Page 82 of Veil of Shadows

She didn’t come swimming up.

“Hey, we’ve got water!”

“Woo hoo!”

“Way to go, Alpha!”

“Yay, Alpha!”

“Alpha! Alpha! Alpha! Alpha!”

I felt people from both mine and Bexley’s packs patting me on the shoulder and congratulating me on a job well done. The rocks were inlaid into the four-foot trench I dug out with my bare hands. The fresh water bubbled over the rocks I inlaid from the rushing river, cutting across the compound as it headed toward a makeshift pool I dug out as well. The pups jumped into the water, splashing around while women and men alike filled their watering cans to go tend to their crops in the middle of thenight. I couldn’t blame them, either. It's not like any of us were going to get any sleep, anyway.

I sure as hell wasn’t sleeping soundly until Bexley was back with us.

“Nice job,” Ronyn said as he came up to my side.

I wiped the dirt off my hands with a rag from my back pocket. “No more emergency mode for the compound?”

He shook his head. “We’ve been patrolling for the better part of two hours. There’s nothing.”

I jammed that fucking rag back into my back pocket. “Of course.”

“You know,” Dom said as he came up to my other side, “we could put out some traps. Trap some of the fish that make their way into this little area.”

One of the pups jumped out of the makeshift pool. “I got a salmon, Alpha! Look!”

I gave two thumbs up to the pup holding the fish over his head before I tucked my hands into my jeans’ pockets. “Let them fish for them in the water for now. It’s good hunting practice that we can keep an eye on.”

Ronyn snickered before he moved away from my side. “Yeah, especially since group hunts are gone for the foreseeable future.”

Like my Bexley.

Ronyn chastised me in groupthink.Don’t think like that. She’s stronger than you realize.

While the trench of water beneath the thick hedges and vines Ronyn crafted would keep our crops watered and our packs hydrated for the time being, it wasn’t a permanent solution. I slowly turned toward the pups that had yet to reach their shifterhood and I wondered if there would be a hunt for them after the winter months. Yes, it was only autumn. But this time of the year always passed quicker than usual. And by the time spring rolled around, we’d have a new group of fresh shiftersready and waiting for their first kill to initiate them into a wolf’s way of life.

Would we even be able to provide that stability for them in a few months’ time?

Will Bexley even be back with us in a few months’ time?

Yes,Dom and Ronyn said harshly together in groupthink,she will be.

And yet, I couldn’t smell her. Every time I sniffed the air, the smell of garlic and juniper filled my lungs to a point where I wanted to fucking barf. I mean, I got it. Protection, and all that. But the scents were so strong that any scent I wanted to pick out was obscured. I still couldn’t sense her, though. My body didn’t tingle with her presence nearby. My soul didn’t shift into place. There was nothing about my wolf or my human form that felt her in any way, and it killed me inside.

If Delilah laid a fucking finger on Bexley and she was hurt? Or worse?

I’d spend the rest of my life making that fucking bitch pay.

“Come on,” Dom said as he patted my shoulder. “Ronyn’s gathering his stealth operatives at the meeting house.”

I slowly turned toward the house on stilts that rose all the way up to just below the treetops. Perfectly concealed in the shadows with massive juniper leaves draping over it to cover its one vulnerable side, it gave a full view of our compound and the surrounding area. We didn’t feel the need to use it in a while. But as I watched Ronyn’s stealth operatives that he trained himself making their way swiftly up the steps, it jolted me back into the game.

I reached out and patted Dom’s hand on my shoulder. “Help the families get their kids bedded down. Then, come meet us.”

He squeezed my shoulder before moving from my side. “Keep your mind open so I can hear what’s going on until I get there.”

“Yep,” I said as I started toward the sniper’s house across the compound.

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