"Wow, look at you," I teased Ryker as I walked into the kitchen and found him wearing my dad's clothes and also his apron. "What are you making?" Placing my hand on the spot on the kitchen island, I peered over his shoulder.
"French toast." Ryker turned his head and planted a kiss on my left temple. He did it in a way that almost scared me because it was as if he'd done this forever. As if we'd lived for years and had our own routine.
I took a step back and pretended to check out the fridge so that he wouldn't feel hurt. "How did you get the ingredients?" The fridge was surprisingly filled with food and they weren't spoilt, they actually looked brand new, fresh from the grocery store. "Did you buy them?"
Ryker turned off the stove and used the silicon spatula to place the rest of the toasts on the second plate. "Yeah." He sprinkled some powdered sugar and put some berries on top of the bread. "Do you want some maple syrup or butter?"
"Butter," I answered then sat on the dining table where he'd put two mugs and utensils. "Maple syrup is too sweet for me."
Once he placed the plates on the table, he touched my arm and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Then I bit my lip and added, "A bit sore."
"I'm sorry." His cheeks went a bit red. I found it a bit cute.
I gave him an assuring smile. "No, don't apologize. I enjoyed it as much as you did last night." I took the fork and began to dig in. The French toast was really good. It wasn't too dry either. I was quite surprised.
"Okay. But if next time—" his sentence was interrupted by something because even though his eyes were on me, they were blank. Then the next thing I knew, he abruptly stood and rushed to the front of the house. Breakfast and delicious French toast were long forgotten.
I swallowed and quickly went after him. "What's wrong?" I asked, running as fast as I could but I was still somewhat behind him.
"Derek and Raymond who were patrolling on the Northwest border were found injured. I've to leave." He grabbed his car keys and unlocked the front door. "My pack needs me. You stay here with Eros, okay?"
"The hell I stay," I replied without giving it a thought. "I can help you. I have the power. You know I can."
There was a conflict in his eyes, it was as clear as the sky above that he didn't want me to get hurt. But in those gorgeous silver eyes, I could also see the truth. And the truth was he knew that I was more than capable of defending myself and that my power could perhaps help.
"Okay. But you stick with me, okay?"
"I'm coming too," said a voice from the stairs. We both turned to see Eros rushing down the stairs. "Let me help." He clearly had heard of our conversation. Wolves' super hearing and all.
"No," said Ryker. "Your pack won't let you step into my territory, even if I allow you to."
"Well, I can take it up to my alpha later." Eros shrugged nonchalantly. "But now, let's not waste time debating and focus on making our way back to the North."
The three of us went straight to Ryker's car. I was riding shotgun while Eros was occupying the backseat. Fully aware of the urgency, Ryker drove way above the speeding limit once we were out of the city area and were on our way to the border. Instead of two solid hours of usual trip time, we arrived in front of the packhouse in less than one hour.
Dmitry was already on the front porch with about fifteen men and nine women. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were the warriors, the pack members who would fight. "I've gathered as many people as I can and evacuated the kids and the elders."
"Good," praised Ryker. His tone was filled with concern when he asked, "How are Derek and Ray?"
"Injured but they're stable," said a brunette woman. "The Doc is on them. Ray got injured way more than Derek but they both should live."
Ryker grimaced. I could feel anger boiling inside of him but he did his best to remain in control. "Did they say anything about the trespassers? Any clues who are they?"
"Definitely wolves," said Dmitry with a shake of his head. "But it happened so quick. Both of them weren't sure whether they were members of other packs or rogues."
"Okay. We've already gotten five men guarding the hospital and five more guarding the kids at the school. So all of you who are still here, we need to split into groups. I want everyone to search and find where these trespassers are and if you catch their scent, don't provoke them. We don't know if they have some help or not."
"Help?" asked the brunette woman, it seemed that she was some sort of a leader here. I wondered if they'd chosen their leaders based on their strength or something else. This woman was small, perhaps five foot two, but judging by the respect in everyone's eyes, I knew she was strong and high in the hierarchy. Perhaps she'd done something too in the past. "Alpha Ryker, are you referring to the witches or faes? They'd be a fool to aid these wolves."
"It's still a possibility, Cora," said Ryker, his voice was tight. "Someone betrayed us and colluded with the witches. I've caught this person but there's no telling if the witches might want some retribution or wish to break her free."
Cora's next question was simple but there was anger in her voice as well as her green eyes. "Who?"
"Doesn't matter. This person will go on trial next week but now we have a pressing matter." Ryker regarded the whole group of men and women. "Don't try to be a hero. Report and wait until backup comes before you do anything to attack them."
"Noted, Alpha."
Then I figured the rest of the conversation took place in their heads because all of them turned into wolves. They formed a group of three and ran in different directions. I turned to Ryker, Dmitry, and Eros who were still standing on their two feet. "What now?"
Ryker frowned. "Do you think you can use your power to help us find these intruders?"
"I can try." I glanced around, hoping something would help me figure out a way to find these wolves. I needed something where I could feel and cover enough area to figure out what was happening there. That way I could tell where these wolves were hiding. My eyes dropped on the ground and I finally figured it out. I kneeled on the ground then summoned enough power before placing my hands on the ground. I visualized the red smokes going to my surrounding then I expanded the radius to twenty feet at first then to fifty feet. Slowly the red smoke was covering a larger and larger area. I tried to feel and understand what it was telling me. I could feel the wolves' feet walking on the ground but I couldn't tell whether it was the trespassers or the Ethereal members. "I can cover the ground but I can't tell if these wolves are the Ethereal or not."
Ryker kneeled down in front of me and took one of my hands off the ground. "What are you doing?" I asked him, widening my eyes.
"Use me," he said, placing my hand on the side of his face. The tip of my fingers was touching his temple. "My mind is linked to all my members. Use me."
I gave him a nod and let the red smoke go into his head through the tips of my fingers on his temple. The second I was connected to his mind, unlike with others, I could see images, flashes of his memory and I quickly pulled my hand away when those memories were becoming too private that I felt like an intruder myself. It was as if I was probing and seeing something that I wasn't supposed to see. This was a violation of privacy at the highest level. I couldn't do it.
"What's wrong?" Ryker asked, his eyes widened in worries. There was guilt flashed in his mind because he thought that his idea had caused me to get hurt.
"I can't do this. I saw all of your memories. Even those that are meant to be private. I will never—"
Ryker grabbed my hand again and placed it back against his face. "It's okay. I don't mind. Use me. If it helps us find the bastards who are trying to mess with us, do it."
Even though I felt that this was too intrusive and wrong, I understood the priority. So I let my power tap into his mind again. I saw images but I focused on identifying each wolf.
A few minutes later, I jumped to my feet. "They are close. They are so damn close. I could feel them."
Before I could point to their exact location, five wolves lunged at us from different directions. Right at that moment, I was not certain whether we could survive this. The odds were not in our favor. Everything I saw was a blur now as Ryker, Dmitry, and Eros shifted to their wolves form and tried to protect me. However, we were woefully outnumbered. Ryker was facing two wolves at once, he was attacking both, trying to make sure that neither of them got past him. I turned to my left and saw that Dmitry was doing the same.
Then about ten more wolves came and I was not sure whether they were ours or the intruders. Judging by the way they immediately attacked each other, I was guessing some of them were ours and some were our enemies. Other than Dmitry, Eros, and Ryker, I didn't know any of the wolves. Some of them had almost the same fur, it was hard to differentiate them. But Khrysaor's jet-black furs were easy to spot and he was the only wolf with pure black fur. There were two more wolves with black furs but they had some brown and white furs mixed with the black.
I moved to Dmitry's wolf, a wolf with beautiful gray fur which reminded me of the ground covered in snow. He was fighting three wolves now, with one wolf badly wounded at the ground. I twirled both of my wrists and summoned enough power before blasting those red smokes at Dmitry's attackers. The red wolf was strong and moved to attack me. I summoned another ball of red smoke, this time it was bigger, and launched it at him. His movement stopped and he was paralyzed, dropping to the ground. I decided to help Dmitry and simply attacked anyone who was trying to go at him. I managed to stop about three or four wolves, rendering them useless on the ground albeit they were still alive. Then I noticed a male human out of my peripheral vision. I was fighting a reddish-brown wolf myself so I couldn't really look at what the human was doing on a battlefield full of wolves and secretly hoping that he was not one of our own.
I managed to put the reddish-brown wolf to the ground, next to his friends, and looked around, searching for that human male I'd seen earlier. That was when I saw that this human was in fact carrying a sword with what looked like two snakes made out of iron on its hilt. This human must be insane if he thought that a mere sword would suffice in wolves' fight. A grey wolf, similar to Dmitry's but had a red stripe on his body lunged at me and I quickly used my power to capture him midair and then threw him against the tree a few feet away from me. He recovered almost immediately and rushed towards me again. This time, I summoned enough power to send him into a paralyzed state.
My eyes scanned my surroundings, trying to find this human and that was when I saw him stabbing a jet-black wolf from behind. I'd had nightmares before but this was certainly the worst.