“Don’t cut down on our fun.” Nessa laughed. “I’d love nothing more than to sneak up on a shifter and stab him while yelling surprise! That would be a good time. I bet they wouldn’t expect it.”
“That is usually what surprise means, yes,” Sebastian said. “And for the record, I’m more than fine with your cutting down on our fun, Tristan. I’ve never been fond of angry shifters.”
“I don’t think they’ll be overly fond of angry mages,” Mimi replied.
The farms gradually ceased until there wasn’t much but flat land covered in trees and brown grasses with the mountain ranges rising on either side. The bumpy, two-lane road wrapped around a curve with the softly rolling hills, cutting out our view for what was to come. When it finally opened up, though, I couldn’t help sucking in a breath. I hadn’t known what to expect, but I definitely hadn’t expected this.
A sprawling town glittered in the dying sun, windows sparkling and light dancing on metal.
Whereas our territory had three very small towns that we were working on merging together, this was a large, cohesive area with what looked like a couple of big stores, a tall sign for an inn, and even a building a dozen or so stories high.
In short, it was much bigger than what Austin and I were working with, and the empty space around it, closed in by mountains, was an enormous tract of land that I had no idea how a couple mages could possibly defend against what was sure to be a spread-out attack.
“We should’ve brought more killer flowers,” I murmured.
SIX
AUSTIN
THE VAN CLOSED the distance between Austin’s current life and the home of his youth. He’d forgotten what a large, spread-out territory Kingsley reigned over, isolated from the Dick and Jane towns. The population was just shy of ten thousand people encased in a huge tract of land. It had to be the reason Momar was taking his sweet time. Taking down this mammoth of a territory would seem like no small feat.
Austin knew better, though.
Most of the shifters living here desired a peaceful life. They might sprout fur and claws, but that didn’t mean they knew how to fight. When Momar attacked, only a portion of Kingsley’s people would take up arms. Most of the fighting would be done by the police force, a small unit in comparison to the whole.
Austin and Jess’s territory had less than half as many people, but they had twice as many fighters, maybe more. They essentially ran a battle unit instead of a town.
Until this moment, he’d completely forgotten how chill his upbringing had been, and how turbulent he’d made things.
He’d known leaving this place was the best thing for Kingsley’s pack. For his family. But until right this moment, it hadn’t dawned on him that maybe leaving had always been the best thing for him, too. Not just because he’d found Jess, but because he wasn’t built to sit back, idle. He was built for turbulence—and he was damn good at navigating it.
He looked over at his mate, sweet and serene and beautiful. He should feel bad for dragging her into a life like this, full of danger and uncertainty, but he knew she was built for this sort of life, too.
He hadn’t even set foot on Kingsley’s soil, and he already knew he’d be happy to leave and get back to his own territory. He was excited for what would come after their victory here, because he had to believe it would be a victory. He loved his life. His mate. The promise of the future. Life couldn’t end just when it was finally getting good.
His goals weren’t humble. He wanted to bring the shifters together, to fight the mages on their home turf, to rip out Momar’s spleen and topple the corrupt Mages’ Guild for good. He was anxious to see what he could do with production cairns and if they could ascend to the upper tiers of gargoyle society. Hell, he was even anxious to meet Jess’s ex and see how that all played out, something in the works now that he’d gotten engaged and then threatened to drag Jessie back into his life to
“celebrate.”
But in order for all of that to happen, they’d have to make it through—
“You okay?”
Jess’s voice cut through his reverie. He smiled down at her, taking her hand and stroking his thumb across her skin. He meant to say, “Yes,” but instead said, “I love you.”
She smiled at him before bumping her shoulder against his. “You probably won’t be so quick to say that after I embarrass you a handful of times.”
Sebastian huffed out a laugh.
“He’s embarrassed himself plenty,” Mimi said. “He might like for someone else to do it for a change.”