A carefree laugh broke from her and she wiped more tears away. "I came to Benshire for my family. We knew the Immortal was here. I was supposed to find you, but I didn't know it was you until now. I still can't quite believe it. I didn't even really like you."
"I know. You loved Emily. You guys were bosom buddies."
"I sensed her mate in her, but it wasn't Pete, at least not this Pete. This Pete is supposed to be mine." Her face sobered at that thought.
I asked, "What about the mateline? Are you able to recover it so he'll be your mate again?"
She shook her head. "I have no idea. That's old magic. No one would dare interfere with something like that, but Mother Wolf has become impervious and foolish. This will anger the Elders greatly. Matelines are never to be manipulated and now that it's been done, we'll have to see what other damage she did."
"About her, is she dead now?"
"No. You just stopped her magic from getting to Pete again. You put up a block within him. I'm sure the Elder wolves will move on her soon. She's weak now." She smiled again. "Thank you, Davy. You have helped so much. I can't express our gratitude in words."
The elder wolf dropped his mouth to her neck. His eyes locked with hers and Pippa nodded a second later. "This is Christane. He's my Elder and he wants you to know that the Christane family is indebted to you. If you ever need us, we will come."
Elders. Christane family. All this ancestry among the wolves. It was getting overwhelming.
"Davy?" Pippa frowned.
"Sorry. Yes. That sounds nice." I lifted a shoulder up in an awkward shrug. "All this is new to me. I've never had a werewolf feel like they owed me something. I'm just used to him," I jerked a thumb beside me. "He's always telling me to lay low and be quiet."
Roane barked out a laugh, but moved forward. "Thank you, Christane. I am indebted to you as well."
The wolf lowered his massive head to the ground and then turned as one with Pippa. She melted into her white wolf form and soon they had vanished from our eyes. It wasn't long before I felt all the wolves disappear and then I turned to Roane. "Why are you indebted to him?"
"They came to show their allegiance to me."
"They came because of Pippa."
"She called them, but they were here to fight on my behalf. If you hadn't stepped in and taken care of Pete, it would've been worse. If the Christane bloodline had fought with me, they would've showed their loyalty to a vampire. That would've meant declaring their own war on the Mother Wolf."
I shuddered at the thought of her. "She sounds like a bitch."
Roane put his arm around my shoulder and drew me close. "Well, she's their problem now."
Gavin approached and flashed a grin. "Is this the official victory walk?"
I felt Roane tense. "For now."
"One victory down, two more to go?" As we treaded down the hill and neared the estate, Kates darted to meet us. Her eyes were gleaming and her chest was heaving. A glow appeared over her skin.
She lifted a hand. "They've gone. All of them. What happened?"
"Davy took care of the Alpha," Gavin responded in a curt voice.
Annoyance flared in her eyes, but she didn't bite back.
"Wren and Tracey are waiting for us in the hall. Bastion and Gregory will follow and make sure the other wolves don't double back." Roane's hand slipped to my waist. His thumb started to rub the side of my hip.
When we entered the house, the two female vampires stood from their table. Brown panted from her seat. She gave me a loopy smile. "I can't stand. My legs have turned into goo. They're all melty. I did magic. Can you believe it?"
I couldn't contain a smile. "I knew you had it in you."
"Oh man." She slumped back. "I feel drunk. Is this normal?"
"Where's the traitor?" Kates looked around in contempt.
Brown tried to lift her arm, but dropped it on the table. "She's still out there, snoring away. They didn't take her with them and they could've. A few of the wolves got around me, but then they all ran away. I must be awesome."