“What time is it?” I murmured back. It was dark outside the windows and the cabin lights were still turned down low. We hadn’t left Long Mesa for hours after my little break down at the omega house.
Mom had finished separating the pack. Remy used his Alpha Command to compel them all to change. Lulu’s magic swept over them, the act silent and invisible. I hadn’t even realized she had used her magic until her legs gave out and she went down.
Dimitri had been waiting to catch her, and I heard him start cursing as a small dribble of blood seeped from her nose. She tried telling him, and all of us, that she was okay, but it was obvious the more magic she used, the more it wore on her body.
The now shifterless wolves ran out of town with one snarl from Remy. Quite a few people opted to stay in Long Mesa or go to family in nearby towns whose packs had joined Blackwater. Bria and a few others returned with us. Remy left half the men we’d brought to stay in Long Mesa just in case, and the next plane of people from Europe were being diverted to shore up the south west portion of our growing pack.
But now that Long Mesa had fallen, Blackwater controlled the western coast from California to the Arctic and as far inland as Texas. Norwood had more people still, but our numbers were steadily climbing.
I felt kind of shitty for taking a backseat for the rest of the trip. My mind was still trying to process everything that had happened.
Cassian, Allan, Marc, and Linden were all now officially a brutally distant memory. In a lot of ways, I was freer than I had ever been. But the threat of Norwood wasn’t going away. It was growing closer.
“It’s a little after midnight,” Remy told me, nuzzling the crown of my head. “How’d you sleep?”
“Good,” I admitted, still completely limp against him. For all his hard muscles, he made an excellent pillow. “Did you sleep?”
“A little,” he said, but the shadowing around his jaw and the tired look in his eyes made me think that little was basically nonexistent.
“Sorry for kind of shutting down back there,” I said, easing one hand from where I had it bent awkwardly between us. I flattened it on the hard plane of his chest. “I didn’t think it would hit me that hard.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” he replied, his brow furrowing. “That was where you lived?”
I nodded slowly, feeling flayed open and vulnerable.
Anger flashed in his eyes before it was smothered by love and concern. “I’m sorry, baby.” His finger traced the slope of my nose with heartbreaking gentleness.
“You scared us,” he admitted after a second. “Your mom was worried it was too much.”
“Where is she?” I asked, lifting my head to look around. Remy had tucked us into the back corner of the airplane, away from everyone. From this angle, I couldn’t see over the seats to where Mom was.
“She’s here.”
I glanced across the aisle, my eyes focusing and then widening when I saw Nikolai sitting there with Mom curled against his side. His arm was wrapped around her, and she looked more peaceful than I’d seen in years as she slept soundly. Even the jolt of the plane touching down hadn’t woken her up.
I blinked slowly, almost expecting them to vanish like a mirage.
“Is she okay?” I finally asked.
Nikolai glanced down at her, his expression infinitely gentle in a way I had never seen. “She will be. I think the day was as exacting on her as it was you. I’m thankful for you both to be rid of that place.”
Nikolai glared briefly at Remy, who snorted.
“Your dad thought we should just burn the whole town to the ground,” Remy explained.
“It made the most sense,” he insisted.
I smiled. “The place wasn’t the problem. The people were. And now those people are gone.”
“Too quickly,” Nikolai added bitterly. “I thought it would have been fun to round them up and take them to Russia. My guards could use the target practice.”
My jaw dropped a little. “Um. That sounds like a lot.”
“And I told him their punishment was enough,” Remy cut in firmly.
Nikolai’s gray eyes slid to me, but I could see the teasing glint. “I’m worried your mate may be slightly too merciful, little wolf.”
I glanced up at Remy with a grin, my finger dragging along the slope