"Remus has vampires aligned with his cause and I'm sure he'll scare the piss and vinegar right out of anyone he could've recruited. Kumarin's no longer a threat."
"Kumarin is in little pieces in a federal laboratory." Blake flashed a predator's smile.
"Just desserts, I say. We should probably see what new toys David has prototypes for."
"I'll leave that to you, little brother. Since you like to play in his laboratory."
"Indeed, I do." he grinned. "Indeed, I definitely do."
"I don't know how Warner did it. All those years at war. All that fighting. He kept us all safe. He kept Woolven Industries afloat. And he and Westwood raised us. Taught us all we know."
"Are you feeling guilty for taking us to war, because you didn't take us to war. Grigori Remus did. You're doing what is right. What War and Westwood raised us to do."
"It doesn't always feel like that."
Parker had always known that the mantle of Alpha was a heavy one, but his brother seemed to bear it so effortlessly. As if it had been sewn just for his shoulders.
"You're not just the Woolven Alpha, Blake. Your Randi's mate. Noah's uncle. My brother... you are the pack. The pack is you."
"I am yours. You are mine," he said quietly.
The same words they said to all those they loved.
"So let's kill that motherfucker and get back to long days rolling in the grass and drinking by the pool, shall we?"
Chapter 15
There'd been a shift in the air at Aphelion.
Where once it had felt like a safe haven, there was a tension in the air. A weight that hung heavy around them all.
They were mobilizing for war.
And Belle was afraid.
She was afraid for all the people at Aphelion who'd come to mean so much to her.
She was afraid for Randi and the baby.
Emmie and Noah.
Drew and Warner.
And Parker's crazy ass. Belle had seen firsthand the lengths he'd go to. She didn't quite know what to do with that kind of love. It terrified her more than the forthcoming war.
She'd only just realized how much her father loved her, and it had been quite the shock to her world view. She'd never thought what he felt for her was love.
Belle had gotten almost everything she'd ever wanted. It was so close, she could feel it. So close she was living it.
But this war, it could take it all be taken away from her in a matter of moments.
There was nothing she could do. This wasn't like when she thought Tirigan was chasing her. To stop him, all she had to do was leave. There was a firm, definitive action she could take that would change the course.
With this, all she could do was stand and fight. She didn't know if it was enough.
Belle didn't understand how humans did it, as much she wanted to live as one, she didn't know how they allowed themselves to love so wholly, so completely.
To be human and to love was to know loss.
Thinking about this time with Parker, she knew she wouldn't trade it for anything. Even if she knew going into it that it was going to...
It would end. She would live forever, and Parker only had part of that forever.
Then all that was left was darkness.
Was the Asakku murder that would need a leader.
A hand on her shoulder startled her and she bared her fangs. When she identified Randi, she felt sheepish.
"A bit on the jumpy side, honey?" Randi maneuvered herself down into the chair next to her and closed her eyes. "The weather is perfect today. The sun is warm, the sky is blue and the breeze smells like that apple orchard on the next hill."
Belle realized she'd come out to enjoy the sun, but she hadn't even noticed its warmth on her skin.
"How do you do it, Randi?"
"What do you mean?" The other woman stretched her legs and arms, and it reminded Belle of a cat.
"Living with death."
"I guess you could see it that way. But no one really knows what life is going to bring us, do we? You're hard to kill, but you can be killed. It's easy to see the what kind of loss the passage of time with bring us when that's all you've had for so long. The sure tick of the clock. Damn it, I want a truffle."
A table appeared in front of them set for a lovely garden tea with Royal Albert Old Country Roses china. There were plates of truffles and a bloody mary with an actual bloody beef liver that had been filleted into bites and skewered with toothpicks that had little flags marked with a "w."
Randi narrowed her eyes. "We can blame Parker for this."
"Oh, how so?" She was rather delighted, actually.
"He gave Blake the bright idea to have Westwood bespell the house to provide snacks whenever I asked for them. If I say it out loud, it shall appear."
"That could be really handy." She reached over and picked up the drink.
"I swear, I'm going to have twins. One is going to be a bouncing baby girl and the other is going to be a truffle baby."