“I do what’s best for my kin first,” West snapped. “That’s what pack loyalty is.”
“Hey!” I broke in, raising my hands. I stepped between them, close enough to Nate to make him step back. I glowered at West. “We’ve got enough problems without you guys taking jabs at each other. From now on we have to be extra careful even among kin. Stay on guard. I don’t think any of us should go off alone. It’s mostly me they want to hurt, but they killed the alphas last time too. I want all of us safe. From the rogues, and from each other.”
I shot Nate a look too. He dropped back into his chair, his mouth twisting. “You’re right. I’ll watch my temper.”
West looked faintly chagrined, which was about as good as I could hope from him. “All right. What other brilliant plans do you have to share with us, Sparks?”
Oh, great. Another chance for him to judge me and find me wanting. I groped for a reasonable answer. “The rogue we questioned said a bunch of his group is assembling in the south, didn’t he? We need to find them and take them down before they can launch some new surprise attack on us.”
“Great. That’s the what. The tricky part is the how. Got anything on that front?”
“Wolf boy,” Marco said from his chair. “Heel. Unless you’ve got some genius master plan, I don’t think you should be knocking our Princess of Flames’s contributions.” He gave me a hesitant smile.
“Before anything else, we need to know where the rogues are,” Aaron said, cutting off any snarky remarks West might have added. “This is partly my fault for not warning the rest of you sooner that our kin might be worthy of suspicion. I’ll go. I can survey the area quickly in eagle form while drawing relatively little attention. I’ll be able to spot their movements without getting close enough for them to know I’m anything other than your average bird.”
The corner of his mouth crooked slightly upward. His guilt shone in his clear blue eyes. I swallowed hard. “You shouldn’t go on your own either. I can come with you.”
“As a dragon?” he said gently. “You can’t let people see you soaring around all over the place, Serenity. And you’re still working on your endurance. It may take hours, even days, for me to locate them, if I do at all.”
I frowned, but I couldn’t argue with his logic. And even if neither of those points had been true, the rogues would scatter the second they saw a dragon swooping by. We needed them to think we weren’t on to them so we could turn the tables on them. Create our own surprise to get the upper hand.
“I won’t have either of those problems,” Alice said. “You’ll have some company.”
Aaron turned to his sister. “I want you to stay here with Serenity. She needs protection more than I do.”
“She’s got these three lunkheads looking after her already,” Alice protested, motioning to the other alphas. The insult didn’t seem to bother Nate, but West’s lip curled in distaste and Marco looked vaguely offended.
“Lunkheads who can’t spend ten minutes together without arguing,” Aaron said lightly. “I’m thinking she might want a break from the guys here and there. Please, Alice. I’m not planning on taking any unnecessary risks. I won’t engage the rogues—not even if I see one alone. It’s a simple reconnaissance mission.”
“Can you at least come back for the night?” I put in. “Report back anything you’ve seen, even if it isn’t much? You’re going to have to sleep sometime anyway.”
Aaron hesitated and then nodded. “That’s fair. I’d rather not cause you more worry than I need to.”
He came around the couch and walked up to me. When he touched my cheek, I raised my face instinctively to his. He kissed me fleetingly, but in the brief moment our lips met, all I wanted was to cling to him and refuse to let him go. His salty, ocean-breeze smell wafted over me, settling just some of my nerves.
“I’ll see you tonight, Serenity,” he said, looking me straight in the eyes. Hearing my full name in his measured voice still made my heart thump. It was only because he sounded so sure that I managed to let go of him.
Alice came up beside me as her brother headed out. She touched my shoulder. “I wanted to go with him because we’ll be stronger together, not because I don’t think he can handle himself. He’ll deal with those rogues if he needs to.”
“Yeah,” I said. But what if the rogues in question had guns?
Aaron had promised he wouldn’t engage them. If they never knew the eagle soaring overhead was a shifter, they wouldn’t bother him, right?
I rubbed my temple. “Well, the rest of us can’t just sit around waiting for him. What are we going to do in the meantime?”
“There’s a welcome party already set up for tonight,” Nate said quietly. “I didn’t want to cancel it. We’ll have to keep a close eye on who comes into the estate.”
“All the more reason for me to stick to Serenity like glue,” Alice said, sliding her hand around my elbow. Her grip was gentle but confident.
A chilling thought struck me. “It’s the guards we’ll be counting on to check who comes and goes, isn’t it?” I said. “What if the raccoon shifter isn’t the only one the rogues have gotten to?”
Nate’s posture stiffened. “I chose the guards for this estate carefully. The people I knew I could count on.”
“One of them already proved you wrong,” West pointed out.
“If I find out any more of them...” Nate couldn’t seem to finish the sentence. A frustrated rumble emanated from his chest.
“Why don’t we at least talk to them?” I said. “I’m pretty sensitive to people’s motivations. If we gather the rest of the guards together and I talk to each of them for a bit, then we know we don’t have to worry about any more traitors.”
Nate sighed. “You’re right. I can call the ones who are off-duty in for a briefing, and you can talk to them during that. I’ll get that round-up happening now.”
He pushed to his feet and made for the door. As I moved to follow him, West exhaled with a mutter under his breath. “Well, this should be an interesting show.”
I decided not to even dignify that comment with a glare.
Chapter 5
Ren
“Line up along the wall,” Nate ordered the group of guards. This new set, a couple dozen shifters, shuffled to spread out through the massive dining hall.
I waited until they’d settled in against the exposed tan brick. They’d just come off duty after I’d spoken to the guards who’d now relieved them. So far I hadn’t seen any reason for concern. As far as I could tell, Nate had chosen his guards pretty darn well.