David came into the office and without preamble said, “We’re going to split the two of you up tonight. Sheri, you’ll stay with one of the other families. Elizabeth, you’ll stay with me. We want to ensure these men don’t try to grab one or both of you, now that they know where you are and they’re here. They could try taking Elizabeth, knowing you would try to go after her, just to have them release her.” He gave Sheri a reassuring smile. “Just know we won’t let anything happen to you. To either of you. As long as you want to be here with us, you have our backing.”
Cameron and Gavin came into the office and added their voices to David’s pledge.
Cameron said, “I’m going to alert our mates about the trouble we could be in for.”
Elizabeth realized that Kintail might resort to grabbing one of the PIs’ mates instead of either Elizabeth or Sheri, figuring they might be too well protected. What if they grabbed one of the kids?
***
That night, they all got together at Cameron’s house. Even Slade was there, looking like he was eager to show Sheri he was glad she was staying with the pack.
Slade had always been a wild card, reckless, carefree, a fighter, and damn fun to be around. It probably stemmed from a life of growing up in the family business. Slade and Amelia’s parents had their own seaplanes and sightseeing and canoe excursion service. Slade and Amelia had always been a part of that, and their parents were good people. Family-first wolves, which made them great pack members. Their children were no different.
And no matter how busy their parents were at any given time, or even Amelia and Slade, they were there for moral support whenever the pack needed it.
Slade said to Sheri, “I’m glad you stood up to Kintail and the others. Are we all running in the woods tonight?”
“We are,” David said.
Cameron said, “We need to stick together. Sheri can stay with any of the families she wants to.”
“I’ve got an early morning flight, but if you need anyone on guard duty, put me on first watch,” Slade said.
“Will do.”
His sister gave him a look that said he’d better get some sleep tonight.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “I don’t crash planes like you do.”
“I only did it twice and there were extenuating circumstances.”
Gavin smiled, since he’d been in both planes that Amelia had crashed, not due to her own fault in either case. Luckily, they both had survived each of the crashes.
“So what do we do about the security of the homes tonight? Maybe it would be better to stay in just two of the houses instead,” Faith said. “Better security that way. I worry about the little ones. They would be the easiest to grab and hold for ransom. The ransom being Sheri.”
David didn’t want this to dissolve into a wolf battle. He worried about his friends, his family, getting seriously injured or killed if this ended up going sideways.
“Maybe they just went home,” Sheri said.
“Do you really believe that?” Cameron sounded skeptical.
“I’m hopeful. You have the numbers,” Sheri said.
“But we also have the kids to worry about, and the women,” Cameron said.
Sheri took a deep breath, looking downcast. “Maybe I should have just gone back with them.” Her comment seemed to take everyone by surprise as they stared at her in disbelief.
“No,” Elizabeth said. “They can’t bully you into returning with them. We will stick with you through all of this and beyond.”
“But if anyone gets hurt because of me—”
“It wouldn’t be because of you,” David said, “but because of them. Because of Kintail.”
Sheri smiled, but it lacked conviction.
“If this is something you seriously want to do, then we’re backing you all the way,” Owen said.
Cameron agreed. So did Faith.
“I don’t want you to go,” Faith said. “I just want to make contingency plans for the children.”
“We’ll do that.” Cameron ran his hand over Faith’s back.
Once they finished dinner, they all stripped, ready to run as a pack.
They tore off through the woods, enjoying the night sounds, an owl hooting to another, loons calling out to others, cicadas and crickets singing. The fresh scent of water in the air hinted at rain, but David still couldn’t shake the feeling they needed to find Kintail and his men and set up surveillance on them.
Elizabeth bumped into him in playful fun, momentarily taking his mind off Kintail. Even Sheri and Slade seemed to be living in the moment, enjoying each other’s company as they ran through the trees ahead of them. Everyone was watching the little ones, too, shortening their strides to make sure they stayed together as a pack.
They ran along the shore of the lake for some time until the wolf pups kept falling behind, tired—except for Corey, who kept moving off to chase night critters, forcing Cameron to nip at him to return to the pack.
Someday, David could see Corey running his own pack. Then he would learn what a job it was to keep the little ones in line. He smiled.
When they were afraid they would have to carry the worn-out wolf pups home, they all headed back. At Cameron’s house, they ushered the slowpoke wolf pups up the steps. Even Corey was ready to call it a night. Then they got together to figure out a strategy for securing the houses against any possible attack by Kintail.
“Since you have the biggest family, I think we need to have more of our people stay here, for security purposes,” David said to Cameron and Faith.
“I agree,” Faith said.
“I’ll help with the kids.” Sheri sounded eager to make up for causing trouble for the pack, even though it wasn’t her fault.
“Perfect, thanks. Cameron usually does reading time, so you and I can get their baths going,” Faith said.
Before long, they heard water running in the tub, and then kids splashing in it.
“Okay, so who all is staying with whom?” David asked the others.
“Maybe we should all just stay here,” Elizabeth suggested. “I know you thought it might be better if we were split up, but there’s power in numbers.”
“Slumber party,” Amelia called out, and the kids all shouted with glee from down the hall.
Even David agreed they’d be better off staying together. He would have liked some alone time with Elizabeth, but they had years for that. Tonight, it was more important they were safe.
“We’ve got the couches that fold out as futons, an extra bedroom, sleeping bags, and comfortable blow-up mattresses. We can make this work,” Cameron said.