His smile was wide and friendly. “No worries. Lucinda here is my little tidda. Right, baby sister?” He stroked her head and she nodded against his chest. “I’ll keep taking good care of her. She’s like family.” With that, he turned tail and headed back to the main area of the small settlement.
Alone with Barwon, I forced myself to bury my sadness and refocus. “What do you have?”
He eyed me a moment before speaking, his gaze penetrating and searching. After a beat, he asked, “When you leave, you’ll be taking your niece?”
“Yes.” While I hadn’t discussed it with Thatch, there was no way I could leave without her. There was still my job and the current mission, but as soon as Lucinda had gripped me and trusted me enough with her grief, the certainty that we couldn’t be apart again had taken me unaware but settled deep.
Barwon nodded. “Please take Koen with you.”
Surprise had my eyes opening wide. “Koen?” My brows dipped low when I considered his request. “Why?” While it was obvious he thought of my niece as a little sister of sorts, for him to leave his pack to—I could only assume—help protect her was one hell of a move. And since I spoke from experience of the hardship of leaving a pack behind, even one I detested, I understood all too well what a big deal it was.
With modern times, there were lots of shifters like me who no longer belonged to a pack, usually those who opted to live in the city and choose a career in the SCIB or similar. Living without a pack as a wolf shifter was hard. We took comfort in touch and bonding with our kin, and from the way they had welcomed and cared for Lucinda, the Ballard pack didn’t appear to be rife with tension or bad blood.
“Koen is my nephew. His mother died during childbirth with him and his father died last year. He’s a protector, could be an alpha, but he’s also a loner. He would do well continuing his role of protector for your niece and living in your world. Moving away from the pressure of conforming to pack life is what he needs. His heart is no longer here.”
Young Koen’s plight was one I could appreciate. The only difference being, I wished my parents were dead. I exhaled and wasn’t quite sure if I was doing the right thing, but I agreed. Having Koen help protect Lucinda was hardly a bad thing. Who the hell knew what he’d do with himself, or even where he’d stay, but screw it. Nothing about the past few weeks made a lick of sense. We’d figure it all out eventually.
“Thank you.” Barwon reached out and shook my hand. “Your Thatcher is waiting for us.” I raised my brows at that and reacted to his smirk with a smile. “Let’s walk.”
We headed towards a cabin complete with wraparound veranda. “Has he received any more intel from base?” I asked, unable to keep quiet and wait till I was with Thatch.
“Yes, but we’ve also received a call from my friend about twenty kilometres away. Two unfamiliar vehicles were heading in our direction.”
I nodded, recognising that for such an isolated place, anything outside the norm would be reported.
“Eight men in total, but we’re not sure of species.”
“And they’ll have to come by foot the same sort of distance we did?” I clarified.
“Yes. I have a couple heading out to keep an eye on their location. We’ve also relocated a portion of our pack to keep them out of danger, but we don’t plan for these men to get as close as our settlement.”
I could understand why he wouldn’t want that. “Has Thatch explained what these men are after, what they’re doing?”
Anger sparked in his eyes as he looked at me. “Yes. And we’ll do what we can here to stop this from happening.”
Gratitude for Barwon and his pack had me pausing. He stopped and faced me. “Thank you. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to repay you.”
“Help my nephew find the life and happiness he is searching for, and balance will be restored. Some journeys take kin away, never to return. Our ancestors walked so much of our land; I’m sure over to Sydney too.” He smiled. “He’ll find his peace there. You’ll help him.”
I kept my face neutral, wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into, but it was too late to react now. Instead, I bobbed my head and continued.
We met inside the cabin, my gaze settling immediately on Thatch, whose eyes were on me as I stepped through the door. He didn’t miss a beat as he said to Laketon, “We need to leave in five minutes. No later.”
My pulse spiked. This had to be done right. It didn’t matter that this was going down now and our team didn’t surround us. The case may have been personal to Thatch and me, but it was personal to every shifter too. It meant that I had to have faith in Laketon and Barwon.
Barwon stepped further into the room and began dishing out orders to his shifters while Thatch reached my side and indicated I should follow him out. Alone and heading a short distance away from the building, I inhaled and exhaled slowly, allowing myself a moment to pull myself together before I needed to refocus completely.
“You’re great with her.”
I swept my hand over my face and back through my hair. “You can’t know that.”
Thatch’s brow quirked high. “Her greeting of you, an uncle she’s never met in real life, was enough of a clue. And that she’s been at the centre of every decision you’ve made is more than enough.”
I watched his face carefully when I said, “After we take care of these bastards, she’s coming back to Sydney with me.”
One step closer and a firm hand on my cheek with the words “With us,” had my heart pounding loudly. The sound made it difficult to
