Chapter Fourteen

"Y'all are the cutest couple," a woman said.

Silver must've misheard. "I'm sorry?"

"I said you are the cutest couple," the woman said, gesturing to Owen beside her, who was ordering them food.

"Really? Thank you so much! Girl, I was checking out your tattoo this whole time," Silver said, gesturing to the longhorn tattoo across her upper thigh, exposed by shorts similar to the ones Silver wore.

"Thank you! I just got it a few weeks ago. It's still healing."

Silver tinked her can against the girl's drink, and winked at her. "Killin' it."

"Y'all are too!"

Brimming with that feel-good sensation caused by the random compliments, Silver helped Owen carry their basket of hotdogs and French fries, and told him all about that nice lady in line as they made their way back to their seats.

"I have a feeling you're going to love this next part," he told her, jutting his chin toward the arena.

She leaned into him and snuggled her cheek against his shoulder quick and then asked, "What's going to happen?"

"It's time for the barrel racing event. See, they're setting up the barrels now."

Hallie twisted around from the bench seat in front of Silver. "They're total badasses."

Corey was pigging out on a mustard-slathered corndog and just nodded her agreement.

This was so wild to Silver. None of the females in the Fastlanders were intimidated by other females. Or the lady in line. It wasn't like this in the Pride. Females were brutal to each other, always in competition.

This was way more fun.

She cheered on the barrel racers and quickly figured out what Owen and Hallie had meant. Those women were not only gorgeous, they were in control of the powerful horses under them. It was feminine meets power in a way that held her attention completely. She didn't want it to end!

The bull riding was up next, and they were so much fun to watch. She and Corey and Hallie cheered for three that they had researched beforehand. Those bull shifters were on a winning streak that was bringing positive attention for shifters!

"I'll be right back," she told Owen. "Want a beer?"

"Sure! Need to go to the bathroom?"

"Yeah," she admitted.

"How about I'll get us drinks while you go. Corey or Hallie, do you want—"

The girls were already getting up, and asking their mates if they wanted drinks, and Silver grinned. She'd heard about women going to the bathroom in packs, but had never understood it until now.

"Owen told the guys, "I'll get us a round. Be right back."

He patted Silver on the butt before they went off their separate ways, and she and the girls made a trip to a section of the fairgrounds that had portable restrooms.

She finished up first and was washing her hands at a cleansing station when she smelled it—familiar lion.

The smile drifted from her lips immediately as she jerked her attention to scan the area.

Katrina sat on a picnic table off to the side, gold glowing eyes focused on Silver.

Shit.

Silver hesitated, and then made her way to her. Katrina, however, moved her position before Silver reached the picnic table. She drifted toward the fence, and Silver paused. She wasn't going to get ambushed. Katrina was wearing a baseball cap low over her gold eyes, her brunette waves cascading down her shoulders in her spaghetti strap black tank top. She'd always been a poised beauty. She made sense as a Queen for Rook.

When she stopped by an empty vendor booth and turned, waiting for Silver, she looked around, making sure she didn't sense Rook, or any of his army. Still, she only smelled Katrina.

Silver sauntered over to her. "What do you want?"

"I mean…I wish you were dead," Katrina answered honestly.

"Great. Consider me dead."

Katrina canted her head and looked Silver up and down thoughtfully. "You sure feel different."

"It's amazing what a few days outside of the Pride can do for your self-esteem. Is Rook here?"

Katrina bit the corner of her lip, considering her answer, but at last said, "He's close, but not here."

"Why are you here, Kat?" she murmured, using the nickname she'd called her by when they had been friends once upon a time.

"He asked me to talk to you."

"And you'll go back to him without me, and you can tell him I appear and feel different. You should both know I'm not coming back."

"I don't think he's holding his breath for that anymore," Katrina said. "You weren't ever that important."

"How was your Queen ceremony?" she asked, unable to keep the bitterness from her tone.

"It would've been perfect, except there was a ghost there."

"What ghost?"

"You."

Silver looked back toward the portable bathrooms, but didn't see any of the Fastlanders. "You can have him, you know? I don't want Rook. I don't want anything to do with the Pride."

"I tried to get him not to cut you," Katrina said suddenly.

Shocked, Silver asked, "What do you mean?"

"He had a meeting with the Pride when he dragged you back. He talked about the traitor mark tradition, and how long it had been since it had been performed in the Holland Pride, and how he would make you an example." There was actual emotion in Katrina's eyes. "I voted against it."

"Yet you watched him do it," she murmured. "I remember. You were there."

Katrina chewed the corner of her lip and looked toward the fence. She inhaled a harsh sound, like her lungs were protesting. "I left my phone in the truck." She lifted her fingers to do air quotes as she amended, "Accidentally. He wanted me to record our conversation. You need a new phone. He's still in yours," she whispered so quietly, Silver almost missed it.

Silver pulled her phone out and turned it off completely.

Katrina nodded. "There's going to be a war, but I don't know when. Rook is building an army. It'll take time. We aren't close yet."

"Why are you telling me this?" Silver whispered.

"Because I was wrong. You tried to warn me, and I was wrong. And look at you," she said, gesturing to Silver's face. "He maimed you for everyone to see. But you're still here, smiling. I've watched you with them. I came here so angry, but I've spent the whole night watching you. Watching the Fastlanders laugh with you. Not forced, and not in a manipulative way. They like you. Once upon a time I liked you. You shouldn't come back, Silver. You should let me be Queen, and you should be with your Fastlanders as long as you can. You should be happy at the end of your life."

"Why are you calling it the end of my life?" she asked softly.

"Because I know the army Rook is building." There were a hundred ghosts in her eyes. "It's heavy, Silver. Losing you now in this way will make Rook worse. You've never seen an anger like his."

Fear trilled up Silver's spine. "What should I do?"

"Coming back to him won't help. He'll kill you on your insides, and make you watch him kill that cute guy who is protective of you, and putting his arm around you, and making sure you're happy." Katrina shook her head. "There's no stopping that." She shrugged a shoulder up to her ear. "Just enjoy every moment you can."

"Ready to find better company?"

Silver startled hard at the man's deep voice that sounded right beside her. A stranger sat on the table of the empty vendor booth, arm resting on his bent leg like he had been here the whole time.

"Who are you?" Katrina demanded.

"The name's Wreck." He gave a smile that Silver could only describe as evil. "I'm a Fastlander, cupcake. Who the fuck are you?"

Wreck? The brown-haired man with the fiery gold and red eyes felt heavy, like a mountain was settling onto Silver's shoulders. Terror filled her, and the remnants of his burning fire flamed up again under her aching skin.

Katrina slid her lion-bright gaze to Silver and back to the stranger. She looked uncertain and spooked. "I was just delivering a warning."

"Warning received. Tell your boyfriend we'll see him real soon," Wreck said coolly. He stood and leaned closer to Katrina, then lowered his voice. "Tell him Wreck can't fuckin' wait." His empty smile brightened, and then he disappeared. Just…poof. Gone in a cloud of black smoke.

Silver pursed her lips against the urge to run far away from the awful, dark, churning sensation that shifter left in her middle. "Maybe you should go back to your King, Kat."

"What are you into?" Katrina asked low from behind her as she walked away.

It was at this moment, Silver saw Owen leaning against a light pole by the bathrooms, watching her with frost-blue, glowing eyes. He wasn't coming to save her, or threaten Katrina. He was waiting for any signal that Silver needed help, but trusting her to handle it, and that meant the world to her.

"I'm in Damon's Mountains now," Silver called over her shoulder. "I'm not one of you anymore."

And as she approached Owen, she saw the girls too. Two pairs of glowing green eyes stared at Katrina, and Silver knew without the shadow of a doubt, those two she-bears would rip Katrina limb from limb if Silver said she was a threat.

She really was in Damon's Mountains now.

She was going to keep her happiness, as long as she could, just like Katrina had said.

War was going to come to these mountains. Apparently, the seers here had seen it, and there was no stopping it. Not even Silver could slow it by going back to the Pride. Her suffering wouldn't change destiny at all.

It was what it was.

War would come to the mountains, and they would survive or they wouldn't. But if she was a betting woman, she would put money on Owen, the Beast Boar of the Fastlanders, and the she-grizzlies of the Crew. She would put money on the Fury, the Alpha, Gunner. She would bet on Ace, the Hybrid lion-vampire, and on Captain, the grizzly with a chip on his shoulder. She would bet on Wreck, the Fire. And most importantly, she would put her money on herself, because Silver knew how she felt right now.

She was disappointed it was Katrina who had come to give her that message.

She was disappointed it wasn't Rook, so she could maul him.

She wanted to take on the King.

The thought of any of the Holland Pride anywhere around Owen made her skin tingle with the urge to Change.

Silver slid her hand into Owen's, and looked back over her shoulder at where Katrina was watching her leave.

For the first time in as long as Silver could remember, she really would bet on herself.

If Rook gave a single damn about survival…for him or any of his people…

He should stay far away from Silver, and the Fastlanders.