the plan. She knew generally where they’d be, but not exactly. She’d been calling him mentally for most of the night. She’d sort of stopped expecting an answer.
“Lyndi.”
She bobbled in the air again, exhaustion gone for a second, banished by the sound of his voice and the sudden need to see his face.
“Thank the gods. Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” Except Tineen was still alive and Deep was out there alone. “The boys?”
“Safe.”
She took a deep breath. She’d take every victory she could get. “Where do I go?”
Quickly he determined what she could see from the sky and then relayed instructions. She’d timed her arrival well. Levi had been traveling nights and they’d just gone to sleep for the day. A tiny burst of golden fire caught her eye in the forest below, a large clearing nearby.
“I saw you.”
She aimed at the spot, landed in a clearing, and caught his scent. Something about him smelled like home, and memories, and suddenly everything that had led up to this—his being recalled, her being assigned Tineen as a mate, having to run with the boys—all hit her at once. She shifted and walked toward the man at the other end of the clearing.
The second she saw his face, she crumpled, the exhaustion she’d been fighting to get here faster finally hitting hard.
She had no idea how fast he could move until that moment, because he managed to catch her on the way down, wrapping his arms around her, tucking her face into the crook of his neck.
“I was going to kill Tineen, only he wasn’t there,” she whispered.
Levi tensed against her. “I should have guessed.” He cupped the back of her head and held her. “The most important thing is you’re safe.”
She nodded against him. “I know. I just…I could have ended this.”
“I get it.” She could feel him smiling against her hair. “I want that bastard dead, too. Did you get the mate out?”
“Yes.”
He nodded and then they just sort of settled. He held her, seeming to be in no hurry to move them. Then he listened as she told him. Everything. Including her plan to take Tineen out of the equation so she could keep her boys safe. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t yell at her about it, either. Just ran his hand over her hair and held her, and that somehow lightened the load.
Not that the worry or the problems were gone by a long shot. But she was here now, they were all safe for the moment, with Levi, until he had to leave for his clan, and with her boys who were alive and well.
Rest. And then maybe she could face this better.
“Come on,” he said.
As though he knew exactly what she needed, Levi got them up and into camp. “The boys are all asleep,” he said. “We’ll let them know you’re here when it’s time to get up.”
He got her into their tent and lay down with her, wrapping an arm around her stomach to pull her in tight to his body.
“Sleep. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
…
Levi didn’t close his eyes, his gaze on the woman who’d claimed his heart over two hundred years ago. Who’d never shown weakness. Ever. Not in front of others at least. But she’d trusted him enough to show him her frustrations and fears and exhaustion, not to mention that damn plan to take out an enforcer alpha on her own—something she would have tried to hide from him before—and his heart had rejoiced that she would turn to him in that moment, in that way.
He thought she was asleep, but suddenly, Lyndi shimmied around in his arms until she turned over to face him. Sneaking a hand between them, she feathered a touch over his face, no doubt tracing the lines of tiredness. “You look as bad as I feel.”
He huffed a laugh. “It’s been rough.”
“Let me guess, you’ve been taking most of the patrols?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep without you next to me anyway.”
She shook her head at that. “Thank you. For keeping them safe,” she whispered.
“Of course,” he said on a sigh, tipping his head back. “Another day or two, when I’m satisfied the trail is cold and we haven’t been tracked and neither have you, and I’ll rest.”
His eyes were closed so he missed her expression. He didn’t miss the speaking silence.
“You have a plan, don’t you?” she asked quietly. “Of where the boys and I should hide.”
They’d only talked deep Alaska so