Alpha Blood Box Set(96)

Luke crawled onto his hands and knees, and looked to the flaming ruins that used to be the semi. The fire reflected off his large, tear-soaked eyes. “Lance!” Luke he out. The only response was the crackle of the flames and minor explosions as chemicals mixed with fire.

Around us Lance’s men were beaten off or surrendered to our allies. The remaining feroce yipped and ran into the woods with our forces close behind. The war was over, but the price was the life of my mate’s brother and many of our Green Party friends. Callean had also lost a lot of men in the skirmishes.

I walked up, knelt beside Luke and placed a hand on his shoulder. “He wouldn’t have let you bring him in, anyway,” I told him.

“I know, but still. . .” His voice trailed off as he hung his head.

I slid in front of him and clasped his chin between my fingers. He looked up and I gave him my best, brightest smile. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

The heavy hand of the law, namely Adam’s, fell on Luke’s shoulder. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave quite so quickly. There’s a great deal of cleaning and mending to do, and I’m not referring to the chaos before us.”

My shoulders drooped, but Luke wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled my face. “We’ll be home before you know it,” he assured me. There was an emptiness to his voice I didn’t like, but the war was over and I was tired. At least now I’d get some rest.





26





It wasn’t that quick, but not as long as our journey through this mess. First off, we had to clear Luke of a bunch of charges, namely the murder of Mullen and the non-kidnapping of Stevens. That is, after we made sure our brain-washed friends were okay.

Adam helped me help Luke to his feet and we turned to view the devastation we wrought in our path. Twisted, burnt metal lay everywhere, Lance’s men surrendered en masse because their leader was now an overcooked marshmallow, and Callean with his troops raced up the road. Wilson followed us to Emily and Ian, both of whom looked the worse for wear in their fight against Lance’s guys.

Luke smiled at the pair. “Thank you for your help. This would never have succeeded without you,” he told them.

Emily snorted and waved her hand at him. “You probably would’ve figured out some crazy plan. You seem to surround yourself with a bunch of nuts,” she commented. Her eyes swept over Wilson and ended up on the lead troops of Callean. Rick and Steve, sporting some nice blood splotches that weren’t from their blood, walked side-by-side with Callean.

Burnbaum broke from the group and wandered over to our abandoned vehicles. He leaned over the back and I saw a smile light up his face. I knew why when Stacy and Alistair sat up and rubbed their heads. Their eyes were filled with life and more than a little confusion. Oh, and Stevens and Baker awoke in the other truck bed, but I think Stacy was the only one happy to see her father was back to his normal self.

We walked over to our rehabilitated friends and leaned over the side of the truck that held Stacy and Alistair. “How are you feeling?” Luke asked them.

Alistair rubbed his head and winced. “I believe this is what it feels like to be hung over,” Alistair commented.

Stacy’s eyes swept over the wreckage around them. “What have you done now?” she asked Luke.

He smiled and shrugged. “Merely saved the werewolf world,” he told her.

“Are you sure there was anything saved?” she teased.

“Plenty to rebuild, given time,” he assured her.

We helped them out of the trucks and Callean came up to us. He grasped Stacy’s hands and smiled into her face. “Leonor will be pleased to see you are safe,” he told her.

“I’m glad to hear she’s okay, but what exactly happened? That last I remember is the facility and Luke escaping,” she asked us.

Burnbaum chuckled and set a hand on her shoulder. “It is a long story. One best told in a home with a good drink.”

We left Burnbaum and Callean’s men to clean up the mess, and made our way to a Green Armband camp a few miles off near an old, abandoned road. That was where Burnbaum had made the surprise attack and like us had figured out the location of the route with the trucks through thorough investigation, patience, and making one of the sprayers squeal like a stuck pig. The camp of tents and a few small campfires lay nestled in the trees, and Luke and I were given a tent of our own. The others scattered to rest, talk and, in the case of Rick and Emily, drink until they went blind.

Luke and I retired for what remained of the night. We lay on a thin blanket over the hard ground and snuggled. It felt so good to snuggle without worrying about imminent death. I sighed and buried my face into his chest. “So warm,” I murmured.

“Yes,” was his bland reply.

I pulled away and gazed into his face. He lay on his side towards me and his eyes were open. His mouth was pursed and tense. “What’s wrong?” I whispered.

“Nothing,” he replied. He turned his back to me.

I frowned, grabbed his sleeve and gave a hard tug that pulled me onto his back. I crawled on top of him and glared down into his strained face. “What’s wrong?” I growled.

Luke sighed. “Lance,” he replied.

My face softened. “You can’t go blaming yourself for his death. He got into that truck a long time ago.” Luke turned his head away from me, but I grasped my chin and forced him to look into my face. “You are not responsible for his death. Heck, Wilson and Ian are more responsible for his death than you are. They brought the fuel, but you tried to save him.”

“Perhaps,” he answered.

I crossed my arms over my chest and pushed down on his stomach. He let out a wheeze and clutched my hips. “No perhaps,” I growled. “Lance could have done anything else with his life, but he chose to be an attempted dictator rather than a dentist. That was his choice, and he’s the one who has to-well, had to live with the consequences.”

A ghost of a smile slipped onto Luke’s lips. “Perhaps.” I opened my mouth, but he pressed his hand against my lips. “And perhaps you’re right. He did choose his own path and we chose ours, but though I may be able to forgive myself one day for not being able to save him what will Zeke say?” he mused.

I snorted. “He’ll probably say you did a damn good job for the odds and wander away to his shack.”

Now I got a real, honest smile from him. “I will not doubt that at all.”

“Good.” I rolled off him and snuggled against his side. “Now less talk, more dreaming.”

He chuckled, and the vibrations trembled through me. “You have never had a better idea.”



* * *



The noises of the camp couldn’t keep me awake, and didn’t wake me up. Some time in mid morning I rolled over and winced when a beam of sunlight shot into my eyes. My eyelids creaked open and viewed the half-open flap of our tent. Day had dawned and the camp was alive with the wounded, captive, and healthy. They hurried to and fro on errands, and many were pulling down the tents and preparing to leave. I turned around to speak to Luke, but he was gone.

I crawled from the tent looking like a waif and looked around. At the far end of the camp, near the main road and a new truck, stood my familiar group of friends along with my mate. I shuffled over to the group and Burnbaum smiled when he saw me.

He stepped over and wrapped me in one of his painful hugs. “Good morning! Good morning! What a beautiful day, yes?” he asked me.

“Very,” I croaked.

“We were just making plans for your safe return,” Stacy spoke up.

I blinked at the group, who smiled back. “Safe return where?”

“Home,” Luke revealed.

My mouth dropped open and I whipped my head to Luke. “What about the trouble with Stevens and Mullen?”

“They will be better solved without your being in jail,” Stacy explained.

“And that means you have to lie low,” Emily chimed in.

Adam put a hand on my shoulder and honest-to-god smiled at me. “Go home. You deserve as much.”

“But don’t go causing any more messes without us,” Rick spoke up. Steve rolled his eyes.

Stevens stepped up to us. He had puffy pouches beneath his eyes and was pale, but otherwise unhurt from his most recent time as a slave. Stevens clasped my hands and smiled at us both. “Thank you for saving Stacy and me, and for that and everything you have done we will handle all that needs to be corrected,” he promised.

Emily stepped to the side and nodded to the beautiful truck. Alistair sat at the wheel. “Now get on your way before we change our minds,” she ordered us.

My eyes brimmed over with tears and I wrapped my arms around first Stevens, and then everyone else in the crowd numbering twelve. I stepped back and smiled at all of them with Luke by my side. “Thank you all so much, and you all better visit us when you get this mess taken care of,” I choked out.

“I plan on it,” Emily piped up. Ian rolled his eyes, but wrapped his arm around his mate’s shoulders.

“I must see to my inn, but I will visit after that,” Burnbaum assured us.

“And I to Sanctuary, but I, too, look forward to some peace in Wildlands,” Adam agreed.

“Dad and I will take care of the politics, and then we promise a long visit,” Stacy spoke up.