“Hold up, Alpha.” Vash drew abreast of him, swords stil in hand. “I’m coming with you.”
The way she strode by his side, armed, offered her support without words. They were a united front. Al ies. He almost laughed at the terrible absurdity.
“You have to put it away, Alpha.”
He came to an abrupt halt, his hands fisting at his sides.
“Wanna take it out on someone?” she asked softly, facing him and sliding one blade into its scabbard. “I’m your girl. I’m always up for a heated sparring match. But you’l regret carrying that baggage in front of the others. Trust me. I know.”
“Do you?” he chal enged. “Have you kil ed someone you promised to protect with your life?”
Amazingly, her beautiful amber eyes softened with something like sympathy. “I’ve done some horrible things, things I’m not proud of and have a hard time living with. It’s part of the job of being a leader. I’m not saying you should suck it up and get over it, because you’re not going to get over it.
That’s also part of the job—if you stop caring, you’re worthless. I’m just saying you can’t stand in front of your troops seething with guilt, because that implies culpability and this was an assisted suicide. Rachel had to know she couldn’t possibly win against you or me. She was ready to go, and this was how she chose to do it.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” His friendships were precious to him. As frustrated as he was with Rachel, she was stil a friend and a pack member and he ached from her loss.
Vash shrugged. “Nothing wil . But you didn’t do anything wrong. It was a shitty thing to do, yeah, but it had to be done. For her sake, my sake, your sake, and the sake of this al iance that we both real y f**king need. As I said, if you wanna knock it out, I’m here. Just don’t take it in there.”
“There wil be more,” he muttered, respecting her counsel and appreciating—however reluctantly—that she’d offered it. “The others didn’t know what they were getting into when they orchestrated this revolt, and many of them aren’t going to be happy with the decisions I’m making.”
“Fuck ’em. Until they’ve been in command, they can’t know what it’s like.”
He snorted. She knew what it was like, which created an unexpected affinity between them.
She smacked him on the shoulder. “Ready, puppy?”
Fuck. She was hot as hel but total y crazy. Irreverent and unpredictable, too. Yet when he’d researched her, he’d heard the stories of her hunts— she was like a lycan on the scent when she pursued, dogged and unwavering, dependable for those who hunted with her. And now it seemed there was a method to her madness.
He growled. It’d been better when the only thing he admired about her was her tits. “Stick close to me.”
“I’ve got your back.”
“Fine. Make it easy for me to have yours.”
She glanced at him as they entered the main cavern. Blood stil stained the ground from his earlier fight and he was trudging in more, his wounded leg leaving a crimson trail in his wake.
Throwing his head back, he howled, a purely inhuman sound. Within moments, the space began to fil . Vash appeared startled by the number of lycans who poured in. “Jeez. Who knew so many furries could fit in one cave?”
Elijah waited until the room was so ful that a mere five feet of clearance surrounded them. He relayed the recent events without inflection— starting with Vashti’s arrival and ending with his reason for taking the life of a packmate. His remorse and frustration roiled, twisting around his vitals, but he contained them, even as he expressed sincere regret that they’d lost one of their own.
As some of the lycans in the room shifted into their lupine forms, Vash lifted her blade and set the flat of it against her shoulder. While her pose was casual, it conveyed her battle readiness. The beasts paced and she tracked them with her gaze.
“I’m asking you to trust the orders I give and the actions I take,” he finished, “whether you understand and agree with them or not. If you can’t, I won’t stop you from leaving and I won’t think less of you. If you stay, some of you wil be on the move tomorrow and working with vampires. In either case, try to get some rest tonight. Things wil be stressful for al of us for the next while.”
He started forward, heading for the cavern he was using as sleeping quarters. The female who’d announced Vash’s arrival the day before stepped into his path. Sarah was a young Omega—he guessed mid-twenties—and exceptional y pretty, with long straight black hair and tip-tilted eyes.
“Alpha.” She met his gaze shyly. “Al ow me to tend your wounds.”
He almost brushed her off, his emotions too volatile to welcome company. But her earnestness touched him. While there were many who would chal enge him, there were others who needed a different sort of guidance—a soft touch and gentle words to go along with a firm hand. It was the sort of leadership he longed to provide and hoped he could eventual y achieve once their situation became less precarious. “I’d be grateful if you would, Sarah.”
Battery-operated lights lined the passageway. Gesturing at his office, he spoke over his shoulder to Vashti. “Grab your bag.”
She muttered something under her breath, but complied. She joined him a few minutes later in his room, entering at the moment he had his hands on his fly. He shed his ruined pants and sat on the military locker placed at the foot of his air mattress. Sarah sank to her knees between his spread legs and opened the first-aid kit.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Vash queried tightly.
Elijah looked up at her, noting the rigidness of her jaw and her narrowed gaze. Nudity was nothing to a lycan, but perhaps it meant something to Vashti. Wondering if the vampress could possibly be feeling as proprietary about him as he felt about her, he reached out and tucked Sarah’s hair behind one ear. Vash stepped closer, the hand not holding her duffel wrapping tightly around the hilt of a blade strapped to her thigh.