It never ceases to amaze me that people strive to obtain positions of power, forgetting that the more impressive the title, the easier it is to be taken away. A judge plays God with people’s fates, but is held to a certain standard in the court of public opinion. Lawmaker? One picture at the right angle to make things look worse than they are and a few rumors to fan the flames, their entire life can burn down alongside their career. Wealth can buy your way out of legal trouble, but it can’t buy you a new reputation; not in the digital age. Once something’s out there, it’s out there forever, thanks to the power of screenshots.
Secrets whispered in the right ears are my weapons of choice. Words spread like a poison, subtly infecting people’s thoughts. By the time your target realizes what’s happening, it’s too late to stop it, since power is an imaginary concept that relies on other people to enforce your rules. If everyone collectively refuses to support your claim that you get to decide what they’re allowed to do, then your power simply ceases to exist.
“Are we sure we’re making the right call?” Kaige asks, taking one last picture before our target disappears behind a curtain, buying a private ‘dance’.
Tossing a few bills on the table, I lead the way out of the strip club and to the car where we can have more privacy for this conversation. Once we’re all crammed inside the nondescript sedan we rented, I shrug.
“Honestly? No, but what other choice do we have? It’s clear that Ash knew about Sabrina. Why else would he have chosen her father as our loyalty test? If her mom hadn't taken her and skipped town right after, they’d likely have been dragged back by another team. I just don’t get why he wouldn’t have ordered us to grab them while we were already there.”
Kaige furrows his brow. “And if he knew where they were, why wouldn’t he have gone after them himself? Or tipped off the Slaughters?”
A frustrated growl precedes Hunter turning the key to fire up the car, growing restless sitting around and getting us on the road. “Making her father the target doesn’t make sense. He was human; not a threat. If Sabrina was the actual goal, it means Noah Laroque was a smokescreen so that we wouldn’t know the point of the mission, but I can’t figure out what purpose that serves. Why would he want to remove the one protector two female wolves had if not to reclaim them and bring them home?”
“And if hedidn’twant them to come back for gods only know what reason, he could have killed them or simply left them alone. So maybe he didn’t actually know about either of them and it was something typical like Noah ripped him off or owed him money?”
Kaige thumps his head against the window. “Hell if I know, but all the more reason I’m second guessing bringing her home. Maybe we should call this off before we get any deeper; join the rest of their pack in Alaska and start over.”
Blowing out a breath, I pinch the bridge of my nose, a headache rapidly building. “We don’t have a choice. She’s the key to putting everything in motion that we’ve been working toward for years.
If we can get the Slaughters on our side, it’ll change everything; it has to.”
Hunter scoffs. “I still don’t see it happening. You’re expecting them to magically grow hearts and want to protect Sabrina instead of just pawn her off to open up their trade route. You rolled out the red carpet straight through your territory for them already, so as soon as they get her to cough up her mom’s location, she’ll have served her purpose in their eyes.”
“Eh, I’m with Damian on this one,” Kaige counters. “Who can look at that girl andnotfall in love with her?”
Starting to get on board, Hunter muses, “Or backup option, we exploit her mom’s location and use it as a bargaining chip to get them to agree to a temporary alliance. We have our packs, and these assholes are semi-useful, I suppose.”
“Exactly. We can finally kill Acheron Wilder once and for all, and this time, we’ll make sure he stays dead. We’ll explain to Sabrina that we didn’t know about her until Kaige intercepted Adrian’s call to the Slaughters, and that we didn’t know it was her father when you and I killed him. That we didn’t have a choice back then, not after-” Cringing, I attempt to call the slip back, but it’s too late.
Hunter keeps his voice deceptively light. “After Ash butchered mine and Kaige’s parents when we refused his request to do it the first time?”
Awkwardly clearing my throat, I nod. “Sorry.” He shrugs it off, preferring to move on rather than dwell on it. “The only glitch in the plan is... me.” Hunter meets my eye in the rearview mirror as I confess, “We started this to get our packs out from under his thumb, but honestly, if the plan goes sideways and it comes down to them or Sabrina... I’m choosing her. And I know that makes me the shittiest leader in existence, but,” I trail off, waiting for their judgment, to use the admission as the perfect reason why we should call this off now before it’s too late, when they’re already having doubts.
Hunter is quiet for several minutes before he eventually declares, “You’re not the only one, so I suppose it’s all the more incentive not to fuck this up. We succeed and have everything, or we watch it all burn to the ground. Either way, our fate’s in her hands now.”
Kaige snorts in amusement. “So a slow death to look forward to, then. Awesome.”
