I never saw the enemy coming up behind me. I didn’t see him raise his rifle and fire at my head. In a flash, my weapon was gone. I’d failed the simulation. The enemy holding Maddy fired his gun into her temple, and she fell over with a puff of smoke.
Spinning, I caught sight of the real Maddy standing beside Sinthy on the hill. Alive and safely out of harm’s way. Stomping away from the fake battle raging around me, I kicked at the dirt and cursed.
Sinthy shrugged. “Sorry. Was that too much?”
I jammed my hands into my pockets. “No, it was fine. I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself. I froze. I lost all control when I saw Maddy in trouble. Even though deep down, I knew it was part of the simulation, I still froze. It was a good lesson for me. Thanks.”
Sinthy gave me an embarrassed half-smile. I needed to make sure I didn’t hesitate like that if the actual fight went the same way. I sat with them and watched until my pack and Tiago’s destroyed the last of Sinthy’s fake enemies. Sinthy ended the simulation, and all the guns vanished.
Tiago’s son Alfonso had a shit-eating grin as he joined us. “That was crazy!”
“I agree,” Tiago said. “Nico, you weren’t lying. That was… I don’t even know. For a bit there, I forgot it was fake.” Tiago stood beside me and waved around, gesturing to my people and the land itself. “Did she do something else too? Things feeldifferent here. Like your pack is more confident. Likeyou’remore confident. I got a sense of it when we walked the pack lands, and I don’t think it’s the wards. I can’t quite put my finger on it, though.”
My mind flashed back to my experience in the forest and tapping into the ancient power shrouded in my lands. I was surprised that the change was noticeable. Connecting to nature and to my own land had done something incredible.
I put a hand on Tiago’s arm. “Probably us realizing we do have a chance to win this war.”
“If you guys are done bro-ing out…” Sinthy said. “I’m going to add some strength to the wards, then eat and nap. Because I’m now, apparently, a cat.”
“Hang on,” Maddy said. “You need to drink something before you do that. I don’t want you getting dehydrated.”
Sinthy started walking toward the house with Maddy behind her. “Oh my gosh, I’ll be fine, Maddy.”
“I’m sure you will, but you’re still gonna do what I say.”
I grinned as they left. They bickered like a mother and daughter. It was strange to see. Strange and wonderful. With as much as Sinthy had done for us, I was glad we could at least give her a semblance of a family.
Tiago and I walked back with his men to join the rest of their pack. Grabbing two bottles of water, Tiago tossed one to me, and we sat outside.
“I talked to a friend of mine near Virginia,” Tiago said after a few minutes.
“Virginia?” I asked, feeling fear bubble in my gut. “Was he?— ”
“No, he’s a panther shifter. He wasn’t at the massacre, but a friend ofhiswas there. It was horrible, Nico. Worse than what they’re saying on the news. That pack never stood a chance. The news reports don’t do it justice. It was a total surprise. The cops and the shifters never knew what hit them. The only reason theywere able to fight them off and kill so many attackers was that the shifters knew the layout of the land. If the anti-shifters had another ten or fifteen people on their side, it would have been a different story.”
“It won’t be the last one,” I said.
Tiago nodded sadly. “Yup. Like I told you, the protestors outside our compound were getting angrier and more violent. Had you not sent that little lady to us, I truly believe we’d be on the news right now. That’s how bad it was.”
“Well, maybe the loss of human life from that attack in Virginia will scare enough of them off until we can figure something out. Many people died. We can hope that will be a deterrent.”
As though the world, God, or Fate decided I needed a swift kick in the ass, my phone buzzed. It was Donatello:Turn on the news.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I hissed.
Tiago looked confused. “What’s up?”
“Grab your phone. My contact, Donatello, says there’s something on the news we need to see.”
We both pulled up a news app, and a growl burst out of both our mouths as we saw what was on the screen. Viola Monroe, wearing what looked like military fatigues, her face, calm and composed, was on the opposite side of a split screen with a news anchor.
“Everyone, we have a special interview tonight. Miss Viola Monroe, coming to us from an undisclosed location, has agreed to an interview with this network.
“Miss Monroe? Can you tell us what your motives are for this proxy war you seem to be waging against the shifter population?”
Viola smiled a thin smile. “I would prefer you not refer to the abominations as part of thepopulation. Do you refer to fungi,bacteria, or viruses as part of the population? I think not. They are something to be weeded out and destroyed.”
The reporter looked uncomfortable with that statement but continued. “The attack in Virginia must have given you pause. So many human lives were lost as a result of extremist actions. If you truly are for so-called human rights, then doesn’t this atrocity fly in the face of what you preach?”
