Elijah
I text Allison because her rules say don’t make privacy choices for her, and it feels right to text her. Loki rumbles inside my mind as my fingers move over the screen, loving how we are the only ones who are really getting closer to our mate. Jealousy also cos in the shape of a brother it seems.
to Allison: Heads-up: from 6pm–10pm I’m adding roving pairs near cottage to library, library to gym, gym to diner alley, admin to staff lot, and the windbreak path. No tails, no hover. Presence only. If it feels heavy, say so and I’ll adjust.
Dots. A beat.
Allison: Thank you for the warning. Keep it light by the alley. I don’t want a line at the dumpster like I’m a show.
: Copy. Dog-walkers, not uniforms. Bail-outs unchanged.
Allison: Good. Tea Wednesday stays.
: Stays. See you at rehearsal after the ward sweep.
’She answered like soone who trusts the plan, not the promise,’ Loki says.
’Because I gave her the plan,’ I tell him with an inner sigh. ’And I’m going to keep it.’
Mother steps out of the greenhouse as I cut across the back path. She carries a tray of seedlings and the kind of tiredness that cos from a day spent steering grown n who want to be children.
"Convoy check in twenty," she says.
"I’ll be there," I say. "Patrol density goes up around Allison’s routes tonight. Quiet. No tails."
"Good," she says. "Tell Daniel to keep an eye on the forum. So people get brave at dusk."
"He is," I say. "If father stages a second tent, I’ll text you and we’ll make the scene smaller."
She nods once. "Thank you for writing lines that don’t make choose between you and the pack in real ti."
"I’d like to say I wrote them for you," I say, grinning wryly. "But I wrote them so she doesn’t pay for the rest of us."
"That’s also for ," she says, and keeps walking with a small smile tucked away in the corner of her mouth. She approves, and that ans everything to .
At 5:55pm I stand at the alley’s mouth by the diner and watch the roving pair drift past with a shepherd who looks like he understands his job. The patrol doesn’t look at . Good. Tamsin ties her shoe under the lamppost and checks the mirror angle without making a show of it. Caleb carries a to-go cup and laughs at sothing that doesn’t matter. The alley breathes like an alley. Not a stage.
’This is the right weight,’ Loki says. ’Visible enough to matter. Light enough not to scratch.’
Allison cos out the back door with the whiteboard sleeve on her shoulder. She clocks the pair and the dog and my distance and she doesn’t change her pace.
"Windbreak first," she says. "Then the gym."
"I’ll walk until you turn," I say. "Aisle, not window."
She almost smiles. "You learned that line fast."
"You teach well," I say.
We reach the corner. I stop and she keeps going. The pair rotates behind her in a pattern Fallon wrote. No one crowds, no one plays hero.
I look up at the packhouse. A silhouette moves in a second-floor window where Ethan keeps a light on too late. He’s probably drafting §14.2 footnotes that will make Hart say good law. I hope he is. I still need him to answer a different question.
’You said the sentence he couldn’t give you back,’ Loki says. ’Leave it. Move the pieces you own.’
In ops Daniel briefs the sinkhole with three sentences and an arrow at the KNOT WATCH sheet. Fallon confirms the six-o’clock ward sweep and that S7/S8/31a are first on the route. Mother checks the luggage grid and writes a dot next to Row 2 on SUV-3. She doesn’t say "shoes you can stand in" again. We heard it.
I hang back while the room empties. "I doubled patrol by her paths," I tell Ethan. "I’ll scale it when we leave."
"Thank you," he says. "I’ll try not to make her carry the petition while I write it."
"Try faster," I say. "Father isn’t done." He nods, it’s not a promise but it’s also not nothing.
After ops I leave to go ho. I walk the windbreak again to feel it, and nod to myself. This was a good call, and it will land right in a room with n who want to make stories out of people who just want to work for the benefit of the pack.
Allison texts one line, while I am walking. Coverage is the right weight.
’Good,’ Loki says, pleased. ’Now say the other thing you promised.’
I stop under the cedar and call Ethan. He picks up on the second ring.
"When father forces it," I say, "I’m going to say ’mate’ in whatever room we’re in. If you’re with , stand. If you’re not, don’t drag back to make his life easier."
He’s quiet for a second. "I won’t drag you back," he says. "I won’t stand in front of you and I won’t stand behind father. That’s the best answer you’ll get tonight."
"It’s more than you gave earlier," I say.
"It is," he agrees, and hangs up because he knows how to end a call before it turns into a speech. At least he is leaning in the right direction now. Hopefully he’ll move fully into the right decision and that is to stand with and his mate.
I send one last ssage to Allison.
: Windbreak is quiet. Rovers will taper at 10pm. Text if anything feels off.
Allison: Copy. See you at 6am for the sweep.
I pocket the phone and keep walking.
’You drew the line,’ Loki says, satisfied. ’You told our brother and you built the guardrails without choking her. That’s the work.’
’It is,’ I agree, letting the feeling of the matebond swamp for a second. It has been a steady drum in my being since the night I sensed Allison for the first ti, but with everything that has been going on and both my brother’s stupidness, my fathers ignorance and the pack’s awareness, I have not had the ti to really let myself be consud by it. I do not, feeling it pulse through . Loki hums once and settles.
I loop the square once more and then head ho. The map holds, the choice I asked for will land when it lands, and in the anti, no one lays a hand on her without eting a pair they didn’t see coming.
That’s my promise and I intend to keep it.
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