Instead, he’d just tried to put her memory behind him. It was best to let her go and keep her safe than to be selfish and possibly lose her forever. The smart thing to do now was just to focus on the task at hand—taking out the Maguire clan.
“What now?” Ronan asked after they’d left the Silver Scales MC.
“We make a move,” Niall replied, turning away from the car window to face him.
“What’s our move?”
“I wish I knew. We have to find a weakness, and I just don’t see it yet. He has to have one. Everyone does. This guy, though, he’s always surrounded by his heaviest hitters. We still don’t have the numbers.”
Ronan’s phone rang and he answered it, speaking into his Bluetooth as he drove down the motorway back toward Belfast. He spoke a few words and then ended the call with, “We’ll be right there.”
“Right where?”
“I think we just got those numbers.”
“From where?”
“We have the dragons and they’re bringing the enemy of their enemy, four different packs of wolves.”
“You’re fucking joking!” Niall replied.
“Nope. We just need a plan on how to hit this bitch with maximum damage. The more of that clan we can take out in the beginning, the fewer of them are left to tame after the fall of the empire.”
“Who are we going to meet?”
“The head of an MC called the Black Snouts in Carrickfergus.”
“Wolves, huh?”
“Among other things,” Niall replied.
“What do you mean, ‘among other things?’” Niall asked.
“I don’t know, but that was Greyscales. He said they have added powers from intermarriage with humans.”
“Like our ability to kill memories in humans?”
“I don’t know. I hope it’s more than that as it’s not particularly useful against other shifters.”
“Well, let’s go find out, I guess,” Niall replied.
By the time Ronan pulled into the car park of Carrickfergus Castle, where they were to meet the Alphas of the four packs, they’d formed at least a tentative plan for taking out Trill. It left a lot of room for error, which didn’t sit well with them, but it was a start.
The four wolves weren’t hard to spot. They were all leaning on the railing around the harbor to one side of the castle, wearing biker’s leather with club names and patches all over them. It always amused Niall to see so much hoo-ha about being in a biker gang, which was usually more of a dad’s day out than any real gang.
He quickly changed his mind as they approached the four of them, though. They might be blending in with their expected garb, but they looked battle-scarred and ready for whatever fell in front of them. Big, hairy dudes that would turn into big, hairy dogs at the drop of a hat, if needed.
“Ronan?” one of them asked as they approached, looking at Niall.
“He’s Ronan. I’m Niall, Alpha of the McNally Clan.”
“Good on you, Alpha. I’m Farrell, the Alpha of the Black Snouts here in Carrickfergus, and these are the Alphas of several of our southern clans. I’ll be speaking for all of us today.”
“Okay and what do you have to say?”
“We’ve been itching to take out the Maguires for a while. They’re a plague on the south. We’re more than happy to join forces with you. Our four clans are already on board and we have a half dozen more in the south who will most likely help once we’ve made proper contact.”
“Wow. That’s, uh, a lot more than expected. What sort of numbers are we talking about?” Niall asked.
“Ten clans, average of about a hundred able-bodied, adult men able to fight,” he replied.
Niall whistled. It was a lot of power, even pitting two wolves against each bear to make up for the differences in strength. One wolf might hold its own in a fight, but it was a hard go. Two wolves on one bear was a different story. They’d tear it apart if they were smart about their attack.
“What’s our end game?” Niall asked.
“Same as yours, to put an end to the Maguire Clan overrunning every shifter in the south.”
“Have they attacked the wolves?”
“Not yet, but word is that it’s coming.”
“Word from where?”
The Alpha smiled. “We have our spies. It’s credible intel.”
“All right. What happens after the Maguires are taken out? You plan to move in on the territory, assume their turf?”
“Only what they’ve already taken from us. We might not be at war, but they’ve managed to scoop up some business that would have otherwise gone to us. We’d like it back. What about the McNallys?”
“Same as you. We just want what was taken from us.”
“Which was?”
“Everything.”
“That sounds like a pretty broad take.”
“They took our homes and our family from us. We just want our land and freedom to return to our homeland. We want to be able to start over.”
“And when you do? Need we worry about a war with you down the line? What makes you any better than the Maguires?”