strongest warriors do have kids, and they aren’t going to want to run into battle knowing their families won’t be safe in their absence. Elderly parents. The ill and disabled. If we leave them without protection, we might as well be their murderers.
But how do we fight two battles? How do we go after the witches, but leave enough wolves behind to protect the children and elderly from being slaughtered?
Then Sable makes a noise in her throat. I can feel her body stiffen a little next to me, and I look over at her to find a thoughtful look spreading across her face.
“I think I have an idea,” she tells us.
21
Sable
I feel very confident about my plan until every eye in the room turns to look at me.
Suddenly, my old panic rustles around inside me, and I have to fight the urge to run away from all those gazes. It shows how far I’ve come that I stand my ground. I’m a part of this pack now, come what may, and I have a voice here. I don’t have to be afraid to speak up, like I did in my fake uncle’s household.
Here, I’m a part of the team.
But I’m about to ask something of them that I know isn’t going to be easy for anyone to swallow. That makes speaking a little harder than it should be.
I steel myself, catch Ridge’s gaze, and say, “We should ask Gwen for help.”
We tracked down the solitary witch in her cabin deep in the mountainous wilderness not long ago on Elder Jihoon’s recommendation. She was barely more than legend before that point. Rumor suggested she existed, though nobody had ever seen her. Rumor also said she wasn’t affiliated with the coven, so we hoped, maybe prematurely, that she would help me learn to harness and control my burgeoning powers before I hurt someone around me.
Gwen turned out to be… not so willing to get involved. We found out that she carries a deep hatred of Cleo, and that it was the driving force behind her leaving the coven and holing up in the mountains to live a solitary life. I did manage to convince her to give us some assistance, which is how we discovered that the scars on my skin are sigils that bind me to Cleo.
Her help has changed the game already. It’s the reason we had warning about the attack on the East Pack village. It’s the reason I know as much as I do about the bond between me and Cleo.
But even though she willingly offered that help and demanded nothing in return, she didn’t seem to have any interest in getting dragged into the fight. She hates Cleo, but she also seems to be afraid of her—with good reason.
Ridge cocks an eyebrow at me. “She didn’t even want to help us in the first place.”
“But she did help me,” I insist. “She didn’t want to fight on our side, it’s true. But maybe she would’ve done even more if we hadn’t needed to leave so quickly.”
While Gwen and I were investigating the bond through the astral plane, I saw Cleo torturing Lawson for information on the packs’ defenses. My mates and I hightailed it out of there to get back home before they breached our barriers. I think there’s a pretty good chance Gwen would have continued to help me learn about my powers if we’d been able to stay longer, and I hope like hell that if we ask again, she’ll consider joining our cause.
To be fair, though, I understand my mates’ hesitation. Gwen was not happy to see us show up on her remote doorstep. A woman doesn’t build a life off the grid, far from all civilization, only to welcome visitors with open arms.
“Gwen hates Cleo,” I remind my men, even as all four of them continue to eye me skeptically. “I think part of the reason she hates her is because Cleo is so vicious to the wolves. I don’t know—maybe it’s not even Cleo’s hatred of wolves that’s the problem, but the genocidal tendencies? She’s twisted her entire coven to hate the shifters, and it soured Gwen to her. She left the coven because of how hateful Cleo is. It could have been humans in our place, or other witches, and I think Gwen still would’ve seen Cleo for the psychopath she is.”
“You don’t have any proof of that,” Dare points out, running a hand over his strong jaw.
“No,” I admit. “I