Before dawn, an owl had startled me awake. William was sitting on the bench with heavy-lidded eyes, so we switched places. Beef jerky for breakfast wasn’t terrible, but it sure wasn’t crispy bacon in a buttermilk biscuit. We’d packed dry goods in resealable bags—most of it being nutritious food like meat, nuts, and dried fruit. Reno had stocked ready-to-eat military food, which looked about as appealing as a can of Alpo. Reno made the rounds, stopping in every two hours to see how we were doing. Austin looked in on me once before he went to check the traps.
Months of training hadn’t prepared me for urinating behind a bush, and executing that maneuver in my third trimester was an achievement. I felt like one of those Weebles on the verge of rolling over.
“There’s no way I can do this for the next three weeks,” I complained to William.
He held my arm, escorting me back to our bunker through the dense morning fog. William had left markers using small sticks to guide us back from our designated bathroom.
“If they don’t come for us by then, I’m going to hunt them down. No man makes me pee in a bush.”
“I’ll see if anyone has a cup,” he offered.
“What for?”
“You’re pregnant, and I’m guessing your bladder is about the size of a peanut, which means we’ll be taking frequent trips.”
I squeezed his arm. “Judging by the small lake I left back there, I beg to differ.”
We stepped over a fallen branch, and I noticed the fog thinning. Reno’s silhouette appeared ahead of us, dark paint still on his face.
“You stick out like a sore thumb,” I said. “The fog isn’t helping our camouflage situation.”
“It will if you’re hidden where you’re supposed to be,” he grumbled. “What are you doing out again?”
“She had to water the lilies,” William declared.
I slugged him in the arm.
“Nature calls,” William sang, excusing himself from the conversation and heading off to the left.
Reno scratched the back of his neck. “The perimeter’s clear.”
I pulled my ponytail tighter. “Have you slept at all? You should know the rules about our sleeping shifts because you came up with them. Tired people make mistakes.”
“Axel’s working with us, and they’re close if we need their support. One of the insiders tipped us off that Judas is sending his men in.”
I dodged his gaze and scanned the area, the trees standing like slim shadows hiding in smoke. William and Trevor were talking to each other nearby.
“William should be out here, not in there with me,” I said quietly. “We need all the eyes and ears we can get.”
“I don’t know.” Reno’s brown eyes narrowed into slivers. “If Austin wanted him to—”
“Austin sent him down there to babysit me, but I’m fine. We need capable men watching out for rogues. If someone has to sit with me, send one of the kids. They shouldn’t be out there anyhow.”
“If they’re old enough to hold a weapon, they’re old enough to fight,” Reno said matter-of-factly.
That was the Shifter way, but it didn’t make it any less weird for me to accept.
“You armed?” he asked, staring at my oversized shirt.
I lifted it and showed him the gun on my hip. Reno didn’t seem as interested in the gun as he was my round belly. The look in his eyes shifted to that of concern.
The silence broke with a dove’s cry in two short intervals.
“Two are on the move,” Reno said. “Out of range.”
A call followed by a long note meant they were dead. A short note meant they were out of range.
“Damn this fog!” I whispered.
Reno withdrew his weapon. “Fog is our friend. Get back in the hole.”
“Stay safe,” I whispered before heading back.
Reno intervened when William tried to join me. There was a low argument before they settled it. Austin had only paired us up for the night, and William had to follow orders from the second-in-command.
As I neared the hatch, I glared up at Denver’s tree stand but didn’t see any sign of him through the cloud of fog. Once I lifted the heavy lid, the real challenge was sliding my ass inside without falling and having the stupid thing whack me on the head.
Once inside, I propped the hatch up a couple of inches. Reno had painted all the metal so it wouldn’t catch in the sunlight.
Someone screamed in the distance, and a man barreled past my line of vision at breakneck speed. I heard a series of muffled clicks echoing from a silencer.
Denver landed on the soft ground below his hideout, looking in the direction the rogue had gone. His shirt was solid green and matched the beanie covering his blond hair. Everyone had different gear, and those who stayed up in the trees wore darker greens to blend in.
He signaled me to stay put and quietly stepped around the tree to scan his surroundings. Denver could have run after the guy, but Austin didn’t want us impulsively chasing anyone.
An arrow sliced through the air and struck a tree. If the archers were this close, it meant the rogues were circling the area.
I removed the gun from my holster and set it on the bench to my right. I didn’t have a silencer like some of the men.
“Sons of bitches!” Denver hissed.