
Grayson cocked his head, his brow down over his eyes. “I’m not sure. I think that place was pretty clean of their stuff. But we can look.”
Choal stepped forward, bowing his head to the Alphas. “There are things that we’ve kept from the fight. It’s been gathered in the basement for disposal, but we can save it.”
Grayson nodded, and I could sense him pushing out a wave of appreciation. The Alpha powers were blooming in him, and my hormones were going haywire whenever he used them. I was already fucking pregnant, but it was like my body wanted its Alpha mate all the more.
“Perfect. Yes. Please have that brought to—”
Pound, pound, pound.
“The fuck? Who the hell is knocking? We’re pretty much all here, ain’t we?”
Brooks took the words out of my mouth, and I looked over toward the door to the hall. Everyone from inside the compound, the members of the Williams Pack, were all here. Nearly everyone from Jet’s pack was here—now even Senna—and all the Alphas on the council were present.
Whoisknocking?
“It’s all right, everyone. We’ll check and see what’s going on.”
Grayson put on a tight smile and then headed for the main entry hall to get the door. We all followed along behind him, and it was at that moment I realized that even Forrest and Willow had come from Kaiden’s pack. If they were here, the number of likely guests behind that door was even slimmer.
I stuck close to Grayson’s side as we all went into the foyer. I didn’t like all these damn surprises I was being hit with, and in my…condition, getting injured would be cause for some pretty serious concern.
So, we tag along with the new Alpha. Lovely.
“Choal, would you be so kind as to answer the door?” Grayson met the other wolf’s eyes, staring hard as the muscles in his jaw worked.
Choal bowed his head, accepting his role as a servant for the time being, and I coiled up my muscles in case I needed to make a run for it as soon as the doors were open. The air in the room was tense as Choal proceeded to haul open the massive set of double doors. A loud groan echoed through the main entry as he did, and everyone collectively held their breath.
There was no way that I could predict what I saw on the other side of the threshold however.
“Leon?” Grayson’s voice blended with Kaiden’s and Jet’s as they all crowded closer to the door.
A low growl rumbled out of Kaiden, and I stepped closer to him, putting a hand on his arm just as Kit did the same to the other.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Grayson barked, his voice low with barely contained fury.
There was a pause as our enemy bowed his head and left it there. It had started raining outside, and the rushing water beat against the stone steps as Leon stood there, getting drenched.