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I waited all day for Tank to contact me. Paced in my hotel room until management called to request I cool it. Bit my fingernails to the quick.
Or, rather, my wolf did. She wanted out. She wanted to follow Tank. She wanted. She wanted. She wanted.
“I want too,” I growled, swallowing down fur that tried to creep up my throat every time I inhaled too deeply. “I want to go back in time and fix the holes in our plan. Go in beside him. Go in instead of him. But we can’t. We can only move forward.”
Forward. Yes. Rescue. Now.
My fingernails, I realized, had thickened into claws while I wasn’t looking. I clenched my fists. Bit back the wolf. Calmed her with the rational, human understanding we both needed to nurture if we intended to help Tank.
“We have to wait.”
How long?
Her demand or mine? I couldn’t tell.
Wherever the thought came from, it had definite merit. Tank should have contacted us long before now. His silence said it all.
Still, I forced us to pause and consider what might have gone wrong. When taken at face value, the proposed timeline had been simple. Jasmine would smuggle Tank into the McCallister compound, sword and all. He’d find a way to send Marina back to the fae Otherworld. Then Jasmine would get him out of the compound and he’d give me a call for pickup.
Only, Tank hadn’t called. Not that evening. Not overnight. Not by dawn on Samhain itself.
No more waiting. Rescue, my wolf repeated.
“We can’t rescue him alone,” I rebutted. The wolf stilled long enough for me to reassemble the few belongings I’d scattered around the hotel room. The whole time, my mind whirled with options, not all of which terminated in dead ends.
Tank and I had agreed that I wouldn’t return to Rowan’s compound alongside him. It was too dangerous when the gifted bracer meant Marina knew where I was at all times.
But even if I couldn’t batter down Rowan’s doors personally, I could do something. I just needed allies. Powerful allies.
“The question is—how much will it cost?”
Doesn’t matter. Do it.
My wolf’s strength prompted me to dial one of the numbers I’d memorized. Tank’s friends. Harper’s keepers. The phone rang half a dozen times before anyone answered, long enough to raise a niggle of worry. The fact the speaker was out of breath when he finally picked up didn’t ease my concern.
“Who is this?” he demanded.
“Athena. Harper’s sister.”
A rustling as if the phone was being transferred. Then the same voice, more muffled as if from a distance. “Say something.”
Harper’s voice when she obeyed was clearer than his had been...and more feral. “You’re just trying to make me lose.”
Lose? “What are you losing at?”
“Athena?” Harper’s voice softened. “I’m winning at arm wrestling. Kira and I both are.”
A hoot in the background confirmed her assertion. Then a grumble emerged from the male as he took back the phone. “They’re cheating.”
Given what I knew about Kira, I wouldn’t be at all surprised by that fact. But I sidestepped the issue. “You believe I’m Harper’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“Then will you give me your alpha’s phone number?”
“Sure. Would have given you Gunner’s digits anyway. All you had to do was ask.”
He rattled off a series of numbers while I tried to work my head around the fact he hadn’t called his pack leader “alpha.” Still, I managed to commit them to memory. “Thanks,” I offered.
His answer was muffled as if he was speaking to someone away from the microphone. “I saw that!”
This time, the peals of laughter came in the unmistakable tones of my sister. I smiled as I hung up the phone.
***
MY SMILE DIDN’T LAST long. Going to an alpha for help was the last thing I’d ever thought I’d be doing. There would be strings attached when I made my request. No, not strings. Make that ropes. Huge, thigh-thick ropes like the ones I’d seen dangling from the sides of ocean-going ships.
But the emptiness in my gut forced me to grasp at any possibility of assistance for Tank. My inner wolf was adamant about the fact.
Still, I put off the unsavory task until I’d checked out of the hotel then driven aimlessly in my rental car to ensure Marina hadn’t sent someone to follow me. I was far enough from her current location that I hoped she’d ignore my movements. That did appear to be the case.
Finally, though, I couldn’t put off the call any longer. I pulled into a grocery-store parking lot, eying shoppers through the windshield until I was certain none were shifters. Then I took a deep breath and dialed the number I’d been given.
This time I rushed out my greeting as soon as the line connected. “You don’t know me, but I’m Athena,” I started.
Only to be interrupted by a voice just as gruff and growly as the one I craved to hear again. “You’re Tank’s...”
And Gunner, in turn, was interrupted by a female. “Hush!” she hissed.
I blinked, trying to understand who this was with the temerity to silence an alpha. And, more relevantly, what she held over him to force him to obey.
Because he was obeying. Gunner had hushed, giving me leeway to elaborate. I cleared my throat and dove in.
“Yes, I’m Tank’s team mate in the Samhain Shifters. The thing is, I need your help.”
The woman’s demand for silence was forgotten as Gunner pounced upon my statement. “Lupe already called us,” he acknowledged. His voice was frustrated. I was pretty sure the tapping I heard was fingers drumming on a tabletop. “But there’s nothing we can do. Everyone here is Tank’s pack mate. Lupe swore he wouldn’t be present, but I begged to differ. Tank doesn’t stop halfway. He’ll be there for the showdown, and if I come our bond will place him in danger.”
If he came? The alpha himself?
Of course, that’s what I was about to ask for, in a manner of speaking. For Gunner to put himself on the line...just not in person.
“Your instincts are good,” I agreed, speaking carefully. “Tank’s at the node already.” Now, how to broach the massive favor I’d dreamed up while sitting by my silent phone all night?
Only, I didn’t have to. Gunner bit out a curse. “He’s there? And you’re calling.” His voice hardened. “In that case, you need alphas from other packs.”
“I’d hoped for anyone from other packs. Or, rather, one from each pack. Preferably people who can handle swords. People who can get there before sunset tonight.”
Because that’s when the node would open. When it would be too late to send Marina back and halt the invasion.
When it would be too late to disentangle Tank from whatever swamp he’d gotten mired in. The emptiness in my stomach intensified.
Gunner’s response confirmed my suspicion—he was capable of delivering assistance if he was willing to expend social capital in order to do so. “Lupe said she hadn’t had much luck interesting other packs. I could call in favors, but it would take serious arm twisting.”
“I know.” I hated this part. The promise I’d have to make. Hated it...but was entirely ready to take the hit to ensure Tank’s safety. “I’ll owe you anything you want if you do this for me. Anything that won’t injure my sister. But I, personally, will...”
In the background, the other woman laughed. This was Kira’s sister, Mai. I somehow knew that. Well, not somehow. Knew because who but Gunner’s mate could have silenced an alpha so powerful I could feel the chill of his presence over the phone?
“There is something we want,” Mai called, knowing I’d hear her even though it was clear her mouth wasn’t close to the microphone. “When everything is said and done, you’ll come here. I want to meet you.”
“Good bargain,” Gunner agreed, his voice suddenly so warm it felt like the sun had broken through the clouds above me. I peered up at the sky, but there was no sign of our planet’s personal star. The day was still just as gloomy as it had been a minute before.
“With or without Tank,” Gunner continued in a tone that almost sounded teasing. Then, returning to business. “I can promise you at least half a dozen sword wielders from different packs. More maybe. Where do you want them to meet?”
I rattled off an address, feeling shell shocked. Hung up the phone. Then dialed the final person on my list.
***
I’D EXPECTED STONEWALLING from Gunner and gotten sunshine. Lupe, however, bit back even harder than I’d suspected she would.
“You realize Marina probably has him.” The leader of the Samhain Shifters was furious, but she kept her voice level. “You haven’t helped matters. You’ve made everything ten times worse.”
If we’d been face to face, my wolf would have forced me to cower. As it was, I held my ground. “It was a valid risk to take. And I’m fixing it.”
“Oh, you are?” she scoffed. “How exactly?”
Between her words, the memory of my withheld information flowed between us. I hadn’t been a team player then, but I was being one now.
“I have the promise of at least six sword-wielding shifters,” I told her, expecting at any moment to be interrupted. The line stayed silent, though, as I elaborated. “They’ll all tie red bandannas around their left arms so you can recognize them. I just need to know where the node is. Has Butch improved enough to track that down?”
More silence, and when Lupe responded she didn’t answer my question. Instead, she did one better. She acknowledged that I’d succeeded where she’d failed. “I’m...impressed. And I apologize. I thought Butch was right and you were in this for the money.”
My wolf sharpened my answer. “I was then. I’m not now. About the node....”
I half expected Lupe to spout out something about need-to-know basis. Instead, her voice turned businesslike, almost as if I was back on the team. “As of now, Butch still believes it will materialize at the McCallister compound. We won’t know exactly where until later this afternoon. In the meantime, we’ll meet you and your backup. Where and when?”
I shared the gathering location I’d agreed upon with Gunner. And I was about to hang up when Lupe supplied information I wouldn’t have thought to ask for.
“Your connection to Marina—she owes you a favor.”
“She owes me?” Simple solutions leapt to the fore. I could ask Marina to hop back through the node and take all other fae along with her. I could ask....
“Something commensurate with what you provided. The museum job took only a couple hours of your time, so your boon would have to be similarly minor.”
“I can’t just ask her to end this?”
I could hear the rustle as Lupe’s head shook. “No. But you should consider what you might ask for. In a pinch, the boon might be turned to our advantage. You’d have to get the words just right though. She’ll be hoping you leave a loophole of inequality to let her reel you back in.”
That was the only warning she provided. Lupe didn’t remind me that Marina would know the moment I headed in her direction. Didn’t warn me a second time that my presence could be worse than my absence.
Instead, she accepted the fact that I’d be joining the strike force when we assembled an hour before sunset. She trusted me to make it work.