Rainier held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not saying yes or no either way. What I’m saying is, could her way be better? Maybe. There is some truth to what she’s saying. I see both sides. Both of you are right in your own way.”
I curled my hands into fists. “Even if I decided shewasright, I can’t very well go back on my word, can I? The alphas heard me give my decree. I’ll look spineless if I change it now.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” he said.
I barked a humorless laugh. “What would you do if you were making an alliance with a pack, and the alpha kept changing his mind every time the wind blew? Would you trust him?”
Rainier opened his mouth to respond, then closed it.
Taking that as his answer, I went on. “If they see weakness, they’ll pull their support. We’re asking them to give us fighters. Men and women who might die. That’s not something thatpeople take lightly, and they’ll want to be sure they have a strong leader they can put their faith in.”
“I see what you’re saying,” Rainier said. “What about June’s theory? Do we think Anders might join the Red Maw? In all honesty, thatwouldbe bad. He knows everything about this town—the schedule, the back roads. He had allies among the citizens. This could turn ugly.”
As if summoned by the very words Rainer had just said, the door slammed open. A young man rushed open, eyes wide and panicked, fear etched in every line of his face.
“Alpha Cross!” he cried when he saw me. “We got a problem.”
My stomach lurched, and a chill crept up my back. “What’s wrong, son?”
“Uh…there’s been an attack,” he said, eyes bouncing from me to Rainier and back. “Over near the eastern side of town. I was told to come get you.”
“An attack?” Rainier asked. “By who?”
“We, uh, we think it was the Red Maw people.”
I nudged the kid outside. “Take us there.Move.”
The kid obeyed orders and shifted. Rainier and I followed suit, running after him. As we drew near, the sounds and scents of battle struck my nose and ears. Panic set in as I spotted a thin line of smoke rising into the early night sky, and I put on more speed. Even with my injuries, my alpha body was more powerful and explosive than the kid’s or Rainier’s, and I raced past them toward the smoke.
I shifted back to my human form when I reached the small building that was ablaze, smoke billowing up from it. Beside it, a huge expanse of torn-up grass showed a fight had taken place. Four men sat in various states of stunned silence or nursing injuries.
“What happened here?” I cried, getting their attention.
“About half a dozen troublemakers,” one of the men said, limping over to me. “Came rushing in from the forest. We spotted them right before they tossed a fucking firebomb at us.”
“What?”I scanned the area, looking for any sign of them, but all I spotted was the dark street, and the forest beyond. “Where did they go?”
The man nodded toward the others. “Bomb hit that shed. Once we saw what was going on, we jumped those boys. Scuffled a bit, but they ran off when we sent Eli here to find you.”
The young man nodded at the sound of his name. “Anders was trying to signal to them,” he said.
“Excuse thefuckout of me?” Rainier said.
The older man motioned to the courthouse. “We were moving him and his lady friend from the old drunk tank to the actual jail here in the basement of the courthouse. That was when it happened. Asshole started screaming for them to set him free and he’d help them.” The man rubbed at his bloody knuckles. “I might have given Anders a little chin music for that. Hope you don’t mind?”
“Not a problem,” I snarled. “I’d have done the same.”
He nodded, obviously relieved. “Well, I sent Eli to find you, and had Jamal, Blake, and a few others haul those two in while we took care of the assholes out here.”
“Is everyone okay?” I asked.
“Few cuts and bruises,” the man said. “I think those boys were looking to start trouble but not get into a real fight.”
“Probing force,” Rainier said, shaking his head. “Sow fear and worry by probing different areas. I bet this won’t be the last one we see. If I had to guess, they’ll do this in other locations too, so we won’t know where they want to attack.”
I nodded in agreement. The fact that they ran off quickly was a sign that this was nothing but the initial stages of psychological warfare.
“What’s your name, friend?” I said to the man, extending my hand.
