Slade scent grew stronger as the room heated, and my beast lifted to the surface, searching for energy that I didn’t understand. “I can’t promise anything without speaking to Hunter, but you should know, if I’m in the same room as youralpha, I’m going to murder him. What he did to Emme… that must be punished.”
A part of me couldn’t argue. “That’s between you and Alpha, but just know, I’m not the only shifter who would stand before him. You will have to go through all of us.”
Slade glanced down at Emme. “Maybe you’ll feel differently when we find our twin bond.”
I couldn’t quite figure out why he was so focused on this twin connection, and I had my doubts it’d make any difference to our power, but I was willing to give it a try. “Fine, I will agree to explore the connection with you, and in return, you will give Alpha your time and a chance to convince you of the new future for shifters.”
We remained locked in a stare-off until eventually he grunted. “Fucking fine. I will choose the meeting place. Non-negotiable.”
“I have to talk to Alpha, but as long as it’s safe for both parties, there’s no reason he’d refuse. He wants you and Hunter on board. You’re his sons as well.”
Slade’s dragon soared to the surface, and my own thundered until I couldn’t tell if he wanted to meet the other beast… or kill it.
“We’re not his sons. We’re nothing to him, and he’s nothing to us. Sentimentality and a deal he made long ago has kept him alive all of these years. But that ran out the second he touched our omega. He should consider us his enemies at best.”
The instinct to destroy anyone who was a risk to Alpha flared, but it was mild. Easily ignored. I was well trained to take out threats, but I found it harder to categorize this pack as a truedanger. No doubt that would change the second they attacked him.
Then I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.
“Don’t be my enemy, brother,” I warned him. “It won’t end well.”
The smile that tilted his lips was reminiscent of how I looked when a shifter was about to die. “It absolutely won’t end well.For you.”
He left the room, but I knew he had eyes on us in here. I could hear the whirring of the cameras as they surveyed the containment cells. Slade and I were twin souls, but I didn’t do technology. That wasn’t for me, and I knew very little about it, even if I could easily tune in to its frequencies.
Having been deprived of the outdoors growing up, I preferred nature. Now, it was all I craved. Well, that and this omega sleeping so peacefully beside me.
Slade hadn’t said when he planned for us to head to the origin of our birth, but just the thought of being outside, scenting the air and feeling the energy of the world around us, was enough to calm my beast. If we weren’t removed from these rooms soon, I would have had to leave anyway.
For everyone’s safety.
He was right, though, I would have returned.
I couldn’t leave my sweet mate, not even for Alpha.
Despite being a prisoner here, my time wasn’t the worst I’d experienced. Slade visited most days, and he was done with torture, so we spent our time in terse conversation. He told me about his life growing up with Alpha, and I told him about mine.
His had been far worse in regard to pain and torture, and mine had been far worse in regard to isolation and the expectation of complete obedience. Only one of us held loyalty to Alpha though, and I wondered if mine was due to my belief that the packs needed more structure.
That we were weakening in this current way of being governed.
Slade had suggested at one point that I should go out into the cities and see for myself, and as much as he pissed me off, it was a solid idea. I’d been trained to blindly obey, but in the end, I was stronger than almost all shifters in the world.
Alpha knew I chose to obey, and only because I believed in the agenda.
I’d placed my trust in his word that the cities were a mess and shifters weakening, but I was here now and could see for myself.
“What are you thinking about?”
My gaze jerked down to find Emme staring up at me, the piercing blue of her eyes softer as she blinked the sleepiness from her gaze.
“Could you show me around the cities?” I asked her.
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean? You want to drive around and see Golden Claw?”
That was exactly what I wanted. “Alpha always taught me that we were stronger under a single, powerful alpha’s rule, and I believe that hebelievesthat. But I’m here, and I can assess for myself as well.” My dragon rumbled in my chest, and for once it wasn’t clear what his thoughts were.
Emme turned to fully face me, and as soon as her hand was removed from Finley, he started to stir. “I can take you into the city,” she murmured, “but I’m not sure how it will prove Fletcher right or wrong. There are so many packs and shifters, and some are strong, while others hang on the fringe. But from what I know, the old ways were primitive, with many falling under cruel and barbaric rule. Now we have structures and new technology. We’ve advanced.”
