“Brick, if you think she’s a weakness, she will be your weakness. You’re missing the same piece your father missed.”
“What is that?”
“Madi is your equal. Fate would not have chosen her for you otherwise.”
I suck in a slow breath through my nostrils.
She’s right.
My mate is already showing me the ways I can be a better alpha.
“Dad never treated you like an equal?”
Pain ripples over my mother’s face. “He and his pack thought I was his weakness at best-a threat at worst.”
“And yet if the two of you had worked together, you could have united the two packs. A true power union,” Ruby muses.
I blink. It’s so obvious, it pains me. Our parents were destined to unite the packs. They came from the two most powerful shifter bloodlines in the country, if not the world. If they’d surrendered to Fate, they could have moved mountains.
My mom is right-Fate wouldn’t make a mistake.
My biggest mistake has been fighting it.
Madi is brilliant. An alpha. A problem solver. She’s been working strategy all along. And, of course, she’s seen what I refused to see.
I need her at my side. Without her, the Adalwulfs will destroy us.
“I need her back,” I rasp. “You have to help me. Tell me what I need to do to get her back.”
Brick
I stand in the wings of the concert venue. At the edge of the stage, the velvet curtains sway in the currents of air and noise from the thousands of wolves packed into a tight space.
The last Town Hall meeting was nothing compared to this crowd. There are wolves lining the walls, flooding the place all the way to the exits. Their voices rise in a muted roar. And I haven’t even stepped on stage.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nickel asks. He and Eagle hover close, concern etching their faces. They’re not convinced of my plan.
Behind them, Ruby waits near the exit, her face serene despite the fear in her scent. She knows I might not survive this Town Hall. None of us might. What I’m about to do endangers me and, therefore, all of us, including her children.
But I have to do this. For Madi. For us.
I meet my older sister’s gaze. She nods slowly.
“I’m sure.”
Eagle blows out a breath. “We’ll stand with you, Alpha.” He can’t see Ruby, but he can hear when the slightest whimper escapes her-her wolf whining for her mate.
“Not you,” I face him and grip his tense shoulders. “I appreciate your loyalty, but you need to go with your mate.”
He heaves a breath as I dismiss him then heads to my sister’s side. As soon as I step on stage, she plans to leave with a handful of our strongest wolves. They’ll go to protect April and Auggie because when the Adalwulfs hear of what I’ve done today, there’ll be a target on the pups’ back.
“Thank you,” Ruby mouths to me.
“Love you,” I murmur back.
“Sod this,” Nickel mutters. He’s stepped to the corner near Billy, where he’s trying to get a signal on his phone. “I’m calling reinforcements.”
“Do it,” I say, even though if anyone comes from his family’s estate in England, it’ll be too late for me. “Send them to the Berkshires. They’ll need more numbers there.” I sent my mother to wait in the manse along with my niece and nephew and some of the youngest and most vulnerable of our pack. The jet stands ready to fly them to a safe, undisclosed location if-when-things get really bad.
Billy’s planted himself in the shadows. His body is so tense it vibrates, as if his wolf is ready to leap out and squash anyone who would challenge me.
As I approach him, he turns, his eyes blazing blue.
“Go. Keep my mate safe.”
His nostrils flare. “No. I should be at your side.”
“You are. You are my right paw, always. But I need you to protect her.”
For a second he holds my gaze. Then his eyes drop, and he angles his head slightly, acquiescing.
I clasp his arm and pull him in for a hug. “Brother.”
He fists my shirt in his hand for a second then pushes me away. He walks to the door and punches it open. Daylight floods in, blinding me, and Billy steps into the blaze. He’s gone by the time the door slams shut.
My wolf relaxes. Billy will stand against an army of Adalwulfs. He’ll beg, borrow, steal, call in favors from other packs, make deals with vampires-do anything to keep his word and keep my mate safe. He nearly caused me to lose her, yes. But only out of his love and loyalty to me. He thought he was protecting me from her. Now that she’s my mate, he’ll do anything to protect her, too.
I trust Madi with him.
“It’s time.” Nickel pockets his phone, his own eyes bright blue. “I’ve done all I can, but I don’t…” he trails off, shaking his head. He’s avoiding my gaze, his face set as if he’s staring down the barrel of a gun.
“That’s all you can do. I thank you for it.” I pat his shoulder as I pass. “You can go fly with Ruby and Eagle to the manse.”
He falls into step behind me. “Might as well stay here and manage things. Someone’s got to.”
I head towards the stage, and Jake and Vance flank my right and left side.
“You’re not sending us away,” Jake mutters.
“Not when the fun’s about to start.” Vance cracks his neck and bares his fangs in a grimace of a smile.
If things get out of control and the pack overwhelms me, any one standing with me will die too. Maybe not the tenth attack, or the hundreth, but the thousandth. But ordering them to safety would be an insult to their honor.
“Let’s do this.”
I stride on to the stage, and the thick heat and scent of shifters hits me. It smells like pack. Like home.
My father was careful doing the dance of leadership. It’s not an easy one. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, following in his footsteps.
“Can you forgive me?”
I asked my mother this morning.
“Of course. And I forgive him.”
She spoke of my father with a sad smile on her face. I wanted her to come to this Town Hall.
“No, Brick. In the eyes of the pack, I’m still the enemy.” As much as I hate that she still suffers the sins of my father, sins I also committed against her, she’s right.
“I’ll be with you in spirit,” she said, careful to grip my hand and only my hand, so her scent clings to a spot that I can easily scrub clean.
Even now, I feel her touch on my fingers. I clench my fist and step to the center of the stage.
The sea of shifters moves, a living, breathing thing, spilling into the corridors, washing against the walls. Their voices swell until they all notice I’m waiting and fall silent.
I don’t have a microphone. I don’t need it. Other than a few coughs and shuffling feet, the place is quiet. All eyes are on me. “Welcome, everyone. It’s a great honor to stand before you as your Alpha today.
“You’ve heard the rumors of why I’m here. The enemy has spread them in hopes to weaken our pack and fracture us.
“They’ve told you I’ve been moon mad, that I nearly lost control chasing after a female.”
The entire room stays silent as if no one’s breathing. Silent as the dead.
“The rumors are true.” Murmurs rise, and I raise my voice. “I fought Fate and resisted taking my mate, and I nearly lost my mind. I thought I did this out of caution and love for you, my pack. But now I see it was fear.
“I was afraid that the one Fate chose for me would weaken the pack. But mostly, I was afraid she would weaken me.”
I seek out faces. The grizzled, bearded ones in front of the stage. The fresh faced yearlings by the walls. I meet each glowing gaze, not to overpower or dominate, but to connect with them.
“I was wrong. I put you and her at risk, and for that I am truly sorry.”
There’s shock on the familiar faces. An alpha never apologizes. At least, my father never did.
Maybe it’s time for that to change.
Ripples run through the crowd, murmurs rising in a great wave of sound that crashes against the walls and reverberates back.
“I have claimed a mate. Her name is Madison Evans. She bears my mark. She is under my protection, my true, fated mate.”
“Where is she?” someone shouts, and others agree. “Show her to us.”
“She is not here.” The murmurs grow louder, and I shout over them. “She is human.” I shout the truth, so everyone in my pack can hear. “And she is not a weakness. She is my strength.”
The sound surges to a deafening roar. Wolves shake their heads. Some of them push towards the exits. Others stand frozen, eyes flaring brighter as if they’ve seen a threat.
Jake, Vance, and Nickel step closer to me, tense as if braced for a blow. Everywhere I look, wolves are in chaos. Fights have broken out in the corners-wolves trying to escape the room, panicking and pushing each other. In the front row, the most staunch supporters of my father are stone-faced. Lowell Hunt, a wolf I once thought of as an uncle, has his arms folded across his chest, and his sons stand in a similar pose.
Will the pack accept a human? Will enough of them stay, so we can remain whole? Within a few hours, we’ll know.
“I am still your Alpha,” I shout into the maddening fray. “We are the Blackthroats. We will remain strong, if we stand as one.”
The crowd is a beast, snarling, snapping, shouting, “No.”
“A human will destroy the blood line!”
“You weakened our pack!”
“You’re not fit to lead!”
Many wolves have already left. They’ll defect to the Adalwulfs, who will either accept them as minions or slit their throats right then and there. Or the defectors will try to form an independent pack, and the Adalwulfs will slaughter them anyway.
Of the ones who remain, clusters have formed around the biggest and burliest wolves. One by one, their hands shoot up in the air.
“I challenge you for Alpha,” a huge wolf shouts.
“I challenge you!” one of Lowell Hunt’s sons also shouts. His cousins are behind him. They think they can take me as a group.
The cries come from every corner of the room. “Alpha, I challenge you!” Hundreds of wolves shouting, fighting to get to the front of the room.
I will have to fight them all.
I feel nothing but peace. The scents of my family, my friends and my pack fades until all I sense is her.
No more living in the shadows. I’ve made my choice. Madi is the sun of my life, my light, and I will sacrifice everything for her. Everything I have and everything I am because without her I am nothing.
* * *
Madi
“So, are you going to take the Torrent job?” Aubrey asks. She’s blasting “Candy” by Iggy Pop as she dances through our apartment dusting. I’m on floor duty, sweeping. We make a party out of our every other week deep cleaning of the apartment to make it go by faster.
This week isn’t much of a party, though. Or the vibe hasn’t transferred to me. I’m barely functioning.
My stomach clenches at her question. Every time I think about working again, I long for my job at Moon Co. It’s nothing compared to the cavernous ache of missing Brick, but it makes it hard to think about work in any capacity.
Good thing I’m still on Moon Co’s payroll at my new doubled rate.
It’s been three tortuous days since we landed in New York. Three nights sleeping alone. Three rounds of riding the subway and walking in Central park for hours to keep myself from staying in bed all day.
Brick called the first night, and I answered. I told him that I loved him, but until something had changed, I wasn’t going to take his calls.
Then I went into the bathroom and puked.
Since then, he’s honored my request but has sent a text each night.
The first night’s said,
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