Over my cold corpse

Merck

“We have a problem,” I say.

We are standing in the hallway outside the nursery and Kamila's room. The other three ET1s look at me like I'm crazy, because of course we have a problem with Kelly missing...along with a loyal member of my pack. But from what Adam just told me, we have a lot more to worry about.

“What now?” Tristan asks after looking at me for a moment with an exasperated expression.

"We can't leave," I say.

"What?" Eli asks. —But my sister...

I raise my hand. “I know,” I say. —We need to find out what happened to Kelly. But there is a greater danger for Kamila and the cubs right now.

Tristan runs out without another word and enters the room where the babies are sleeping, practically waking them up. I wave him back as the nurses look at him irritably. Satisfied that all the pups are okay, he comes to his senses and leaves, closing the door quietly and returning to us. Now he's the one who looks irritated.

“I didn't mean right now,” I say. —But I understand how you feel. We're all a little nervous with even more at stake now. But listen. Adam says that Gene fired him and replaced him with another ET2 who is currently marching here to kill us all: Kamila, the pups, us.

"Over my cold corpse!" Tristan shouts.

I feel the same way, but I look at the nurse who just put her hand on the doorknob of the puppy's room. Something doesn't fit me. I know everyone in my pack, and she doesn't look familiar to me, plus she's avoiding my gaze. -Excuse me....

He turns and looks at me with wide eyes and starts to back away.

“Stop,” I say in my ET1 voice. She does exactly that, and I can feel the eyes of the other ET1s, who immediately sense that something is wrong.

“Let's move the babies,” Reece says without waiting to see what's wrong or what will happen next. —The babies and Kamila are in the same room, and one or more of us will be there at all times.

Everyone murmurs in agreement as I hold the nurse by the arm and open the door to the nursery, motioning for the other nurses inside to come out into the hallway.

"Does anyone know this woman?" I ask when they are standing around me.

They all shake their heads, and their eyes widen as they realize that the strange woman is wearing a nurse's uniform.

"I've never seen her before, ET1," says one of the older nurses. —I as...umed she was from another pack.

It makes me a little angry that she would make such an as...umption about a stranger who has access to the kits, but there has never been any danger within the walls of my castle, so I don't blame her for being trusting. “From now on, we will restrict access to the pups to only our best head nurses,” I say. —Create an identification procedure, and no one else will be able to approach the babies or Kamila. And have them all in the same room as ET1 Reece has ordered.

“Yes, ET1,” the nurse says, and turns around to begin immediately.

The guards he had called in the mental connection arrive. “Stop this woman,” I say.

Tristan gets really close so he's right in her face, which must be more than a little intimidating considering his body size and ET1 status. -Who do you work for?

She looks at him, terrified.

“Answer the ET1's question,” I say firmly.

"He...he said we would all starve," he says.

“That's not an answer,” Tristan says, and I have to say that even I would respond to him right now with the way his eyes are burning.

“Al,” she says. —Al says that if the other three ET1s along with the pups take control, that... that you would monopolize all the food, and we would all starve.

“Why the hell would we do something like that?” Reece asks, and that's exactly what I'm about to ask.

“I better go see Kamila and explain why the babies are moving,” Eli says, and heads to Kamila's room. He hadn't even noticed the hustle and bustle of the nurses rolling cribs and equipment and carrying babies into Kamila's room, so I'm glad Eli is paying attention. Kamila is probably confused... or terrified.

“We remember ET1 Trevor,” says the nurse we are interrogating.

And now it all makes sense.

“ET1 Trevor has been dead for two centuries,” I say. —All we have heard about him are childhood stories.

"Who the hell is ET1 Trevor?" Tristan asks.

I realize that the other ET1s have no knowledge of my pack's history. In fact, we really know very little about each other or each other's packs, which is strange considering we all just had cubs born to the same beautiful woman. "It's a long story," I say. —But she is an ancient who has nothing to do with what is happening now. ET1 Trevor had three triplet children. He was also a very bad bastard. When his children were still babies, he divided the herd into three and had each section pay 'tribute' to a different son. That meant that most of the money, produce, produce, and meat went directly to him. That left most of the herd in starvation mode for decades. And when his children grew up and tried to take control of him, he had them killed and still kept everything for himself.

"What the hell?" Tristan says.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess the multiple birth has some of my people nervous." But what they've forgotten,” I say as I turn to the frightened fake nurse, “is that it was my family that stood up to the bastard and made things right. Why the hell would I be like ET1 Trevor? Have you ever known me rule as ET1 Trevor?

She shook her head. "It's just that... well, Al seemed convincing." He said it didn't matter what your ancestors did because you would take the birth of all these babies and forget the good your family had done because you would want everything for yourself and the babies now.

"And you honestly believed that?" I ask. I don't normally use the word 'amazed', but it's exactly how I feel right now. —Not even all of these babies are mine. We have three other ET1 parents here. In my mental link, I contact another group of guards and order them to arrest Al and anyone near him. He has to be the one who's been leaking information to Gene.

I've never felt unsafe in my own castle before... until now. "Take her out of here," I say to the guards, and they take her to the dungeon, which I don't even think she has anyone right now. Well, she'll have it now. She'll be full of anyone connected to Al and his stupid ideas about me. I block all of them so that they cannot communicate by mental link with each other or with anyone else.

By now, it looks like all the babies have been moved to Kamila's room, so Tristan, Reece and I go inside. Eli is sitting next to her bed holding his son, and Kamila looks worried.

"What's happening?" he says. —Eli says we have to keep the pups and me in the same room because of a threat. What is the threat?

I really don't want to scare Kamila since she has enough worrying about healing and caring for the cubs, but she is a strong woman, and she has the right to be part of our decisions. —Apparently, I have some people in my pack who remember a terrible leader from the past, and they think that just because you've had a multiple birth, I'm going to do the same terrible things that idiot did.

"Did your Luna have four babies?" he asks.

"Three," I say. "But I guess old fears die slowly, and bad people can use them to make others follow them, apparently."

Tristan nods. "So now we have three problems to solve," he says.

"Three problems?" asks Kamila.

Seat. -If I say. —One, I have an internal problem that could be causing an information leak. I'll take care of that myself. Two, we need to find Kelly...

—What's wrong with Kelly?!— Kamila sits up straight on her bed and looks at us all with a frown.

“Apparently he didn't come back like Eli did,” I say. —She was in a different vehicle.

His mouth opens wide, and he turns to Eli. "Why didn't you tell me?" she says.

"I didn't want to worry you," he says. —You need to heal and take care of the babies. I will find my sister.

"Well, go!" he says, extending his arms to take his son.

“I agree,” Tristan says. "If you take a contingent to look for Kelly, and Mark takes care of the problem with her pack, that leaves Reece and me to protect Kamila." I already have half of my army outside, and the other half is taking care of logistics and will be here soon.

“My army is here too,” Reece says. —Guarding the outskirts.

“Wait,” Kamila says. —Why all this protection? What is happening that they haven't told me? There is a third problem...

We all look at each other, but I'm the one who speaks first.

—Gene has sent warriors to kill us all.