“Bullshitit is!”
“How is this any different from what Sebastian had to do to get his current job?From what I had to do a month ago to help him keep it?That’s what we do, what Weres have always done—we fight for what we want.”
“And I thought that’s what Sebastian was trying to change,” I said heatedly.“To give us other ways, more civilized ones—”
“Yes, and he’s pissing everyone off in the process.The Clan Council doesn’t like change.They like the old ways; their power is built on the old ways.How many of them do you think would win an election?How many rule through fear rather than respect?”
“But he’s making progress—”
“Yes, because he fights for it!”Cyrus said fiercely.“He fights every day.And these boys—they understand that he’s fighting for them, but they also know they have to do their part!”
“Their part?You mean fightRelics,and the dark mage handlers that go with them?”I couldn’t believe he was saying this, couldn’t believe we were having this conversation.
I’d genuinely thought he would be horrified at what had happened to us, at what we’d been through the other night, but instead, he’d seen an opportunity.
But for what?
“We did it, Lia,” he reminded me.“We won—”
“Yes, and almost died in the process!”
Cyrus looked like he wanted to say something, but bit it back.It was a subtle motion, but I knew him too well.“What?”I demanded.
Brown eyes met mine, and they were steady.“You know what.You knew it then.It was a choice: Noah’s life or yours, and you made it.Youfought,even knowing the cost.When you could havepulled back, regrouped with the rest of us, and killed the motherfucker who was menacing him another way—”
“But not in time.”
It came out as a whisper, because I was seeing it all again: the blood splattered room, the evil look in the Relic’s eyes as he ground Noah’s leg into the floor, the sounds I shouldn’t have been able to hear over everything else, but that had come loud and resonant to my ears—the pop of shattered bone, the harshly indrawn breath, the whimper of a cub who knows he’s dead and can’t do anything about it—
I snarled, and the hand on my cup went black and furry and clenched, shattering the porcelain.Cyrus caught it in his still-human one, gripping it hard.He’d always had better control, and that had been especially true that night.
“He lives with that, every day,” he whispered.“That you had achoice, and you chose him.He doesn’t know what to do with it.Doesn’t know how to process it.Wants to run to get away from emotions he doesn’t know how to handle, but he can’t, and not just because of his leg.But because ofyou.
“He’s yours now; will be until his dying day.You fought for him when nobody else would, and that creates a bond, anobligation—”
“I don’t want him feeling like that!I didn’t do it for that!”
“I know, but he feels differently.Any Were would.And that includes the Clan Council.”
“Ah.”I sat back.“A point emerges.”
Cyrus grabbed a roll of paper towels to sop up the spilled coffee and began cleaning up my mess.
“If these boys want redemption, they’re going to have to fight for it,” he said.“There’s no other way, and this is the best chance any of them is ever going to get.They make the council feel an obligation now, and no matter who ends up asbardriclater, they won’t be going anywhere.
“They saw that when I won my fight against Whirlwind, saw the outcast son made whole again.They want the same, and if they don’t get it, they’re right back where they started in a few years.And before you say ‘but they’re just children,’ ask yourself how long avargulflasts on the streets—anyvargulf—including ones far older and stronger than these?”
I swallowed my words because that time was often measured in months instead of years.And not just because of clan violence, although that frequently played a part.But because a wolf without a clan was...
Nothing.Just nothing at all.Plenty went mad, and the rest...well, the clans didn’t have to kill them.
They often took care of that on their own.
“The boys—the young men—we’ve brought in understand it, too,” Cyrus said simply.“And theywantthis chance.And not just for themselves.They’re fighting for all the other kids like them, who nobody wants and who have no hope.But if one clan of former outcasts is approved of, is validated, is shown to be valuable, then maybe they all are.At the very least, they won’t be immediately disbanded, and the longer they last, the more normal it all becomes.
“And before you ask, I didn’t talk to them about this; they came to me.Because the other night showed them that they do have worth, that theycanfight, and by God, they want to!”
And by Were law, they had that right, I thought miserably, staring into his face.
