“Stop,” he said. “It isn’t your fault. You’d think after a lifetime of constant commitment from me, they’d be able to afford me a few months of down time. I don’t take vacations, I’ve rarely divided my attention before now. I have put blood, sweat, and tears into uniting the different packs as one. To make us less vulnerable, a collective not to be trifled with. What do I get in return? Infighting and back stabbing with loose and weak plans to usurp me as their leader.” He shook his head. “Sometimes, I think I should just let them have it. They think they have it all figured out, and none of them know the true extent of the power it takes to hold everyone together.”
“What stops you?” I wondered. I could see the pain of betrayal written in his tight features. This had hurt him deeply and I hadn’t been in tune with what was happening beneath the surface of my own mate. I needed to do better, be better, be the woman he deserved.
“Right now? The only thing stopping me is the greatest threat I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
“My grandmother.”
“If I leave and a power struggle ensues, there will be nothing to stop her from wiping them out. They’d be easy pickings while their backs were turned from external threats as they kept their eyes on the proverbial circling wolves.”
“You know I don’t expect you to give up being The Principal, just as I don’t believe you expect me to sacrifice part of myself to be with you.”
“And yet, without sacrifice, we can’t make room for each other.”
I stewed on that for a few minutes. “You’re right, we need to find a middle ground, figure out what’s important and how we can make this work.”
He glanced at me and a little light shone through the darkness on his face. “Let’s deal with your grandmother, then we can tackle some fundamentals like where we live, work, and eat.”
Because right now, it was all in my territory, and that couldn’t remain the case. His mate would be expected to be visible and accessible to the pack. I’m sure it came with responsibilities and a host of ‘mate of the Principal duties’ that I wouldn’t care for, but I would do it for him.
“Okay.”
He arched a brow. “Okay?”
“Yes. We end this threat and then we work out a schedule. I can be based anywhere for my doctor work, but I would insist on continuing to be available to see loners.”
“I can work with that.”
“The day-to-day business of the bed and breakfast is mostly run by Maggie and Rebecca. I don’t need to be there full time.”
He grinned. “Is this you compromising?”
“It is.”
His hand left the steering wheel and settled over my thigh, the warmth of his palm penetrating my skin and settling my soul. “So let’s start with what the hell happened back in Chatsham.”
Ugh, and with that, all my happy warm fuzzy feelings were gone. “We believe my grandmother is stealing magic from the demons and using it via a spell in the Red Dragon to turn humans into elementals.”
He frowned. “And the shifters?”
“Aunt Sophia thinks they have some shifter blood buried in their genetics, so the spell awoke that side of them.”
“But humans aren’t elementals.”
“Apparently, I’m missing something important which would explain that, but we were too busy reversing the spell to have story time.”
“You think she’s building an army of elementals?” he checked.
“Humans are terrified of the unknown, they will always look for leadership and explanation.”
“So the newly turned will flock to your grandmother and she will teach them all the ways of the factions as seen through her own eyes.”
“Yes, and if she turns enough of humanity, the elementals will become impossible to beat. They may even turn against their own kind.”
“That’s a disturbing plan,” he settled on just as we pulled into the drive of Summer Grove House. He cut the engine and turned to face me, savoring our few moments alone. Perhaps if we split our time between here and the pack, we might be able to steal more time together. It was an awesome thought.
“We need to stop her,” he said as he leaned closer.
I nodded and got lost in his hazel eyes. His gaze dropped to my lips. “We do,” I breathed. “But right now, we need to regroup.”
