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  He watched as she turned her head toward his position. She sniffed the light breeze and stared into the darkness. Finding nothing troubling, she turned back to her fire.

  Dylan watched her for more than an hour before she finally got to her feet, brushed the sand off, and slowly made her way back to the large house that sat on the other side of the windswept dunes. He wondered if in that brief moment something inside of her had been aware of his presence. And if so, had she recognized it as the draw of her new mate?

  He made a slow, wide loop around the island, noting that there seemed to be a lack of any security system. They did have two boats—a small sailboat that could accommodate six people at most and a Zodiac. Not the best choices for the entire group of women to make a clean getaway if needed. He knew that they must have their security measures hidden. Getting good information before the assault was made would be crucial to its success. Dylan knew the Ruling Council would be delivering their ultimatum to the Bae Diogel pack within days. That it would be an assault on the sanctuary was a given as far as he was concerned. He had no doubt that the women contained therein would not go quietly.

  * * *

  Skylar made her way back up to the house and entered through the kitchen doors. Roz was sitting on the island with a Guinness in her hand and one on the counter next to her. She tossed it to Skylar, who opened it and took a long draw.

  “I didn’t expect to see you back up here this quickly.”

  “It’s cold tonight,” said Skylar matter-of-factly.

  “And?”

  “And, what?”

  Roz hopped off the island and faced her alpha and friend. “I’ve seen you sit out there until long after the bonfire has burned itself out in the driving rain or even snow. Weather has never been a factor in how long you sat out there. And unless you have developed some weird kind of internal howl, I didn’t hear you call for him.”

  Skylar smiled sadly. “You are entirely too observant, my friend. For some reason I just didn’t feel the need tonight. I don’t know that I’ll ever stop missing him.”

  “Perhaps not, but he wouldn’t want you to have grieved this long.”

  Skylar laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. That Welshman had a huge ego. It might have pleased him to know he was missed, but you’re right, he wouldn’t want me to just exist, he’d want me to go on living.”

  “He loved you.”

  “Yes, he did. But he’s felt distant of late.”

  “Distant? Sky, he’s dead,” said Roz gently.

  “But the connection was still strong. Recently it feels like the connection is weakening so I still have the pain to endure, but not the connection to offset it. And then tonight…”

  “What about tonight?” Roz asked quietly.

  “Tonight, there was something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I was sitting at the bonfire wondering why I felt no need to howl, and I felt this… I don’t know… a pull from offshore. I looked and scented the air, but nothing. And then it was gone. Weird.”

  “Things are changing. You know that, right? In a day or two we’ll get a formal request from the Ruling Council…”

  “Of which we are not a member…” Skylar said with a resigned smile.

  “But who thinks they have a right to tell us what to do. They’re going to give us the option of voluntarily joining other packs or having that forced upon us.”

  “They aren’t going to like our answer.”

  “We’ll fight them,” said Roz. “The odds aren’t in our favor, but they don’t want to do irreparable harm to us so that helps.”

  “Does it? I don’t see how. I’ve thought a lot about this in the past twenty-four hours. I think we need to disband voluntarily, abandon the sanctuary and find a new home, either as a group or as individuals.” Skylar looked at her friend and second-in-command. Roz looked as though Skylar had just knocked the wind out of her. “There’s no way we can win. We got lucky with those marauders. The Council knows we exist and knows we will fight. They will come prepared. And they won’t be in a reasonable mood when they do. Some of the packs will allow us time to get acclimated. But most likely we’ll be separated completely—not more than one of us integrated into any one pack. And some of the packs aren’t going to be all that interested in whether or not we want to be paired or to whom we want to be paired.”

  “You think we’ll be forced into pairings?”

  Skylar nodded. “I do.”

  “You’re an alpha. They can’t do that to you.”

  “They can’t force me to mate with a lesser male, but they can try to force it with another alpha and there are several unmated alpha males.”

  “Are you planning to leave?”

  “I don’t see that we have any alternatives that are better. I don’t want to put us in a kill or be captured situation. I can justify what happened because we didn’t know they were coming and they gave us no choice. But now, we know.”

  “When are you going to tell the others?”

  “No time like the present. Let’s gather everyone in the front room.”

  Chapter Three

  Dylan reluctantly placed a call to the alpha of the Calon Onest pack in Wales—Micah and Skylar’s former pack. He apologized to Ioan Smith-Davies for calling out of the blue and explained who he was and briefly what had transpired over the past few months. At first Smith-Davies had wanted to come to Skylar and her pack’s aid, but Dylan pointed out the folly of such an action. He might not have gotten far but for having revealed to Ioan his realization regarding Skylar as his mate.

  Ioan had laughed. “She’s a terrible bit of beauty, she is. Micah loved her dearly and she him. But she was ever the rebellious mate. There were times she’d go through a phase where her bottom had barely healed before he had to blister it again.”

  “Not exactly what I was hoping to hear.”

  Ioan had laughed. “Ach, well, that’s the truth of it. She can be a lot of trouble, but Micah always said she made up for it, and he didn’t just mean in the bedchamber. We felt her loss keenly when she left us. She would have been welcome back here—still would be if needed. I suspect she didn’t want to attract trouble from the hunters for the retribution she took for Micah’s death.”

  “That would be my sense of it. Any words of wisdom in quelling her rebelliousness or helping her adjust to having a mate to answer to once again?”

  “Be careful. She’s smart and crafty. She’s a massive temper and the lethal skills to back it up. Micah said the first time he disciplined her before they were mated, she got hold of a knife and tried to cut him to ribbons. He carried a nasty scar on his ribcage from that encounter. Of course, he took his strap to her for that bit of nonsense. And when he forced her to run, it took him the better part of two days to actually catch her and then another day to mark her and make her settle down. When they returned to the manor house here, she wasn’t the only one with wounds. As I recall she raked his back something fierce when he knotted her the first time. Come to think of it, she had a habit of doing that often. I think marking her will be important.”

  “I don’t want to have to force her.”

  “I don’t think she’ll give you a choice. And don’t let her get away with anything. Micah only did it once or twice and paid for it in spades each time.” Ioan laughed again. “I remember he once told me she never got to be on top during sex as it gave her notions that he’d end up having to quell by taking a strap to her bare bottom.”

  “I must be some kind of sick sonofabitch. You ought to be scaring the hell out of me.”

  “Nay. If you’re her true mate, the idea of bringing her to heel will be intriguing, exciting, and I suspect arousing as all get out. Micah always said it took a hard hand and an even harder cock to keep her in line… and happy. And she’s a glorious thing when she’s happy.”

  “Well, I do take comfort in that.” The two men laughed together. Dylan spoke a bit longer with Ioan and reassured him that Skylar would be well cared for and loved… wh
ether she liked it or not. Ioan ended the conversation inviting the two of them to come to Wales to visit.

  Dylan hung up the phone and chuckled at his own state of arousal. Not only did he look forward to bringing Skylar to heel, he looked forward to bedding her and building a life with her as well.

  * * *

  Ioan had hung up the phone and walked to the wall safe concealed behind the bookcase. He opened the safe and withdrew the sealed, blank manila envelope. He sat down at his desk and addressed it to Dylan. He had no idea what the envelope contained but it had some bulk to it. All he knew was that when he had become alpha of Calon Onest, he’d been given an envelope with a letter from Micah containing instructions that should he die before Skylar and she was ever to find another mate, the other envelope was to be delivered to whoever that man might be.

  Ioan suspected it was helpful information in dealing with Skylar who could be a notorious troublemaker if not kept in check. Ioan chuckled to himself. He’d liked Dylan immensely when they’d talked and got the feeling that the American alpha had his work cut out for him. Ioan poured himself a shot, lifted it toward heaven saluting his old friend, and then tipped it toward the Americas, wishing his new friend luck and love with his new mate.

  * * *

  A few days later a courier delivered the letter from the Council to the women of the Bae Diogel/Safe Harbor pack requesting, ever so formally and ever so politely, that they voluntarily disband their pack and make arrangements to become valued and integrated members of different packs. Skylar had been expecting it, but now she had proof of their intent. She called a meeting of the woman of her household.

  She looked around at the other women. Some of them had been with her from the first months of finding this place, some only a year or so.

  She held up the letter. “I’m sure you all know what this is. The all-male Ruling Council has given us their invitation to disband or else. They are ever so polite and are thinking only of our best interests. We have forty-eight hours to give them our answer. If we decline their invitation, they will impose sanctions on us and compel us to comply. There is no way I am going to impose my own personal decision on anyone else.”

  Roz laughed and looked at the others. “You don’t really think any of us are planning just to roll over on our backs, spread our legs for them to have their way with us, do you?” The others laughed… it was a bitter sound.

  “No, but I don’t want anyone to think that she can’t stay here and let them come for her. The letter continues that in order to provide us with the best placement—that’s their word, ‘placement’—that we will be taken to Calon Gwyllt, which translates to wild heart in Welsh. There a smaller council will be convened to decide our fates. Oh, they don’t say it that bluntly, but that’s the gist of it. I need a show of hands. Anyone wanting to wait for the gallant lads of Calon Gwyllt and their buddies to show up?”

  Not a single hand was raised. “All right then, we need to move and we need to do so now. I hope everyone has her things together. We need to be gone within the hour. I know the alpha of Calon Gwyllt by reputation. He’s no fool. My guess is he’ll have this island surrounded before day’s end. If we’re still here by the time he gets his people deployed, we’ll have to fight our way out. I’d like to avoid that if we can.”

  “Don’t you worry they’ll find something here by which they can track us?” asked Roz.

  “No. There won’t be anything but ash left behind. As soon as the last of us are out of the house, I plan to burn it to the ground.”

  There was a collective gasp. Skylar continued, “There’s nothing to be done for it. We don’t have time to take our things and I’ll be damned if anyone else will have them. We are completely surrounded by water so I have no worry of the fire spreading past the island. We’ll leave them nothing but scorched earth. We have the Zodiac and the sailboat.”

  “Don’t you think he might already have boats out there?” Darby walked to the French doors and looked out to sea.

  “I think he does. There have been two cabin cruisers making routine trips around the island for a couple of days. I plan to take the sailboat out in front of the Zodiac. When they move in, I’m going to use an old pirate trick, set the sailboat ablaze and ram any boat that thinks to block our way. We can escape through the hole it leaves. We’ll make a run for it, find landfall, destroy the Zodiac and disburse.”

  “But how are you going to send the burning ship into one of their boats? There’s no way we’re going to let you sacrifice yourself,” said Roz with feeling.

  “I don’t intend to. Our Anna over there is a master programmer and hacker. She’s rigged the sailboat so that I can set it on fire and steer it into them with a remote control. But let me be clear, we are the safest if we say our goodbyes here and know nothing of where the others are going to be. It’s best if you remove your cell phone batteries and leave them here to burn. I hate goodbyes so I’m not going to say them. Just know that I love each and every one of you dearly and I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to protect you.”

  Roz stood and hugged Skylar. “Let me speak for everyone when I say, you’ve done more for each of us individually and collectively than any other being—human or shifter. You gave us, and so many others, this place and your strength to build new lives. I will cherish our friendship for the rest of my days.”

  The others all nodded, stood and silently embraced each other with tears trailing down their faces. They separated and went to their rooms to gather their things. Once the women were assembled out on the back patio, each took a torch and lit one of the ignition points for the fire that would consume the house and the lives they had lived there. They turned their backs and walked past the dunes to the dock and the waiting Zodiac.

  * * *

  “Shit!” cried Josh as he ran to the boat’s radio. “Marine 1, this is Marine 2. They just lit the house on fire.” Josh was one of the young, unmated wolves in Dylan’s pack. Not having been with the pack as long as some of the others, he had volunteered in order to prove his worth.

  “They what?” said the captain of the other cabin cruiser.

  “You heard me. They just set fire to it. There are small fires burning all around it and the house is catching fire.” He picked up the binoculars. “Christ, they’re getting into a Zodiac and the sailboat. Dylan was right. They’re going to make a run for it.”

  “Those girls will get what’s coming to them when we catch up with them. I knew trying to be gentle about this would backfire. This is proof positive that each and every one of them needs to be taken over a man’s knee and given a bare-bottomed lesson in respect and obedience. And the sooner the better. Let’s see if we can’t head them off. You’d best call your alpha and let him know.”

  The cabin cruisers started to converge on the space between the two spits of sand, which was the only way out for the Zodiac and the sailboat.

  Josh called back to Dylan, who was supposed to be making his way to the rendezvous point in a powerboat that had once been used for smuggling. When one of the other pack members picked up, Josh said, “Danny? This is Marine 2—get Dylan. They’re making a run for it.” Josh kept the phone in one hand and his binoculars in the other. He could hear Dylan coming forward into the cockpit of the boat.

  “Josh? It’s Dylan. Get those two boats and block that opening. I’ve got a couple of speedboats closing in on your position and will get the rest of our boats headed your way. The men I have waiting on the closest island will head for the house to keep them from trying to make a last stand there.”

  “No need. They set the house on fire before they left.”

  “They what?” Dylan asked incredulously.

  “They set it on fire. Why would they do that?”

  Dylan smiled and shook his head. “Because I underestimated Skylar. She’s guarding their rear. That place is surrounded by dry dune grass, that whole island will be in flames in no time flat. And if/when a fire department tries to respond, all they will do is cr
eate chaos and keep us from getting to them.”

  “You sound like you admire her.”

  “I do. She’s protecting her pack. Did you say they have a Zodiac and a sailboat?”

  “Yes. The sailboat is in front. Why wouldn’t they put the Zodiac in front? It’s got to be much faster.”

  “Christ!” he swore. “Don’t engage that sailboat. I repeat, don’t engage the sailboat. Stay well away from it. Let them through that opening and then follow them. There won’t be anyone on the sailboat and my guess is her plan is to set it on fire and try to ram one or both of you.” As angry as he was, Dylan had to admit Skylar was one hell of a strategist.

  Dylan gave further orders to Josh to relay to the other boat and then called the leader of the group of men waiting in the nearest town. He’d put them there in case the women tried to leave either as a group or individually. The orders had been to stop them, but not to harm them in any way. They were to be brought back to Calon Gwyllt as guests—reluctant guests, but guests. He had no worries about his orders being followed even by the few men who were not part of his pack.

  Once he felt the call of Skylar as his mate, he had informed his pack that he would be taking the alpha of the Bae Diogel pack as his mate. His men had insisted that he rely on all of them to get Skylar and her pack to the relative safety of Calon Gwyllt. Dylan had agreed. The more of his own men that he used, the safer the girls would be.

  Dylan had informed the Council of the change in plans about who would be involved in bringing the disinclined females into the fold, so to speak. He also let them know he would be taking Skylar as his mate and would take on the added responsibility of seeing to the disbursement of her pack. Not exactly the best way to start off with a reluctant mate, but he figured he could see that her people weren’t put in a pack where they had no chance of happiness. He had high hopes that he could find packs where they might be allowed to choose their own mates.