She’d remained with his brother and the Truth pack for a century before realizing that he’d changed. Then she’d come to Jensen, begging for forgiveness and entrance into the Moonshines. He’d given it.
Leaving a mate took more strength then most had, in fact, he’d only ever heard of it happening once before in his entire lifetime. But she’d done it; she’d made the sacrifice for her people, and for him. Jensen couldn’t deny her anything when reminded of this fact.
“ You win,” he heaved, gripping her hand in his own and stepping completely away from the cliff. “Tell me of my brothers’ woes.”
“ And if there are none?” she asked, leading them through the thicket of trees and to the cave where they’d made their home for the past five years.
He couldn’t help the tiny growl that slipped past his lips.
“ I could only watch from a distance,” she began as they entered the cave. “And the spy didn’t have much for us today. I still think that-”
“ No,” he stopped her, already knowing where she was going with this.
“ I could be useful there, Jensen,” she argued. “That’s more than can be said for the spy who never has anything for us to go on. He hasn’t given us a single piece of information that can be used to our advantage. I fear you’ve chosen wrong in this.”
“ I trust Gregor.”
“ Yes, but should you?” She turned towards the table that was situated against one of the gray stone walls.
The cave was large enough to house fifteen of them in their human forms, and twice as many as that in their wolf ones. The ceiling was high, hovering over their heads by a good twenty feet, and there were a number of twists and turns leading to different caverns within. The Moonshines had situated themselves there, taken refuge there, not only from the Truth pack, but from the humans as well.
They’d grown smarter over the years, advancing their weapons and their tactics. War was waging between the Mirror Warriors and the mortals. It wasn’t surprising, after all it was just a matter of time before they turned on their supernatural counterparts. Fear was a strong motivator.
“ Are you questioning my choices?” he asked her, though there was no heat in his voice. He lowered down onto a large bolder, leaning back against another wall. He sighed when the cool surface touched his skin.
A few strands of his multi-colored hair fell into his face and he blew them out of the way so he could watch her begin to sharpen a knife blade. Though they were twins, Jensen and Jericho looked different in many ways. There were similarities as well, but for the most part those differences stood out.
For one, his hair was made up of multiple hues of gold’s and browns, where as his brother’s was a solid chestnut color. He was tall, at 6’4”, his brother the same, and they both had the eerie blue, green, and brown eyes that changed with their mood.
“ I fear for your safety, that’s all,” she huffed back. The sounds of stone scraping against stone reverberated throughout the cave as she sharpened the make shift knife in her hands. “It’s hard to know who to trust nowadays, who to believe. This has been going on for a long time and now the newer pups don’t even really know what this is about.”
“ It’s about my brothers’ greed,” Jensen said. “And about his disloyalty. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to be though. Gregor has been a friend for a long time. I’d trust him with my life.”
“ You are trusting him with your life,” she pointed out. “It would be better to-”
“ Do you want to go back to my brother, Kiley? Is that it?” He watched as her whole body froze, as waves of worry wafted around her. When she looked up and met his gaze, he kept his face devoid of any telling emotions. This was something that he needed to know. Did she want to leave him?
“ Of course not,” she whispered so quietly that if he hadn’t been a werewolf he wouldn’t have heard her.
“ Then why push this? Why do you want so badly for me to consent? If I did what you asked, I’d be sending you straight back to him. And if he ever found out what you were really doing there, that you were spying for me, he’d do worse than kill you.”
“ Yes, but until he found out-if ever-I could supply information that we need. He trusts me, Jensen.”
“ Correction, he trusted you. He no longer does. Not after you turned your back on him.”
Originally, Kiley had gone with Jericho, had stood by his side and arranged the Truth’s. She’d taught them, led them. Lived with them. But inside she’d known what was wrong and right, and she’d realized that her mate had gone over the edge.
Jensen still couldn’t believe that she’d had the courage to come to him directly, to stand before him and the entire pack of Moonshines asking for acceptance and forgiveness. She never told him what had finally pushed her, what Jericho had done that was horrible enough to get her to leave, and he didn’t pry. She kept her secrets for a reason, and he wanted to respect that.
She’d gone without saying goodbye to her mate. She’d gone and she’d never stepped back, never looked back as far as Jensen was concerned. She’d pledged loyalty and since that day she’d lived it.
“ I need you here,” he finally said. “I would be lost without you. Besides, what about Tobias? He would never allow you to do something like that.”
Her older brother was just as stubborn and hard headed as she was. No, he wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of sending her off to her possible demise, and Jensen couldn’t risk losing both of them.
“ Toby isn’t a factor in this equation. I’m over one thousand years old. I can make my own decisions.”
“ So long as they don’t go against your king, and I’m against it. I’m pack leader, Kindle.” The nick name had been a long standing one between them, a testament to her hot temper.
“ So back to what I learned.” She switched the topic over with ease. The tension that had appeared at his question draining out of her. “Turns out, Jericho’s been trying to find a way to side with the mortals. His hopes are to rise against us with their help.”
“ My brother hates the humans,” Jensen frowned.
“ My thoughts exactly. Which can only mean he’s planning on using them, then discarding them once he’s through. My guess is they won’t last a month before he’s piling their bodies on the pyre. But if he can convince them we’re the true evil, they’ll help him reach his goal. And with us out of the way you can sure as hell believe he’ll destroy any trace of their race on this continent.”
“ The other sects will stop that from happing,” he waved her words away. “The Vampires especially, given that mortals are their main food source.”
“ Still, I’d rather be alive to see Jericho beaten, even if it is by a blood sucker and not by you or me.”
“ Do we know how he’s going to attempt this?”
“ Sadly, no. Gregor says that Jericho’s keeping that tightly concealed from everyone else. He’s trusting no one ‘sides Warren with the information, and he won’t be spilling any time soon.”
Warren had once been all of their best friend, but when the old king had been found murdered, he’d sided with Jericho. None of this would have happened at all if their father had just named the eldest of the twins as the heir, but he’d seen in Jer what the others had not. He’d seen the darkness.
“ We could beat it out of him.”
They turned towards the new voice which came from the entrance. A tall man with wavy brown hair appeared with a slight curve to his lips. He paused just inside, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants.
“ Tobias,” Jensen inclined his head in greeting. “A brilliant suggestion.”
“ Yeah, one I came up with years ago.” Kiley rolled her eyes.
“ You wound me, sister,” he laughed, walking over to her and planting a noisy kiss on the top of her head.
She waved her hand in the air as if shooing him away.
“ Should I be following War?” Tobias asked, turning back towards their leader.
“ Not just yet. He won’t talk, that’s a given. We’ll have to find another way. Get Gregor to earn Jericho’s trust faster. There’s got to be some way to get to the mortals first, influence them to our side before he can get his claws-literally-into them,” Jensen said.
“ I could go,” Kiley volunteered. “I know a few of the villagers who aren’t prejudice against our kind. They might be willing to help.”
Toby frowned. “How do you know humans?”
