he was on this stupid, crazy mission, visiting a feral, violent clan, knowing that everyone there would expect him to be—Oak Ridge’s crown prince, or something equally medieval.
But he looked over at Athena and Santos, shoulders brushing as they strapped Olivia into her car seat, and he knew he couldn’t do anything else. That child needed a better future.
Chapter 2: Sage
“I’m going to kill them.”
Sage rubbed her forehead, looking through her fingers at a sight she’d gotten very, very used to over the years: her brother pacing back and forth in a rage.
“They stood there and looked me in the eye and told me they were traitors. Traitors. To. Our. Clan. I’m going to—I’m going to—”
Shiloh ran out of words and let out an infuriated noise instead.
“Did you ask them why they did it?” Sage asked, taking advantage of the momentary silence.
Shiloh whirled on her. “You think there’s some excuse that would justify this? Going over to the enemy?”
“Of course not!” she snapped. Shiloh was such a damn hothead. “There’s no excuse. But if you knew why, then maybe you could change their minds. We need them.”
Athena was the only other clan member with a young child. Without her and Olivia, their new generation dwindled to...one.
And Alaric...Shiloh wouldn’t hear this, but since Ronan had left, Alaric was their best fighter. His loss would weaken them severely.
Shiloh, of course, was not about to think strategically when he could get angry instead. “We don’t need traitors. We could never welcome them back. Not after something like this.”
Sage closed her eyes. Whatever her own personal opinion, Shiloh was right. Because Shiloh took after their father, and Jeremiah’s word would be law here.
“Can’t you see, Shiloh?” Sage tried one more time. “First Ronan, now Athena and Alaric together...we can’t lose any more people! We’re going to disappear at this rate, and...Rhiannon will be the only one left.”
She couldn’t bear the thought of that. The clan dying off or leaving, one by one, and her daughter left alone in the world, no one to take care of her, no one to love her...
Protect the clan! her inner dragon hissed. Sage was in full agreement.
Shiloh’s eyes flashed. “I won’t let that happen.” He gripped her shoulder. “Rhiannon is going to grow up in a strong clan. The strongest. I swear.”
He let go and turned to leave. “Wait!” Sage said.
Shiloh stopped, sort of. Still pacing back and forth, he turned. “What?”
She bit her lip. “What are you going to tell Father when he gets back?”
Worryingly, he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I’ll think of something.”
The door closed behind him, and Sage was left alone in her broken-down little house. She looked around in despair.
The place was full of little remnants of the humans who had lived there once, and abandoned it decades ago. Jeremiah was good at finding these little run-down settlements, places where the humans had tried to make a life and, ultimately, failed. It was better than living in caves, but still...
Sage wished there was a way for shifters to build their own towns. Where clans could live in—not luxury, she didn’t need that, but in a bit more comfort than this.
Maybe then they’d have a chance to grow. Sage bit her lip suddenly, feeling tears rise up behind her eyes. With Athena and Olivia gone, that was it. The clan was all men...and her and her daughter.
She wasn’t going to cry about it. She wasn’t. It had happened, and that was that, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
It wasn’t like she and Athena had ever even been friends, really. Athena was more like a man than like Sage. She liked fighting, and flying, and—Sage didn’t even know what else. Even having a baby hadn’t softened her, really.
But still. The house felt so much lonelier, all of a sudden.
“Rhiannon?” Sage called, wanting her daughter close, now that the safe part of the world had shrunk once again. “Baby, where are you?”
Rhiannon didn’t call back. Probably caught up in one of her little games again—she got so absorbed in her make-believe, sometimes, she forgot the rest of the world even existed.
“Rhiannon?” Sage moved through the house, but Rhiannon wasn’t anywhere she could see.
She tried again, this time focusing on places a seven-year-old might be hiding. There weren’t many—the house only had four rooms.
Then she noticed the back door. Unlocked.
She’d locked it. Right? She had definitely locked it.
Great. Sage tried to calm the fear that was rising in her—Rhiannon played outside all the time, nothing was necessarily