Page 92 of Chosen Destiny

“I know.” Jack leaned forward, glaring at Lucas. “Lucas always smacks me or complains about my observations. I think he feels inferior to my dashing good looks and boyish charm. If I had to guess, his obsession and jealousy of me began twenty-four years ago on April eighteenth. It was a dark and stormy night until a woman went into labor and the rain rolled away.”

“Oh my gods.” Lucas rolled his eyes. “Are you really trying to make your birth sound as if it was a miracle?”

Jack pointed at him and rasped, “See? Right there. All that negativity. To be fair,Lucas, my mom said the day I was born, the whole world became brighter.”

“Man, my mom says the same thing.” Edward snorted. “That’s what moms do.”

Head snapping toward Edward, Jack scowled. “Unlike your mom, mine means it.”

“Is this normal?” King Sutton tilted his head, smiling faintly. “We were having a serious conversation.”

“I’m sorry.” Carl rubbed his temples. “Jack is special, and what I meant—which I now regret saying—is that Jack was right about knowing numbers. Not Lucas being negative. How did your wolves get so close without alerting the queen?”

“Good question.” King Sutton wiped his mouth with a napkin. “A drone. Russell had just gotten home when the attacks occurred, so he was able to grab the drone and come to California to help fight. He’s been honing his drone skills for the day this situation arose. We invested in an expensive drone that can do this sort of surveying for us. The queen lives far enough away from Los Angeles that flights aren’t a problem.”

Maybe that was something we needed to do more heartily—embrace technology.

“Where are we gonna get a hundred shifters and forty witches?” The longer we waited to attack, the greater the chance the queen would strike at us again. And fast.

“I can bring another twenty from my area,” King Sutton offered and placed his napkin on his lap. “That would provide almost half the shifters, and I could ask some of the witches from the larger pack’s coven to join them.”

Though more of his men would help, they were over a day away, and he’d already brought twenty of his wolf shifters here. I rubbed a finger along the rim of my coffee cup. “We should use wolves from our territory. They can get there faster. If we move quickly, maybe we can beat Kel’s wolves that are returning from attacking you.”

Samuel’s face tensed. “We’d have to move now.”

“I can send forty from Wyoming.” Miles pushed his plate away. “My wolves will take about the same amount of time as us to get there, and I can ask for twenty of our witches to join them.”

“Uh… I can offer some Washington wolves, but it’ll take them longer to get here.” Jack scowled. “And Lucas will have the same problem I do.”

My attention landed on Samuel, and I linked to him and Bodey,Could Idaho make up the rest?I hated to ask, but that made the most sense.

Samuel pursed his lips.Do you think your uncle would bring half?

I had seen Bodey’s uncle, Reggie, only in passing, at the coronation dinner, but I remembered Queen Kel attacking him when I’d first stayed here.

He will. Most definitely,Bodey replied.

“I’ll bring the other forty wolves.” Samuel tapped his knuckles on the table.

My attention homed in on Dina and Chelsea. “Could you two come, along with eighteen others?”

“I should stay here.” Dina averted her gaze to the table. “Ever since—”

“No, I need you there.” Chelsea reached over and took Dina’s hand. “For your guidance. I’m not ready to do this alone. Please.”

Chelsea asking for help made me feel more confident. The worst thing you could have was a new leader who refused help from their predecessor.

“Well, okay.” Dina stood. “But I can’t do much besides offer counsel on which spells to use.”

“That’s exactly what I need.” Chelsea exhaled like the pressure of the world had vanished from her shoulders.

We had a plan. I glanced around the table, knowing that we needed to hurry. “Everyone, get your weapons and coordinate the packs, and let’s head out within the hour. If we leave now, we can attack tonight.”

Everyone stood, breakfast forgotten. We had a long drive ahead of us and an even longer night.

“Wait.” Dina lifted a hand. “We need to tell you what we and the Chicago coven figured out last night about what happened.” Her eyes narrowed. “It’s one more thing to prepare for with Kel and her tactics. She’s using a resource we didn’t anticipate.”

My heart stopped. Once again, Kel had surprised us, and I feared whatever the hell she was using now.

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