Weakness equaled death. Death for him, and more importantly for the pack members who’d followed Miles here halfway across the country, and all the packs who had allied with him. Miles could never let himself forget that.
And yet… He glanced across the clearing at Jamie, standing in front of the cabin now, picking daisies and making them into some kind of garland. She tried to put it on Sarah’s head, but Sarah ducked and swatted it away, so she put it on Mary’s head, and the little girl ran around waving her arms in excitement.
He could have housed her anywhere on the property, but he’d picked a cabin that was close to his. He’d see her every time she walked out her front door.
Had that been a mistake? She was muddling his head and messing with his emotions, at a time when the fragile peace he’d fought for was threatening to shatter under a rising tide of rogue shifters. He needed to focus on one thing: defending the realm.
But looking at her made him smile, and made the heavy load on his shoulders feel a little bit lighter.
No, it hadn’t been a mistake.
Chapter Ten
“They’re up to something,” Naomi said to Dakota as the kids huddled in their bedroom. They were in there muttering amongst themselves while Naomi taught Dakota how to make meatballs for their spaghetti and meatball dinner.
“Well, of course they are. I’d be worried if they weren’t. It would mean they’d been replaced by well-behaved doppelgangers.” Dakota glanced at the bedroom door, then held her finger to her lips, telling Naomi to shush while she strained to listen.
Naomi looked puzzled. She couldn’t hear them, but Dakota could.
“Why can’t we leave now?” John was saying.
“I wish we could stay. They’re not too mean.” Mary’s voice was plaintive. “There’s food all the time.”
“Shhh, keep it down. You know why we can’t stay,” Sarah said. “We’ll just wait ’til she gets her first paycheck, and then we can take that money, I’ll hotwire a car, and we’ll head out of town while she’s sleeping.”
“But we’ll have to go to school while we stay here,” John complained. “I’m not going. She can’t make me.”
Dakota walked over and yanked the door open. They all started, looking at her with guilty expressions.
“Pretty sure I can,” she said.
Sarah let out a snarl.
“You always sneak around and spy on people?” she asked fiercely.
“All the time. And when I get my first paycheck, I’m planning on putting it in the empty coffee can on the top kitchen shelf. You won’t have to sneak out. You can just leave. As for hotwiring someone’s car, that’s not the smartest idea in the world, because the police will be looking for you, and then Sarah will end up in juvenile detention and the younger kids will have no one to protect them. But do what you want. Just know that there are consequences.”
“Is that true?” John asked Sarah, looking alarmed.
“I guess,” Sarah muttered, staring at the floor.
“See, you need to think these things through,” Dakota said. “Dinner will be ready in an hour, by the way.”
“You don’t want us to stay?” Mary asked accusingly. “You wouldn’t even try to keep us?”
Dakota smiled at her, but her smile was tinged with sadness. “I do want you all to stay here, and be safe, and learn how to read and write, and have food every day, and learn how to do some kind of job so that you don’t have to steal food and clothes and risk going to jail. But I can’t force you to be here if you don’t want to. My father tried to do that to me, he even locked me in my room, and I ran away from home.”
John looked up at her. “Do you miss your father?” he asked.
She sighed. “I do. I wish I didn’t, but I do.”
His brows drew together in a scowl. “I don’t miss my father. I’m glad he’s dead.”
“I killed him,” Sarah added boldly.
Dakota looked at the skinny little wisp of a girl who would blow over in a good stiff breeze. “Of course you did,” she said. “You know, you don’t actually have to say things like that to sound tough. There are people here who will protect you. I’d protect you. I already have.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Sarah looked away, her expression sullen.