Page 29 of The Alpha's Mates

“That’s entirely unhelpful,” Calder pointed out. “Why don’t these prophecies ever give us names? Locations? At the very least they could be less vague.”

Grams glowered at him. “Would you like to try to read this stuff?”

“It was written thousands of years ago,” Calder said with a shake of his head. “I barely care to read what was written yesterday.”

“Exactly,” Grams told him. “So keep your trap shut.”

We all chuckled at her now playful tone. It eased the tension in the room. Reese’s musical laughter floated on the air and I found myself staring at her.

She met my gaze, held for a beat, then looked away with a faint blush staining her skin. She wasn’t comfortable around us yet, but we’d change that.

“Does it say when we should leave?” Atlas inquired.

“No, but there’s some kind of timeline here,” Grams said, waving at the book. “We just don’t know what it is.”

“So we need to find someone who can read the book,” Reese commented. She looked around at us. “Maybe we can find someone in the plains packs who can?”

“You should check back in with Tellura and see if he’s found anything out,” Grams replied. “But first stop in and see Jessu. He’s the other shifter who’s been helping us. He leads the Cirdan Pack. He’ll be able to take you to meet with Celinda.”

“Celinda?” Reese asked.

“The shifter who lives away from society. Jessu has made contact with her. We don’t know if she’ll be able to tell us anything, but it’s worth a shot. Jessu seems to think there’s something off about her.”

“I can’t believe you have two packs who are willing to speak with you. To help you with this,” Reese said, looking over at me with awe.

The corners of my lips tipped up. She had no idea how much work it’d taken to get these packs on good terms. It was what I was currently doing with the mountain packs. The Dursets had left only this morning and had agreed to work with us. The promise of future mates might have played a role in the negotiations. “Eight of the plains packs, and two of the mountain packs. I haven’t been successful in gaining the trust of any of the seaside wolves.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said with a wry grin. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Who knows,” I told her, “maybe with one of their own as our mate, they’ll change their minds.”

She looked surprised. “It’s a nice thought, but I’m not only a Silvest, who most hate, but an alpha female at that. I’m guaranteed to make things worse.”

“They’ll soon see that you’reouralpha female. They can choose to accept our terms or be considered enemies when the time comes.”

“Time for what?” she asked me.

“Later,” Atlas said, rubbing his forehead. “We can speak about unifying all shifters later, but for now…how are we supposed to figure out who else is supposed to go on this damn adventure?”

No one had an answer. I raked a hand through my hair, causing it to stand up in spikes. “Well, we have three days to figure it out.”

“Why three days?” Calder asked.

“Because I need time to deal with the Fenhalls, and Reese needs time to make sure her women are settled in enough to sether mind at ease so she can leave them again. Won’t do us any good to have her looking over her shoulder the whole time.”

Startled gray eyes met mine, then softened. “Thank you.” She even gifted me with a smile.

I nodded my head in reluctant acceptance. “Grams. Thank you for your help. We’ll meet again tomorrow.”

“Goodnight,” she told us as she left the room.

Silence fell around us as we sat together. This would be our first night with our mate. She looked nervous. That wasn’t what any of us wanted. We wanted her to feel comfortable around us, but that was going to take time and patience.

CHAPTER 15

Reese

“I’d like my own room,” I demanded. It was easy to see that Soren was agitated. Whether it was with the entire conversation, or my request, I wasn’t sure. But the muscle in his jaw had been jumping for nearly the whole meeting. He was going to grind down his fangs if he kept clenching his teeth like that. The leader of our cadre was wound a bit tight.

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