“Black bears,” Clay said.
“Alligators,” Dane added.
“Fuck me.” Lucien covered his face with both of his hands and groaned. “You know, gang, I’m thinking I wanna talk to Flo again. Give her these damn powers back.”
Baer snorted. “Sorry, but no returns or refunds.”
Lucien dropped his hands to his sides and glared at Baer. “I’ll take a store credit.”
“Enough,” Clay bit out, stopping their banter. He turned to Wiley and nodded.
The young man shoved a hand through his hair, pushing it from his eyes, which skittered over to Baer again. The Animal Weaver could feel his lover’s anxiety spike, and Baer wanted to pull him into his arms.
“What are you thinking, Wiley? You want to try to lure her somewhere she can’t call an animal army?” Baer prodded.
Wiley shook his head. “Short of fighting her on an active volcano or in the middle of a hurricane, I don’t think there’s a place where she couldn’t call in other animals. Actually, I was thinking the opposite. Let her summon her army…and then we steal it from her.”
Baer was pretty damn sure they could have heard a pin drop in that room, but then his heart was pounding so loudly in his ears, he couldn’t hear shit for several seconds. That plan was ballsy as fuck. It was absolutely insane. Definitely suicidal.
And brilliant, if they could get it to work.
“You want to turn her animal army on her and the pestilents, wiping them out?” Clay slowly said, when he finally found his voice.
“Yes. Baer told me how you were able to find where the pestilents had set up a base. If you could do that again, we could ‘sneak’ onto their compound,” Wiley proposed, making the air quotes with his fingers. “We know she’ll call up an animal army of some sort to take us out. I will unravel the spell holding them under her control; then Baer will take over commanding them. You will have your powers, along with the additional army, to take out the pestilents and the witch.”
Baer could feel Clay’s eyes on him, but he couldn’t look away from Wiley. “I-I don’t know if we could do that.”
“We managed Ruby.”
He was already shaking his head. “Yes, but that was one dog. The last time she was here, she had several dozen coyotes. There were hundreds of snakes here at the plantation. We don’t know what she’d summon to fight us or how many. We might not be able to handle all those animals.”
“I think we can. Ruby was complicated because I didn’t know what I was looking for or how to free her. I was just fumbling around in her head until I figured out how to unlock her. I know now, so unlocking all those animals will be much easier.”
Baer turned away from Wiley, shoving both hands through his hair as he paced a short distance. This plan was pure batshit crazy. It meant that Wiley would be there for the fight rather than safe at the plantation.
And as much as he hated to admit it, Baer had no clue as to how much he could handle when it came to controlling other animals. He’d sent a scurry of squirrels to act as cover when Grey and Clay had rescued him from the pestilents. He’d commanded a flock of birds at different times. It wasn’t too complicated. Just a sort of blanket command sent out to all of them. But they’d all been smaller animals.
What about a sleuth of bears?
Or another pack of coyotes?
Those were much larger animals and generally took a bigger push to control.
What if he couldn’t do it? What if he failed to control them all even after Wiley helped to free them from the witch’s spell? He’d be putting his brothers and his soul mate in danger.
“Baer, I know you can do this,” Wiley said firmly. His confident words dragged Baer’s eyes to his slight form to find Wiley standing in the center of the kitchen with his chin up and shoulders squared. “I would never have brought up this idea if I didn’t fully believe you could do this.”
Those wonderful words wrapped around Baer’s heart, helping him to breathe a little easier, but it wasn’t just his decision. He looked over at Clay to find his friend frowning. “Clay?”
“I’m guessing this isn’t something that you and Wiley could practice,” Clay murmured.
Baer shook his head. “No.”
“Do you think she knows that you freed Ruby?”
“No, I don’t. I didn’t see any signs that she had contact or possession of Ruby’s mind. It was more like Ruby’s mind was infected with a virus. There’s no evidence to support the idea that Ardette felt us freeing Ruby.”
“So, we possibly have a small advantage there—Ardette doesn’t yet know that you can undo her spells,” Dane said.
“It’s damn risky,” Clay murmured, sounding as if he were mostly talking to himself.