Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 444

Chapter 444

Chapter 444

Chapter 444

ARIA

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“And what’s coming to our northern border right now,” Santos said.

“Is what they planned to send while we were absent,” I said. “One hundred fifty organized wolves and a minimum of four witches. Possibly six. They appear to have some form of counter-measure for the botanical traps, which we believe is based on intelligence from Damon Blackwood, whose involvement with this network has been confirmed.”

The murmuring came back at volume.

“Damon,” someone said, and the word moved through the hall like a current.

“That man,” said a voice I didn’t immediately locate, “has made a significant error in judgment.”

“Several,” said another voice.

“I want five minutes with him,” said a woman near the back, one of the non-combatant fighters I’d noticed earlier, her arms crossed with the specific posture of someone making a calm and serious statement. “Just five minutes.”

“Get in line,” said the woman beside her.

“Can we focus,” Santos said, but without heat- the tone of someone who was also thinking about five minutes with Damon and was choosing not to say so out loud.

“Luna Aria.” Morrison again, and this time he’d dropped the pretense of concern and gone straight to the thing he’d been building toward since he arrived. “I say this with respect for the position and none for the timing- this pack cannot be led in a significant combat engagement by someone who has been here less than a year. The tradition of this pack, the expectation of the council, the basic operational-”

“Morrison,” I said.

“I’m not finished-”

“You are,” I said. “You are finished, and here’s why. Alpha Kael left me in command of this pack. That is his decision, made with full knowledge of both my capabilities and the situation. If you have concerns about that decision, you can raise them with him when he returns with Ivory. Right now, twenty minutes from our northern border, there are one hundred fifty wolves and six witches who are betting that this pack falls apart without its senior leadership. I am not interested in proving them right.”

I held his gaze.

“Sit down,” I said.

He sat down.

I turned back to the hall before the surprise could dissipate.

“Non-combatants – children, elderly, anyone not in the combat rotation. You know the shelter protocol. Underground base, designated escort leads, move now. You have less than twenty minutes.”

1/3

11:24 am

Chapter 444

The escort leads moved.

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Most of the non-combatants went. Martha went, with the children clustered around her, moving with the calm efficiency of someone who’d done this before and was doing it again. Pack members peeled away in the organized way of the protocol actually working.

Edna did not move.

She was standing near the center of the hall with her walking stick and her expression, and she was looking at me with the specific quality of a woman who had made a decision and was waiting for the appropriate moment to inform me of it.

‘Edna,” I said.

‘Luna” she said.

The shelter-”

‘I’m eighty-three years old,” Edna said, “and I have been a member of this pack for sixty-one of those years. I have survived two ogue attacks, one territorial war, three years of watching that boy” – she gestured in a direction that was approximately northeast, which was the direction of Kael’s office- “try to hold himself together while his wolf was eating him alive, and I have a bad back and a walking stick, and I am telling you right now that if Damon Blackwood is anywhere in the vicinity of this pack onight, I want to be pointed at him.”

The hall went very quiet.

Edna,” I said.

I’m not going to fight anyone,” she said, with the tone of someone making a significant concession. “I’m aware of my limitations. I ust want to be in a position to hit him with this” – she lifted the walking stick – “at least once. I feel I’ve earned it.”

Someone in the hall made a sound that was technically a cough.

Damon is not here tonight,” I said. “He’s two hours away.”

Then I want his address,” Edna said.

I’ll get it for you personally,” I said, and I meant it. “After tonight. I promise. But right now I need you in the shelter.”

Edna considered this. She pointed the walking stick at me. “You’re not as soft as you look,” she said, which from Edna was apparently a compliment, and then she allowed the escort lead to guide her toward the shelter door, still carrying the walking stick with the energy of someone who intended to keep her options open.

Five more women hadn’t moved.

They were standing in a cluster near the eastern wall, and they ranged from early twenties to early thirties, and they had the bearing of the training yard on them – the specific quality that developed in people who spent significant time learning how to use their bodies against threats. They were registered non-combatants. They were also very clearly not leaving

The one in front was a dark-haired woman I’d seen in the training yard three times, always the last one to stop when Elite called a session. Her name was Priya.

“We’re trained,” Priya said, before I could speak. She said it without aggression, the flat statement of someone presenting a fact. “All five of us. We’ve been training with Elite’s second rotation for eight months. We’re not on the combat register because we joined after the last registration update and nobody did the paperwork.”

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