Mated Girl (Wolf Girl #4)(41)

I sputtered in shock at his words. “That’s quite the dysfunctional family,” I offered, and then regretted my words.
“You have no idea,” Luka said dryly, seemingly unperturbed by my bluntness.
“So you’ll hide out in Spokane for the month, take your chance with the hunters?” Sawyer said.
Luka reached up, stretching his arms over his head. “That’s the plan.”
Were we really doing this? Taking back Wolf City, killing the queen? Could life go back to normal somewhat? I’d been in survival mode for so long, I didn’t even know what normal looked like anymore.
“As soon as Marmal gets back with the trolls … we attack,” Sawyer announced. “The queen knows we’re out of prison. She’ll be expecting retaliation, and I don’t want to give her the time to plan.”
I nodded in agreement. The first war we’d lost because we’d relied too much on technology and guns and helicopters and fancy modern things. All of which the witches had brought down the first day. This time we were smarter, this time we would bring down their guns, and fight them with brute pack strength.

 
You couldn’t really ever prepare for war. You were never really ready to risk your life and rush into battle willing to kill someone. There was a deep place inside of all of us, that place where the fight or flight response came from, that prepared you as much as it could, but you had to push yourself the other half of the way. I stood at the open gates of Paladin Village, bringing myself the other half of the way, readying myself for war, where anything was possible.
Marmal had just shown up with over two hundred troll volunteers, all ready to defect from Troll Village, which was currently battling a famine, and live in Wolf City once we restored it. Sawyer had agreed that the future of Wolf City was a shared space where everyone who helped to liberate it was welcome. Witch, troll and werewolf, both Paladin and city, would live in harmony and create a new future that was hopefully unbreakable.
“I’ll go in the front lines with the trolls as they disarm the vampires of their technology,” Walsh said, snapping me from my thoughts.
Sage and Walsh had been slipping each other awkward glances, and I knew they still hadn’t talked about whatever it was that was still between them. Now just wasn’t the time.
“Willow and I will accompany the women and children into the bunker,” Arrow said, Willow standing beside him with Daisy slung in a cloth pouch around her neck.
Sawyer and I nodded at them both.
Rab stepped forward. “Eugene and I will lead our army behind the trolls and decimate the vampires with fist, teeth, and bow.” He grinned, looking feral, and I felt so much pride. My pack was wild and fearsome and un-fucking-stoppable.
“Sage, Sawyer, Creek, and I will be in the Dark Woods, awaiting the queen’s arrival,” I said.
It felt slightly cowardly to just go and hide in the woods while a war was being fought, but we’d explained to the pack what our plan was and everyone agreed that if we could just take out the queen, the mastermind, we could end this war. Her son Vicon was dead, her husband the king was dead thanks to Walsh, and if I could bring her down it would throw the entirety of Vampire City into an uproar. Cause them to mourn and shut down for thirty days just like Luka said. In that thirty days, we would strengthen our borders and secure our land.
“And I,” Luka addressed the crowd that stood in front of the Paladin gates, “will lure Psycho Auntie through Paladin Village and into the Dark Woods, where she will meet her untimely death.”
The crowd cheered and I grinned at his term, Psycho Auntie. I had to admit, Luka had grown on me … for a vampire.
“Alright, say your goodbyes!” I yelled to the crowd. “We will celebrate when this is all over.”
Sawyer nodded. “I owe my wife a proper wedding and you’re all invited!”
That got some chuckles and cheers. It was amazing how at ease the city wolves were with the Paladins now. Coming here to this land had bonded them and taken the stress off of the two tribes who’d been pitted against each other for centuries.
A male city wolf worked his way through the crowd, as warrior women hugged their children goodbye and husbands their pregnant wives.
He looked so familiar but I couldn’t place him. It took me a moment. He was the werewolf representative for the freeloaders, or whatever the hell they called themselves.
He tipped his head to me. “We would like to help, if you can use us.” He held a samurai sword in one hand and a sharpened spear in another.
Well, well, look who finally had taken a side. Instead of gloating, which I really wanted to, I returned the nod. “You and your people can go with Rab and help fight in Wolf City.”
He nodded his head in understanding and then disappeared into the crowd, a small contingent of people following him.
Sawyer looked confused so I said, ‘I’ll tell you later.’
When I turned, my mother and father were standing there with Sawyer’s mom. Creek was asleep in my mother’s arms; her eyes were filled with tears. “Are you sure I can’t take him with me into the bunker?”
Sawyer shook his head. “We need to stick together. The queen will exploit any weakness, and we can’t leave that to chance.”
My mom tearily handed Creek over to Sawyer, who slipped him into a sling that Willow had given him. Seeing a shirtless, heavily tattooed male wearing your child was basically the hottest thing ever. Pulling my attention away from my sexy husband and child, I stepped over to my mom and dad and let them pull me into an embrace.
My mom burst into tears, shaking against me as I tried to calm her by patting her back.