The butler did it.
Words I never thought to say in my life.
“I don’t know if he’s the only one involved,” Terry said, “but he’s the only one we’ve dealt with. We haven’t even seen anyone else since we were brought down here.”
“No one?” I was kind of hoping Stone was down here somewhere.
Terry shook his head. “No one.”
“How long have you all been down here?”
“Forever,” one of the guys groaned.
“It varies,” Terry replied after shooting the other kid a glare. “Some of us have been down here a couple of months, some just a couple of weeks.”
“We need to get you out of here and get you home to your parents.”
“We can’t,” the girl who had spoken before said. “There’s only one way in and one way out, and it’s locked.”
Well, damn.
“Have any of you shifted yet?”
Terry shook his head.
That could be a problem.
“But you can shift and get us out of here.”
“Sorry, kid. I can’t shift.” I patted my legs. “They don’t work.”
“Then how are we going to get home?” the blonde girl asked.
I smiled with more confidence than I felt. “My pride will come for us.”
“You have a pride?”
Oops.
“Yeah. I was appointed as councilman after Councilman James was taken away. My mate is a…uh…contractor named Stone. We live in the manor house with some other contractors. We’re all really good friends so we kind of formed our own little pride.”
“Oh.” Terry’s shoulders slumped as if he was disappointed. “I was hoping you were part of a real pride.”
If only he knew.
“Why?” I asked.
“My friend Darcy is a part of a pride with her parents. I just kind of wondered what it was like.”
“Why don’t you tell them, Sinclair?”
I glanced toward the sound of the voice to find Conrad standing in the doorway. The kids all jumped up and started backing away. I would have gotten up and placed myself between them, except I couldn’t get up and my wheelchair was nowhere in sight.
The gun in Conrad’s hand was a little off-putting, as well.
“Tell them what?” I asked innocently.
“What you are.” Conrad gestured to the kids, who had all kind of lined up against the wall behind me. “I’m sure they would be interested to know the council appointed a hyena to lead the panthers.”
