Two weeks. That was what we had left. The full moon would be here in half a month. Each day that passed seemed to go faster than the one before it. Luis hadn’t made any headway yet, and it was taking all my mental energy to keep Maddy from getting too worried. She was so scared for her parents, and I knew I needed to be strong for her, to give her something to lean on. The problem was, I was equally worried. I couldn’t show that, though, and it exhausted me.
Felipe and Sebastian came over that afternoon to talk about the safe houses where Maddy’s parents and Abi were being held. Luis had left behind pictures and even blueprints he’d managed to get from the city planning offices. As we talked, the same problem kept surfacing.
“We all die,” Sebastian said, flopping back onto the couch.
“Not necessarily,” I said.
Sebastian pointed at the pictures. “Okay, fine. We don’t all die. Only, like, eighty percent of us die. Then they put a bullet into the hostages and vanish. Great. Then the twenty percent of us who survive can live the rest of our lives with the guilt.”
Felipe spun the pictures back and forth. I couldn’t tell what he was doing. I nodded at him. “Do you see something there?”
He frowned at one of the blueprints for a few seconds before looking up at us. “So… we’ve basically come to the conclusion we can’t do this, right?”
“Yes,” Sebastian said.
“No,” I said at the same moment, shooting Sebastian a glare.
Felipe held his hands up to calm us. “Okay, no need to come to blows here. What if we get help?”
I sighed and gestured to the outside world with my right hand. “We already have that. Even with Javi’s guys assisting, it’ll be a bloodbath.”
Felipe closed his eyes for a minute, and I had the distinct feeling that he felt like he was talking to an idiot. I crushed my lips together to keep from calling him out for it.
When he opened them, he looked calm and clear-headed. “I realize Javi has aligned himself with us. Wolves are great. I’m talking outside the box. What about other shifters?”
Sebastian and I both froze. The thought hadn’t occurred to us at all. Honestly, I didn’t think any other shifter clans would want to help us. The royals had been werewolves. From the stories, they’d been pretty one-sided when it came to who they associated with. Would any other shifter breeds give a damn?
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Who do you have in mind? Who else are we trying to get killed?”
“You guys are still thinking brute force,” Felipe said. “What if we went the stealth route? I know some reptilian shifters in Alabama. They can shift into snakes and lizards and stuff. They aren’t powerful, not like wolves or bears or dragons or anything. They don’t shift often because of how vulnerable they are when they do. Imagine going from a full-sized man to a three-foot-long snake. Not a safe place to be, right?”
“Get to the point, Felipe,” I said.
“Thepointis that they can get really small and sneak into these safe houses. Once they’re inside, they shift back andboom.” He slammed a fist into his palm. “We immediately have guys on the inside. We split their defenses, startle them, and throw them off balance. Then, and only then, we go in—full-bore special-forces takedown. Kick in the doors, the whole nine yards.”
Hearing him describe it sent chills up my arms—in a good way. The idea had merit. More than that, it was the best any of us had come up with after days of planning. Could it actually work?
“These friends you’ve got? What would it take for them to help us?” I asked.
“Leave the negotiations to me,” Felipe said. “If you think we can use them, I’ll hit the road this afternoon and head up that way.”
I thought it over, then nodded. “Do it. Any help is better than no help. The plan has value. Whatever they want—within reason. Make the deal, and see how soon they can get some people down here to us.”
“Sweet.” Felipe stood up. “I’m going to head home and pack a bag.”
I walked Felipe out and returned to the living room to find Sebastian sitting on the couch, arms crossed, staring into space like he wanted to beat the shit out of the air itself. I walked over and looked down at him. “What’s up with you?”
Sebastian gave an angry shrug. “I wish I was doing more.”
“There’s no more you can do, man.”
He gestured toward the front door. “I didn’t have any snake shifter friends. The best I can say is I got laid by a chick who claimed to be a deer shifter once. Christ, I’m such a fuck up.”
I’d never heard Sebastian sound so dejected and self-deprecating. I knew what was causing it. His guilt about Abi was growing. Every day she was still in the hands of the royals,he seemed to be falling deeper into a despair that was similar to Maddy’s. The falling out the two had after Abi disappeared hadn’t helped either of them. I was getting tired of them avoiding each other. I was exhausted enough with what was going on without having to navigate this too.
“You need to talk to Maddy,” I said.
Sebastian shook his head. “She won’t want to hear anything I have to say.”
