Mated Girl (Wolf Girl #4)(39)

Reaching under the table, Sawyer gave my thigh a squeeze, and that one squeeze said so much. It said: I’m sorry for what you went through. It said: I trust you.
“Okay.” His voice was small, as if he’d failed. “You lead the queen into the Dark Woods, but I want to be there too. I won’t allow you to go alone.”
I shook my head. “Weren’t you listening. The trees—”
“I’ll bring a fucking chainsaw!” Sawyer bellowed to the room. “Demi, I’m not ever going to be separated from you again. Ever.”
Damn stubborn idiot. “Fine,” I growled.
“I’m going too. He will probably get killed without my help.” Sage pointed to Sawyer. “And we should bring Creek, because I’m not dealing with some kidnapping situation once the vampires know about my nephew.”
She was right. Shit. She was so right. What if they found out about him…?
“The cabin,” I breathed. “Sawyer, Sage, and Creek can wait in the cabin and I’ll lure the queen there and kill her.”
The thought of seeing the place where I’d birthed my son again filled me with warmth.
“Would the woods hurt Creek?” Sawyer was suddenly rethinking his idea now that it involved our son.
“No,” Rab and I said at the same time.
“He’s the next Paladin alpha. They will not touch him,” Rab added.
The realization of that seemed to dawn on Sawyer and his eyes widened a little. I felt the shock of it through our bond.
‘How will our son lead two packs?’ Sawyer suddenly asked.
I had no fucking clue. ‘Problems for future Sawyer and Demi.’
‘Agreed,’ Sawyer said, and then looked at the leaders around the table.
“How do we protect the women and children during the fight?” Eugene asked. “We have over a hundred pregnant women.”
“What if we got the women, children, and elderly back into the bunker with a week’s worth of food while this plays out?” I offered.
Sawyer nodded. “That could work, although I don’t expect to be fighting for a week. We need to hit them hard and fast. I want this over in twenty-four hours after we start it.”
I blew air through my teeth. “When do we start it?”
Silence descended on the table. No one spoke, no one moved. How did you decide when to start a war that might possibly kill people you cared about?
“Probably sooner rather than later since they’re looking for all of you,” a familiar voice called from the open doorway.
Luka.
Sawyer stood, grinning. “You missed me, didn’t you?”
Luka rolled his eyes. “You know, my aunt can be a real hag, and I thought you might want some help.”
Okay, their little bromance was adorable.
Sawyer welcomed Luka to the table.
“Bennett and Talon?”
“In Spokane. I’ll meet up with them after I help you.”
I had to admit, his loyalty was kinda hot. My eyes flicked to Sage to see if she was drooling over the sexy vampire, but her gaze was pinned on Walsh.
Of course. I then looked at Raven to see her practically undressing Luka with her eyes and I grinned. She must have felt my gaze, because she looked at me and her cheeks pinked. Hmm, they would make a cute couple.
“Have you fed?” I asked Luka. He looked better.
Luka tipped his head to me. “Yes, ma’am. I met a nice fey-Ithaki in the woods. After she tried to kill me, I had lunch.”
Okay … I was no longer attracted to him and was now slightly terrified.
Sawyer was quick to defend his friend. ‘He doesn’t feed from women without permission. Unless they try to kill him of course.’
‘Of course.’
“Can you compulse?” I asked him point-blank. If he was vampire royalty, the queen’s nephew, he had to have some major power.
He stilled, suddenly unmoving more than he was already unmoving. I’d touched a nerve and I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was rude to ask, like the trolls couldn’t talk about their magic.
“Because if you can,” I tried to explain, “maybe you could help us lure the queen into the Dark Woods.”
My compulsion power was still at its baby stage, and I had zero hope that it would work on the queen of the freaking vampires.
He raised one eyebrow. “The Dark Woods?”
I nodded. “They’re cursed. I’ll have a better chance to fight her there.”
“We,” Sawyer amended, “will have a better chance to kill the queen there.”
“She has your wolf?” Luka asked.
I inclined my head.
“And she wants your blood to siphon your power?” he asked.
I looked at Sawyer, who shrugged. He had clearly told Luka everything.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Then you can expect she’ll have already fed on your wolf and be fighting fully juiced up.” He said it so nonchalantly, like it wasn’t the most horrible thing you could ever think of.
Fed on my wolf? Fuck.
My face must have betrayed my shock, because he softened, his strong jaw and predatorial gaze relaxing. “That knowledge will help us to be better prepared. And no one can compulse the queen. She’s above all of us in power, linked to all of us in a way that’s hard to explain. Similar to your pack bonds, I imagine.”
Okay, that was interesting information, and cool of him to share. Maybe this vampire dude wasn’t half bad.
“So you can’t help?” My voice was more defeated than I would have liked. I could lure her, like I had before, but I’d be winded by the time I got her to the Dark Woods and I really wanted the element of surprise.