Saving Bennett Reid (Book 3)

Iron Fist

"Morning, love." he whispered, his groggy morning voice shooting shivers up my spine making me melt in his embrace. I have to say, I loved it when he held me like this. It made me feel safer than anything.

"Your singing is absolutely awful this morning." he deadpanned, pressing a kiss behind my ear, following up with another on my neck.

"Eh?" I retorted, dumbfounded. How could he not like my singing? I sing like an angel.

Tch!

"Oh? And did my angelic voice wake you up?" A smirk stretched over my lips, and he scoffed a moment later.

"Angelic? You were so off key; you broke the sleep barrier to give me nightmares."

"You can go ahead and starve this morning." I muttered disgruntledly, not appreciating that he didn't like my singing. He chuckled in my ear, that deep voice coupled with how his hug tightened around me, making my heart flutter and my tummy do cartwheels.

Laughing along, I turned in his arms to face him, resting my arms around his shoulders greeting him with a proper kiss.

"Are you ready for today?" he asked, knowing how I was equally thrilled and nervous about today. Even though I was acting beta of Black Rock, my skillset as a commander would be more than useful in training. It was especially important I be there since I was pretty much the brains behind Black Rock's entire makeover.

Thank gods I had Jax, Andre, and Alister. We had a shitload of work to get done, and each of us had things to teach Black Rock and Marcana wolves. Our pasts, and our experiences had shaped us and taught us things.

Things key to survival and it was one goal we were aiming for. Train them like tomorrow never comes. Train them like today was the last day of freedom. Train them hard, raise them tough. Train them like survival was key and at any moment, peaceful living could be stolen away from us.

I breathed out deeply. "Still a little nervous. Do you think they're ready for what we have planned?"

He shrugged. "Only time will tell. They might not understand the need for change, and some might refuse the idea but maybe in time, they'll appreciate your reasons."

I shook my head. "Black Rock doesn't have time, Carter." Stepping out his embrace, I rubbed my hands together, removing the other side of the headset and setting it down on the table along with the phone.

"We don't even have a hundred wolves. If we were attacked today, Black Rock would be completely annihilated. I can't wait around for them to realize how important this is. They need to see it right now and understand that everything we're doing is to make sure that no one else is killed, and that those we lost didn't die for nothing."

Pressing my fists against the tabletop, my breathing turned shaky for a moment as images from that night pushed to the forefront. All the blood. The mutilated bodies, the screams, and the awful stench of blood, smoke, and burning flesh rushed back to suck me into a vortex where I'd felt completely helpless.

Silence engulfed us, and I struggled to keep my emotions in check, shoving down the grief and agony that threatened to make its way up and open the floodgates. It had dawned on me then that I hadn't allowed myself the chance to properly grieve in full.

How could I when so many people were replying on me? On us?

Carter was silent behind me, and then I heard the light footfalls of his feet hitting the floor. He came up to me and hugged me from behind.

"You're doing it again. Beating yourself up over what happened." He took to massaging my shoulders, as if to ease away the tension that had suddenly built up there. "When are you going to stop blaming yourself? It's not your job to save everyone, love. And even if it was, you can't save every single person. It's impossible-"