He laughed softly before rolling away from me. “It’s not Wednesday, either.”
I let my hand fall on his side of the bed, still feeling the warmth as he sat on the edge and ran his hands down his face. “Aurora is challenging for placement today,” he said. “It’ll be a tough challenge for her. A vicious fight, most likely. I’ve let Mr. Tom know to put it on your schedule.” He turned back with a weary sigh. Austin definitely needed a day off. “You need to start preparing yourself to watch grisly challenges. You’re going to witness them when we meet the other packs.”
I sat up, watching him. I didn’t voice my concerns, as I knew my misgivings about what he was saying showed in my body language. It wouldn’t be random pack members I’d have to watch—it would be Austin. Maybe Broken Sue. Probably Tristan. It would be the cream of our pack that the other alphas or betas would challenge and try to dominate.
That was the issue that had stopped Kingsley’s efforts. If he’d had to meet those challenges, there were a few he didn’t think he could beat. And if he did, it would be tough going. The hope was that Austin could win those fights, but that hope was anything but a guarantee.
I’d get challenged as well, but only once by each pack, as I would make an absolute spectacle of my challenger. My gargoyle was already spoiling for a battle just thinking of Austin being in danger.
His gaze traveled my body, landing on my hands. He didn’t reassure me. It was time I got used to the harsher realities of shifter life.
I took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then nodded. “It’ll be fine,” I said, becausesomeonehad to reassure me. “They’ll see the need for a unified front. Only a fool wouldn’t after what happened at Kingsley’s.”
He shook his head and pushed up to standing. “I have a bad reputation among alphas, and my brother has a vested interest in me. We’re family. The alpha network assumes he’s trying to protect me, which isn’t unreasonable. Half the alphas don’t believe any of the stories are true, including the extreme danger Kingsley’s territory faced.”
“What?” My brow furrowed. “But…the entire town can vouch for it.”
Austin went to the dresser and took out his daily uniform, jeans and a white T-shirt. “They don’t want to hear it. They want to put their heads in the sand and pretend life doesn’t have tochange. Once dominance is proven, shifters will listen, and then they’ll come around—but until then, they’ll approach this a lot like the gargoyles did. Remember? They didn’t want the new kid on the block to have more status than they’ve spent their lives building. It’ll be the same here. They just won’t hold out as long to face reality.”
Yeah. The freaking cairn leaders. All but one of them refused to admit my power or grant me status. The lone leader who’d joined the convocation was powerful, but the othersstillignored me. It was frustrating as hell.
“Well.” I pulled the covers away and swung my feet over the edge of the bed. “We’ll show those shifters that we can handle them.” I hesitated. “Youwill, at any rate. I still can’t get Indigo to stop tripping over nothing and bowling down the rest of the Ivy House crew. I’ll probably get the first challenge out of the gate.”
He grabbed a pair of socks and sat with me on my side of the bed. “Your gargoyles are organized and pristine. Tristan has that down. The Ivy House crew will be ignored or looked down upon—at the start, anyway. Once the packs realize the rumors they’ve heard are true, they’ll come around. We really do have a phoenix, we have the basajaunak, and our thunderbird is awe-inspiring. Once they see the proof for themselves, they’ll give you some grace, I have no doubt. No,I’llraise the most contention. It’s about my past versus my present. The packs view stability like the gargoyles do—they want to make sure I can foster it. They want to make sure I can lead. That I won’t drive a pack—or this convocation—into the ground. They don’t trust me. I’m going to have to prove that they can and should.”
I put my hand on his leg and leaned over to rest my head on his shoulder. “Once they see you now, you’ll get just as much grace as we will. Probably ten times more, since your people can actually form a line. Like…it’s aline! How hard is it to get in a freaking line?”
He huffed out a laugh and put his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s hope so.”
“I know so. It’ll be fine,” I assured us both, or maybe just me again. “We can do it. We’ve overcome worse.”
That had to be true. We’d be sunk if it wasn’t.
A knock sounded at the door. “Your link is open,” Mr. Tom called. “I presume that means you’re merely chatting and not about to launch into time-eating fornication. May I come in, or will it kill the mood that you don’t have time to indulge in anyway?”
I sat up straight again. “Since when is Mr. Tom the keeper of my schedule, by the way?”
Austin hesitated in getting up. “Hasn’t he always been? That’s how he talks.”
“You know very well that the jobs hesayshe has aren’t actually the jobs people have given him.”
His smirk was unapologetic. Apparently, Austin thought I needed to be marshaled so my team’s random problems couldn’t slow me.
And boy, did my team seem to come up with the most random of problems. Apparently, Cyra was in a full-fledged war with the gnomes. She was a powerful phoenix, and yet she hadn’t made much headway. Ivy House had to be put in charge of making sure the resulting fires didn’t burn the whole place down. I just didn’t have the time to keep on top of it and didn’t want to tell her to stop. Edgar wasn’t getting rid of the problem, so Cyra was now our only hope.
“Well.” I didn’t know what else to say.
I pushed off the bed and headed to the table by the window. Austin met me there and slipped his arms around my waist, both of us ignoring Mr. Tom at the door. Austin’s lips trailed against my neck.
“Don’t worry about me going into these meetings, okay?” he murmured. “And don’t react to the things you hear them saying. You’re in charge of recruiting the gargoyles. I’ll manage the shifters.”
He needs room to earn the title of “King of the Shifters,”Ivy House said, pride rising in her voice.
“Miss, you are giving me mixed signals,” Mr. Tom called. “Am I to keep waiting at the door like some sort of vagabond, or are you decent? At this rate, your coffee will be stone cold.”
I sighed as I sagged in Austin’s arms. “I really hate you for putting him in charge of my schedule,” I told him.
“How dare you,” he replied softly, mocking what had come to be Mr. Tom’s catchphrase. “And, as I said, I didn’t expressly put him in charge. I?—”
