“Do it, Nico.”
“Tell ’em. Tell ’em everything.”
“Yes.”
“Yeah.”
“I agree.”
“Let’s do this.”
The same sentiment was repeated by everyone. Those who didn’t speak, simply gave me silent nods. Everyone was in agreement.
“I’ll get to work. Thank you, everyone. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to fight alongside you all. This is our family, this is our home, and this is the place we’ll fight for.”
A small cheer went up as I stepped down off the chair. Donatello was at my side before I could even take hold of Maddy’s hand.
“A message, you say. This sounds intriguing.” Donatello smiled. Even smeared with dirt and blood, the man somehow managed to look glamorous.
Wrapping an arm around Maddy’s shoulders, I nodded. “Yeah. With Maddy’s name out there, there’s no use hiding her anymore. I want to tell the world everything. The entire story, not the altered one, the royals have been shoving down our throats for centuries. I think it could help garner more sympathy. I hate to say it, but we have to pit the anti-shifter side against the pro-shifters.”
Donatello nodded. “Fight propaganda with propaganda? I like it.”
“Well, it’s not propaganda if it’s true, right?” I asked.
Donatello chuckled and patted my arm. “My dear friend, every side of every conflict thinks they’re telling the truth. The only thing we have going for us is that we actuallyarethe ones telling the truth. Let me know how I can help.”
All through the afternoon and into the early evening, we spent hours going over what we were going to say. We organized it onto notecards I would read on video. I even got Javi to give me details on some of the missions his pack had done under orders of the royals over the years. Finally ready, Felipe set up the camera and lights.
Nerves ate at me as he readied everything. Donatello stood at the back of the room and nodded, giving me a thumbs-up.
“Are you ready?” Felipe asked.
At my nod, he hit the record button.
“My name is Nicolas Lorenzo. I am the alpha of the Lorenzo pack.”
I laid it all out for the world. The true story of Edemas, the way he’d been betrayed and finally killed, his two hidden children, and the royals’ history. I told them how the royals and Viola’s entire family had butchered and killed shifters throughout history to try and find this magical vial of blood. Javi’s stories, the facilities where experiments were done, the torture she put Maxwell through, the babies and children she’d had murdered, and the way Maddy had been attacked and left for dead that night in her bar. I painted the true picture of Viola Monroe and pressed home the fact that if anyone was a monster, it wasn’t Maddy. It was Viola.
The only thing we held back was Maddy’s pregnancy. We’d thought at first it could elicit more sympathy from the world but decided against it at the last minute. The idea of Edemas’s heir being pregnant might cause fear about what the baby might be. It was better to keep that information hidden until later.
By the time I was done, the video was over half an hour long, but I’d said everything I wanted to say. I’d even begged the world for help, for protection for shifters and anyone else Viola wanted to exterminate. I didn’t lay it on thick, but I did try to make sure anyone watching would know that I was serious and that we were facing serious danger.
“Very eloquent,” Donatello said as Felipe stopped recording. “How do you plan to disperse this little home video?”
I shrugged. “We could post it online, but I thought you could help spread it faster.”
Donatello rubbed his hands together greedily. “Ah, yes. I think I know a few people who can assist us.”
Luis uploaded the video to the regular sharing site, and Donatello gave him some email addresses of fairly high-ranking presidents of news organizations. He sent the video to them along with a short letter from Donatello. It took less than an hour for all hell to break loose.
Before the eleven o’clock news came on, nearly every channel broke into their regular programming with banners reading: Breaking News. Soon my face was on screens, and my voice was echoing across dozens of channels. Within an hour, Donatello and Luis informed us it was being broadcast on the BBC, Euronews, NHK in Japan, Al Jazeera, and News24 in South Africa. The video had gone viral and was being shared hundreds of thousands of times every hour.
“I believe we have done what we set out to do,” Donatello said. “I, for one, am going to go to sleep for about thirteen hours. Good night to you all.”
The others slowly headed off to bed, and I joined Maddy in ours. We lay there, tired beyond belief but unable to fall asleep. So much had happened in one day. It felt like it had been weeks ago that Sinthy and I kidnapped Maxwell, and all this had gone to shit. How had it only been twelve hours ago?
Sensing my agitation, Maddy rolled over and curled around me. The hug sent a spasm through me, and I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close to me. Her scent filled my nose, enveloping me. As she ran her hands through my hair, a dam within me nearly broke apart. Finally allowing myself to relax, my body shuddered against hers, and all the adrenaline of the day drained out of me.
