Everyone we expected to be here was here. Everyone except Declan.
Just as the thought slipped through my mind, he stalked into the room. Light on his feet, he moved with the same predatory grace as the white Siberian tiger he shifted into.
He wore jeans and a plain gray short-sleeved t-shirt, having changed and washed the blood off when we returned from Clan Wolf.
His T-shirt stretched tight across his broad shoulders, highlighting his corded muscles. There was no hint of submission anywhere in his body. He was built to tear down his opponents with smooth efficiency.
As Alpha of the Pacific Northwest Pack, he was responsible for every shapeshifter living in his domain and he didn’t take his responsibilities lightly.
Our eyes connected and my heart skipped a beat.
He looked like a soldier. From his close-cropped white blonde hair to the trace of stubble on his jaw. He exuded rough, masculine, and competent.
His emerald-green eyes glowed as he took in the room. He was both predatory and irresistible. And he was mine.
I couldn’t help but stare at the sheer magnitude of him.
The bond between us thrummed. Heat suffused me. His eyes met mine again, full of so many promises.
Everyone was here.
Showtime.
The monitors flicked to life behind him, casting images of the H.A.C. on full display and illuminating his form. “This is where our enemy lives.”
Several pairs of eyes narrowed as they scrutinized the images in front of them. Twitch had provided blueprints of the facility along with aerial images to show the landscape and terrain.
“The Human Alliance Corporation has proven time and time again that they are our enemy. They’ve attacked my mate, they’ve murdered our people, they’ve stolen our children, and now they’ve chosen to wage war.”
Snarls filled the room.
“We will no longer stand by as they seek to destroy us. We will not find peace with this enemy. With an enemy like this, there is only one option …”
Declan paused and met the eye of every Alpha shifter in the room. “If it is a war they seek, it is war we will give them.”
The tension rose as shouts and growls filled the space, bloodlust swiftly rising to the forefront of every shifter’s mind. They’d kidnapped my friend and attacked two of the clan houses in the less than one week. I doubted anyone in the room would be opposed to the upcoming battle but still, it was our job to remind them what the H.A.C. had already done and what they were still capable of if we chose not to act.
Declan turned to me and nodded, giving me the floor. He’d pushed for me to step up and have a voice. I still didn’t know what everyone thought of me—the human mate—but Declan had argued that if I wanted them to accept me then I needed a voice. I couldn’t be meek beside him. I had to be his equal.
“You’ve all seen what I can do,” I said.
I’d stood here in this very room the first time I’d willingly exposed my pyrokinetic abilities. Since then I’d acquired telekinetic abilities and while I was still untrained, I could do enough damage to give each shifter pause before an attack.
“My mother has an army of people like me that can do everything I can do, only better. She’s been cultivating her army of psykers for the last six or more years. They’re trained. They’re disciplined. And my mother will do whatever she can to put humans back on top.
She doesn’t care who she hurts. I’m her daughter, her flesh and blood, and yet she’s proven time and time again if she can’t control me, then she’ll settle for killing me.” More snarls filled the room, a particularly vicious one coming from Declan.
“But this isn’t just about me. My mother and the H.A.C. want to see every shapeshifter and anyone else they consider a threat dead. You remember what was done to the children.” That was perhaps my mother’s worst transgression. The H.A.C. had been responsible for abducting, abusing, and experimenting on several shifter children between the ages of four and seventeen. To the Pack, every child was precious and harming children was an unforgivable offense. That one act alone demanded more retribution than anything else the H.A.C. could have done.
I didn’t want to think about what would have happened to them, to Caden, Emma, Jeb, Jordan, and the others if I’d never found them.
Brock leaned forward in his seat, his eyes defiant. “What are our tactical options?” As head of security, he’d want a plan and he’d want to make sure the odds were in our favor.
Jason was already working on swaying the allegiance of those psykers within the H.A.C. but even if they left, we couldn’t count on them to fight beside us. The men and women they’d be leaving behind had been their friends and peers for years. Those feelings of camaraderie didn’t go away overnight.
I chanced a glance at Declan. He sat immobile, his expression predatory. The H.A.C. hadn’t attacked the Compound—yet. But if what Twitch had provided could be counted on—and I only ever assumed that it could—then they were preparing for something. He suspected a large scale attack and it wasn’t a far-off bet to assume that attack would come our way.
“We have three options. One, we could hole
