“Maybe,” Hunter hesitantly begins, sitting back down, “it wasn’t Annika leaving that broke things like we thought. If Sabrina was born here and then Annika took her away, it wasSabrinaleaving that broke things.”
“You mean Aurelia,” she replies with a weary sigh. “I’m just the meat suit stuck in the middle of this dramatic puppet show.”
Cinjin chimes in to keep her from discrediting herself. “You are not. Y-”
“I’m not upset about it, calm down.” Tugging out her ponytail, she runs her fingers through it before braiding it over her shoulder, always looking for something to fidget with when discussing difficult topics. “Honestly? I’ve read enough books with women that turned out to be the chosen ones, that had to sacrifice everything to save people. I don’twantto be important to anyone other than you guys, so I’m happy to pawn off all of the end of the world stuff on her. That way if we fuck this up and get everyone killed, it’s not my fault.” The last quip is tossed out flippantly, her smile genuine rather than the fragile one I was anticipating.
“We’ll make sure to carry disclaimers in our pockets for when people find our bodies. That way they’ll all know it’s really Damian’s fault so they spell his name right in the history books.”
Rolling his eyes, he flips me off.
As Reid returns from the bedroom, he declares, “I’ll schedule a mass email alert to let everyone know so he can’t escape responsibility, don’t worry.” Scowling, he slides a new pair of glasses on and adds, “Better do that now, actually; this is my last backup pair.”
“This might be a dumb question-” as Reid looks his way, Hunter awkwardly clears his throat. “Does your... other half have poor eyesight too?” When Reid simply blinks at him, Hunter immediately gets defensive. But much to the surprise of everyone in the room, he doesn’t bite Reid’s head off, instead actually trying to explain his point of view; even if itdoeslook like he sucked on a lemon.
“Now more than ever it’s important for us all to know exactly what we have to work with; every potential weakness so we’re not blindsided in the heat of the moment, whatever we could possibly use to lure Ash into a false sense of security. Whatever plan we come up with, if we should make sure you aren’t alone if you shift or get punched in the face, that needs to be factored in.” Sighing, he scratches his jaw and looks anywhere but at the seven of us. “I’m not trying to be a dick, I just don’t want to lose anyone else because of that asshole, okay?”
Reid pulls out the chair opposite me and flops into it. “Yeah, it’s an issue for me too.” I watch in fascination as his pupils dilate only a fraction, his wolf -demon- pushing to the surface to answer Hunter, but not completely shoving Reid out of the way. “Not quite as near-sighted as him, but still not that great. The rest of my senses are a bit stronger and help counteract it, though.”
Hunter tilts his head in acknowledgement and they leave it at that. Damian catches my eye, as shocked as I am, but we’re wise enough not to say a damn thing about the subject.
Bo leaves long enough to unearth a notebook out of his backpack and a pen. “We should stop getting sidetracked and make the most of our time before the Slaughters come back.”
Sabrina steals it from him, only to slide it in front of Slade. “You have the best handwriting. Besides, you were looking for a new role. Let’s test out if ‘scribe’ is a good fit.”
He opens to a clean page. “Have I told you lately how perfect you are?”
She offers him a sad smile. “A few times, but as it turns out, I have a praise kink, so feel free to keep up the good work.”
“She’s deflecting again because she’s scared.”
We’reallscared, calm down. Our lives are depressing enough; we can either laugh at the bad shit, rage, or cry, but nothing we do is going to change the fact that it’s happening. We can only control how we respond to it.
His exaggerated groan makes the corner of my lips twitch.“You’ve always been such a philosophical douchebag; it’s fucking annoying.”
I’d rather conserve my energy than let every little thing piss me off. When your life has been orchestrated to make you as miserable as possible, the only place you’re ever going to be able to find peace is within yourself.
“Earth to Kaige.” Blinking, Cinjin’s blurred face gains clarity and I shake my head.
“Fuck, sorry. Not used to the devil on my shoulder prancing around my brain.”
Snorting, he gestures to the page torn out of the notebook lying in the center. A hastily doodled map of the mountain was sketched out, the lines of the territories marked along with the numbers of each pack. “Bullet point version to bring you up to speed since you were off in Lalaland. Even if we can’t count on the Slaughters’ pack to help us, so long as they don’t join Ash, we have enough men that we could likely win a direct fight if we cheat a little.”
“Okay? We already knew that.”
Rolling his eyes, he reminds me, “That’s if your packs did what you were hoping and Sabrina inspired them to wage war with Wilder’s pack. Instead, they’re more likely to mutiny against you three and attempt to steal her for themselves. So we need to figure out a way to get them on our side instead of against us, or Ash will be the least of our problems.”
Stealing Sabrina’s hand, I kiss the back and keep it captured in mine. “I don’t want to lie and make them think they have a shot with her, otherwise when they find out we were stringing them along, they’ll murder us on principle. We need some form of comparable incentive that they’d want as much as a mate.”
Bo claps his hands together, grinning ear to ear. “Most people want a mate simply to free their wolves. We get control of the Slaughters’ warehouse, we can offer the drug up as a prize.”
Slowly shaking his head, Damian points out, “That’s only a one off. Reid shifted into a lycan, then couldn’t become the hellhound he was destined to be until after Sabrina claimed him.”
Pointedly glancing at the door, I drop my voice to a whisper. “Storm or not, we need to be careful. There’s no telling who might be watching or listening, and the last thing we need is to gift wrap our plan for someone to deliver to Ash’s doorstep.”
Sabrina scrunches up her face, but none of us interrupt her, starting to become familiar with each other’s tells when they’re having an internal discussion with their resident demon. And by the way her expression morphs into one of annoyance, then pissed-off, and back to irritation, I can only imagine they’re getting into it about Aurelia’s silent act. Still, I can’t possibly be the only one that’s curious as hell to hear Aurelia’s version of events, even if I’m not sure how much we can trust her, either. She’s hadweeksto tell us about this, but instead, left us all stumbling around in the dark.
Quieter now, Hunter tosses out, “Plus, Ash is still fucking with their heads. While he may not be able to turn people into mindless zombies, he managed to get us obsessed with theideaof Sabrina to the point we were willing to do a hell of a lot to bring her here. And Sebastian was acting... off, when we saw him earlier. Who knows what he’s planted in their heads?”
