He caught Kendall halfway down the corridor, grabbed him by his elbow, and spun him around. “Listen! We can’t just go running out there with a broom and a prayer. They’re bigger, stronger, and faster than us, so we have to be smarter.”
“We need numbers. There are shifters and vampires living here. There are also those werewolves sharing the cabin out by the pond. They might not be Enforcers, but they can help.”
“We can help, too,” Galen said as he and Aslan came jogging down the hallway. “We might not have mates out there, but we have friends. Stavion says we’re a family, and families are supposed to stick together. I say we round up as many people who are willing to help as we can find, and we kick some furry ass.”
All eyes turned to Jory, looking to him for guidance. Pulling his shoulders back and stiffening his spine, Jory nodded once. He could do this. “Kendall, you talk to the vamps. Galen, you go find the shifters. Aslan, gather anyone else who’s willing to help.”
“Where are you going?” Aslan asked.
Jory took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m going to talk to the weres.”
* * * *
Oh, he had so lied to himself. He couldn’t do this.
Jory fidgeted, jumping from foot to foot and wringing his hands together as he stood on the front porch of the cabin the werewolves shared. “Stop being a coward,” he chided himself. “Stavion needs you.”
The door swung open, and Jory screamed, stumbling backward so fast he fell down the porch steps and rolled across the dew-covered ground. “Don’t eat me!”
A tiny woman hurried off the porch and knelt beside him in the grass. “Oh, honey, are you okay? You didn’t hurt yourself, did you? Here, let me help you up.”
Okay, Jory definitely hadn’t been expecting this. He allowed the woman to help him to his feet and brushed the grass off his bottom.
Footsteps on the wood planks of the porch drew his attention, and Jory almost started screaming again.
Four enormous men with muscles to spare stood shoulder to shoulder, arms crossed, and staring down at Jory like he was the lunch special. It took Jory a few seconds to even notice the other woman standing just slightly behind them. “Tell them not to eat me,” he whispered to the woman still holding on to his hand.
She just giggled and slapped at his arm. “Oh, cutie, no one is going to eat you. I’m Raina. That’s my mate, Teegan.” She pointed to the guy on the far right. “Gorgeous, huh?”
Jory nodded numbly. “His name is Teegan?”
“Eww.” Raina wrinkled her nose and shook her head, making her black curls bounce around her face. “That’s my brother Kieran. My mate is the sexy little princess hiding behind him.”
“Oh, then yes, she’s beautiful.” Jory didn’t know what the hell he was saying. He was still trying not to piss himself.
“So, you’re saying I’m not attractive,” Kieran grumbled.
Jory literally felt the blood drain from his face. “Uh no. I mean yes. I…well…oh fuck.” He closed his eyes and groaned, willing himself to shut up.
Raina started to laugh, and deep, masculine chuckles joined her to drift across the warm summer air. “Relax, little one,” Kieran said kindly. “No one is going to hurt you. We’re grateful that your leader allowed us refuge here. We’re not like most of our kind.” He motioned to the other men standing beside him. “These are mine and Raina’s brothers, Jericho, Elijah, but we call him Eli, and Parker.” Jory fisted his hands at his sides, gathered his courage, and took a step closer to the porch. “I’m Jory. Stavion isn’t just my coven leader, he’s my mate, and he’s in trouble. We’re all in trouble. I’ve come to ask for your help.”
The next thing he knew, bare-chested werewolves asking him a dozen different questions at the same time surrounded him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Where is he?”
“Who’s coming?”
“What do you need us to do?”
The last question had Jory’s legs shaking in relief. “My friends are trying to find other coven members to help us. I don’t know everything. I just know we have werewolves coming, and they’re going to be here soon. Most of our Enforcers are out on assignment. We’re outnumbered.”
“Why are they coming here?” Kieran demanded.
“We relieved them of a couple of slaves they were holding.” Sweet little Raina snarled like a vicious beast. “We’re in.”
“Teegan was held as a slave by our family,” Parker whispered in Jory’s ear. “That’s why we’re here. Our family is fucking nuts.”
“So was I,” Jory said quietly as he reached over to take Teegan’s hand and squeeze it gently. “You have friends here, though. No one is ever going to hurt you again.”
Teegan smiled shyly and ducked her head. “I’m glad we found this place. I just want to love Raina without people hating us for it.”
“Okay, we can all get to know each other’s life stories later.” Eli cracked his knuckles and grinned excitedly. “We have some ass to kick.”
Stavion, Boston, and Flynn stood near the big iron gates guarding the entrance to the estate. Stavion and Flynn were packing as much steel as they could carry while Boston stood beside them in his shifted form as a white stag.
A stag wouldn’t be a lot of help in a fight, but Boston’s status as a Moonlighter could come in handy. The magic surrounding them was crazy powerful when they shifted. For a long time it was believed that anyone near them would go insane within minutes of being near them.
Blaise, being the genius he was, had been the one to prove that only those at whom the Moonlighter’s rage was directed at were affected by the magic.
With the threat to his mate, Boston was bound to be plenty pissed at the coming battle.
“There’s Raven,” Flynn said just a black SUV came careening around the corner.
The plan was to get Raven, Cassius, and the captives inside then seal and barricade the gates. The two sedans and three SUVs racing after them, close enough to nudge their back bumper, blew that idea out of the fucking water.
“This is it,” Stavion said solemnly. He didn’t know how many werewolves there were, but he knew they were outnumbered.
Cassius sped toward the gates then braked hard, jerked on the wheel, and sent the SUV into a tailspin until it finally came to a stop, sitting sideways in the drive and blocking the gate. The doors flew open and everyone spilled out, Raven and Cassius urging the captives ahead of them.
“Go, go, go!” Cassius shouted, pushing the woman through the gate. “Run straight to the main house. Don’t look back!” To Stavion’s surprise, the woman wrenched away and growled.
“No! You risked your life to save us. We’ll stand and fight with you.” Raven looked like he would argue, but Stavion held his hand up to stop him. “We need all the help we can get.” Loud howls rent through the night as seventeen werewolves came charging out of the vehicles, most of them already shifted. Stavion drew his sword from his scabbard as Raven, Cassius, and Flynn did the same. Maybe it was time Enforcers started packing heat. Stavion would have to talk to The Council about that if he survived this.
There was no slow, intimidating walk. The pack alpha didn’t give some long-winded monologue. The moment their feet hit the ground, they were sprinting toward the gates, growling, snarling, and howling.
Their fangs dripped with saliva and their claws slashed at the air.
Boston dropped his head, pointed his antlers toward the nearest werewolf, and charged forward at a high gallop. The big were spun out of the way, grabbed Boston around the middle, and sent him flying through the air like a ragdoll.
Before the remaining werewolves even reached the gate, a dozen more were emerging from the trees on either side of the driveway.
Oh, they were so very, very fucked. The largest one broke away from the pack, his eyes locked with Stavion, and he smiled gruesomely.
“I’m going for the alpha,” Stavion yelled to the others.
He never made it that far. Some of Boston’s magic was working on the weres, but it was only making them stronger, more ferocious.
The white stag went flying through the air again, forcing Stavion to dive to the ground or risk being impaled on Boston’s antlers. Before he could gain his feet again, three of the werewolves were on him, ripping and biting at him, chewing at his flesh.
They were all going to die. Stavion could feel unconsciousness coming to him. His eyelids began to droop and everything blurred around the edges. His own screams mingled with those of his allies. It would all be over soon.
Stavion’s only thought before he slipped into the void was that he’d never gotten a chance to tell Jory how he felt about him.
* * * *
“Stavion!” Jory turned on a burst of speed, his new friends running right beside him while dozens of shifters, vampires, and all varieties of preters followed behind them.
He watched as Stavion went limp beneath the beasts atop him. He could barely see through the tears streaming down his face, but still he kept running. If he could get to Stavion, he could fix it. Everything would be fine if he could just get to his mate.
“Do we take them alive?” Kieran’s voice was harsh and gravelly in his shifted form, but Jory had no problem understanding him.
“I don’t care.” It was cold and heartless of him, but seeing the blood draining from his mate left little room in his heart for mercy and forgiveness.
Kieran, Raina, and their brothers threw themselves into the fray without hesitation. Wolves and big cats, enormous hawks, and all sizes of vampires sprinted past Jory, the smaller ones working together to bring down the big werewolves.
Jory just kept running for Stavion. A loud sob escaped his trembling lips and the pain dropped him to his knees when he made it close enough to get a good look at his mate. Though naturally pale, Stavion’s skin looked gray and lifeless in the harsh security lighting.
The bright crimson stood out in sharp relief, painting a horrible picture Jory knew he’d never forget.
Going purely on instinct, he let his fangs elongate and bit into his wrist, tearing the flesh a bit to allow for better blood flow. Then he grabbed Stavion’s chin, pulled his mouth open, and pressed his bleeding wrist to his lover’s lips.
“Please let this work,” he whimpered. “Stavion, wake up. You promised you wouldn’t leave me. I need you to wake up now.” It wasn’t working, though. Stavion just lay there, unmoving.
Jory pulled his wrist away from his mate’s mouth and began moving it over the numerous wounds on the vampire’s body. “Stop the bleeding,” he mumbled under his breath as he worked. “I have to stop the bleeding and close the wounds. He’s going to be okay.” The fight raged on around him. Bodies flew over his head. Some collided with him before being jerked away or tackled. Horrible sounds filled the air. And still, Stavion wasn’t moving. Jory had managed to stop the bleeding, but the injuries were mending too slowly for his liking.
“Stavion! Wake up, damn it!” He slapped at his lover’s cheeks, shook his shoulders, and even flicked the end of his nose. Nothing happened. “Goddamn it, you are not going to die on me. You promised! You said I could trust you.” The tears started to fall again, and Jory dropped his forehead to Stavion’s chest and moaned in agony. “I love you. You can’t die.”
The pain morphed into anger, and Jory growled. He wasn’t sure who or what he was mad at, but he’d never felt such fury before. He sat up straight, fisting his hand, and beat it against Stavion’s chest, right over his heart. “Fuck you! I love you, and I am not going to let you die! Now you open your fucking eyes, Stavion Shogard.”
“Will you please stop hitting me,” Stavion mumbled without moving or opening his eyes. “It hurts like hell.”
Jory cried out and threw himself on top of his mate. “Why do you always insist on doing things the hard way?” Stavion’s chuckle turned into a strangled groan, and he began coughing as he clutched Jory closer to him. When he finally got himself under control, he sagged back to the pavement of the driveway and tapped the top of Jory’s head. “Look at me.”
Jory lifted his head, staring into the amber depths of Stavion’s eyes. “What is it, love?”
Stavion smiled, and though it was small and weak, it was the most beautiful thing Jory had ever seen. “I love you, too, Jory. You’re my light. I’m going to sleep now.”
Jory shook his head and chuckled when his mate did just that.
That was when he realized how eerily quiet it was. Prying his eyes away from Stavion’s face, he twisted around and gasped. Every last one of the rogue werewolves had been subdued, and Jory’s new family stood around with bright, self-satisfied smiles on their faces.
They all looked tired, battered, and a little worse for wear, but they were alive. Even Malakai was sitting off to the side with his mates. He had a big gash across the side of his face, but he was smiling like a maniac.
“Thank you,” Jory choked out around the lump in his throat.
Kieran wrapped an arm around his sister and kissed the top of her head. “This is our home and our family now. We protect what’s ours.”
“Here, here!” several people shouted as cheers and applause went up through the crowd.
Jory caressed Stavion’s cheek and closed his eyes. He’d swallowed his fear, found the courage to stand up and fight for the people he loved.
And they’d won.
* * * *
“There’s not going to be a trial?”
Stavion winced at Jory’s shrieking tone. “Jory, just listen.”
“This is bullshit! I’ve been waiting all week for them to make those assholes pay, and now you’re telling me that The Council isn’t going to do anything?”
“The pack has been banished to the Sierra Desert. The helicopters left this morning. That’s why there isn’t going to be a trial. The elders felt like they had enough evidence to convict them without one.”
“Oh.” Jory’s mouth dropped open comically, and Stavion couldn’t help but chuckle.
It had been a long week, but Stavion was finally feeling back in tip-top condition. Jory had taken wonderful care of him. He really couldn’t ask for a better mate. He still couldn’t believe that the little runt had saved his life, but he’d be forever grateful for it. The fact that Jory made some new friends because of the ordeal was just the cherry on top.