Faith

She never should have stopped back home. Gia cursed at herself, “what possessed you to do that?” She did not have a choice if she wanted more of her belongings. After spending the last week and a half with Amari, she realized this job, the new world that the Clan coordinator job showed her that was it for her, she wasn’t turning back.

Smirking, she looked around the van. “I guess this is home now.” Things had not gone well with her parents, at all. They hadn’t told her not to come back, well, not outright, but it had been implied that she either straightened up and worked with them and their beliefs of what the daughter of an Alpha was or not being part of the family.

Closing the tote, she assessed if she’d done everything Amari had suggested. All personal ‘shit’ in a small tote, with a lock, backpack with a change of clothes, hygiene items, and your run pack. All the rest of the gear was secured under the two bench seats that ran along the sides of the van. Shutting the door, she turned around and looked down the road. Freedom. This was new and something she’d wanted for most of her twenty-four years of life.

Riding with Amari Hughes had both been educational and enlightening. She was also the daughter of an Alpha, they’d connected on so many levels, and Gia was still shocked by it. Her entire life she’d thought she was alone, and it was just her that wasn’t all gaga with being part of the Alpha family, Amari set that straight right off.

“Okay,” she patted the side of the van and then went and got in the driver’s seat. “I’m going to nail this first assignment and show them all that this is what I am meant to do.” Pulling out of the parking lot, she tapped the GPS to double-check her own route. She had a day of driving ahead of her before she reached this ‘safe house’ many of them were going to be at. The details of what they were all doing were sketchy, but according to Amari that was for her own safety. Gia didn’t care about the details right now. She was just happy to be on the road and driving in the opposite direction of her family.

Her phone lit up and started playing circus music. Her favorite of her four brothers. She grinned and answered the phone. “Hey, bro.”

“Sister, my heart.” Walker chuckled.

She glanced at the time on the radio’s clock. “I expected you to call a few hours ago.”

“I had to get out of the house before I could call, you know that.” She heard a door close and knew he was probably hiding in his office at the clan’s community building. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“You heard?”

Walker snorted, “the whole clan probably heard.”

She blew out a breath, “I just couldn’t…”

“I know, I know. I’m not saying you were wrong, just—you’ve got balls, Gia, to go toe to toe with Dad like that.”

Gia searched inside to see if she felt bad for yelling at their father, when she couldn’t find a trace of remorse, she shrugged. “I have no purpose there. None. Why can’t he see that?”

“I know, babes, Mom does too, but she’d never speak out against him, you know that.” There was a quiet pause, “you will come back sometimes though, right?”

“I don’t know, Walker, I don’t know right now. The team doesn’t get a lot of downtime lately…”

“Which is fucking amazing if you ask me, that the Alliance is finally closing in on that Tomas dick and getting our kind out of there.”

Gia nodded, “and I get to be a part of it. I have purpose and I am going to nail this job and make Dad see.”

“Well, don’t hold your breath there. Shit, I better go, Vance and Nash are coming this way and they have that look.”

“What look?”

“Oh, the one that says, what-the-hell-did-our-sister-do-this-time, look.”

She grinned, “good luck with that. Tell them I’m on my way to meet a team on the other side of the border.”

“Shh, no discussing things over open lines, Dad drilled that into all of us before you made him go red in the face.”

“I know. Love you bro.”

“Be careful, babes.”

The line clicked and then was silent. She blew out a breath, feeling bad that Walker was going to have to go face to face with two of their brothers. Brothers. She had more than enough of those. Gia was the youngest and only female of five children. Worse than that, she was a surprise and born later than the ‘planned’ Alpha family. She always figured it couldn’t have been too much of a surprise, as shifters knew when they could or couldn’t conceive. It made her feel better most times, that her mother had wanted her. It also proved her father was clueless about some things. So her birth was a win-win. She felt like a heel though, that she couldn’t be the perfect only daughter to an Alpha wife.

Picturing Walker and his wordiness all up in Nash and Vance’s faces made her grin. Nash was the oldest sibling and very much fit the Alpha’s expectations of the son to take over, Vance was the third son and almost a carbon copy of him. They both had perfect little petite, complacent mates, and she was sure would soon have perfectly behaved Alpha family children. “You’ve got this, bro.” Walker was the only brother she got along with, the only one that silently backed her up. He would never say so in front of their father, but they’d spent many hours hidden somewhere talking about everything. His support, regardless of whether it was masked most of the time, meant everything to her.

Gia pictured her second oldest brother’s reaction if he’d been at the house. Nox wouldn’t have quietly stood on the sidelines. He never did. He wasn’t training for Alpha leadership, but he was a big macho man on the incursion team. Gia had every confidence that he was good at his job, he was great with hand-to-hand and weapons, it was his personality that she found so flawed she would leave the room anytime he visited. She didn’t know the first thing about what he did. She imagined his whole team was comprised of large, opinionated he-man types though.

Life with four older brothers was not something she would wish on anyone. Your every waking moment, every decision, and every step you took was overridden by their opinion of what they thought you should be doing.

Her shoulders tensed, just thinking about her brothers did that to her. Except for Walker, she really did adore him. If it hadn’t been for him setting her up for secret self-defense training, she would have died a slow and boring death as she grinned and bowed her head as the Alpha’s ‘showpiece’ daughter. Of course, she could never tell anyone else in her family he’d done that, or he’d be an outcast too. She’d excelled at the training and kept going with as much as she could come up with excuses as to what she told others she was doing.

Her phone lit up with a text message, she tapped it to read. It was from her brother Nox, Keep your head on a swivel.

She looked back at the road, what did that even mean? With her teeth clenched in a huge fake smile, she tapped it and sent him back a thumb’s up emoji.

“Head on a swivel.” She snorted, “what am I, an owl?” Picking up her worn baseball cap off the dash, she jammed it on her head. If she’d been born a male, none of this would have been a problem. Turning up the radio, she settled back and focused on the road.

~

Gia was impressed with how far she’d gotten so far. Traffic had been good, but then again, she was doing what Amari suggested and always taking the less obvious route. Amari had told her in confidence what was going on inside the Alliance and Gia had been shocked by it. What kind of shifter would rat out their own kind to someone like Aiden Tomas or any of his associates? It had cemented things in her mind, she was going to do this job and help as many as she could.

Her phone lit up and she was startled to see it was Jesse, the leader of the team. Muting the music, she hit speaker on the phone. “Jesse, hi.”

“Gia, how are you doing?”

“I’m making good time. I crossed the,” she stopped, not sure what she should or shouldn’t say over the phone.

“All the team phones are secure.” He said quietly.

“Okay, uh, I crossed the border about twenty minutes ago. The location Amari said she used.”

“Good. Several of ours work at that location.”

She pushed her hat up, a little surprised by that. She was learning so much about the Alliance, things she could never have dreamed.

“Listen, I wanted to give you a heads up, your father called the Alliance.”

Gia’s heart stuttered. Was this where he told her she was off the team and being sent back home? “Oh.”

“Too bad the king was busy, and the call was sent to his son, Devin.”

She watched the road, afraid to look at the phone. “I’m sorry if my dad…”

“Devin told him that you were an integral part of the team.” He sounded like he was grinning.

“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.

“What was he going to do, argue with the prince?”

The prince had stood up for her with her father for her to stay on the team? “I don’t know what to say.”

“Hey, you’re now one of us and the king is behind my decision to have you on the team, so Alpha or not, your father is just going to have to accept that.”

“Thank you. Uh, I don’t even know if I’m allowed to go home again.”

“You’re going to be on the road a lot for the next while, so we’ll deal with that later, okay?”

She nodded, feeling weepy and grateful. “Yes.”

“The reason I called is, a decision was just made to change things up a bit, after some recent events, it’s for everyone’s safety.”

She sat straighter, “Okay.”

“From now on when you’re transporting or heading into unknown clan territory a member of the incursion team will be traveling with you.”

“Oh.” Her heart felt like it was running out of steam as it slowed in her chest. “Um, do we get to pick or…”

“It was going to be randomly assigned by who is closest and if any ops are running, why?”

She cleared her throat. “My brother, Nox, is part of that team.”

Jesse sounded like he laughed, “you’d prefer not to have him ride with you?”

“If at all possible, yes.” She said quietly, afraid to breathe.

“Okay, I’ll tell Zain of your wishes.” This time he did chuckle.

“Thank you.” The breath she hadn’t realized she was holding whooshed out of her lungs.

“When you’re closer to Chicago, shoot Zain a text and he’ll give you the exact location. We’re not sending anything out in advance from now on.”

“Okay, I can do that.”

“And Gia?”

“Yes?”

“Welcome to the team. I’ll see you when you reach the safe house.”

She smiled. “Thank you, Jesse.”

Gia swatted at the tear rolling down her cheek. Now was not the time to turn all ‘sappy female.’ Sucking in a deep breath, she blew it out. She had the prince and the King of the Alliance backing her up, that kind of support she could get used to.

Deacon glanced over to see Nox drop his phone into the cup holder. His expression wasn’t good. “Problems?”

Nox shifted in the seat to a more comfortable position. “Sister.”

“Ah.” He said it as if he understood, but he didn’t, not really.

“She let herself be recruited to the clan coordination team.” He made a noise of annoyance.

“That’s a problem?” Deacon had met many of the members of that team, their job wasn’t an easy one.

“Yeah, that’s a problem. She’s an Alpha’s daughter and shouldn’t be doing shit like that.” He huffed out a breath picked up the coffee cup and gave it a shake to see if there was anything left in it.

Deacon didn’t voice it, but he didn’t agree. Having a member of an Alpha family visiting other clans seemed like good optics to him—especially with some of the rivaling clans’ disagreements they’d seen and been sent to peacefully oversee. “I met a woman on that team, she’s Alpha too, Amari…”

“Amari is different and completely capable of looking after herself.”

“You don’t think your sister is?” He looked back at the road, “capable?”

“Sure, she can track and shit for fun competitions, but this is the real world, man, she has no idea.”

Deacon went through half a dozen replies in his head, none of which would have earned him any points, so he settled on saying something to pass the focus to someone else. “Jesse is a straight-up kind of guy; I don’t see him allowing someone on the team if he doesn’t think they’re capable.”

He felt Nox’s eyes on him but didn’t bother looking over.

“Let’s hope he knows what he’s doing.” Nox picked up his phone, “my dad is pissed. According to Nash, the prince backed my sister being on the team.” He snorted, “I know you’re not from a clan, so you don’t get it, but this is causing a lot of rifts in my world right now.”

Nox always did that, brought up Deacon’s past, like it was the reason for anything that wasn’t going the way the man wanted. Truth be told, in his opinion Deacon had worked harder and proven himself by going from clan less to working for the king. Deacon pulled his cap down further to shade his eyes, “well, if Jesse and the prince say she’s golden, then I guess she is.” He glanced at him to be met with an unamused look, “have a little faith—man.”

Nox made another sound of annoyance and then turned and looked out the window, “yeah whatever.”

Deacon reached into the pocket of his vest and pulled out a new mint-flavored toothpick. Clamping it between his teeth, he focused on the road. They’d crossed the border and since the back tires had moved over that invisible line, his guts were in knots. He hated this side of the border. There was nothing but bad memories of violence and hunger pains over here for him. He rolled his head from one side to the other, trying to loosen the tension in his neck. He couldn’t afford to get bogged down with that shit right now. Things were really heating up with his team and the whole Alliance, there was no time for emotional history. Deacon was primed and ready to lay a beat down on all that was a part of Aiden Tomas’ world.

He glanced at Nox again to see he was glaring out the window. Deacon didn’t dare say he knew who his sister was, that would end about as well as a nuclear bomb going off. He’d met the petite, sexy little fireball, Giana Marin at a gathering of the clans almost five years ago. She’d taken his breath away and made his animal want to howl at the sky. She was his mate, and he was so unworthy of a female like her. He’d run like a coward from the gathering and called Calum Dante as he drove his rusted-out, duct-taped truck off the property. Calum had helped to steer him in the right direction, and he hadn’t looked back since then.

He’d spent four years proving to himself and any doubters that he was a worthy male and a force to be reckoned with. If it weren’t for Calum, Deacon probably would have died in that backwoods shack a long time ago. Calum had found his sick, half-starved, pathetic ass and brought him back with him. That man was the reason Deacon did what he did now, help others. Not everyone had the strength and means to control their life’s direction. Deacon liked to believe he was part of balancing the scales for those in need.

It had taken him two years to prove his allegiance to the Alliance and king and then another two of busting his hump to get on the Incursion team and prove his worth there and nothing was going to make him turn away from it now. Not some Alpha family brother, that was for sure.

Deacon hadn’t seen Giana in all that time, but in the back of his mind, she was always there. She was the driving force and reason he changed his body, his health, his entire being, on the chance that if he ever had the balls to face her again, they would be on more equal ground. Of course, there was a good chance he’d swallow his own tongue and asphyxiate on it if he did see her again, but that was up to fate and he had all the faith in the world that what was meant to be, would be.

His phone ringing had him jerk as if someone had poked him. It was his boss, he hit it and put it on speaker, then looked over to see Nox was aware of who it was too. “Boss?”

“Deacon, you’re with Nox, right?”

“I’m right here.” Nox was sitting upright in the seat now like she could see he was at attention or something.

“Good, one less call—because I have time to play fucking secretary here.”

They both smirked at her tone, Wynter Carr was not an a-typical female in any way at all. She was blunt, and rude and Deacon was pretty sure she wasn’t even aware that she was a female most times.

“I just got a call from Devin Addison. From now on when the team is transporting or going into unknown situations, one of us ride shotgun.”

Nox nodded his head. He was such a yes-man, suck-up sometimes it turned Deacon’s stomach.

Deacon looked back at the road, “did something happen to cause this change?”

Wynter made a sound like she wanted to spit, “yeah, someone tranq’d Jesse and had plans to take off with his mate,” she laughed that deep almost manly laugh of hers, “haven’t met her, but I plan to, she put a bullet right in one of their hearts from fifty feet away.”

That got Nox’s attention.

“Everyone all right?” Deacon was smirking, but it was more from his passenger’s reaction than from the fact that a woman made an awesome shot.

“They’re fine. Keeping her location on the hush from now on though.”

Deacon nodded. “All right. There’s a lot of hush happening now.”

“I don’t know how those sadistic bastards are finding ours, but I plan to take the unkind end of my rifle and jam it right up their…” there were voices in the background for a moment. “Zain, from the Alliance offices, will be sending you boys locations and shit to assist the team from now on. Solid?”

“Yeah, Boss.” Nox answered fast.

“Got it.” Deacon looked at the road marker they’d just passed, “we should reach our destination in the next two hours.”

They could hear her cursing someone out in the background, “that shit has been back burner’d, I’m told, the new destination will be sent to you shortly.” She cleared her throat, “keep it tight, I’ll be talking to you both tonight sometime.”

“Will do.” Deacon reached forward and hung up before Nox could say something else that could only be labeled ‘kiss ass.’

“Damn this is getting intense.” Nox turned around grabbed the cooler and dragged it closer to the seats.

“Jesse must have one hell of a mate.” Deacon grinned.

“Tranq darts, what’s with that shit?” Nox mumbled.

Deacon shifted his hat back on his head and rubbed his hand over his forehead. “It’s new.” He glanced at him, “and means we’re going to have to have our heads on a swivel all the time now.”

Nox nodded, “yeah, just what we need.” He looked back out the window.

Deacon clamped his teeth down on the toothpick. If they were going to be helping members of the team, at some point he was bound to run into Giana. His heart felt like it was doing the obstacle course right now. He wanted to see her more than his next breath, but that was also the reason he’d avoided seeking her out all this time. Shit was getting intense all right and he didn’t know if he was going to come out the other end of it unscathed.