“Let’s go to my place and talk.” Sheba about turned, leading Ray and Dion away before noticing Ari trailing behind. “Sorry, Ari, this is business.”
Her friend stopped, looking more than a little put out before shrugging. “Sure, I get it, I’m not . . .”
Sheba shook her head, her tone sharper than she’d intended. “Don’t, Ari. This isn’t the time for that shit.”
Ari’s eyes widened before she twirled away, stomping her feet as she went. Damn. But Sheba didn’t have the luxury of apologizing right now, she had bigger fish to fry, and fry she would. She had plans to scorch the hell out of any and all rogues she could get her claws into, but first she needed Dion’s report. “Fuck,” she cursed instead, shaking her head and carrying on.
“She’ll be fine,” Ray told her as they went inside, closing the door.
Her mom appearing with a tray filled with snacks and drinks. Sheba frowned. “Mom, how the hell do you always know the exact moment we’ll arrive? You’re right there, every single time.”
“Years of practice.” Her mother just smiled, placing the tray on the coffee table and retreating back to the kitchen.
Ray took up position at the stone fireplace, leaning back on the mantle, his arms crossed and face grim as Dion sank into one of the armchairs to the side. Sheba poured him a coffee, handing it to him together with a plate filled with sandwiches. “Here, you look like you need this.”
“Thanks,” he replied, drinking the coffee quickly before gobbling down half of the plate just as fast.
She sat on the edge of the sofa, waiting impatiently but she’d seen how worn out he looked so allowed him to eat before saying anything, but as soon as he paused she jumped right in. “What happened?”
Dion sat back, his eyes filling with anger again. “We’d split up. Kai was with me and a couple of the other guys when we caught their scent. We trailed it right up to the waterfall and caught them still feeding on a kill. At first there was only four of them, one of which was wounded, so he wasn’t even in the damn fight, but then more arrived, and before we knew it we were in trouble, Alpha.”
Dion sighed, shaking his head as he looked up to Ray then back at her. She urged him on, not quite sure what was going on. “What?”
“There’s more than we thought but that’s not the only thing, Sheba.” He stopped again, his face showing disbelief. “Okay, here’s what happened. When we arrived, they were feeding, and one was injured . . . we took in the situation, and I swear it looked like a damn Lion had been there. And the one that was hurt, I’m telling you, he was taken down by that Lion. No freaking Wolf did that to him. But we didn’t have time to question them, or do anything much really, because their friends arrived, and we were fighting just to survive. We were lucky to get back, Sheba. Really damn lucky. Kai saved my life and ended up with his hind leg almost shattered in the process and I’m still not sure how we got out of there. All I cared about was getting Kai home in one piece and letting you know that we have one huge fucking problem.”
A Lion? Sheba’s insides somersaulted, doing incredibly strange things at the mention of the beast and she wasn’t sure why. She looked to Ray whose jaw was clenched tight, the muscles in his neck straining as he turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow as if to ask, “Well, what are we gonna do?”
“Lion aside we can come back to that later—it’s the rogues we need to deal with. I want guards all around the camp overnight and we go out at dawn to hunt the bastards down. I want every able-bodied Wolf to be involved. If they’re not coming with us in the hunt then they’re here protecting the women and kids. Nobody, and I mean nobody, sits this one out. When we go tomorrow, I want everyone safe, so that means we need Wolves here to protect those vulnerable. We have women who are pregnant, we’ve got more than our share of pups here, that means they are at risk. We can’t leave them without defense and we need to ensure their safety. Dion, that’s up to you to organize. I know you’re bushed, and I’m sorry, but you know better than anyone who should go with us and who should be left here. And by that, I don’t mean to take all the best Wolves with us . . . our children are our future, and the Pack’s future, and they need to be kept safe.”
Ray pushed away from the fireplace, growling. “I agree, but just so you know, Enforcer, don’t even think about trying to keep me here.”
Dion smirked up at Ray. “I wouldn’t dream of it but I bet I’m not going to be popular tomorrow.”
“I don’t give a shit about that,” Sheba snarled. “If anyone gives you any grief, send them to me.”
“Will do.” Dion rose, cracking his neck. “I better get to it, but I’m going to check on Kai first.”
“Sure, and let me know if you need anything else.” Sheba patted his back. “I’m glad you all got home safe, Dion.”
“Yeah, me too . . . about that Lion, Alpha, I don’t think he was out to cause us any trouble. Looked to me like he was feeding and they attacked him.”
“We’ll deal with that after the rogues, Dion. One thing at a time,” Sheba replied as Dion left, her insides clenching ferociously as the sight of a magnificent beast appeared in her mind. Huge, regal, glorious . . . and beautiful!
What the hell?
Ray
