25. Twenty-Five

I plopped down on the bed and stared at my hands as the gravity of what I’d just seen weighed on me.

That girl threw herself at Sawyer. I didn’t think anything of note had happened between them. Sawyer wouldn’t let it, but that Fiona girl had no right to him. My relationship with my brother wasn’t physical like the one we shared with Sloane, but the three of us did have a connection.

Sloane would be upset. Sawyer and I belonged to her. She was the only woman who should be touching us. Not some bimbo my father thought was worthy.

Speaking of Sloane, the bedroom door creaked open. The moment she saw me, her eyes widened, and her face paled.

“What is it? Is it Sawyer? Did something happen?” She shut the door, hurried to me, and grasped both my hands as she kneeled in front of me.

I couldn’t lie to her. “My dad assigned some trollop to be his mate. She was talking to him when I sent over the list.”

Her hand went to her stomach as she stood, and her bottom lip trembled. “Oh.”

Her movements were shaky as she stumbled back like she’d been punched in the gut.

I reached out and pulled her next to me, cradling her in my arms. “He hasn’t done anything with her. But she wasn’t like Willa. She was into it. I don’t know how long he can avoid her.”

Sloane nodded, but her eyes looked glossy like she wasn’t really seeing everything. “We should have convinced him to stay. We failed him.”

I kissed her temple. “There was nothing we could do. Sawyer doesn’t know how to stop. He has always been the protector. It’s as much as a fault as it is a quality.”

Sloane mumbled something that I couldn’t understand before drawing in a shuddering breath. “I’m worried it’s going to get him killed.”

I had the same fear, but I didn’t voice it. No need to add to her concerns.

“Are the men resting now?” I asked.

She stood and went to the dresser. She fiddled with a picture in a silver frame, tracing her pointer finger along the outer edges of it. I had no idea who the people were. Chance still had quite a few personal possessions in here.

She set the frame down and turned back to me. “I’ve been doing some thinking. If Sawyer is going to stay, then we should coordinate an attack so the people he finds and our people attack at the same time.”

I wiped my hands on my thighs. “It’s a good idea. He’s choosing to stay there, so might as well put it to good use.”

She blew out a breath and worked on adjusting the picture frame like she was trying to get it to stand just right. “The sooner we can take down your father, the sooner this will all be over. We can finally be together without having to look over our shoulders.”

I got up and tugged her into my embrace. “I want that too.”

My mind drifted back to that beach we’d talked about. It felt like it had been years. I wanted to go there with Sloane and Sawyer so badly. To have a life where we could be carefree and just love each other. I didn’t know if such a thing existed.

She sighed as she nuzzled me. “I’m just worried all three of us aren’t going to get through this unscathed. We’ve already lost people we care about, and I’m afraid that we’re going to lose even more.”

I smoothed a hand up and down her back. “I know. War always comes at a price. But we know what we’re fighting for and why we have to win.”

She picked a piece of fuzz off my shirt and dropped it to the floor. “We need to think about making our moves now. I want to start planning. I want to have plans and multiple contingency plans. We can’t get caught off guard.”

She pulled away from me and went to the desk to pick up my laptop. “I want you to start reaching out to people. See who you can get to come here. I think we should pick a time and day for our next attack and start planning for it. We need to think of the worst-case scenario so that if something does happen to Sawyer, he can have the troops in line ready for our signal.”

It was a good idea, and without Sawyer, if we lost him, we would lose our ability to communicate with anyone at my dad’s. Coming up with some sort of signal or even a date was a good call.

“What is it you want me to put out, Sloane? I have to be careful what I put on the site. Too much information can be bad. It’s not as easy to block people from getting to the site as I’d like. Especially since I can’t tell by someone’s IP address if they’re trustworthy and who we want to be communicating with or not.”

Sloane pursed her lips. “I know. That’s why I’m hoping that we can get information from the other alphas here. My father had a huge network of alphas he spoke to. Let’s put the word out on the site, and then we can have the other alphas look at the names. Then we can give the ones approved a code word and a secret chat or something.”

She pushed the laptop toward me, and I took it.

She rubbed her hands together. “Battle lines are being drawn, and I know not everyone is going to come here, and there will be some people foolish enough to think that they can hide from the inevitable. But we need to make a callout and let others know we’re making a stand.”

I hugged the laptop to my chest. “Okay. I’ll get right to work on it.”

Everything was falling into place. With any luck, the war would be over in a few weeks. I just prayed that we didn’t have any more losses. Mainly Sawyer. I knew my brother, and he would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat for me and Sloane.

He was going to get caught.

It was only a matter of time.