Chapter 25

Zac's Point of View“Who's that?” Lauren asks and I smile wide. I grab Lauren's hand, and walk down the steps, and watch as about 50 vehiclepour in.“Alpha, what's going on?" I hear people asking.The first truck parks and I walk with Lauren to greet them. “Jack! Thanks for coming man," I say, and he pulls me into a hu“Of course. 'm happy to help,” he smiles.“I appreciate it. Jack, this is my mate Lauren,” introduce them.“Jack? I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you,” Lauren smiles and shakes his hand.“'ve heard a lot about you as well. I'm happy to finally meet you, although 1 wish it were under better circumstances,’ headmits. “How are you holding up?” He asks her.“Ym okay. I'm nervous about what's to come though,” she admits, and the worry consumes her face.“Not only are we going to outnumber him, but I am also very confident in our packs abilities. Zac and I train our warriorshard, and it shows in their abilities,” Jack assures her.“Nothing to worry about, babe,” 1 add. She gives me a weak smile and nods, and her arm around my waist tightens a littleThe kitchen staff comes out with about a dozen coolers and starts loading them into trunks. Jack instructs 40 warriors tostay behind to watch over everyone at my packhouse. Better to be safe than sorry. All of my warriors are coming, no neecto leave any of mine behind. I know all of Jack's warriors and I trust them. Less than 5 months ago, I lived and trained witthem for my entire life. “Ride with me," Jack says and I nod.I face Lauren, “I've got to go, baby." I pull her into my chest and hold her close.“I love you so much, Zac. If something happened to you..." she stops, eyes glistening as she looks up to me. I cup hercheeks in my hands, and lightly brush my lips to hers.“I love you. I'm coming home, and when I get back 'm going to mark you, and claim you as mine," I whisper. I feel her warsweet breath on my lips, she nods, eyes locked on mine, with black flecks dancing around.“Think about what I'm going to do to you when I get back, not what I'm doing while I'm gone,” I say.She looks down to my lips, and then moves in and kisses me. Slowly parting her lips, her tongue meeting mine first. Herfingernails graze my neck, as she pulls me in tighter. 1 wrap my arms around her and deepen the kiss. I hear the hornhonking, and I know it's Jack, but he can wait a little longer. I finally pull away slowly but hold her close as we catch ourbreath.“I love you," I say and lean in for one more chaste kiss.“I love you too," she forces a smile. I have to jog to Jack's truck and jump in. I have to move quickly, or I'll never let her goIt's hard to leave her when I feel she's not doing great. It's instinctual to want to be with her when she needs me. I know Ineed to take care of this though.“l wonder what that will look like after you both feel the full mate bond pull’ Jack smiles.“I know, I don’t know if my heart can take much more,” I admit.“It's good to see you happy though,” he smiles and slaps my shoulder. I look to the back seat and see Kyle and Lev laughiat me.“I've seen you with Brit, Lev. You can stop pretending to be above the mate bond,” I quip.“Hey, I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing with you. I was just as guilty about 40 minutes ago,” he admits.“I was laughing at you" Kyle laughs.“Give it time, Kyle," I warn.50 how's Lexi feel about all of this?” I ask.“You know Lexi, she wishes that she could be here. I'm grateful Enzo is a newborn, and she can't though. As soon as I toldher, she was furious, she wants him dead just as much as you do," he admits with a chuckle.The first 2 hours of the drive no one slept because we were just joking around, and catching up a little. 1 usually see Jack.least once a week at the office, and we get together every few weeks, but it's always nice to catch up with them. At 1am, ¢ETA was 9am so we decided to start taking shifts driving and sleeping. Kyle wakes me at 7 am and tells me it's my turn todrive.After getting about 6 hours of sleep, I'm feeling well-rested, and good enough to attack Claw moon in a few hours. Whenwe're about half an hour away from Claw Moon, I pull off to an empty field.ALLO or so vehicles in our convoy pull off, and park. We unload the coolers. We have five coolers full of sandwiches, fivefull of drinks, two coolers full of fruit, and two large plastic totes full of muffins, donuts and cinnamon buns individuallywrapped. If we're going into battle, we need to be at our best. This will keep our strength and energy up.We hang out for half an hour while we eat. Jack and I discussed it, and we're going to just go straight through the mainentrance of Claw Moon. No covert action at all. I'm trying to be sensitive to the fact that Lauren knows a lot of thesepeople; she even cared for some of their children.I understand that she doesn't want them all to die for Nathan's actions, and I can’t blame her. Julien put some work in lasnight, calling and warning his warrior friends about what Nathan tried to pull yesterday. If they stand with him, afterfinding out what he did to my sweet mate, then they will deserve anything they get.julien pulls in, as we're reloading the nearly empty coolers back into the vehicles. “Who's this?” Lev, Jack's Beta asks.“It's Julien, Lauren's brother. He wants to join us in the fight" I greet julien, and I introduce him to some of my guys andsome of Jack's.I get him to grab some sandwiches, and whatever else he wants, and then we make our way to Claw Moon. I jump in withJulien, and I call Lauren and give her a heads up that we're almost there, and that we will make it there at 9:40 am. I toldher how much I loved her, and that I'd call afterwards. It's probably not the most strategic time to attack, but with my 150warriors and Jack's 150, we outnumber his 220 warriors, we don't need the element of surprise.I'm also hoping that a lot of his guys won't fight, especially once they see the army we've got. We all park close to the maroad not too far from Claw Moon. Julien said that most of the guards are situated at the main entrance, and that's wherewe'll enter. On foot.“No one kills Nathan. He's mine,” I growl. Everyone except Julien and I undress and shift into their wolf form. Julien and Istay in our human form, as we walk together down the last stretch of the road leading up to the gate to Claw Moon, whilewe have nearly 300 wolves following us. Jack, his Beta and Gamma, and my Beta and Gamma are walking right behind Juliand me. They are large, but Jack especially.I'd be intimidated if I witnessed this sight walking up to my gate.We've walked past several guys in tree stands, keeping guard. I looked them each in the eye, but I don't say a word andkeep walking. They would have notified Nathan by now, and I'm sure warriors are rushing to the border. I wonder what thmust be thinking, seeing Julien lead this army with me. I have to admit, it looks pretty badass, and I know they'll beintimidated when we come into sight.Lauren's Point of ViewI'm sitting on a couch in the common living area on the main floor. I feel like I should make myself accessible and availabtoday. Almost everyone has loved ones fighting, and it just seems wrong to be hiding out in my room, even though that'swhat I want to be doing.“You should eat something, Lo. All you had was coffee this morning. Here," my Mom says, as she hands me a muffin.“I can't. I feel like I'm going to puke. I'm so scared Mom," I admit and the tears suddenly start to fall. I was trying to bestrong for everyone around me, but that strength is finally gone.Everyone has been so nice, even Jessica asked me if I was okay. That shocked me. I'm not sure if she actually cared, or ifshe’s just trying to get back in my good graces, but regardless, I appreciated it.“Honey, come here," my mom says, and wraps me into a hug. “It's going to be okay."“I just wish he could have left it alone. I could have hidden out at the packhouse for as long as it took for Nathan to forgeabout me. They don't know where the packhouse is," I reason.“He couldn't do that Lo. Listen, you didn't see the way that man was holding you yesterday when you were unconscious,and he thought you might not wake up. I could tell everyone was afraid to even say a word as he held you in his arms,waiting for you to come to. If you wouldn't have, I honestly think he would have lost it completely. I can tell he really loveyou. He needed to do this. Nathan is no match for him. He'll be fine. How did he sound when he called earlier?’ She asks.“He sounded good. Confident. He said they were about a half an hour away, and that was about... 40 minutes ago,” I admitaking a deep breath. They're probably fighting, I feel my heart is starting to race out of control. I lay down on the couch,and cover my eyes with my arm.My Mom holds my hand and is saying something to me, but I can't make out the words. I do the very best that I can tocontrol my breathing.“Think about what I am going to do to you when I get home” I repeat his words in my head.I force myself to think about his Lips on me, on my neck. His hands all over my body. His teeth on my spot, marking me ashis, forever. I feel myself gaining control of my emotions little by little. After a few minutes, I can open my eyes. I wonder Ihe realized when he said those words to me that they would be a coping mechanism for me today.“Feeling a bit better?” My mom asks, and I nod. Then suddenly I feel a pain in my chest.

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