I couldnt see the speakercouldnt make myself look away from Dean while he held me like a rag dollbut Id know Alex Malones voice anywhere.
You put a single bruise on her, and my dad will find new ways to skin a cat.
Dean dropped me, but his furious glare never left mine. I landed with my knees bent and barely resisted the urge to rub my arms where hed held them. He wont get the chance. Touch me again, and Ill gut you. And I dont need a knife to do it. Thanks to the partial Shift of one arm.
Alex stepped around the Nordic-looking giant and sneered at me, then whirled on Dean. What the hell is wrong with you?
Before Dean could answer, movement over his shoulder caught my eye. Faythe? Marc called, jogging toward us with Jace on his heels.
Im fine, I insisted, as they barreled to a stop on either side of me. Dean and I were just comparing war wounds. He won. Someone cut him up pretty badly, huh, Colin?
Dean growled again. Stay out of my way, bitch. Or Ill make that scratch on your face look like a mercy. He and Alex stomped back toward their cabin.
What the hell was that? Marc demanded once they were gone.
I shrugged. Deans playing games, so I tried to draw a foul.
Jace frowned. You wanted him to hit you?
I tossed my head toward the main lodge, where several forms were now visible in the windows. With an audience to see him throw the first punch? Hell, yeah. We need every advantage we can get over Malone.
Well, lets aim for advantages that dont involve any more stitches or bruises for you, okay? Jace smiled, and Marc scowled, and as had become my habit, I stood between them. Alone, among company. Untouched, and frankly missing the easy physical contact most werecats thrive on.
Lets just get the key. Marc shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and headed for the lodge. Your dads waiting,
Jace and I followed without a word, but that brief, awkward silence couldnt compare to the one that greeted us when Marc pushed open the front door of the lodge. The main room was crowded with toms, and I didnt find a friendly face among them. Milo Mitchell and Wes GardnerAlphas of the northwest and Great Lakes Prides, respectivelysat opposite each other in worn armchairs, a battered coffee table separating them. Three of their enforcers sat on the matching couch, all glaring at us with identical expressions of disgust.
Wed lost Gardners favor when we failed to execute Manx for killing his brother Jamey. Traumatized from having been kidnapped, raped, and held prisoner, Manx was on the run and pregnant at the time, and the fact that no other Alpha in the world would have killed a pregnant tabby did little to mollify Wes. Hed felt excluded from the process and had resented my father ever since.
Milo Mitchells son Kevin was exiled from the south-central Pride around the same time, for sneaking strays into the territory for money. Mitchells hatred of all things Sanders was cemented when Marc killed Kevin during a fight in the free zone less than a month before the scheduled vote.
I hovered in the doorway, overwhelmed by the waves of hostility crashing over me. Nearly everyone in that room hated me, and some of them hated Marc even more. Jaces real enemies were in his birth Pride, but his stepfathers allies were more than willing to dislike Jace based purely on his association with me and mine.
You have a lot of nerve showing up here, a new voice growled from my left, and I turned to see Jerald PierceParkers father and Alpha of the Great Plains territorystalking toward me from the kitchen.
Thanks, I guess. I shrugged and tried to let the animosity roll off my back, but its hard to stand tall in the face of pure loathing. Especially when so much of it is coming from a close friends father. No wonder Parker had opted to stay at the ranch, in the company of a growing collection of bottles. Though I tend to think of it as a sense of duty and obligation to my Alpha. My father. The strongest, most even-tempered and noble man Id ever known.
What about honor? Pierce demanded. Arent you the one always talking about doing the right thing? Where the hell was that sense of honor when you were handing my son over to be slaughtered by a flock of dirty thunderbirds?
Well, at least its out in the open nowThough that did nothing to break the tension in the room.
Faythe did what she had to do to save an innocent tabbys life, Marc insisted, flushed with anger, but obviously trying to keep his temper in check. She made a decision only a real leader could have faced, and
Bite your tongue before I rip it out of your mouth!
Pierce roared, and Marc bristled like a tiger on alert. I moved closer to him, and to my reliefand surpriseJace stepped up on his other side, ready to defend his Pridemate if necessary, in spite of their personal rivalry. I always gave you the benefit of the doubt, Pierce spat. I even defended you when they said a stray could never be as good an enforcer as a Prideborn cat. But then you helped her lead my boy to the slaughter! What the hell is wrong with the bunch of you? How could you hand over a member of your own species to be pecked to death by a bunch of giant buzzards?
I wanted to argue. To defend myself and my actions. But wed discussed it with my father and had agreed not to comment on what happened to Lance Pierce. Including the fact that Id ordered Marc to execute Lance to spare him from being eaten alive by the birds. Malone was sure to declare that a murder, rather than a mercy.
I guess Cals right about strays. Youre genetically inferior. You didnt give a damn about my son because youre not even the same species. And you! Pierce turned his dark-eyed fury on me, and I almost took a step back, floored by the depth of his hatred. Youre an abomination. Turning your nose up at your real duty and obligation to hand over one of your own in cold blood. I feel sorry for your father, saddled with such a self-righteous whore for a daughter. Refusing to give him any heirs, yet flaunting two lovers in front of the whole world. You truly have no shame.
I reeled like Id been slapped. My cheeks flamed. I could actually see bright red patches of skin at the bottom of my field of vision. And the double standard burned like hellflames. If there was an enforcer in the room whod only been with one woman, then I was Garfield.
Jerald. Paul Blackwell didnt even raise his voice, but every head in the room turned toward him, and Pierce went silent instantly. The senior Alpha and acting council chair stood in the kitchen doorway, leaning on a worn cane, looking every bit of his seventy-something years. Youll have a chance to air your grievances, but this is not it.
Pierce nodded angrily, but refused to back down, so I had to step around him to accept the key ring Blackwell held out to me. Tell your father we vote at seven sharp. If he has any preliminary business, hell need to present it before that.
The slight arch in Blackwells brow was so subtle surely no one else noticed it. But I knew what that meant. If we were going to play the ace up our collective sleeve, wed have to do it soon.
I nodded, clenching the key ring, then turned and marched out the front door with Marc and Jace on my heels.
If this doesnt work, we are so fucked, Jace whispered, as we walked across the grass in a straight line. Theyd string us all up now, if they could. Theres no way any of those three are gonna switch sides.
Itll work, Marc insisted, for once forgetting to growl at his rival. It has to.
I could only nod, still stunned by Pierces speech. My hand strayed to the left side of my coat, beneath which I could barely feel a long, straight ridge. Two thunderbird feathers, stained with Lance Pierces blood. Evidence that Lance had killed the young bird, and that Malone had tried to frame us for the crime, simultaneously weakening our defenses and diverting the aftermath from his own Pride.
Those feathers were the key to our preemptive strike. We hadnt come for the vote. Wed come to prevent itby charging Calvin Malone with treason.