Page 44 of O'Mega's Revenge
“Fine.” I crawled in and made room for Wolf to get his body through the tiny opening. I took off my boots and brushed the dirt and grass from the two sleeping bags double-zipped together.
“This is stupid,” I told him as he closed out the night and copied me.
“Next time, I’ll make sure there’s a house here.”
“And a pool,” I insisted jokingly.
“A pool would be nice. I’ll get right on that. After you stop bitching.”
“Told you, I’m not bitching.” I crossed my arms like a little kid who wasn’t getting their way.
He crawled over me and began kissing my skin. My hands, my wrists, my neck.
Damn him. He knew I was a sucker to the way his whiskers tickled my neck. I flinched but didn’t move to stop him.
It took some maneuvering to get out of our pants and into the sleeping bag, but soon we were nose to nose in the dark. A wave of grief knocked my breath away.
I stopped Wolf’s onslaught by putting a hand over his lips.
“He killed Margaret.”
Wolf caressed my face and down my neck. “Was wondering when it would hit.”
I tightened my fingers on his skin. “It hurts.”
I felt his nod, acknowledging my pain.
He’d found my weak point and made certain we were alone, so I could cry. And he held me through it.
Maybe hours later I whispered my fear to him. He listened to that, too. “We’ll get him.”
He promised it over and over again.
“At what cost, Wolf?” I finally asked.
“Any.”
That wouldn’t work. “Promise me you will do this smart, please?”
“There’s no smart way about it. You aim for the king; you better not miss. I know that. What we’re planning here is taking down a major player. There’s going to be hell to pay for it.”
“Let us do it.” The DHMC had sister chapters with ties. We might be able to weather this war. Then again, I knew in my heart we weren’t ready. We’d been eating around the edges and ignoring the bigger picture. That needed to change. At the very least, it needed to change for our little chapter. We were a good club but damn naive. We had hotheads like Fell and Missile who didn’t know how quickly their energy could be snuffed out. There were chapters out there with families. Children who could be used as collateral. Holes in the walls that would be exploited by people with no moral compass.
“Sweetheart, listen to yourself.”
I didn’t need his reminder. I was listening. Trouble was, I didn’t like what I was hearing. “He needs to die, Wolf. I can’t hide any longer.” Going back to being scared all the time wasn’t an option. Margaret had been my safe place. Wolf was a safety net, but my heart was rebuilt in that stupid bus through tears and berry-picking sessions. I relearned how to trust and love there. Wolf got that version of me. But it hadn’t been his work. He only helped water, feed, and nurture the seeds Margaret planted. There wouldn’t be another like her.
Instead of answering, he kissed me. Kissed my lips, my head, my hair, my wet cheeks, and nuzzled my neck, trying desperately to keep me with him. I could feel his pain as keenly as my own. He needed me to bend to him, rely on his touch.
But I wasn’t going to let him walk that path.
“You need to be strong, too.” I patted his chest, where his VP patch should be. Where his “enforcer” patch used to sit.
He stopped my hand, held it against his heart. “They voted me in.”
Whoa.
“Why aren’t you wearing it?”
