“There’s a word for that,” Keller said. “It’s called diplomacy.”
“Ah.” Johnny pressed his lips together. “Let’s give that a shot. Charging into battle didn’t work for us.”
“No shit,” Keller muttered. “We lost half our men. The other half don’t want anything to do with this because they don’t want to leave their spouses widowed or children orphaned.”
“We can’t blame them for that,” Garret murmured.
“How’s your family?” Johnny asked.
“Jess is doing better,” Garret replied. “She’s pleased she’s going to have a sick scar on her arm where it almost came off. She can’t use three of her fingers yet, but the doc is hopeful.”
“And your mother?”
“Physically, she’s fine. Jess locked her in the basement to keep her away from the battle. Mentally, she’s shaken. She didn’t expect anything like that to happen twice in her lifetime.”
“None of us did,” Keller said. “We have no fighting power. We have no magic. Our weapons are limited to whatever firearms and rusty swords we can dig up. Diplomacy is our only option.”
“Great.” Johnny clapped his hands together. “How do we go about diplomacy?”
“You’re going to hate it.”
“I hate most things.”
“We’re going to have to talk to Gramps.”
Johnny laid his head on the table and groaned. “I amend my statement. I hate most things, but nothing so much as talking to Gramps.”
CHAPTER THREE—LOCH
He should have reached Golden Oak hours ago.
Actually, days ago. However, Loch took the high road. Literally.
In order to avoid drawing attention to himself, Loch walked to Golden Oak using only the main hiking and camping trails. He looked like any other tourist.
Despite what the other firstborns thought, Loch wasn’t an idiot. He knew he couldn’t go charging into Golden Oak, completely bear-ed out. He’d die before he reached the county line.
He had reached the main road hours ago. Three people stopped for him, thinking he was a hitchhiker.
The thought of hitching a ride to Golden Oak was tempting. No one would expect a Silver Spruce shifter to arrive in a tourist’s car. But if he were to get caught, then the tourists would be in danger.
Loch didn’t want to drag anyone else into this mess if he didn’t have to. He shielded his eyes from the headlights of an oncoming car. Once again, the urge to hail them took hold, but he pushed it aside. Instead, he pulled out his phone.
He’d never been to Golden Oak before. By his calculations, he should’ve entered the town proper by now. Perhaps, he was on the wrong road entirely.
There wasn’t any cell service this deep within the mountains.
He often wondered why witches had yet to sell spells that manipulated any nearby cell towers. Any witch who sold that would be a millionaire by the end of the week.
If he ever needed a witchy favor, he could use that idea for leverage. It probably wouldn’t grant him much, but it was something.
The lack of cell service didn’t stop him. Before he had left Pearl’s house, he took a screenshot of the directions. He pulled up the picture and studied it.
The Northridge Trail directly intersected the main road that led into Golden Oak. He’d walked the Northridge Trail for the better part of the day. From what he could tell, the trail didn’t intersect with any other road.
The road he was on now had to be the one that led into Golden Oak.
According to the map, he shouldn’t have had to stay on the main road for long before reaching Golden Oak. The town couldn’t have been more than a mile down the road from where the trail intersected.
He’d been walking along the road for hours. He must’ve walked four miles since he split off from the hiking trail.
Had he walked right through the town without realizing it? That didn’t make any sense.
The earth rose at a steep incline on the other side of the road. Loch found a series of sturdy boulders and began to climb.
Once he was certain he couldn’t be seen from either the roads or the trails, he undressed, stuffed his clothes in his bag, and shifted.
His muscles stretched and expanded, and he tipped forward onto all fours.
His nails elongated into deadly claws.
His energy waned for just a moment before the natural power contained in his bear form exploded through his body.
That was the other reason why he’d avoided shifting on his journey to Golden Oak. It was a draining process. He wanted to conserve his energy for bashing Trevor’s skull in and fighting whoever else was stupid enough to stand between him and Holly.
Giving Trevor what he deserved was something Loch wanted to do as a man. He wanted to look Trevor in the eyes and see for himself how empty they were. He wanted to see that lack of humanity firsthand before he stole the life from them.
Loch paused, one paw on a gnarled tree trunk.
Aside from knocking Trevor around, he hadn’t given much thought to how he would walk away. Now, he knew.
When Loch left Golden Oak, Trevor wouldn’t possess a beating heart.
The trick would be finding the damn town in the first place.
Loch tested the sturdiness of the tree beside him. The outer layer of bark cracked when he threw his bulk against it, but the tree itself stood tall.
Digging his claws deep into the trunk, he hauled himself up until he could use the branches to support his weight.
He climbed as high as he dared. The branches grew brittle near the top. The last thing he wanted to do was fall from the tree.
He didn’t fear the pain of landing or even breaking
