THREE
LILY.
I could hear Ren
laughing.
Will you ever stop calling me that?
Never.
My knees threatened
to buckle while I stared at her. “Why did you call me
that?”
The instinct to
shift was overwhelming. The room felt like it was closing in on
me.
Run, Calla. Run to your pack. You don’t belong
here.
Shay must have
sensed my anxiety because he grasped both my arms, forcing me to
look at him.
“Calla? Hey, take a
breath. She didn’t mean any harm.” I realized he thought it was
anger at Ariadne that had made me want to change. But that wasn’t
the problem.
“Yeah, he’s right.
Sorry if it annoyed you.” She shrugged, the gleam in her eyes
brightening, as if she had wanted me to
attack her. “It just came to mind. It fits and it’s
hilarious.”
I could barely hear
her because of the roaring in my ears. It was like being sucked
back into a dream. No, not a dream, a nightmare. Feelings that I’d
been able to bury while I’d been alone surfaced, flooding my
chest.
Her amused
expression faded. “Something wrong?”
I shook my head,
tongue-tied and wishing the floor would open up and swallow me. I
could hear Ren whispering the nickname in my ear. Couldn’t Shay and
I have a reunion for more than five minutes without being reminded
of the one person who could drive us apart?
Shay answered her,
his own teeth clenched. “It’s just that someone else used to call
her that.”
Someone else. Now I
wasn’t just hearing Ren’s teasing whisper. I could see his face and
remember the way he’d pulled me against him the night I’d run from
Vail. From the ceremony where I should have become his mate. He’d
kissed me, pleaded with me to stay. Where was he now? He’d lied to
help us escape. I didn’t want to think about the price he’d paid
for that lie.
Vail. Home. My heart
hammered against my rib cage, making it difficult to breathe.
Why am I here? I dug my nails into my
palms, struggling not to turn on the Searchers and fly at them as
the wolf snarled within me, desperate to fight, desperate to be
with my pack.
Adne’s eyes moved
from Shay’s twitching jaw to my face, assessing.
“Ah,” she said
quietly, not trying to hide the smile that slid over her lips.
“Someone else. I see.”
An uncomfortable
silence filled the room. Connor finally cracked his knuckles and
looked meaningfully at Monroe.
“So are we going to
get out of prison duty?” he asked. “Not that it wasn’t thrilling,
especially compared to the mortal combat you usually send us
into.”
“Do you ever shut
up?” Shay snapped. A guilty flush crept along the back of my neck.
I knew that Shay’s mood was much more about me than Connor’s jokes.
Even if the jokes were getting a little irritating.
“Manners, manners,”
Connor said. “Since you’re the Chosen One, you need to make a good
impression. Too bad they don’t teach etiquette here. You know—which
fork for salad. Calligraphy. The stylish way to disembowel an
opponent.”
For a second I
thought Shay would take a swing at Connor.
“That’s enough,
Connor.” Monroe’s calm words carried a flint edge. “Let’s sit tight
until Anika arrives.”
“She’s arrived.” A
woman came striding through the door. She was dressed like the
other Searchers, but an iron medallion in the shape of a compass
rose hung from her neck. Her hair, caught in a ring of braids at
the crown of her head, was like corn silk.
She was accompanied
by another woman whose appearance brought only one word to mind:
fierce. Her jet black hair was cropped close to her head, and a
tattoo of intricate lace-like patterns wrapped around the caramel
skin of her neck. The belt around her waist was filled with knives,
their bright hilts catching the sunlight and throwing back flashes
like deadly warning beacons.
“Lydia!” Connor
bolted across the room, catching the tattooed warrior woman in a
bear hug.
“Nice to see you
too, Connor.” Her laugh was low and husky. “How’s
Tess?”
“Still fighting with
Isaac.” He grinned. “And missing you of course.”
She returned his
smile. “If all goes well, I’ll get to see her in a few
hours.”
Connor put his hands
on her shoulders. “Tonight won’t be much of a
reunion.”
“I’ll take what I
can get,” she said.
Ethan approached the
pair. He caught Lydia’s elbow, turning her. “You’re all dressed
up.”
Lydia and Ethan
locked forearms in what struck me as some sort of ritual
greeting.
“I heard we had
special guests,” she said, looking around the room. Her eyes
settled on me and she inclined her chin. I had a hard time not
stepping back in surprise. The gesture had clearly been one of . .
. respect. Two questions chased each other through my mind:
Who do these people think I am? What do they
want from me?
Lydia gave a stiff
bow to Monroe. “We good to go?”
Monroe looked from
her to me. “We haven’t quite gotten there yet.”
The austere-faced,
blond woman smiled at both of them. “That’s fine. It means we won’t
have to backtrack.”
She beckoned to me.
“Calla, it’s an honor to meet you. My name is Anika.”
“Thank you.” I took
her extended hand, not surprised by the strength of her grasp.
Everything about this woman, from the rich contralto of her voice
to her regal bearing, bespoke authority. “Though I’m not sure about
the honor part.”
She laughed. “You
saved the Scion and that means you might have saved
us.”
Shay had come to
stand beside me. “You haven’t told me what it even means that I’m
the Scion yet. Adne’s been babysitting me ever since we got
here.”
“It’s not
babysitting,” Adne protested. “I haven’t had to spank you once,
which is a shame.”
Shay’s eyes went
wide. He glanced at me, shaking his head, but it didn’t stop my
blood from boiling.
“Adne!” Monroe gave
her a stern look.
I half expected
Connor to high-five her for taking a line right out of his usual
repertoire, but he looked even more upset than Monroe. I took in
the girl’s slight frame and began calculating the time it would
take to rip her arms from their sockets. Definitely less than ten seconds. Maybe less than
five.
“Lighten up,” she
snapped, but then glanced nervously at Anika. “Sorry,
Anika.”
“Apology accepted.”
A smile played across Anika’s mouth, briefly transforming her. “It
will take time to teach you who you are, Shay. I’m certain it’s
frustrating to wait, and for that I’m sorry. But your role lies a
little further down the road. What Calla’s place will be in all
this is the more pressing question.”
“My place?” I asked,
managing to tear my eyes off Adne, who I’d expected would go back
to teasing Shay. But she was watching Connor with a smirk on her
face.
“I’m the Arrow,”
Anika said. “So at the moment I give the orders around
here.”
“Huh?” I
frowned.
She touched the iron
compass rose that hung from her neck before pointing to Monroe.
“The Arrow directs the Guides of each division. You’ve already met
the Guide for our Haldis division.”
“What is the Haldis
division?” I asked, thinking of the earth symbol on the
door.
“We’ll explain
everything in due time,” she said. “I promise. But there’s an
urgent matter at hand that requires our immediate attention. We
need your help, if you’ll give it.”
“How can I help?”
Suspicion crept back into my voice. No matter how many times they
asked me to trust them, I kept waiting for the Searchers to spring
some sort of trap.
She smiled, but it
was a joyless expression. “We need you to go back to
Vail.”
I hoped I’d managed
to keep my expression neutral. Go back to
Vail. That was what I wanted, wasn’t it? Then why did it
feel like my skin had turned to stone?
“You’ve got to be
kidding.” Shay stepped forward, half shielding me from Anika’s
piercing gaze. “They’ll kill her the minute she sets foot back
there.”
I shot a stern look
at Shay. He wasn’t wrong, but I’d been born to fight. My initial
shock at Anika’s words had dissolved, leaving my canines sharp in
my mouth. I’m an alpha, Shay, not a pup. You’d
better not forget that.
“Not back into her
life,” Anika said. “Now that you’re here—you, the Scion—the war
will rage without ceasing. The Keepers will come at us with
everything they have. We need to gain the advantage.”
“How will sending
her back to Vail give you any advantage?” Shay asked.
“We want to try
something.” Monroe put his hand on Shay’s shoulder, pulling him
back. “Something that worked a long time ago. An
alliance.”
An alliance. The
Harrowing. The first Guardian revolt. It was all falling into
place.
“Oh,” I said,
feeling both a surge of hope and a skittering fear beneath my skin.
War. The Searchers are going to war and I’m
their first volley. My shoulders tightened at the thought of
battle, powerful, ready.
“Wait a second.”
Shay shrugged Monroe’s hand off. “You mean an alliance with the
Guardians?”
“It’s happened in
the past, and made a huge difference in our ability to resist the
Keepers.”
Shay shook his head.
“That’s not how I read it. I know about the Harrowing. You’re lucky
the Guardians aren’t extinct.”
Stop trying to protect me. He ignored my warning
growl, keeping his eyes on Monroe.
“The Harrowing ended
badly,” Monroe said. “But for a time it was a successful endeavor.
This time such an alliance could be the difference between winning
and losing.”
“And there’s one
vital piece we have that didn’t exist at the time of the
Harrowing,” Anika said.
“And what’s that?”
Shay asked.
“You,” she
said.
Now it was Shay’s
turn to say, “Oh.”
I watched him,
wondering if he’d learned anything more about his own role in the
mystery we’d unraveled in Vail. Anika had called him vital—the
difference between why the Harrowing had failed and why the
Searchers thought they could win this war now. I hoped she was
right, considering what saving Shay had already cost
me.
“Why?” Ren hissed. “What about him is worth risking your
own life?”
“He’s the Scion,” I whispered. “He might be the only one
who can save us. All of us. What if our lives belonged only to us?
What if we didn’t serve the Keepers?”
I remembered the
words passing from my lips, but there had been another question.
One that I hadn’t dared voice to Ren. Not when my life and Shay’s
were on the line.
What if I could choose my own fate?
My body quaked at
the flash of memories. I loved Shay. From the first moment he’d
touched me, he’d wakened parts of myself I hadn’t known were
slumbering. Our secrets, stolen moments, forbidden kisses, what
we’d both risked for each other—all of it had led to the choice
that brought me here.
I turned from the
path of my destiny because I couldn’t let him die. But that wasn’t
the only reason I’d fled Vail. The world I’d known had crumbled
around me. An alpha protects her pack. Leads them. I’d abandoned
them, but only because I’d believed it was the only way I could
save them.
Jumping on Shay’s
distraction, I seized the moment to stake my own claim in this
fight. Despite my wariness of the Searchers, I needed their help.
This might be the chance to get my packmates away from the
Keepers.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll
do it.”
“Calla,” Shay
began.
“No,” I said,
silencing him with a glare and flash of my teeth. “They’re right.
An alliance is what I want. What my pack would want.”
“Good,” Anika
said.
I thought I heard
Ethan grumbling as he stalked back to the corner where he’d been
sulking before Lydia and Anika arrived.
“We could use some
logistical information before we move forward,” Monroe
said.
“I’ll tell you what
I know,” I said. “I’m not sure how much it will help with planning
an attack.”
“Anything will
help,” he said.
Good.
“But let’s start
close to home. We lost two Searchers in late autumn. Do you know
what happened to them?”
Not good. I managed not to cringe. This wasn’t
going to help with forging a new alliance.
“I do.”
One question and they’ll probably kill me if I answer it
truthfully.
“Calla, wait.” Shay
stepped closer to me, a warning note in his voice. I was certain
his mind had jumped to the same dire place mine had.
I shook my head. “If
they want an alliance, they need to know who they’re making it
with.” And if they want revenge, so be
it. I glanced around the room. The doors were closed. Solid,
but not solid enough to withstand a Guardian crashing through them
at full speed. I can make it if I have to
run.
“But—” Shay’s
fingers wrapped around my wrist.
I ignored him.
“They’re both dead.”
Adne looked at the
floor. Anika and Lydia sighed, but Connor scratched the shadow of
whiskers on his jaw.
“That’s not exactly
new information, Monroe.”
“We knew about
Kyle,” Monroe said quietly. “He was among the Fallen. But we needed
confirmation on Stuart. No one is counted as lost without a
firsthand account of his or her death.”
The hairs on the
back of my neck stood up. “Firsthand?”
“Yes,” Anika said.
“That’s our protocol.”
I wondered what they
would do when they found out exactly how firsthand my view of the
other Searcher’s death had been.
“Hang on a sec.”
Shay was frowning. “What are the Fallen? I read that name in
The War of All Against All. Are those
the things that climbed out of my uncle’s gross
paintings?”
As much as I didn’t
want to, I shuddered the moment Shay mentioned the creatures that
had pursued us through the cavernous halls of Rowan Estate. The way
they’d shuffled, moaned—how empty their eyes had been.
“Yes, but we don’t
have time to get into that now.” Monroe gave him a stern glance
before turning back to me. “Now about Stuart, if you know anything
. . .”
I nodded and tried
to ignore how breathless I felt.
“What happened to
our operatives, Calla?” Anika asked. “We need to know how they were
taken. Our sources in Vail don’t have any
information.”
“Sources?” I
frowned.
The look on Monroe’s
face squashed the question the moment I’d asked it.
“Just
answer.”
Alarm sparked in
Shay’s eyes. “I really think we need to put this in some kind of
context.”
I pulled my wrist
free of his grasp, ready to bolt or attack. “They already have the
context, Shay. I’m a Guardian. They know what that
means.”
“Aw, shit,” Connor
muttered. He and Lydia exchanged a glance and they both began to
inch toward Ethan, whose head had taken a deceptively innocent tilt
as he watched me.
Adne looked at
Connor sharply. “What?”
He shook his head to
silence her, keeping his eyes on me.
I swallowed hard. “I
was with Shay outside Efron Bane’s club when your men came after
us.”
“Go on.” Monroe’s
jaw tightened.
“It was my job to
protect Shay. I killed one of the men on sight.”
“Stuart,” Lydia
murmured. She and Connor stood alongside Ethan like two
sentinels.
“Are we done talking
now?” Ethan’s voice was quiet.
“Keep your head,”
Anika said. “Winning the war is what matters. Wars make
casualties.”
“Her kind make the
casualties,” Ethan snapped.
“Look at her, Ethan.
She’s just a girl,” Monroe said. “Remember what we’ve talked about.
The Guardians aren’t what they seem. She may be able to help us
bring them over to our side.”
The gentleness of
his words startled me. I wasn’t too keen on his calling me “just a
girl,” but I was glad enough that revenge wasn’t what Monroe was
after. Unfortunately his perspective wasn’t shared by everyone in
the room.
Ethan’s face
contorted, twisting with outrage. In the next moment his crossbow
was off his shoulder and aimed at me.
“Stand down, Ethan!”
Anika shouted.
Connor wrenched the
weapon from his hands. “Maybe you should leave.”
“I don’t think so,”
Ethan replied without looking at Connor. “What happened to
Kyle?”
“Other Guardians
showed up,” I said, watching Shay step in front of me, almost
blocking my view of Ethan. “They said the Keepers wanted him
alive.”
Ethan nodded, the
veins in his neck throbbing. “And?”
“They brought him to
Efron Bane for questioning,” I said. I had to close my eyes,
abruptly awash in the horror of that night—the way Efron had leered
at me, how my skin had crawled at his touch. The sickening
sensations gave way to rising anger. Let’s see
him try that again—this time I won’t sit still and take
it.
“Were you
there?”
“Yes.” It felt like
I was back in that office, hearing the Searcher’s screams while Ren
gripped my hand. I shuddered.
“Did you do the
questioning?” He looked calm. Too calm.
“No.”
“Then who
did?”
“Ethan, this has
gone far enough,” Monroe interrupted. “You know what happened to
Kyle. We saw him at Rowan Estate. It’s over; let it
go.”
Ethan glared at
Monroe. “I have the right to know what happened to my
brother!”
Brother? Ethan’s hateful glances, his constant
sullenness—all of it made sense. Twinges of sympathy pinched my
chest. I cleared my throat, which was suddenly thick as Ansel’s
face flashed in my mind. “I’m sorry you lost your brother. I have a
brother; if anything happened to him . . .” What was happening to my brother? And to Bryn, who is as
close to me as a sister could be?
He turned wild eyes
on me. “So tell me—”
“Wraiths,” I said
quickly. “They always use wraiths to interrogate
prisoners.”
“Wraiths?” His voice
was strangled now. “They gave him to wraiths?”
His eyes closed for
a moment, then his hand went to his waist. I saw the flash of steel
as he drew a dagger from his belt. My body tensed, ready to shift
in the next moment.
“And you were
there,” he hissed. “He’s Fallen, and you were there. You soulless
bitch, you could have stopped it!”
When his eyes
opened, they blazed with grief-filled rage. He took a step toward
me, the dagger held low. I was about to lunge at him when Monroe
stepped between us. In the same moment Shay dropped to the floor—a
golden brown wolf hunched defensively just in front of me. He bared
sharp fangs at Ethan, snarling.
Ethan’s smile
dissolved and he paled even more.
“And you’re the one
who made the Scion into a monster. I’ll flay you myself and wear
your skin for a coat.”
Shay tensed, his
ears flattening as Ethan lunged.
“No!” Anika
shouted.
Monroe’s arm shot
out, catching Ethan around the waist.
“Lydia, Connor, get
him out of here!” he shouted as he restrained the furiously
struggling man. “We’ll deal with this later.”
Spittle and a string
of curses flew from Ethan’s mouth. The two Searchers rushed to aid
their leader. With considerable effort they dragged the shrieking,
sobbing man from the room. I could still hear his agonized cries as
they disappeared from sight.
Monroe shook his
head, grief etching his face. He glanced at Shay, who still
crouched low, his eyes fixed on the doorway.
“Do you mind?”
Monroe sighed.
“Shay, shift back,”
I murmured. “Now.” And then a young man stood next to us again,
though his eyes remained wary.
“If anyone hurts
her, you’ll be sorry,” Shay said to Monroe.
“She won’t be
harmed.”
Their conversation,
taking place as if I wasn’t there, left me uneasy. I could
understand, and even appreciate, Shay’s desire to protect me, but I
was a warrior. I didn’t need protecting. A burr of resentment
settled beneath my skin.
“An incident like
that won’t happen again,” Monroe said. “I assure you.”
“I’m sorry about
what happened,” I said suddenly, no longer willing to be voiceless
while my fate was being discussed. “I know it probably doesn’t mean
anything to you.”
I looked at the
empty doorway through which Ethan had been dragged. “Or
him.”
“It means something,
if it’s sincere.” Monroe said, regarding my troubled expression
with thoughtful eyes. “It will take some time before he trusts you.
If he ever will.”
“This isn’t going to
work.” Shay paced back and forth, fists clenched at his sides. “How
can we get anywhere if one of you is always trying to kill
her?”
He had a good point.
I wouldn’t be helping my pack anytime soon if I had to worry about
vengeful Searchers shoving daggers into my back.
“Ethan may be
grief-stricken and angry, but he still follows my orders,” Anika
said. “No one will harm Calla while she’s under my
protection.”
I pivoted to face
her, arching an eyebrow. “Under your
protection?”
Maybe Shay was
right. This alliance could never work. Alphas didn’t need
protection. The Searchers didn’t understand my world or me. But was
there any way I could save Ansel, Bryn, and the others on my
own?
Anika offered me a
wry smile. “I’m afraid that is your lot, Guardian. At least until
you manage to convince the others of your loyalties.”
“My loyalty is to my
pack,” I responded automatically, and then winced. The pack I left behind. I thought of Ethan’s crazed
sorrow, wondering if I would have responded any differently had our
situations been reversed. Would I have any room in my heart for
forgiveness? I might not have killed Kyle myself, but he was dead
because I’d done my job. I couldn’t blame Ethan for focusing his
rage on me.
I don’t have any other choice; this alliance has to
work.
Shay folded my hands
in his own. The warmth of his touch pulled me from my dark
thoughts. I met his eyes and remembered why I’d been willing to
leave Vail. My earlier resentment draining away, I threaded my
fingers through his and ran my thumb over his wrist. He smiled and
my pulse stuttered.
“We’re going to help
them, Cal,” he said quietly. “I’m back now, and that’s what we’ll
do. We’ll help Ansel, all of the pack.”
I nodded, though the
smile I wanted to give him in return wouldn’t appear. The lines
around Monroe’s eyes tightened as he glanced at our entwined
fingers. Self-conscious, I shook Shay’s hand off, wondering if all
the Searchers despised the notion that their precious Scion could
love a Guardian. My chest tightened when a nagging worry flitted
through my mind. If they did, would it change how Shay felt about
me?
“That’s what we all
hope for,” Anika said. “But we need to know a bit more before we
can make the next move. How long have you been planning to rebel
against the Keepers?”
How long had I been planning to what?
“Uh . . . I—” Words
tangled with my tongue. I hadn’t planned anything. Every decision
I’d made had been about saving Shay. Choices made in the space of a
breath. And it had been utter chaos.
“She was being
forced to marry someone,” Shay said, revulsion edging each of his
words. “At age seventeen . . . can you believe that?”
Monroe nodded,
opening his mouth to respond. But I felt like I’d been punched in
the gut. Why does it always have to come back
to me and Ren? Doesn’t Shay realize the sacrifice Ren made by
letting me go?
“That is not what—”
I bit off the words, realizing that I didn’t want to air my
relationship issues in public.
“I know it’s not
all,” Shay said. I saw his sharp canines flash as he spoke. “But
it’s important. That ceremony, having to be with him, it was insane.”
“How can you talk
about him that way?” I snapped. “Ren tried to help us. He lied for
us and the Keepers will know it. They could kill him!”
No, it was worse
than that. And the awful truth of it was what fueled my rage. I
lowered my lashes and spoke to the floor. “They will kill him.”
I didn’t bother to
hide my grief when I looked at Shay again, unblinking though my
eyes had filled with tears.
Shay’s face paled;
the veins in his neck were throbbing, but it was Monroe who reacted
to the sound of Ren’s name.
“Ren?” His eyes
widened. I could tell he was fighting to keep his tone neutral. “Do
you mean Renier Laroche?”
“You know who he
is?” I asked, startled.
Monroe turned his
face away. “I know of him,” he said, his voice rough.
Anika was watching
Monroe carefully. “That’s an interesting development. It could be
vital, don’t you think?”
Monroe didn’t meet
her eyes, but he nodded.
“Tell us more about
this ceremony,” Anika said. “It would help us to understand exactly
what we’re walking into in Vail.”
“Calla and Ren were
supposed to form a new pack this spring,” Shay said, still glaring
at me. “Another set of Guardians to protect Haldis Cavern.” His jaw
clenched. “One of the Keepers’ arranged unions.”
I glared back at
him, biting my tongue. Hadn’t I run from the union, leaving Ren
behind, risking everything to help Shay escape? What else did I
have to prove to him?
“We’re familiar with
that practice.” Monroe met my gaze. “You were running away from
him?”
“No, not from him,”
I said. Shay’s hands formed fists and though it was petty, I felt a
pinch of satisfaction. “The Keepers were going to make us kill Shay
as part of the union. I found him tied up in the woods. I had to
run to save him.”
Shay wasn’t looking
at me anymore, and the ripple of smugness faded to guilt. It didn’t
help that Adne had taken his hand, leaning in to whisper to him.
Great, now I’m a slutty bitch and she gets to
be the good friend. Nice work, Calla.
“The sacrifice,”
Monroe said. “We knew that was going to happen at Samhain, but we
didn’t know where. We tracked the Scion’s location to Rowan
Estate.”
“Lucky for us,” I
said, shuddering at what might have happened if the Searchers
hadn’t appeared that night.
“Were the Guardians
tracking you?” Monroe asked.
I nodded. “They sent
the Banes after us.”
“An entire pack?”
Anika frowned. “How did you elude them?”
Shay sighed, as if
he were conceding a major point. “Ren helped us get away. He caught
up with us in the woods, and he let us go, kept the rest of the
pack off us.”
“He helped you?”
Monroe’s eyes found me; the dark glint of his gaze remained utterly
unreadable.
“Yes.” My response
was barely a whisper. I was finding it hard to breathe. Each moment
I relived from that night was like a stone placed on my chest,
piling up one after the other to suffocate me.
Adne continued to
watch us.
“That’s good to
know,” Monroe said.
“Yes, it is.” A
smile appeared on Anika’s lips and vanished just as quickly. “That
bodes very well for our plans.”
Connor reappeared in
the doorway. “What’d I miss?” His eyes flicked to Adne and Shay’s
twined fingers, and he grimaced. “Let me guess, the Scion proposed
to you.”
“She knows Renier
Laroche,” Adne said, grinning at his sour expression and keeping
her hand clasped in Shay’s. “They both do.”
Shay grimaced and
twisted his fingers free of hers, looking at me sideways. I smiled
at him, and his expression softened.
Connor whistled, his
irritation giving way to surprise. “Isn’t that
interesting.”
The two of them
exchanged a knowing glance. Why do the
Searchers all know about Ren?
“For the moment
that’s not our concern,” Monroe said curtly. “Where’s Ethan
now?”
“I sent him to work
point for the Reapers,” Connor replied. “I think the outpost is a
safe enough distance.”
“He’s just come off
patrol.” Monroe frowned. “He’s not due to go back out until
tonight.”
Connor shrugged.
“Lydia thought it was a good idea too. Ethan needs something to
keep his mind occupied. Besides, you know he’s our best
sniper.”
Monroe made a low,
affirmative sound, leveling a serious gaze at Shay. “I understand
why you were about to attack Ethan, but you’d best avoid shifting
into your wolf form while you’re among us unless we’re out in the
field, fighting. There are a lot of itchy trigger fingers around
here that belong to soldiers trained to shoot Guardians first and
ask questions later.”
“I’ll keep that in
mind,” Shay muttered.
“Thank you,” Anika
replied. “Calla, before you left, had any of your packmates
expressed discontent with their lot? If Ren was willing to take
that risk for you, it would follow that others might come to our
aid—with your leadership, of course.”
Would they? I thought about Mason and Nev. About
Sabine. Life under the Keepers was brutal for them. They’d jump at
a chance to leave, wouldn’t they?
And Ansel. He wanted
the freedom to choose a life with Bryn. But that wasn’t the only
thing convincing me that my brother would join us without a second
thought.
I would never betray the Keepers. Unless you asked me to .
. . alpha.
And it wasn’t just
Ansel. By keeping my first encounter with Shay a secret, Bryn had
risked her safety. She was just as loyal as my
brother.
“Yes,” I said.
“They’ll join us.”
“Your parents?” she
asked. “It would be all the more helpful if the elder Nightshades
would come over to our side.”
“Maybe—” My heart
jumped beneath my rib cage, leaving me breathless. My father and
mother were alphas, my alphas. I’d always submitted to their will.
What would they think of their own daughter trying to lead them?
Guardians weren’t big on shifting hierarchies.
“What about the
Banes?” Shay asked. “Don’t you want all the wolves?”
“Some of the younger
Banes, maybe,” Monroe said. “But the elders won’t join
us.”
“How do you know
that?” Shay asked.
“We have some
history with the packs,” Anika said lightly. “Emile Laroche would
never seek an alliance with us.”
History.
“You mean they won’t
join you because the Banes that would have revolted are already
dead,” I said. “They died the last time you tried for an alliance.
When Ren’s mother died.”
Monroe drew a sharp
breath. “How do you know about that?”
“We found the
Keepers’ records of the Guardian packs,” Shay said. “We know that
Corrine Laroche was executed for planning a revolt with
Searchers.”
“But all I’d ever
been told about her was that she was killed in a Searcher ambush at
the Bane compound when Ren was only a year old,” I added. “Until
the night you attacked Rowan Estate, we were the only ones who knew
otherwise.”
Silence swept over
the Searchers, all their faces paling as they exchanged troubled
glances.
“No wonder the
Guardians serve so loyally,” Anika murmured. “The Keepers have
twisted your minds about the way lives around you have been
broken.”
A trembling began in
my shoulders, traveling down my back. “That’s what Ren believed,
but the night we ran, I told him the truth.”
They all stared at
me.
“You told him?” Shay
hissed. “You didn’t say anything about that!”
“It’s the reason he
let us go,” I whispered, unable to return his gaze. Part of the
reason. I kept my second thought hidden, remembering again the
desperation in Ren’s face. The way he’d kissed me. And he was
somehow caught up in this. The Searchers weren’t telling us
everything.
Monroe suddenly
turned on his heel, walking swiftly away. “If you’ll excuse
me.”
“Monroe!” Anika
called, but he was already out of the door.
“I’ll go after him,”
Connor said.
Adne was shaking her
head. “It’s always the same.”
What just happened? I glanced at Shay, but he
seemed just as confused as I was.
“Maybe he shouldn’t
be part of this mission,” Anika said.
“You think he’d ever
let it happen without him?” Adne laughed, but it was a bitter
sound. “He’s waited years for another shot at this. He’s waited my
whole life.”
Anika’s mouth
flattened. “Show a little respect for your father, child. You don’t
understand how much he lost.”
“Your father?” Shay
asked. He looked at her in a way not unlike how he’d just looked at
me, like he’d been betrayed.
The sudden bite of
jealousy was sharp as teeth snapping at the back of my
neck. How close had they gotten while I
was recovering?
Adne cringed,
blushing as if she’d revealed a terrible secret. “Yeah. Monroe is
my father.”
“You never told me
that,” he said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It’s not that
important.” She turned away, crimson painting her
cheeks.
I frowned. “Why do
you always call him Monroe?” I’d deferred to my own father as
Nightshade alpha, but I still called him Dad.
“Because I don’t
want special treatment,” she said. “And because it drives him
crazy.”
“Respect, Ariadne,”
Anika said. “It matters more than you think.”
“I’ll try,” Adne
said, but it looked to me like she was trying not to roll her
eyes.
Anika clasped her
hands at her waist. “Despite this unfortunate little disruption,
what you’ve said confirms our hopes about the Guardians. We’ll
execute the mission accordingly.”
“When?” I asked.
“When am I going to find my packmates?”
Anika smiled.
“Now.”