I whistled loud. “Listen up!”

The murmuring quieted and I held my hands up. “Kai had business to tend to, so I will be leading tonight’s sparring session. Since I’m in charge, I thought we could do something different for a change.” I raised an eyebrow.

Max frowned and I scanned the sea of confused faces.

“Who wants to play flag football?”

My question was met with a resounding cry of support.

Max looked at me, impressed.

“We will start with two thirty-minute games. Rotate every thirty minutes for the next two hours.”

“Humans against werewolves?” someone shouted.

I shrugged. “Up to you. Who wants humans against werewolves?”

The humans started chanting. “Human, human, human.”

I laughed. “Okay! You got it. Humans against wolves.”

People began high-fiving and talking crap to each other. As they turned to leave, I shouted. “Wolves!”

Everyone turned back to me. “Go easy, they’re fragile.”

Earl gave me a grin and twisted his mustache. “It’s on.”

*

There was a football field at the high school in Welches. We were still technically on Mount Hood but farther away from our homes. One of our wolves worked as a coach for the school and opened up the locker rooms for us, which had everything we needed.

I sat on the bleachers looking out onto the game. It was the fourth quarter and the humans were winning. This was doing exactly what I had intended, boosting morale. Even though we were playing humans against wolves, the two teams were smiling and high-fiving each other after good plays. There was respect growing. We were showing them that we were like them. Max, drenched in sweat with a stony expression on his face, pulled the wolf team into a huddle. I saw Tara on the sidelines checking him out and it made me smile. Who knew a simple game of football could make everything screwed up in the world feel so normal.

“Come on, Max! Make us proud!” I shouted.

He smiled and shook his head, embarrassed, as Earl rounded the corner and stepped up onto the bleachers, taking a seat next to me.

“This was a good idea. We should make it a weekly thing.” He winced as he sat down and straightened his leg.

“You okay?”

He waved me off. “Just getting old. Nothing you will have to worry about.”

I smiled. True, weird, but true. Max made a touchdown and I jumped up clapping and whistling.

After I sat back down, Earl leaned into me. “You know, it’s been months since the incident with the vampire queen.”

I rubbed my neck. Incident. Yeah, where she bit me in a bid to get pregnant.

“My guys are getting antsy for action. Raiding the clubs is good, but we want to take her out.” He had the fine lines around his eyes and mouth that told of a happy life, lots of laughter. I liked Earl. He was a good guy I didn’t want to disappoint him.

I met his gaze straight on. “You have no idea how bad I want that. I promise we will get her. We’ve got a new lead. When Kai gets back, we will call a meeting to discuss it.” I placed an arm on his shoulder and he nodded.

I stood again and hollered in excitement as Max scored another touchdown. Earl chuckled, but before I could sit back down, his face froze in horror and his eyes fixed on my chest. What the …? Suddenly, his hand reached out and pushed me hard. I fell backward and cracked my head on the metal bleachers as a sharp pain sliced into my leg. Looking down, I saw at least five red sniper dots following me. Shit!

“Go!” Earl shouted as I rolled onto my tummy and started to army crawl across the floor of the metal bench. I was wedged into the small space and extremely exposed. What the hell was going on? The sound of snapping bullets hurt my ears. My head filled with a symphony of chaos, screaming, roaring, wolves shifting.

‘Kai, I’ve been shot. We’re under attack.’ His meeting was in Portland, but the mate bond was strong, so I hoped he’d heard me. Earl groaned behind me and I turned to look back at him. He was slumped over, flat on the bench floor, red laser dots lined all over his back. Oh, shit! He was human; there was no way he could come back from that. Earl was pack as far as I was concerned.

“No!” I jumped up, ignoring the searing pain in my leg, and threw myself over him as bullets riddled my back instead of his.

Getting shot is exactly as you think it will be. Hurts like hell and does a good job of cutting open your insides. I couldn’t breathe; what little breath I could take was hard and rattled like water in my chest.

I heard Max roar, “RAIDOS! In the trees!”

The militia returned RAIDOS’ fire with gunfire of our own. Then, strong arms were around me and I felt someone pick me up off of Earl, who was alive and looking at me like I was a ghost. I didn’t feel pain anymore, just cold. Mist was leaking out of my skin like air from a balloon with a small hole in it.

Max’s face suddenly came into view. “You’re not allowed to die on me, Aurora!” he screamed.

I felt him rip my shirt off and press something hard to my back. A painful scream tore from my throat as the pressure on my back caused me agony. RAIDOS. Yes, of course they wanted me dead. Vampire baby-making problem solved. Dammit, couldn’t a girl just watch a football game in peace?

My eyelids were fluttering. It was so cold. How cliché but true, you got super cold when you were dying. I was dying, right? Werewolves regenerated, but we also died of blood loss. By the looks of Max’s clothes, which were dripping with my blood, I was a goner. When I thought I couldn’t stay awake any longer, a sudden burst of energy flooded my body.