“Fine.” I didn’t really have any choice in the matter. “But let me do it my way.”
Rick Wade growled. “This isn’t a negotia—”
“What’s your way?” Faythe interrupted.
“Robyn came here to see Abby. She feels isolated and disenfranchised. So let her spend time here with her friend. With a fellow tabby.”
“Absolutely not,” Wade snapped.
“If you don’t, she’ll fight us all, every step of the way,” I told them. “And she’ll run away from you again, the next chance she gets. If you want her to stay, you’re going to have to show her why she should.”
“What makes you think she won’t run from you, like she ran from us?” the chairman demanded.
“We have Abby.” That was a low blow to a father missing his daughter. But it was the truth. “She’s the only person Robyn trusts. And if that doesn’t convince you, you have my word that I won’t let her out of my sight.”
“How much time would you need?” Faythe asked, over Wade’s disgruntled mumbling.
“Give us two weeks with her, and we’ll convince her to return on her own. She’ll finish out her training in the Southeast, fulfilling her obligation to the council. You’ll be the Alphas who got her back without spilling a drop of blood, and I’ll have ‘earned goodwill’ by returning her willingly and in good spirits. Everyone wins.”
Everyone except Robyn, who would not want to return. Even after a two-week reprieve.
“That won’t work,” Wade insisted.
“It’ll be a hard sell,” Faythe admitted.
“So do what I’m going to do. Make it work.” I ended the call and sank into my chair, my eyes closed.
How the hell did this happen?
Going into the council meeting, Faythe, Jace, and I had agreed that our petition had about a fifty percent chance of succeeding. Not great odds, but not bad for a first attempt. We were prepared to be turned down and ready to appeal the decision.
Worst case scenario, we were prepared to wait for Blackwell to die. His son-in-law was rumored to be much less old-fashioned. His grandson even less so.
But if the council didn’t get Robyn back—soon, unscathed, and willing to cooperate—they would blame me. At the very least, my abilities as an Alpha would be called into question, and if I was found lacking, I would not get a second chance.
Thanks to Robyn.
Yet even knowing all of that…I wanted her to stay. She was as smart and fierce as any of my enforcers, and she was a damn sight prettier than any of them. She was also a stray who personally understood what most of my men had been and were still going through.
Robynfeltlike a Mississippi Valley Pride member.
I exhaled deeply, then slid my phone into my jacket pocket as I stood. All eyes turned my way when I stepped into the kitchen.
“Well?” Abby stood from her barstool, holding a half-eaten sandwich.
I turned from her to Robyn, who’d hardly touched her food, other than to shred the crust. “I bought you two weeks.”
Robyn swiveled on her stool until she faced me, brows drawn low over wide blue eyes. “Two weeks of what?”
“Hiatus. Vacation. Interlude.”
“Vacation.” She looked like she’d bitten into a clod of dirt. “And then what?”
“Then you go to Atlanta and finish your training.” I picked up my glass and took a sip. “After that, when the council is sure you’re no longer at the mercy of your instincts, you’ll get your life back.”
“In what form?”
“What do you mean?”
