Sadie, Roxy chastised, interrupting our conversation. You are not going to die. If you do, I’ll kill you myself.
Babe, you do realize that’s not actually possible. Axel stepped out of the woods and joined us. She’d be dead. You wouldn’t be able to kill her.
Shut it. Roxy glared at him. You get the point.
“Are you two bickering again?” Lillith walked over, her pale skin slightly pink from being in the sun all day. “You’ve got that miserable but infatuated look going on.”
All of the vampires had the sun-kissed glow. If it hadn’t been for their overly sweet smell, they actually could have passed as real humans.
“Leave them alone.” Katherine snorted. “Bickering is their foreplay. You should know this by now.”
“Katherine.” She was usually the better-mannered of the two. “You’re turning into Lillith.”
She shrugged.
“We don’t need another one,” Egan retorted as he joined our small group. “We have enough smart-asses to last us a lifetime.
“For the record, I can’t help it.” Roxy lifted her chin. “I have red hair. It’s in my blood, and being called a smart-ass is not necessarily an insult.”
“I’m sorry, man,” Donovan said and smacked Axel in the arm. “But you’ve always enjoyed a good argument, so maybe you’ve met your match.”
It was strange, but for the first time ever, my life felt complete. If it wasn’t for the angry fae breathing down our necks and Tyler searching for me, it would’ve been the happiest I’d ever been.
The group headed toward the pack homes, and my heart rate increased. I wasn’t sure what to expect when my grandparents saw me.
Winter stopped walking. When Donovan and I caught up, she touched my arm. “Did you have a good day today?”
“Actually, yeah.” There was no reason to lie. Hell, she’d have known if I did. “The guys were fun to run with, and I was surprised at how strong they all are. We have a fighting chance against the fae.”
“That’s one reason Tyler was so nervous about Titan.” She dropped her hand but kept pace with us. “They are really strong here.”
“You’d think he’d keep an eye out for Titan around here to see where he wound up settling.” It seemed like something Tyler would do. “I mean … ‘keep your enemies close’ is kind of his motto.”
“I’m sure he’s tried.” Egan glanced over his shoulder at us. “He’d want to keep tabs on them.”
“He has no clue where Titan’s pack moved.” She waved her hands around the woods. “They’ve always lived in the Smoky Mountains but in a town two hours from here. That was where we met. When we realized we were fated mates, I told him everything. We picked up and moved here. Cassius actually took us in at the mansion while the houses were being built.”
That didn’t surprise me. Cassius seemed like a caring vampire. It spoke volumes that he hadn’t kicked our sorry asses out.
“The homes are simple but nice inside,” she explained as the clearing that led to their homes came into view. Just like the other day, we saw the simple two-story log cabins. There were at least one hundred of them with two large houses at the center. They were all well maintained and sturdy. “They do what we need them to, and the pack built them themselves so no one outside us would know the location.”
Roxy caught up to us. “The wood cabins go perfectly with this area, so it’s not like anything would appear out of sorts either.”
“Exactly.” Winter nodded. “The more basic they are, the less we stand out. We want to blend in.”
As we stepped into the clearing, the smell of meat cooking filled my nose, and my stomach gurgled loudly. After running for three hours straight, I was famished, and it’d been a while since I’d had a good steak. “That smells delicious.”
“Clearly.” Roxy gestured to my stomach. “We all heard that.”
“I’m with her on that one.” Egan scanned the area. “It’s been a while since I was this hungry.”
“Wait, you eat like a pig normally.” Roxy frowned. “You better save some for the rest of us. It isn’t all yours.”
“Before anyone gets to eat,” Titan said, pointing to a huge, red F250 truck with a bed full of iron, “let’s unload that and get it sorted. Torak, you and the others go help finish up cooking and get everything laid out.”
“But Dad …” Torak pouted.
“No buts.” Titan used his alpha voice. “Go now. The vampires, dragon, and Sadie’s pack will be plenty.”
“Fine.” The young man turned and waved the wolves toward a bigger building. Smoke billowed from behind it. “Let’s go before the girls get hangry.”
“Oh, and make sure the vamps have plenty of blood,” Titan called after the retreating figures.
Torak lifted a thumb in the air.
“Let’s get this going.” Cassius clapped his hands and headed over to the bed. “I guess we should divvy them up by size.”
“No, we’re going to have someone melt it into shields.” Titan gestured to a wolf about five yards over who was setting up in a large open area between several houses. He had a black box on the ground with wires coming out the top. “He’s got a forge that will melt the iron, and we can go from there. We just need help carrying the stuff over.”
“Well, okay then.” Egan picked up a long pole. His face tensed, and he dropped it back down in the bed. “Holy shit. That was draining me.” His eyes latched on to mine. “It must be because I have diluted fae blood in my body.”
“Crap.” I remembered feeling stripped and raw. “So you can’t help either.”
“That’s fine.” Donovan walked over to Egan and patted his back. “We’ve got it.”
The vampires, my pack, Winter, and Titan carried the materials over to the man. Egan and I stood on the sidelines, watching.
“I feel worthless,” he grumbled and crossed his arms. “I should be helping them.”
“And so should I.” I didn’t like it either. “But that leaves a very interesting question.”
He leaned toward me. “What’s that?”
I lowered my voice so only the dragon could hear. “We can’t use the iron to protect ourselves.” I was stating the obvious, but the others hadn’t considered it yet. If they had, Donovan would have pitched a fit.
“You’re right.” Egan nodded. “I promise nothing will happen to you.”
Yeah, that hadn’t quite gone the way I’d expected it. “No, you need to protect your own ass. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Sadie.” Egan tilted his head and glared at me. “You’re one of my best friends. Of course I’ll do everything possible to save you.”
And that was what it all boiled down to. Egan was a great guy and an all-around good friend. “Just promise me if something happens, you’ll make sure they all stay safe.” I glanced at my friends out of the corner of my eye. “That you’ll force Donovan to move on and find someone who will make him happy.”
“You’re talking as if you know you’re going to die.” Egan’s forehead lined with worry, and he turned toward me. “You aren’t planning something, right?”
“No,” I said way too loudly. I, at least, didn’t think I’d do anything stupid. I didn’t have some sort of complex where I wanted to purposely inflict pain on myself. “Why would you say something like that?”
“Because people say things like that before they make some not-so-smart decisions,” Egan said slowly … almost gently. “You’re not going to be not smart, right?”
“Egan, is that your way of asking if I’m going to do something stupid?” Even when he insulted a friend, he did it like a gentleman.
“Essentially.” He licked his lips and rubbed his chin. “If so, I might need to talk with the others.”
Dear God. Now I wish I hadn’t brought anything up. “No conversation is needed.” I placed a hand on my heart. “I promise, nothing stupid will happen.” At the end of the day, I wanted all of us to survive and live long and happy lives.