The mood on board the Omega jet as we departed Seattle was tense. Wesley had been unwilling to discuss what his elders had required of him in exchange for the amulet piece, and I hadn’t felt like it was my place to tell the guys for him.
So, after boarding, everyone just retreated to their own things and not much conversation was held. Wes was the worst, taking himself down the back of the cabin and sitting in a spare seat to read a book. At least the other guys were still making eye contact and responding when spoken to.
“I’ll go check on him,” Caleb volunteered, unbuckling his safety belt and starting to stand before I grabbed his arm.
“I’ve got it,” I assured him. “I sort of know what’s going on, so…” I gave a shrug. It probably didn’t really make a difference, but I just had an overwhelming need to be near Wesley.
“Hey,” I said quietly as I paused beside his seat. “Mind if I sit with you?”
Wesley placed a bookmark on his page and looked up at me. “I’m fine, sweetheart. I promise. I don’t even know what the memory was, so I’m not upset.”
“Well, yeah,” I replied. “But you’re feeling the loss of it anyway. So, can I?” He frowned at me in confusion. “Sit, I mean.”
“Oh.” He glanced at the vacant seat opposite his. “Yeah, go for it. I’m just not great company right now.”
“Nonsense,” I disagreed as I took the seat and got comfy. “You’re always good company. So, what are you reading?”
He sighed and closed the book, tucking it into the wall pocket before turning to look at me. “Sweetheart. Is this your best plan?”
Blinking as innocently as possible, I tilted my head to the side in confusion. “What plan?”
“Annoying me until things are back to normal?” He arched a brow at me, and the small smile on his lips said he wasn’t all that annoyed.
Pursing my lips, I considered my answer. “Will it work?”
Wesley’s half smile spread wider, and he groaned. “Probably. Come here.” He held out a hand to me, which I took and let him pull me into his lap. “Thank you for being there with me, sweetheart. I know I’ve been a bit weird since, but I really appreciated being able to feel your hand in mine while Blackwing was digging around in my brain.”
“Not that I was any real help,” I grumbled, playing with the buttons of his shirt.
“Agree to disagree, Kit,” he said firmly. “Now… we still have several hours of flying until we land. I can think of one way you can lift my, er, spirits.”
I snorted a laugh and licked my lower lip. “Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying this new confident side to you? So, your plan is to create new, enjoyable memories. Is that right?” He gave me a naughty smile, and I grinned back. “In private or right here?”
He quirked his brows and shot a look past me, down the aisle to where the other guys were seated. “Right here,” he breathed, leaning in closer and placing a lingering kiss on my lips. “If you’re game?”
I groaned, turning in his lap until my legs straddled him. “If I’m game,” I scoffed. “Careful who you’re challenging, Crow. I’ll put on one hell of a show.”
This time when we arrived into Harrow, Alaska, our reception was warmer. Moderately, but at least no one was trying to kill me this time.
“We didn’t expect to see you again so soon,” Granny Winter, the old woman Alpha commented with a condescending glare in my direction. Despite the fact that we had proven I wasn’t Bridget, she didn’t seem totally convinced. That or she just didn’t like me for me.
“Ms. Winter,” River greeted her with all the manners of an English gentleman. “Thank you for agreeing to see us in person. Were you able to get in touch with Vic?”
Granny Winter pursed her lips, trying to maintain her scowl as she eyed River, but clearly it wasn’t holding. Charming bastard was cracking the old bitch’s defenses.
“I was,” she confirmed. “He said he would do his best to make it back before you depart Harrow again.” She cast another unpleasant look in my direction, then spun on her heel to lead us inside her house, leaning heavily on her cane. “This better be damn important though.”
“It is,” River assured her, waiting for me to sit before sitting himself. The rest of the guys all found seats around the very old-lady styled sitting room, and a young girl wheeled through a tray of teacups and pots. “I hope you don’t mind if we get straight to the point?”
Granny Winter raised her brows at him while stirring her tea, then sat back to sip at the delicate bone china cup. We had agreed in advance that River would handle the talking part with the wolves. Not only was he technically one of them, but he was the only one that Granny Winter didn’t seem to shoot poison daggers from her eyes at.
“Please do,” she encouraged. “And help yourself to tea. It’s so hard to find good help these days.” She shot a glare at the young girl who had brought the trolley in, and the girl flushed scarlet.
“Thank you,” River responded politely, pouring a cup for himself and placing it on a saucer. Caleb nudged me in the ribs, and from the corner of my eye I caught him rolling his eyes. I pinched him back in a way that said, “Yeah I know, very typically British, but shut the hell up.”
“We came to discuss an ancient artifact that was broken into four pieces and given for safekeeping to the four strongest supernatural species at the time.” River paused, his gaze sharp as he observed the old woman. “We believe the wolves might have been one of those races.”
“Hmm,” Granny Winter murmured, sipping her tea. “How flattering. Why?”
“Because of who I am,” River admitted, and his leg against mine thrummed with tension. “We do not believe it is any coincidence that this exact combination of species made up Kit’s guardians, and we have not been wrong yet. So?”
Granny Winter didn’t reply for the longest time, staring down into her tea. Finally, when she did speak, it was with an air of nostalgia to her voice.
“I’m older than I look, did you know?” She glanced up at us and shook her head. “Of course you didn’t know; I look like I’m as old as the hills. Well, let me ask you this: how do you think I became Alpha?”
The question confused me, and I squinted at her. “You mean, because you’re old?”
“‘Old’ is a very subjective term, girl,” Granny Winter informed me in a scathing tone. “I’ll tell you. I won the title of Pack Alpha prior to the plague. Back then, I was the strongest in our pack, a White Wolf.” The way she said it, it was clearly a status thing, not just an unusual coat color. “But that was before the plague. After… well after, I lost the ability to call my wolf. She’s still there, still a part of me, but she’s no longer able to surface. With the loss of my wolf, I began to age. Not as fast as a human, mind, but sure enough, every year I age just a little more.” She sighed heavily and sipped her tea.
“But you have held your title all this time,” Austin pointed out. “You must still have something left. I can’t imagine all these wolves would have been happy with a defective leader; there must have been challenges.”
“Oh, there have been plenty,” the old Alpha laughed. “It took a long time for my strength to fade, and by that time I had built myself a loyal base. Now, I ask one of my proxy’s to accept a challenge on my behalf, and as they are the best of the best, they have yet to lose.”
“Why are you telling us this?” I asked her, frowning. k`1`2
“Because it leads to what happened next, little girl,” she replied in a scathing way. “The item you seek was given to an Alpha much older than myself. This was in a time when the population was less, and one Alpha ruled all wolves. The people”—this was sneered at me, another reminder of her feelings toward Ban Dia— “who entrusted the item to our race were clear. Only the Supreme Alpha wolf could be trusted to hold it in safekeeping. None other.”
“But there is no Supreme Alpha anymore, is there?” I blurted out, unable to hold my tongue.
Granny Winter rolled her eyes in a very queenly sort of way before responding. “There is not. But when our packs decided to break away into states—so to speak—it was decided there would be one simple way to determine who would have been Supreme Alpha. Every time a new Alpha ascends within their own pack, they must then travel to challenge whoever is top dog at the time. Pun intended.” She gave a little snort at her own joke. “The winner is the strongest and, therefore, holds the item you seek… among other things.”
“So, who has it now?” River asked her, his eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.
Granny Winter gave him a brittle smile. “How easy for you if I were to say I had it. Sadly, I cannot use proxy to fight an Alpha battle and lost my reign some time after losing my wolf. So here is the long and short of it, because I like you.” This was definitely directed at River. “Not the company you keep, but you. The wolf who currently holds the top spot is in England. You want the amulet shard, you better prove you’re stronger than him.”
A silence fell across the room as we all just sort of gaped at her.
“How?” Cole asked, first to recover his wits.
“As a wolf, of course,” Granny Winter sniffed. “Not whatever else that is I can smell on you.” She pierced River with a knowing glare. “An Alpha must be in wolf form for the full duration of the fight, or they forfeit.”
River was so tense beside me he was practically vibrating, so I laid a hand on his knee to try and calm him as I licked my lips and forced myself into civility.
“Wouldn’t he need to be Alpha of your pack before he’d be allowed to take this fight?” I pointed out. “Surely you’re not so eager to give up your crown just like that?”
She barked a laugh and leaned forward to snag a shortbread biscuit from the tea tray. “Not bloody likely,” she laughed, a hint of an accent slipping through. “He doesn’t need my pack; he’s already Alpha of yours.” Her crumb-covered lip curled as she eyed me. “His choice of Alpha female leaves a lot to be desired, but who am I to tell others their mistakes?”
“Who indeed?” Caleb muttered under his breath, and I jabbed him with my elbow.
“How do we find this English pack’s Alpha?” River asked, his voice husky with the strain of holding everything in. He was scared, and I didn’t blame him.
Granny smiled at him again like a favorite grandson. “I can handle that for you, dear. I even volunteer my lands to host the ritual fight.”
“Terribly kind of you,” I sneered, and her eyes flashed dangerously.
Pretending like she hadn’t heard me, she continued speaking to River directly. “I will place the call myself, but it might be a couple of days until he can get here. He’s a busy man, as I am sure you can appreciate.”
“The sooner the better,” Vali urged in his smooth voice. “Please ask him to bring the item we seek, as I have no doubt we will be taking it away.”
Granny Winter scoffed. “It is customary to bring all sacred artifacts in case of a change in power. Now, we do not have any hotels here as we don’t encourage tourism, but Vic has advised me that you can stay in his house again. Will that be suitable? I wasn’t aware there would be quite so many of you.”
“We will make do,” River replied with a tight smile. “Thank you for your kind hospitality. We look forward to news on when this Alpha will be arriving.”
I bit my tongue about Granny Winter’s so-called “kind” hospitality, and we all managed to file out of the Pack house without any further altercations.
“So that was an interesting outcome,” Caleb commented as the seven of us walked down the quiet street in the direction of Vic’s house, where we had previously stayed.
Austin snorted. “Interesting? I doubt Alpha thinks of it that way.”
“Kind of gives that codename new meaning, doesn’t it?” Wesley observed, staring off into the distance. “Makes me wonder if Jonathan might have had a little magical assistance that we didn’t know about.”
“A seer?” Austin asked him, and Wes nodded.
“Something like that,” he agreed. “It all seems a bit too coincidental, doesn’t it?”
Just talking about Jonathan hurt my heart, so I sped up to walk beside River, who was stalking down the street ahead of us all.
“You okay?” I asked him in a quiet voice, linking my fingers through his.
There was a pause before he responded, his jaw tight. “Not really,” he admitted in an open way that was new for him. “I have barely held the wolf form for more than a couple of seconds so far. How will I possibly hold the hellhound back for an entire fight?”
“Hey,” I soothed, gripping his hand tighter. “You have me now. You have us. You’re not doing this alone, remember?”
His fingers squeezed mine back, but he said nothing for the rest of the walk to Vic’s house. Hopefully that just meant he was lost in thought about how to win… and not stressing about the what-ifs of losing.
