I nodded, biting my lip. “Okay,” I said, anxiety already curling through my stomach at the thought of attending the meeting. “I’ll go. On one condition.”
“Yeah?”
“You find a way to speak to Jackson and apologize. I can’t stop feeling guilty, and I want you two to make up.”
He grimaced but nodded. “He should be there tomorrow, but if not, I’ll track him down, force him to speak to me.”
Chapter 18 - Mason
The office above the museum was full of shifters, all of them with their eyes on me.
I knew why there was a spark of nerves in my stomach. I felt the judgment resting heavily in the room, and I could see them looking at the space next to me where Jackson usually was. He hadn’t shown up for the meeting so far.
“All right,” I called out. “Listen up. We’ve been trying to pin the djinn down for a long time, find connections, estimate their moves before they make them. Some progress has been made, but I fought off a group of ifrits in the woods the other day. They were just before the halfway point of the road to the highway.”
“Shit,” Nate cursed. “That’s closer than we’ve spotted before. How many?”
A flash of that fight cut through my thoughts. “A dozen or so. I’ve never seen that many in one place before.”
“And you fought them alone?” Theo asked, concern tightening his voice. My jaw clenched, I nodded. “Why didn’t you call for us, Mase?”
I inhaled deeply, and my focus cut to Bryce, standing aside from the pack, her shoulders pulled in tightly. Her eyes were lowered to the floor, not making eye contact with any of the pack. I knew they were all glancing her way. Despite the fierce look in her eyes that had flared when we’d entered the museum, all of that had drained as soon as we entered the office, and she was faced with her former tormentors. I’d pressed my hand to her back, guiding her in, encouraging her that, as long as she was with me, she was safe.
I understood her hesitation over trusting me, though.
“Because it was a personal matter,” I said.
Theo scoffed. “Just like Jackson turning tail the last few days?”
“He hasn’t turned tail,” Nate argued. “He’s patrolling.”
“Right. They had a falling out, and all bets are on it being abouther.” Theo narrowed his eyes at Bryce. “Why is she here, Mason? I’m not trying to start a fight, but this is a pack meeting. She’s not part of us.”
“She’s a part of me.” My statement settled through the room, catching both Bryce and the pack off guard. “I didn’t want to call for you that day with the ifrit because, honestly, I didn’t think you’d fight for her, but I would. I would a thousand times.”
I let my gaze sweep over them all, hard and focused.
But Theo stepped forward again. “She left us. That was her choice. Now she can leave again, no?”
“Theo.” My voice was a growled warning. “Stand down.”
“I wouldn’t be alone in my opinion. She’s suddenly back, and there are more demon attacks. Jackson’s disappeared; you’re barely present or focused. I don’t care why she’s here, or who she is to you, Mason. I don’t like the trouble she’s brought with her.”
“That is a point, actually,” Carl, one of the men usually on my team when we were dispatched to the site of a fire, spoke up. “The demon attacked her at her house, right? That’s what Jackson said, and now you’re saying it happened in the woods. Nobody else has been specifically targeted in the pack like this, except for Bryce and her daughter. It seems like we’ll be a hell of a lot safer if they just disappear back to where they come from.”
“Don’t bring my daughter into this,” I snarled, my anger snapping. I’d announced Cassie’s paternity before I even realized what I’d done. But as soon as the words were out, I didn’t want to take them back, didn’t regret them. Bryce’s eyes were on me, but I didn’t look at her. I stared back at Carl, at others around him, daring any of them to say one more word against my family.
When they didn’t, I stepped forward. “Cassandra Calloway is my daughter, and that makes her part of this pack. Bryce has a place here, too, if she chooses. I won’t send either of them away.” My eyes cut to Theo, whose face was tight with fury that he kept tamed. I could see he wanted to say more. “I want them to move here permanently, to live with us on the grounds, as they’ve been doing.”
“But Mase—”
“And I’ll be having an official claiming ceremony to commemorate it.”
The decision had been something I’d been sitting on ever since Cassie had declared she knew I was her father. Bryce had mentioned that Cassie was good at being excited to be around new people and showing them her favorite things, or what excited her, but she knew how to be guarded. She knew how to question people.
Just like her mom, more and more every day.
“Mason—”
