Page 64 of Mated to the Enemy
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She was sitting on the couch when he came for her.
“Jess.”
His voice was soft, tentative. She could tell that he didn’t want to involve her, that if it was up to him, she’d be left behind where it was safe. That wasn’t going to happen, though, this was her sister. This was her secret. They weren’t going to leave her behind. Besides, of them all, she was the only one who had been inside.
That was one thing Jessica had found interesting. The physical buildings, Ursidae and Moonshadow Manors, had been around for centuries. Expanded, remodeled, repaired, but they had existed for longer than anyone was willing to tell her, which probably meant they weren’t sure of exactly when.
Yet none of the Ursa that Klaue had talked to knew the internal layout of the place. The most they got was their equivalent of the Grand Hallway and Throne Room, where visiting functionaries and dignitaries entered, were greeted, did business, and left. Nobody ever stayed. Not in hundreds of years. No communal balls or dances, no events of state. Nothing. The inside of Moonshadow Manor was a mystery to the Ursidae.
Only she knew that, and once she’d found that out, Jessica knew she had her ticket in.
“Coming.” Rising from the couch, she grabbed the black backpack that was next to her, putting it on. She wore tight black clothing that Klaue had procured from somewhere. It was somewhat overwarm inside, but once they were out in the early winter cold, she would be thankful for the insulation. Her footwear was black, all of it heat absorbing, designed to help her blend into the background of the terrain outside the manor itself.
Jessica was the weak link in the operation, she knew that. Everyone did. Yet none of them had fought her overly hard when she’d made it known she was accompanying them. Each knew what was at stake, and that blood ran thicker than water every time.
Following Klaue out of their quarters—she no longer thought of them as his, now that they had shared the bed for several nights straight—they walked to the end of the hallway in silence and got into an elevator. Jessica turned and stared down the hallway as the doors closed in front of her and they descended.
Klaue shifted, but didn’t speak, his body doing all the talking for him. He didn’t like it. Well, too bad. She stood straighter, making it clear she wasn’t having second thoughts.
A tiny sigh escaped him, but when she saw his face in the reflection of the doors, there was pride there too.
They exited into the garage, then walked sidelong to a hallway that led to the storage rooms filling the lower levels of the House. Klaue opened the door to one of them, and she walked in, then stopped.
“I thought you said it was a small team?” Looking around the room, she counted nearly a dozen faces. With her and Klaue, they were at eleven.
“Turns out we have more support than we thought,” Klaue said quietly.
She could hear the gratitude mixed with surprise in his voice. There were a few she recognized, including Kasperi, the sword-master who had nearly beaten Klaue in the ring a few days earlier. The two men exchanged comradely head-nods.
Men were so weird. One moment they could be beating the piss out of each other, then the next they were buddies.
I don’t get it, but if it helps, that’s all that matters,Jessica thought.
“Thank you,” she said solemnly to the ten black-clad shifters that had joined her and Klaue’s unsanctioned action. This was enough, they might actually pull this off. “All of you, I appreciate you being willing to help rescue my sister.”
Some nodded, but most just looked at her expectantly, waiting for more instructions. Jessica took a moment, then reached into her bag and took out a large rolled-up sheet of paper and spread it on the table in the center of the room. Huge men loomed over her, looking at it, memorizing it.
“Okay, here’s the layout of the House as best I can remember it. Lucky for you, the area we need to hit is also the area I spent the most time in, so I know it best.”
The plan was fairly straightforward, and relied more on surprise than anything else. They were assaulting the home base of High House Canis. It was designed to resist all-out attacks, and their hope was that a small surgical operation would have more luck succeeding. It had been ages since anyone had tried anything like this, and they couldn’t wait to give the Canim bastards a rude wake-up call. House Ursa wasn’t going to roll over anytime soon.
Even if this is technically an unsanctioned attack.
Jessica let Klaue and the others with actual experience in this sort of operation dictate the plan. She chimed in with knowledge to help them out or to answer questions, but for the most part stayed out of the way.
“Any questions?” Klaue said as they concluded.
There was silence. These men knew their tasks and all had volunteered while well aware of the risks. She glanced at each in turn, many of them already having slid fearsome masks of cold silence into place, their features blank, except for their eyes. They were the eyes of soldiers. Of killers.
“As you all know, this is an unsanctioned operation,” she said, speaking quietly, but plainly, not dancing around the language like Klaue had while recruiting them, to ensure his tracks were covered. This was the last thing before they left Ursidae Manor and went on the attack. She owed them this. “If any of us are caught, we will be disowned and disavowed, and more than likely put to death for what we’re about to do.”
She paused, waiting for a reaction. “If any of you wish to back out, you can do so now. Nobody will hold it against you.”
Silence. She looked at Kasperi, but he just stared back with a bored expression. Then he winked, forcing her to cover up a smile. She got it then. These men knew what they had volunteered for, and they weren’t going to back out. Not one of them had been forced to come, all had chosen to do so because it was the right thing to do, even if the Queen couldn’t officially come out and say so.
“Thank you,” she said again, trying to hold back tears of gratitude at the potential sacrifice these men were making without even knowing who she was.
