He shrugged. “When you didn’t come out of the house with Levi, I figured something was wrong. I waited until everyone hadheaded off and went inside, but you weren’t there. I tracked your scent here.”
After hearing his explanation, I was even more confused. Why had he gone to that kind of trouble?
“Okay,” I said, now my turn to frown in confusion. “What can I help you with?”
“I made a promise,” he said, then glanced off toward the forest. “I may not get another chance to follow through, and I figured this might be my last chance.” He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a heavy silver ring and handed it toward me. “The day we met, you seemed to think it was really important to get something that belonged to my great-grandfather Hugo. I had one of my pack members bring this.” He dropped the ring into my palm. “It was his, and from what I hear it was really important to him. I think my dad told me once that Hugo got it fromhisgrandfather. It’s really old.”
I inspected the ring. It was an old-school signet ring engraved with a howling wolf’s head flanked by outstretched wings. With everything that had happened since I’d met Blaise, I’d nearly forgotten about our hunt for Naphele’s actual killer. Looking down at the hunk of metal, I was filled with excitement, surprise, and sadness.
“You didn’t have to bring me this now,” I said, lifting my eyes to him.
Blaise sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Hugo was a dick. From what I’ve heard, he was an asshole to everyone he met, including Levi. I figure this was a small way of making up for it. I know you said you wanted it for something for Anders, but?—”
“It’s not for him anymore, obviously,” I said, “but this is still huge. I’ll, umm, well I’ll find a way to use it for someone who deserves it. Thank you, Blaise. You don’t know how much I appreciate this.”
“Glad I could help,” he said with a shrug, then nodded in the opposite direction. “I guess I should go and help the others lead our teams.” He tilted his head, inspecting my face. “June, are you sure you’re okay? Should I have Levi come check on you?”
“No.” I was surprised by how steady my voice was. “I’ll be okay. Thank you. Go on.”
“Okay,” he said, and then turned, shifted, and ran off, leaving me alone once more.
My gaze drifted back down to the ring in my palm. If I could trigger a vision with this and perhaps see who killed Naphele, it might allow her soul to rest. It may give her the freedom to finally reincarnate. To come back to this world and at last be with Levi. As much as it hurt, I still loved him, and I thought he deserved a happy ending, even if it wasn’t with me.
Clenching my fist around the ring, I ran for the stairs at the side of the building and hurried up while pulling my key from a pocket. Since I’d started having visions, I’d been keeping a little journal that had notes about each vision. I wanted that to help me try and focus my next vision. Maybe, I could even manage to get myself to have one without Levi present if I studied the notes and really focused while holding the ring and wearing the necklace.
After unlocking the door, I rushed to my bedroom and dug through my stuff to find the notebook. I turned out my drawers, flipped my sheets and covers, and even lay on my stomach to look under my bed. I couldn’t find it. Shit. I glanced at the clock. I had to get moving. People were waiting for me to lead them to Hidden Grove.
Cursing, I stood and scanned my room again, trying to remember where the notebook might be. Had I left it at Anders’s place? Levi’s rental house? Hell, was it downstairs in the shop? Either way, I was out of time. The alphas were readying for anattack, and I had to get people to safety. Growling, I rushed back out.
I shoved the ring into my pocket, giving the shop and my home above it one last look. Before I shifted and ran toward the school, I threw out a prayer that I’d return, that my grandparents could live out their days in the town they loved, and I hoped that Levi survived whatever was coming. Even if what we had was gone, I still loved him, and I wanted him to survive.
87
LEVIATHAN
An eerie quiet had settled over our group. Dozens and dozens of shifters were mentally preparing themselves for a fight. I glanced toward the forest. A place that had always been like home to me, yet now it looked foreboding and dark. A place where any danger might erupt to thrash and shred my life and the lives of those I cared about to pieces.
“You ready?” Rainier whispered.
“Yeah. Let’s do this.”
I turned and lifted a hand to get everyone’s attention. All eyes turned to meet me, what little conversation had been going on stopped. Swallowing, I took a deep, steadying breath.
“I want to thank all of you,” I said. “You didn’t have to be here, you didn’t have to risk your lives for us, but you are. As alpha of Hidden Grove and Idlewild, I can never tell you how much this means to me and my people. Some of you are members of those packs, but many have come here as friends and allies. From this day forward, your packs are forever welcome in our lands as friends. Ifanyof you should ever need help with anything, all you need to do is call on me, and I will be there. This I promise.”
Many in the crowd nodded their heads appreciatively, especially the other alphas. Rainier gave me a surreptitious thumbs up and winked.
“Rainier and I will lead. Our plan is to flank the Red Maw’s forward scout base. In order to do that, we’ll need to take a long route around them so that there will be less chance of them catching our scents or any of their own scouts stumbling upon us before we arrive. We also need to move slower to keep the noise to a minimum. I anticipate two days before we reach them.” I nodded at my beta.
Rainier turned and addressed the group. “Our forward scouts have told us the Red Maw is still mobilizing from their main location to the forward base of operations. That means we have time, and will hopefully catch them with their pants down, so to speak.”
Everything was planned out and prepared. We had intel and knowledge. We knew exactly where the Red Maw was and what they were doing. Those facts should have made me confident, but instead they gave me an uneasy sensation deep in my stomach. In everything, Desdemona and her people had been one step ahead. I worried that the same thing might have happened here, but there was no more time to worry about it. We had to attack first, regardless of the danger. It was that or sit back and wait for them to come to us, and I didn’t like that idea.
“Are we ready?” I asked.
There was a mild rumble of voices calling out that they were. Turning, I shifted and ran into the trees. The group did the same. The sounds of hundreds of paws running over grass and leaves filled the air with a steady hiss that muffled once we charged into the forest.
I took the lead position, but the other alphas ran along beside me. Flicking my gaze to the right, I spotted Hakeem and his mate running side by side on my right. Patrick and his mate wereon my left. Seeing them like that made me ache for June. She should have been at my side.