Bass had to agree with him. Tension was rife, bloodlust at its peak. Everyone could feel Castor and his men breathing down their necks. They were at a crescendo, and very soon, whether they wanted it or not, they’d all be fighting for their lives and the land they called home.
“Then let him go. Follow him until he’s over state line just to be sure Castor hasn’t had him followed and then turn our attention to more pressing matters,” Tyler suggested.
Bass studied the men and women in the room. “Are we all in agreement?” Nods and murmurs followed all round. “So that leads me to my next question. A question I want the people in this room to decide on because I can’t be trusted to make a decision without my emotions clouding my judgment. Katalina and I are due to leave tomorrow afternoon and spend one night with her family before visiting her parents’ graves and returning that evening. We made this plan before Castor was in the wind and before we took his bargaining chips. Should I tell Katalina she can’t go?”
A sigh spread around the room. Gazes cast to the floor as they contemplated the reality of informing Katalina she couldn’t visit her parents’ graves on the first anniversary of their deaths.
“It’s also her birthday too,” Nico said. “Aren’t we planning a party for her?”
Bass shook his head. He’d thought about it, run it passed her several times, and even thought of doing it without her permission anyway, but Bass feared Katalina would never want to celebrate her birthday again. “She doesn’t want to, Nic. She doesn’t even want a cake with close friends.”
“She needs to go, Bass,” Nico answered, his knee jiggling with tension. “I think it will break her if you don’t let her go.”
He’d seen the desperation in her eyes, felt the weight of her emotions through the bond they shared. Katalina didn’t think she was making it out of this war alive, and the only way she could accept that was having one last chance to say goodbye to her human family and the person she once was. She’d never said the words aloud, but she didn’t need to. Bass knew her, and his greatest fear was that she was right, and he’d be left without his heart, and a pack to protect, when all he’d want to do was join her in the afterlife.
“So, she goes and you stay?” Jacob asked. “Won’t it be just as bad?”
“I say you go as planned. We can hold the fort until you’re back. It’s one night. We owe you this much,” Tyler said.
“You owe us nothing, Ty,” Bass replied.
Emotion filled Tyler’s gaze. “I owe her, Bass. Without Kat, I wouldn’t be here with a mate from River Run.” His words quietly hummed with gratitude and the love he had for his mate.
“I second that,” Logan said, speaking for the first time. He lifted out of his chair and walked the length of the room and back, surveying every face he passed. “We’re giving them this.” He paused in front of Bass and took his shoulder. “You’ve been fighting since you were a child for us, Bass. It’s time we gave a little back. Dark Shadow might have changed, but it still stole her parents from her. And if we can’t hold Dark Shadow together for two days, then we don’t deserve you both.”
Bass’s father had taught him emotion was weakness, love was to be twisted and used. Loyalty was a laughable commodity, and leadership was gained through fear. It saddened Bass in a way that his father never knew the privilege of having a pack who loved him as much as he loved them. They were a family, one who would die for each other. They all shared the lows and equally the highs, and it made whatever was coming a little easier to bear.
“Thank you, brother,” Bass murmured, touching foreheads with Logan. “You’ve no idea what your words mean to me.”
“I think we do.” Nico laughed. “We all see through the mask, Bass, to the sweet and squishy center.”
“I’d rather not think about his squishy center,” Noah teased. “But, I do agree with Logan.”
John stood taller. “It’s agreed then. They leave as planned tomorrow at noon, and I’ll take the lead until he returns.”
The anxiety which had been growing for days eased to a quiet hum; at least, he’d be able to give Katalina this.
He longed for a time where the pressures of war wouldn’t come between them. The simple life she deserved, and he hoped beyond hope they’d be given a chance to find it, or at least a life a little less deadly. He’d fight fate itself if he had to, but one way or another, Bass would make sure Katalina made it through the coming battle.
He’d turn the world red, burn it to the ground. She was his, and no one was going to touch her.
Chapter 33
John
Having worked a full day, it was late when John returned home, and Eva and Mathew were asleep. Padding silently into the room, he took a moment to watch them and absorb the heartwarming view into his soul. Eva slept, curled around Mathew’s tiny form, both subconsciously on his side of the bed as if being surround by his scent comforted them.
They’d given up putting Mathew into bed in the other room. He either wouldn’t sleep or simply joined them in the night anyway. Nightmares plagued his dreams, and John could only guess at the horrors that haunted the little boy’s mind. But when he was wedged between them, they weren’t as frequent, and both
