So much death. And carnage. And blood spilled. All I can hope is that my body will grow the way it needs to keep my child safe. A child that doesn’t belong to only one man, but to four men. Sleep takes me under and dreams bombard my mind, but one of them sticks out more than the rest.
Vlad’s village.
His warm room.
The wondrous food from that diner.
We would be safe there. Accepted there. Free to live and love and laugh there. My child would be protected by the walls and the Alphas that guard the front gates. We could be near in case another war looms over us. We would be in the country in case Kyle breaks away again to come find us.
He would be accepted there, too, if he ever found us.
I wake up with a smile on my face. It’s a nice thought, Vlad’s village. I wonder about his father. How Lord Wesley is doing in all of this. I didn’t see him on the battlefield, so he didn’t go back to the Council. But where did he go?
There are still so many unanswered questions, but the voices raising down the hallway are about to answer one of them. I can hear Joel’s voice rising above the rest, shouting one particular phrase that makes me scramble to my feet.
“You are no longer welcome, and my sword will show you that.”
Chapter 29
Joel
“C larissa needs to rest ,” Sebastian says. “She’s pregnant, and the battle has only been dead for a couple of hours. We don’t even know if they’re coming back or not!”
“We can take care of ourselves if they do,” I say. “But the lot of you are no longer welcome.”
“No one is in any condition to travel right now,” Theo says. “If you don’t want us here, maybe one of the villagers will put us up for the night.”
“It is because of you that this war even made it to us!” I shout. “I lost men on that battlefield today.”
“And so did we!” Theo bellows.
“From my count, every single one of you made it back,” I say.
“Kyle didn’t,” Vlad growls.
“Well sorry if the one man Clarissa can’t stand didn’t make it. But I have children that will grow up without their fathers. Brothers who will bury their siblings. Women who will bury their husbands. Their souls will forever be fighting an endless battle, unrested in their afterlife because of the treachery you brought with you when you stumbled upon our village,” I say.
“We’re not leaving until the morning,” Sebastian says. “And if you don’t like it, then so be it.”
“My brother’s right,” Josie says.
I watch the Primals whip their heads over to her, and I draw my sword. They can be angry with me all they want. But they won’t hurt my sister. She leaned herself nonchalantly against the edge of the kitchen counter and crosses her arms. Like she’s talking to a group of petulant children.
Not a wild pack of animals that will slaughter her without a second thought.
“We knew this war would eventually come, but we didn’t think it would be so close to home,” Josie says. “We knew we would lose men. A lot of them. You’ll have to forgive Joel for blaming that on you. He supposedly thinks he can win wars without death.”
“That isn’t the point,” I say curtly.
“The point is, you guys have to leave. If the Council is re-appointed, and they still want to come after Clarissa or somehow seek revenge on the lot of you, we won’t be able to turn around and defend ourselves as quickly as you can. We lost a lot of men today. Our village will need a period of rebuilding.”
“Which could take years because of you,” I say darkly.
“We can’t move Clarissa until she’s rested,” Theo says. “She’s pregnant. She was the reason why this war turned in our favor. And you can’t give her a night to rest?”
“No,” I say.
The mere idea of her staying here is repulsive.