Knew it.
But she did feel better. The Alpha female moved away from her, and the power receded in the room. Giuliana could breathe, finally, without thinking her brain was going to explode. She’d have to deal with explaining, maybe, but for now it seemed everyone in the room was just giving her what she needed.
Family.
This was what family did, and she couldn’t help acknowledging the fact Pasquale was still at her side, in the center of it all.
“You can shift back now?”
She nodded and reached for her change. She was standing at Pasquale’s side when it finished, her head not as clouded as before.
“We won’t round up the Bianchi, but you’re taking point on finding the men who hurt Heath. Romano, reach out to Boulder and see if there’s been anything going on, or if they have information on the group that shall not be named so Giuliana doesn’t lose her shit again.”
Snort. They’re Voldemort.
She bit her lip not to laugh at her wolf. Yeah, she got the reference, and laughing about it would be easier than falling back down the crazy path.
“Will do. They may have more insight on their movements and patterns. Anything to help us figure out why and where they could be.”
“Pasquale, you will bring the Bianchi wolves more into the fold. We need any information we can get on these guys, and we also will need some of your best men together to hunt them. We can’t do this with just you and Giuliana. After we’ve gathered what we can, we plan our next move.”
She let out a pent breath. At least he wasn’t condemning an entire pack based on what a few had done, for now, and they had some heading on what was going on.
But …
“Who’s going to talk to Lorenzo?”
And that would be the worst moment of all. How do you tell someone their best friend was gone? Zoey hit the nail right on the head.
“I will,” Giuliana offered. “You can’t take that sort of emotion right now. I’ll take care of it.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Pasquale, the man meant to be her mate, was right there taking the step beside her. Showing her what it could be. But the divide would grow. What the Bianchis had done, been involved with, grew more and more horrible with each passing action. Eventually, Dominic wouldn’t be able to stomach them if this kept going.
And what would that mean for them?
When he realized Pasquale was Primo’s son. When Zoey knew Fabiana was his sister. When they realized Giuliana knew all of this and hadn’t told them.
She didn’t know if she could think of it, or how it would all turn out. So she only focused on the fact he stood beside her now, that he’d follow her wherever this would lead.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
Because there was no telling when he’d be gone.
Chapter Nine
Kalinda rubbed the back of her aching neck and sighed. Okay, so being the head bitch in charge of the Trinity Council was amazing and all that jazz, but she really wished she could just have a break. The National Council was making much ado about nothing—aforementioned “nothing” being her position as Ales.
Turns out it was much rarer than Silva, her Cosantiór, had told them.
Like … to the tune of there were none.
Well, except for Kalinda, and that meant Kalinda’s Katering was predominately handled by her handpicked baker with Kalinda only able to complete orders once a month. Of course, it led to big bank when people knew she was the one actually making their order instead of infusing it with her power through the baker.
Big bucks notwithstanding, Kalinda was freaking tired. And her pack—that was something she was getting used to saying—was hurting, with one of their own missing. She hadn’t gotten many updates from Romano about it.
It was something they agreed on, keeping their work as separate as possible. It was enough she was the leader of the Trinity, and it gave the Lombardi Pack a hefty lift in social standing and power. But internally, she never made a move for them to keep things neat and tidy, so she didn’t have mages out searching Encantado for Heath even when she really wanted to.
