The Pit was White Castle’s answer to anything entertainment related. Quiz nights, speed dating, 70’s themed disco—you name it, Karen, the owner, had thought of it. She was a whiz at reinventing her premises to keep it up to date with the trends. That said, its sticky carpets and chipped tables needed a major overhaul to not make you feel like you were going to catch a new and suspicious disease.
The Pit was neutral territory, something Hudson had insisted on for this dinner that I had successfully avoided four times, given it was a weekly occurrence that he attended with his alphas. This was the forum for the different shifter species to iron out any issues overseen by The Principal who ruled them all.
It was clear that their major grievance wasn’t with each other, but rather with me. That was okay, I was a big girl—I could handle some alphas. After all, I put up with Hudson’s domineering ass on a daily basis.
“You ready for this?” he asked as I cut the engine.
I squeezed the steering wheel before turning to him. “How angry are they?”
“Stick with the story, you’ll be fine.”
Right, the fictitious tale of how Lucifer had tried to commandeer the pack from Hudson by taking control of the shifters and when Hudson had refused to bow to his rule, Lucifer had murdered the shifters to try to get him to bend to their will. There were so many damn holes in that story, but he’d been spinning it for the last month. Hopefully, this meal would be a lot of hot air and anger.
I chewed my bottom lip and dragged in a breath, I couldn’t avoid it forever. I opened the door and was still climbing out of the car when Hudson appeared at my side and offered me his hand. I took it, grateful for the support of the biggest, baddest shifter around. I was pissed at him, not stupid.
He threaded his fingers through mine and we set off toward the entrance. Laughter peeled out the door. Great, we were late. Way to make a good impression. Hudson kept propelling us forward until we emerged inside the main room. Tonight, the lights were on bright and the dance floor had been used to house the tables shoved together to make one long dining table. Around it was a crowd of ten shifters who paused their conversations and swept their gazes toward us.
The hairs on my arms lifted. Magic splashed around the room, powerful flares of invisible lightning that humans would put down to that creepy feeling that raised the hair on their napes and made them run up the stairs to the safety of their beds. A mix of male and female, their gazes ranged from curious to hostile.
Hudson guided me toward the head of the table, where two empty chairs awaited us. He pulled out the one next to Dave and I sat in it, grateful to be next to a friendly face. Dave glanced at me. Okay, so not friendly, but familiar. Hudson sat at the head and placed the whiskey and cookie tin down on the table like he had had the forethought to bring a gift. Bah, thanks for making me look bad.
“From us,” he declared. Okay, now that was some smart maneuvering. I could deny they were from us, making me look like I hadn’t brought anything at all, or I could remain quiet and reinforce the fact he was parading me around like I was his mate. That status had yet to be confirmed.
Dave arched a brow but kept silent. Smart man. The female opposite me on Hudson’s left I already knew. Mercy Stephenson was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed devil who had tried hooking her claws into Hudson’s heart. He had made it clear that he was not interested and she persisted like dog shit inside the grips of sneakers. No amount of washing could get rid of the smell, but it would eventually fall away the more you trod it into the ground. Mercy leaned forward and I was in momentary fear of her boobs making an appearance on the table. She’d clearly forgotten a bra this evening, because there was no way she could be wearing one under the tiny scraps of black material covering her nipples. I knew she was an alpha, but I hadn’t taken her for one of the pack leaders. I wondered if she was always at these weekly meetings or if this was a special occasion where she came to flaunt her familiarity with Hudson in my face, like those boobs.
“Good to finally see you here, Cora,” she breathed. Her voice was a tinkling bell in the air that made me want to punch her in her pert little nose. So she has been here every week. I glanced at Hudson, would it have killed him to let me know? Indigo chose that moment to raise her head and peer at the bitch across from me.
“Can I eat her?”Indigo asked in my mind. Mercy jerked back in her seat, and her fingers made a hasty retreat from their path to Hudson’s arm. They couldn’t hear Indigo, but another animal instinctively knew when a bigger beast was in their midst.
“No. Not yet anyway.”
My beast existed in an uneasy alliance inside me. For much of my life, I had hid the separate soul-sucking being, wrapping her up in chains and protection spells to prevent her from appearing. But since the showdown with my father, she’d broken free and now there was no putting her back in her cage. She’d claimed Hudson’s animal, Keverin, as a mate, and as she explained to me on a regular basis, they were waiting for us idiots to catch up to the inevitable. A prehistoric saber-toothed tiger and the daughter of death? What could possibly go wrong?
Mercy blinked and a dash of color pinked her cheeks. If anything, the blush made her even prettier. A strong hand wrapped around my knee under the table, and I glanced at Hudson, who gave me an amused smirk. Indigo settled but didn’t slumber, she thought she was being challenged for her mate and would answer the call in a swift and bloody manner that wouldn’t endear the pack to me.
Another male stood, stationed in the middle of the table. “Miss Roberts, we have been eagerly awaiting your attendance at our weekly meals so that we may welcome you into the pack.”
My gaze narrowed. This felt like an ambush, not a meal. Hudson opened his mouth, no doubt to inform me who was addressing me. “Good evening, Gordon. How is your youngest, Hatti? Has her broken arm mended okay?”
Hudson’s mouth snapped closed. I still held some secrets it seemed. Some of which included treating the pack’s ailments when their resident doctor was too busy or needed more specialized equipment. I glanced at Norbert, my fellow medical professional. He’d patched me up a time or two.
“She is recovered, thank you, Cora,” Gordon muttered before sitting in his chair. I was not going to be bullied by a bunch of hot air blowing shifters.
“I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting you,” an older woman said, leaning around Gordon from the other side. “I’m Keira.”
“Benedict’s wife and co-alpha of the cats,” I stated with a nod. The rest of the table introduced themselves, a little taken aback at my knowledge of their identities. I hadn’t been raised by just anyone; Eloise Roberts was the elemental in charge. She’d taught me to know both my enemy and allies alike, because you never knew when one could turn into the other. Right now, I wasn’t entirely sure what the pack was to me. I was poised to become their leader’s mate, but I wasn’t one of them and never would be.
The door to the kitchen flung open and an army of teenage shifters appeared with plate after plate of steaming food. They placed them in a line down the center of the table and then departed, leaving us to make small talk as we passed food around and spooned it onto our plates. I’d been doing a little more in-depth research about the social customs and feeding rituals of the pack, in particular the cats, given I’d made an oopsie when I let Hudson cook for me. Norbert had been a great help when picking apart the complexities. Mercy met my eyes and picked up the empty plate from in front of Hudson. Oh I don’t think so. Sneaky little wolf. A flare of possessiveness soured my stomach. I wasn’t the type of woman to fight for a man. I’d made that clear to Hudson—I didn’t play games. But it occurred to me then and there, that even if me and him didn’t entertain the games, others would most certainly try to draw us into them. Like this wolf that needed putting in her place.
Hudson’s mouth opened and I squeezed his hand on my knee in a silent plea to let me deal with this. If he kept coming to my defense, she would keep coming at me. I let her pile it with some of the sliced meat. She lifted it and I intercepted the plate before it could land back in front of him. Her fingers tightened around the edge and our gazes clashed. “Thank you for the food,” I told her. In animal speak, she had tried to feed the alpha male, basically making a pass at him and suggesting I wasn’t capable of feeding my mate. But by taking the plate from her, I was ensuring she knew her place was below me. The chatter died as the shifters looked on with curiosity. No one moved to intervene or help as this was a pivotal moment. We hadn’t gotten to their lost loved ones yet, but if I couldn’t hold my own against a she wolf flaunting herself at my mate, then I wouldn’t be worth their time.
Mercy blinked. I let my magic crash against her in a wave of warning. I might not have claws, but I wasn’t weak.“I have claws,”Indigo reminded me. “They would shred through her heart like hot steel against butter.”Now that was a comforting thought.
She swallowed and with a nod released the plate. I placed it in front of me, swapping it out for my own plate. I then piled that one high before handing it to Hudson. His eyes were wide and he looked like he was going to wrestle me to the floor, strip me naked, and perform the adult tango. I’d declared my intentions in front of the pack’s heavyweights who would disseminate it through the ranks. They were like a gossiping granny knitting group.
Hudson took the plate from my hands and with relish began to devour the food. I caught Mercy giving me the evil eye a time or two but ignored her. She’d tried to undermine me on her own terms and had lost. Perhaps she would retract her claws from Hudson now. Her gaze hardened, ugh, fat chance.
“So let’s get this out there,” Gordon declared as he finished the last of his food and sat back in his chair. “We lost a lot of people in this war you have going on with Lucifer.”
