“Hey—” The door lurched forward, throwing Kaci into me, and Faythe made a startled noise from the otherside.
Kaci pulled me away from the door and opened it. “Sorry,” she said as our Alpha steppedinside.
Faythe glanced at me, then at Kaci’s disheveled hair. Then she pushed the door closed. “The recess is about over. I just wanted to…” She frowned. “Thatwas…”
“Brilliant?” Isuggested.
“Yes. Exactly.” Faythe smiled, and she looked…proud. “I had no idea you had such a politically savvymind!”
“Me neither,” Kaciadmitted.
I shrugged. “I knew.” They both turned to me, and Kaci actually rolled her eyes. “Seriously. I knew from that phone call you made to Taylor the other day. No, wait, from the one you made to Faythe, while we were on the way to theairport!”
“What?” Faythe turned on her. “Well, I guess in retrospect, youwereplayingme.”
“Like a fiddle,” I agreed, and Kaci elbowed me. “What? I meant it as acompliment.”
“Manipulating one’s Alpha isn’t generally considered a positive trait, but…well done out there,” Faythe finished. “No matter how the rest of this plays out, you’ve given Justus a much better shot than he had going into this wholething.”
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked as I slid my arm around Kaci’swaist.
Faythe shrugged. “Our only real option is to try to put together a tribunal that will at least give you a fairtrial.”
“What are the chances we’ll be able to do that?” Iasked.
“Well, we’re going to try for a redraw ofjustPaul Blackwell’s seat, so that we don’t risk losing Di Carlo’s vote in yourfavor.”
“But that means we’ll also keep Ed Taylor’s vote against him,” Kacisaid.
Faythe nodded. “Unfortunately, it also means we risk drawing Robert’sname.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “That hardly seems fair, considering what they tried todo.”
“Itisn’tfair,” Kaci insisted. “Especially considering that Faythe, Marc, and Titus have to recuse themselves, even though they didn’t do anythingwrong.”
Excitement shot through me, and I grabbed Kaci’s hand as I turned to Faythe. “I might have an idea about how to even thefield…”
* * *
“For our lastorder of business in what’s turned out to be a longer-than-expected evening, we need to fill the empty space left on the tribunal by Paul Blackwell’s death.” Rick Wade looked particularly satisfied by his position at the head of the table. And the truth was that I was kind of happy for him, despite my belief that—as council chair—he should have been able to anticipate the Taylors’ mutiny. “Faythe has asked that we keep the rest of the tribunal intact, so if there are no objections tothat…?”
All eyes turned to Ed Taylor, but he remained silent. Of course he wasn’t going to object, because if they redrew the entire tribunal, he’d likely lose his spot onit.
“Actually…” Several surprised faces turned toward Faythe. “We’ve decided we’d like to redraw both Blackwell’s seat and Ed Taylor’sseat.”
“What? On what grounds?” Taylor demanded, his hands fisted on thetable.
“On the grounds that you have an unfair bias against me,” I blurtedout.
Marc gave me a subtle but firm shake of his head. I knew it wasn’t wise to butt in, unacknowledged by the council, but my life was atrisk!
“Yes,” Faythe said, drawing their attention away from me. Then she turned to my brother. “Titus?”
Titus cleared his throat. “Two days ago, Ed Taylor called to offer me his vote in Justus’s favor, in exchange for my vote to help him unseat Rick Wade as council chair. He said he’d formed an alliance with his brother and that if I didn’t help them, they’d vote to executemybrother.”
“This is ridiculous!” Taylor stood, his faceflaming.
Faythe actually rolled her eyes. “Sit down, Ed. Titus told us about the ‘deal’ you proposed just hours after you called him. Titus, Marc, Rick and I all knew coming into this meeting that you’d call for a revote on the councilchair.”
