Page 59 of Starting a New Life

Nix stared at the shifters sitting at the round table, his eyes scanning everyone before he slowly raised his hand and gave a short wave. “Hi.”

I smiled, then sat back down.

“Nix, you already know Rhett. The menace next to him is Angelo. You probably heard him roar a couple of times. Then we have Heath—he took over the patrols while Rhett was gone—and Paul, he’s a local Mountie and his father is our connection to the shifter council. And then we have Oakley. He’s like the good soul of the pack and responsible for social stuff. That lady right there with the blonde hair is Diana. She works at the mayor’s office and is responsible for everything that concerns the town. And next to her is her mate, Jenny. She’s one of our best trackers.”

Everyone raised their hands as I introduced them. Nix gave everyone a nod, but remained silent, still standing behind the empty chair as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to sit at the table with us.

And maybe he didn’t.

“So,” Heath said, his eyes searching for Rhett’s. “Just so we’re on the same page before we roll out our next patrol schedule, do we want to keep our rota as is, or do we want the patrol to be more like… dedicated fighters?”

Good questions.

Fighters, my wolf snarled.

Nix bit his lip, his eyes transfixed by the map in the middle of the table. It depicted our pack lands, and we’d marked each place his hunters had tried to breach the territory. However, the spots appeared random to me, not in a clear pattern.

“I’m not sure we can keep up a squad of fighters without burning through resources fast,” Rhett mused. “Especially if we don’t know how many enemies we’re dealing with. It’s not like we have dedicated enforcers in this pack.”

Nix cleared his throat, his whole body shaking as the attention snapped to him.

“They’re down to six,” he said. He rolled his shoulders, eyes searching for mine, but not just his eyes… something reached me, wrapping around my hand. Invisible tendrils of warmth, of him. His magic, I realized. Just like it’d done this morning.

And then, he slowly stepped forward and slipped into the seat reserved for him.

“Are you sure?” Paul asked, leaning in to scribble something on his notepad.

“Not a hundred percent,” Nix said, his shoulders already creeping up to his ears again. “In the beginning, there were fourteen of them. Knox’s Beta and then a lot of enforcers. But over the months, the group got smaller. I think they needed them back at the pack. Knox is not a pleasant Alpha.” A shudder ran through his body, his fear spiking, the sour stench hitting everyone’s noses at the same time. To their credit, no one acknowledged it. “I know they’re constantly fighting other packs in the area, so I guess having fourteen enforcers running around the country for months wasn’t feasible. His Beta’s still here, though. His name’s Bear and he’s almost as mean as Knox. Not a bear, though. When I last saw them all together, they were a group of six.”

“Thanks for the insight,” Paul said, still writing something down.

“No problem,” Nix whispered, eyes fixed on the map of our territory.

“Our patrol is not equipped to fight off six attackers at once,” Rhett noted.

“Until now, they’ve never breached our border as a pack,” I said. “They intrude in groups of two. We just don’t know why. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Nix was quiet, eyes still focused on the map, but his throat was working, hands tensing on the table.

“It does,” he said quietly, but there was no need to speak louder. He had everyone’s rapt attention.

“You think?” Oakley coaxed, the smile on his face warm and inviting.

Nix bit his lip but nodded. “They’re not trying to fight you. I’ve seen them fight; they’re strong and ruthless. I think…” He swallowed. “You know that I enforced the barrier, right? They can feel that. I think… I think they think that you caught me and own me.” He looked like he was about to puke. I didn’t think, I just acted and reached for him, grabbed one of his hands and squeezed lightly.

The whole room froze.

Nix stopped breathing, his heart skipping a beat, eyes turning wide, those turquoise lakes swimming with fear and something else. Something warmer.

“We would never do that to you. You’re safe here, I swear.”

Nix stared at me for a few seconds, then nodded, deflating as he let out a breath.

“Thank you,” he whispered, then looked right back up at the other wolves, new resolve visible on his face. But he didn’t pull his hand back. Our connection was still there, his hand oh so cold in mine, yet at the same time hotter than fire, burning the moment into my memory forever. “I think they’re trying to bait you. They want you to lose patience. They’re waiting for one of you to follow them out of the barrier. I bet the rest of them are waiting just out of sight.”

“Shouldn’t we be able to scent them if they’re waiting for us? And why? Do they want to kill us one by one?” Angelo asked, raising his brows, golden eyes shining with curiosity.

“I don’t think they want to kill you at all. They don’t know you, don’t know your strength, so they probably don’t want to risk an open battle. They want leverage. Take one of your wolves prisoner and negotiate an exchange. Your pack member for me.”