Chapter 10

Lachlan

This wasn’t a call I wanted to make in company, so I waited for Taylor and Grant to go out to dinner first.

Setting my ego aside, I picked up the phone and dialed the one number I had committed to memory.

“Hey. It’s about damn time you called. How is he? I’ve heard the reports, but really, how’s he doing?”

“He who?” I asked.

“Lachlan?”

“Michael.”

“Um, hey. How are you?”

“I don’t have time for pleasantries. If you’re in the area, I need to see you—all of you. I’m in the penthouse.”

“Okay. We’re on our way.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to believe him or not. To get my hopes up and have them crushed would only make their betrayal all the worse.

Not wanting to call anyone else in until this was behind me, I took to pacing the room instead.

When the doorbell rang to the penthouse, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Chelle peeked her head out into the hallway.

“It’s okay. Sorry you were startled. I called them in.”

“Oh, okay.”

She shut the door and disappeared once more. She’d been laying low for a few days and I knew we needed to have another talk soon. But right now, I was solely focused on my unsanctioned mission to rescue my mate. If that meant teaming back up with Delta, then I’d do it.

I wasn’t quite ready for any of this and I couldn’t even bring myself to admit just how badly I needed them right now. The fact that none of them had called to check on me hurt, but for Tilly, I pushed down that pain and anger.

They filed in one by one. No one quite met my eyes.

I escorted them to the large dining room table. We sat down in awkward silence.

“You’re probably wondering why I called you all here.”

“I’m just happy you did,” Tucker admitted.

“We’ve missed you,” Colin said.

“Whatever it is, let us help you,” Michael blurted out.

“Help me? I can’t even trust you right now after what you did.”

I knew that was a little harsh. I called because I needed them, but my pride didn’t want to need them.

“I know we went about it all wrong. Trust me, we know. I think Walker’s going to require more therapy over that than he did after meeting Lindsey.”

He was trying to make a joke, but it fell flat. I stared at him, just waiting for him to continue.

“Look man, I’m sorry. We’re all so sorry. I had my reasons but I really didn’t take your feelings into consideration. I’ve lived through it, so of course I know, but I’ve also been on the other side of things and the fall out that comes from mating. I was trying to avoid an international fall out from causing chaos within a Tribe that was already on edge from various fronts including a merger with a rival tribe through mating of your freaking mate.”

“But you didn’t know she was my mate at the time, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. You were getting aggressive and partially shifting in dingo territory, not your Tribe, I might add. That alone was extremely out of character for you and concerning. I knew we had to shut it down quickly. Was using a tranquilizer an extreme measure? Yes. Did any of us take pleasure in that? No. Of course not.”

“Knowing what you know now, would you have taken the same course of action?” I asked in a calm but steely tone.

He looked me directly in the eyes. “No. I would not change a thing, especially knowing what I know now.”

I considered that for a moment and let the anger subside from me. I prided myself on being able to see things from multiple points of view. If I were in his shoes, I wasn’t sure I would have made the same call, and I didn’t think I could have pulled the trigger to tranq one of my brothers, but if I removed the emotions I was feeling, I could understand why he came to the conclusion that it was the best course of action.

And he was right. I hadn’t been right in the head. I wasn’t thinking straight. With Tilly being who she is, I would very much have ruined the mission and likely caused irreparable damage to Westin Force amongst the dingoes. Being a dingo myself in another Tribe was just another check against me. Dingoes never shifted in another’s territory without explicit approval from the Alphas or in declaration of war. It wasn’t going to go well if I had completed my transition and gone after my mate.

“Say something, please,” Walker begged. “I didn’t take any pleasure in shooting you. We were just worried and needed to get you out of there quickly before it was too late to intervene.”

“I stood there and let it happen,” Colin said. “That makes me just as guilty.

“Yeah, if you’re going to be mad at Michael for making the call, and Walker for carrying it out, then you might as well be pissed at all of us,” Tucker said.

“We may not have stopped and voted in the moment, but we all stood behind Michael’s decision,” Linc added.

My shoulders sagged as I deflated under their words.

They all agreed that I was the imminent danger in that moment.

These were men I trusted and respected more than just about anyone else on this planet. When Michael went and kidnapped his mate and went AWOL, we all stood by waiting for word on whatever he needed. He’d already made the mistake, but we were there to aid him in any way he needed despite orders to report in if we’d heard from him. None of us had done that.

In my mind they should have been ready to jump in and assist me in the same manner, but if I stopped to think about it, would we have tried to stop him if we’d been there in the moment he actually kidnapped her?

Hell yes we would have. We would have taken extreme measures to stop him for fear of not only the impact it would cause between Westin Pack and one of our closest allies, but also to thwart the trouble he was diving head first into for himself.

Is that what they’d done for me?

Was I too close to the situation and too hurt emotionally to see that and really understand it?

I sighed.

“Please just say something,” Walker begged. “It’s killing me.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know you all weren’t being malicious in stopping me from going after Tilly. Hurt that it came to that? Yes. But I can step back and see it from your viewpoints too. I put you in a tough situation. I think it helps to know that if I’d been there when Michael took Callie and handcuffed her to a truck that I’d have stepped in and tried to intervene in order to keep him out of trouble.”

“Yes, exactly,” Walker said.

I could see the relief all over his face.

“So, are we forgiven?”

“Maybe. I need to digest it all a little more before I’m ready to hug it out and all.”

“Fair enough.”

Walker wasn’t going to push me any further. It was clear that the guilt of that day had been eating him alive. I knew that once things were settled, we were going to have a long session on this. And I was pretty sure we’d both be needing it.

“Hold up. This whole time you were just standing there staring at us uncomfortably as we waited for any sort of reaction from you, were you just standing there psycho-analyzing yourself?” Tucker asked.

For the first time since they arrived a slow smile crossed my lips.

“Do you think I just preach this shit to you blokes?”

“Practice what you preach?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Guess you could call it that.”

“So how much do you charge for an internal self-evaluation like that?” Colin asked.

The others groaned.

And I knew that we were going to be okay. Maybe not immediately, but we were going to get through this and maybe someday, if everything went just right, I’d look back and laugh.

Suddenly I didn’t feel quite so alone in all of this. I was still hesitantly optimistic, but that was going to have to be enough, because I knew that if I was going to survive this and save my mate, I needed my team’s help.

I filled them in on everything I had in the works.

“She’s that close?” Linc asked.

I walked over to the window and pointed. “Right there.”

“How are you maintaining your sanity?” Michael asked. “I’d be losing my shit by now.”

“I’m trying to stay calm and rational. Trust me, I want nothing more than to shift, stalk over there, and rip the throats out of every single person threatening her.”

“We won’t stop you,” Walker said. “In fact, I’ll shift and flank you. It’s the least I can do after, well, everything.”

“They won’t even know what hit them if we all go,” Colin said.

“I’m down,” Tucker said.

“Me too,” Linc agreed.

“What the hell, let’s do it,” Michael said.

“I want in on this too,” Chelle said.

The guys jumped at her voice. No one had noticed her arrival.

“No civilians,” I told her.

“She’s my sister.”

“I did not risk everything to get you out of there so you could just run back in. That’s not happening.”

“Who’s this?” Linc asked.

“Guys, this is Chelle, Tilly’s older sister.”

“The one that was supposed to mate Aiden?” Colin asked.

“Yeah, that one.”

“I don’t even know if Aiden’s still alive, or my parents, or anyone else I care about. But if Tilly is right there, then we have to go get her.”

“Not yet,” I insisted.

“You have a plan?” Michael asked.

“Already in the works.”

“Patrick signed off on this?”

“Not yet. But if Kelsey comes through then hopefully soon.”

“You’re calling in favors, aren’t you?” Walker challenged.

“I’m doing what I have to do to save my family.”

“Speaking of which, are the kids safe?” Michael asked.

It touched me that he thought to even ask.

“For now. I really need to get them away from this. I may be taking them back home with me. I just can’t bring myself to go until I know Tilly is safe. Hell, I can’t even manage to go get them and bring them back here when I know now that she’s right there.”

“I’ll do it,” Walker said.

“What?”

“I will go and get your brothers and sister and bring them back here.”

“I’ll go, too,” Colin said.

“Might as well take Linc and Tucker too. One man on each kid,” Michael advised.

“What? You’re not volunteering?”

“Not a chance. I’m going to stay and help you through this mission of yours.”

“It’s not sanctioned.”

“Yet,” he added.

I smiled and genuinely relaxed some for the first time since entering this nightmare.

“Yet,” I agreed.

“Okay, it’s settled. Give us the location and we’ll have them back tonight.”

“You’re really going to do this?”

“Would you stop acting so surprised? We’re brothers. Sometimes brothers fight or argue. Sometimes we do boneheaded things even if the meaning behind it was genuine. Let us back in, Lachie. If we let you down again, you can kick all our asses.”

Tucker snorted. “He can try.”

“It’s settled then. Get us that location.”

This time I didn’t question it as I picked up the phone and called Hannah.

“Lachlan?” she whispered.

“Hey Hannah banana. How’s it going there?”

“Siggy left and hasn’t come back. We’re hungry, but there’s someone outside. I’m scared, Lachie.”

“What do you mean someone’s outside?”

“A shadow has passed over the window like three times and I can hear voices outside.”

“Where are the boys?”

“We’re all here,” she assured me.

“Is there a place for you to hide?”

“We are,” Jack assured me.

“They’re just being paranoid,” Tobi insisted.

“Get down,” Tom admonished him.

“Where are you?”

“Some shack down by the beach,” one of the said.

“Is there any place to hide in there?”

“Yeah, there’s a secret room that Siggy showed us.”

“It smells like weed.”

I groaned. Why didn’t that surprise me?

“Go there and stay put. Help’s on the way. Do you have the address?”

“I got it,” Hannah said. “Can I text it to you?”

“Yes.” I waited for the ding and then verified it wasn’t far from here. “I got it. Just sit tight. I’m sending some friends to get you.”

“Not another Siggy.”

I chuckled. “Not this time, sweet girl.”

“Lachie?”

“Yeah?”

“Hurry.”

It was hard to hang up that phone as memories flooded me of the last time I spoke with Tilly as I sat there listening to them take her.

“Are you okay?” Walker asked.

“No,” I told him honestly. “I am definitely not okay.”

I relayed all the information they had given me and the four of them rushed out to take one major thing off my plate. I knew my stress levels would drop once the kids were here safe and sound.