“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Jacque gave the she-wolf a slight bow of her head as her lips turned up in a gentle smile.
Lorna’s eyes darted around the room as she chewed on her bottom lip. She bowed her head at the alpha pair. “Thank you, Alphas. It’s an honor to meet you both.”
“You don’t need to be so formal,” Jacque assured her. “We aren’t big on ceremony here.”
“Not to mention, Jen”—Adam pointed to the blonde in question—“wouldn’t be able to handle it. If we give her any preferential treatment, her head begins to swell. Honor her too much and … boom.” He made an explosion motion with his hands outward from his head.
“Andthat.” Jacque laughed.
Lorna glanced at Jen, who lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers at her in a strange greeting. She had a wicked grin on her lips.
“Jen.” Sally sighed. “Quit trying to freak the new chick out.”
“Fun-crusher,” Jen muttered.
“Beheading psycho,” Sally shot back.
Jen’s lips spread into a big smile, and her eyes brightened. “Compliments are not a good comeback when someone insults you, Sal. After all these years, we still need to work on your ability to snub someone.”
Peri looked at Lorna and shook her head. “I apologize. I should have warned you ahead of time that we have some degenerate, slightly disturbed females in our pack. They tend to verbally harass one another. Then they have hot chocolate and cookies as if they’re six years old instead of grown women.”
Lorna’s shoulders relaxed, and her teeth released her abused bottom lip. “Sounds like my kind of girls.”
“Sweet.” Jen clapped. “New, not-quite-right-in-the-head chick to add to our awesome she-wolf slash elf slash fae slash healer pack.”
“You might want to get out while you still can,” Zara spoke up while her mate, Wadim, nodded. He stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her as his taller form towered over her.
“You still have time to run,” Wadim added.
“Shut it, history boy.” Jen pointed at him and narrowed her eyes.
Wadim didn’t look intimidated. He simply winked at her, which made Decebel growl.
“Good grief.” Costin ran a hand across his face, the dark circles under his eyes evidence that he hadn’t gotten much rest the night before.
“I’ve gotten used to the icebreakers that seem to happen before each of these strategy meetings,” Andora, the sprite queen, said. “But I must admit, no matter how many I get to experience, I’m always impressed by the amount of abuse you guys dish out and yet still maintain a strong pack dynamic.”
Peri couldn’t help but snort. “That’s because at some point all the little jabs become a weird form of acceptance and display of love. It’s a thing.” Peri shrugged. “And, yes, probably a tad unhealthy.” She pointed at the group, moving her arm in a way to encompass the circle. “We’ve had each other’s backs for so long. We’ve stood beside one another in battle, watched each other die and sometimes return to life. We’ve experienced new life being brought into the world by someone we are willing to die for. We’ve been forgiven for things that we never should have been able to come back from. At some point, that weird dynamic is not so weird anymore.” She smiled at the sprite queen. “This pack, Andora, is what we’re fighting for. Not just for ourselves, but for others to have the chance to experience all that for themselves.”
The room was so quiet you could have heard a pixie’s small feet stepping across the stone floor. Peri saw shimmering tears in some eyes. Some in the group smiled at her, and others nodded in agreement.
“Well, if that wasn’t a kick-ass pre-battle speech, I don’t know what is,” Jen said. “I say we put our hands in the middle, give a good ‘for the pack’ shout, and ride out to kick Alston’s evil ass.”
“It might be good to come up with a plan first,” Disir, one of the three other high fae representatives present, said.
“Ugh.” Jen rolled her eyes. “Technicalities are totally killing my vibe.”
Fane looked at Thad, obviously ready to move on. “What did Cain have to say?”
“He wants to meet with an ambassador, or you,” Thad said. “He has a proposition—an idea for the animosity between the vampires and us”—he motioned around the room—“to be set aside and a truce to be put in place.”
“Seriously?” Boain said. “Because the experience that Lorna and I have had with the vampires for the past two days would not indicate that he has any such notion.”
“Could those vampires have been acting on their own?” Lilly, the Warlock queen, and the only one of her court present, asked. Peri imagined that she’d left Myanin and Gerick back at the warlock mountain to protect her people, and possibly to put the Romania pack members at ease that there were eyes on Skender, who still hadn’t really been dealt with in regard to his crimes against them.
“Maybe.” Boain nodded. “But when the French vampire showed up, he took a phone call while he was in the middle of threatening us, and he used the words ‘my lord.’ Who else could he have been speaking with if not his king?”
“We’ve had peace between the vampires before,” Synica, one of the djinn elders, said.
