Chapter 129

This was never going to go to Union Court. It was going to go straight to war, and Beth was ready to fight. Andrew Troy had manipulated his way to victory every time but now, he would get what was coming to him.

No one knew where his father was so he was all but Alpha King of Gold Nation now, which made him the most influential party in Union Court. Like hell Beth was going to bother bringing up a grievance against the most powerful member there. That was going to be open and shut and he was just going to find a way to punish everyone involved, and with legal backing.

Better to just take the fight to his face and show him what was what. Beth already had her sleeves up and claws out.

... Except Daniel and everyone else forbid her from leaving the Heether pack house. Completely.

"I am not an invalid!" she shouted. "I can still fight!"

"Beth... Please. You're going to stress out the baby."

"The baby is stressed out because you're leaving me behind!"

Daniel held her tight, stifling her struggles. "Please calm down. You know this is the right thing to do. You can't even shift anymore, and it'll be too dangerous. I can't fight if I'm worrying about you and the baby, and neither can anyone else. You have to stay."

"You didn't say that when we got here two weeks ago!"

"I didn't say anything at all," Daniel agreed. "Including that you were coming with us. It's too dangerous. How can I put you out there in the fighting like this? Think about the baby."

"I am thinking about the baby! Daniel, I can't just leave you." She clutched at his shirt. "I can't live without you. We can't live without you. Don't leave me behind. Don't make me go."

"Beth..." He kissed her gently a dozen times, fluttering, lingering touches of his lips to hers. "It'll be all right. You know I'm the strongest, don't you? I'll come back to you both safe and sound."

She collapsed against him, too torn apart to fight anymore. It didn't matter if Daniel was the strongest if he didn't have enough warriors to watch his back. Silver Nation could barely scrape together seven hundred able-bodied werewolves, with most of the sister packs just as hard-hit by casualties from the year before as the Heether pack. Iron Nation had five times that number and counting last Beth had heard, and even Bronze Nation boasted more than Daniel's combined forces.

Every werewolf counted. Beth had to go with him. She had to protect him. Hadn't she promised Margaretta?

But he was right. She couldn't shift. On the battlefield, she would be worse than useless. She would get everyone killed while they tried to protect her.

"Your father's already prepared, so is Matt," said Daniel. "I can't leave them waiting. Andrew's forces are already pouring across the continent. I can't be late."

Maybe she could change his mind by morning. Maybe if she reminded him how much she loved him, he wouldn't leave her.

That night, they made love sweetly, then passionately, with pleasure and pain and touches both soft and rough. She kissed him and moved against him with all the want and need she had ever felt, all the desperation she could summon to make him remember they were meant to stay together, always.

As he moved inside her, groaning through the pleasure and inflicting heavenly, hellish ecstasy upon her entire body, he said almost all those things right back... Except promising to take him with her to the front.

"I love you," he whispered as she fell asleep underneath him, worn and battered by their lovemaking. "I love you, Beth. I need you safe."

"Daniel..."

"Shhh..." He kissed her gently. "Everything will be okay."

***

He left in the night. It was the one time he lied to her, vanishing before morning when she awoke to the gentle shaking of one of the Deltas.

"Oh! Daniel, he--!"

"He left about four hours ago, Elizabeth. You'll never catch up. But we can't stay anyway like we thought we could. There are scout reports saying Andrew's forces might be on the border, they got past the front somehow. We have to leave in case they head straight here and cut us off."

No... No! Daniel! Why had he left! She sat numbly on the edge of the bed, dazed and confused.

"I wish we could take our time, but we have to go. Please, Elizabeth. Take only the essentials, we're taking you to Iron Nation since the Rokley territory is the safest place for you right now."

The Delta helped her to her feet and guided her away.

***

"No word from Beth?"

Daniel shot Matt a hard look over the map he held in his hands. "I don't want messengers going back and forth and exposing her position. You know that."

"Even so. It's been four days since you got here, so that's close to a week and a half that we've not had word about her status."

"Keep your head in the problems we're dealing with here, not Beth. I've made arrangements to keep her safe."

"Gentlemen, a fight? Between allies when we have more than enough enemies to worry about?" Alpha King William of Iron Nation and his daughter, the newly promoted General Annalise, entered the tent. "It's time. The rogues are rushing toward us as we speak. We have the high ground so we saw them coming, but the clash is coming within the next half-hour. There will be a pincer attack, with two other packs closing in on our flanks. We're lucky to have sharp eyes among us, catching that before we were ambushed."

"Any signs of the Troy pack? Of Andrew?" demanded Daniel.

"None yet. It'll be a while before we draw him out, you know that."

"Or not." Matthew set down the map and looked at his fellow leaders. "I have an idea. But it'll involve capturing the leader of the rogues alive. The good news is that the rogues aren't cowards like Andrew. The leader always fights with his number. The bad news... I don't know how many casualties it'll cost us to get to him alive."

Alpha William grimaced. "Far fewer than otherwise, I suspect. But I don't know if it's possible. He's powerful, you know, but more than that, he's surrounded by loyal rogues who will die for him in the blink of an eye."

"I'll handle him personally." Daniel stood. "If I can get past his men, I can take him down and drag him to our side."

"It'll be dangerous."

"The mother of my child never feared him." He smiled, the curve of his mouth crooked as he watched William for his reaction. "Beth injured him, did you know that? She didn't even know who he was. It was back at Tahoe Village, she put up such a fight that he wanted her for himself at the end of it. That was why Andrew was going to trade her to him."

William blinked in surprise several times. "You never mentioned that."

"I'm mentioning it now."

"Well... That's Beth for you." He shrugged. "You'd better be ready for the chaos."

"I'll handle it."

"No, I mean the chaos of being mated to a woman who's even more daring than you. She never was easy to reason with. To think she even squared off with the rogues' leader..."

Daniel's smile widened. "I can't put her to shame. I'll make sure I finish the job for her."

***

From far off in the distance, the wind carried a strange sound on it, traces of howls and screams. Beth signaled for the Delta to stop. "That sound," she muttered. "Do you hear it?"

"What sound, Elizabeth?"

"It's... fighting. That's the sound of fighting."

"Nearby! We have to move more quickly then."

"No, no. It's from a distance. Far, far away."

"Do you mean...? You couldn't possibly hear that. That's hundreds of kilometers away."

"I know war," she said quietly. "I recognize even the traces of it. They're fighting. It's begun."

"Then we need to keep moving regardless. I've been entrusted with your safety, I'll protect you as Daniel ordered. Please, let's continue."

She stared out over the hilly terrain, between the trees and all the way out into the open expanse blanketed with the falling snow.

Please, Moon Goddess, she prayed. Please keep him safe. I'd do anything, but it's out of my hands now. Please bring him back to me, just like you did before.

Dread filled her when no answer came, and the faintest memory ghosted across her consciousness. Something about a price to pay. Something fearful, something...

Somewhere far from here, Daniel was fighting. Covered in the blood of enemies and tearing through everyone who dared to stand against him, bathing in the bloodshed that came of pent-up fury and grief, for all the loss and all the pain, all the unjust things he had endured.

In another life, she had feared his ferocity, believing him a monster drunk on conquest and power and carnage. But now she hoped in it, prayed for it, begged for it to bring Daniel back home.

He was different. She was different.

Everything was different now.

"I love you," she whispered into the wind.

She hoped her words would fly to Daniel through the snow.