“Uh-huh.” Keith closed his eyes as he leaned back against the seat. “Gavin says she’s going to petition him to make the transformation. Sam was worried there was something romantic going on, but I told her you were the last person who’d encourage that sort of shit. Please tell me I’m right.”
“You’re right.” Joe pointed the truck toward the alphas’ house, riding the accelerator a little harder than usual. The faster he got out of this conversation, the better. “How’s Abby holding up?”
“She almost isn’t.” Keith sounded exhausted. “The guilt’s eating her alive. But even I didn’t think Matthews was nuts enough to send people halfway across the country to hurt her.”
No one had. “He’s obviously lost what little shit he had left. You and Abby just have the misfortune of being his targets.”
“And Brynn.”
Joe gritted his teeth. “Thanks for pointing that out, Winston. I’m not having a hard enough time keeping the protective crap in check.”
“She’s a lot harder than her sister, you know. Brynn, I mean.” Keith opened his eyes and glanced at Joe. “Abby’s strong, but even with everything that’s happened—even losing her parents and raising her kid sister—she’s not hard. It still surprises her how much people can suck.”
It was all Joe could do not to laugh. “You mean Abby’s like you, and Brynn’s pragmatism freaks you out a little.”
Keith glared. “I’m not exactly naïve.”
“No, you’re not.” He made a face as he slowed for an intersection. “But you want to believe in fairy tales, even when you know you can’t. You always have.”
“Well, she sure the hell doesn’t. If she weren’t so stressed out right now, I’d tell Gavin she should sit in on the meetings. She’s got a pretty keen mind when it comes to weird political shit.”
“Brynn’s sharp,” Joe agreed. “But, right now, she’s flailing.”
Keith remained silent as Joe guided the truck up the hill that led to the alphas’ house. He didn’t speak again until the truck was in park and Joe reached to turn off the engine. “Is she really going to do it? Is she thinking about becoming one of us?”
Joe stared at the steering wheel. “Yeah. She wants to be safe, but she doesn’t want Abby to feel responsible for her. Not anymore. Not after all that’s happened.”
“Shit. What a f**king mess.”
“Yeah.” He saw no reason to share Brynn’s proposition of casual, no-strings sex, especially since it would probably earn him a punch to the jaw. “Hell of a time for it, with all the alphas coming in.”
“Don’t forget the witch.” Keith sighed and rubbed his jaw. “I didn’t even get a chance to tell you about that mess. Maritza, the witch I’d made contact with in Europe, was supposed to meet me. Her and her student. But when I got there, it was just the student, and she was scared half out of her mind.”
“Maritza was dead, huh?”
“Ripped to pieces. The girl’s twenty-five, thirty tops. Maybe she’s got power, but she doesn’t have the kind of experience we need in an ally.”
Now she was another person who’d need protection. “The world’s falling apart, my friend. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Keith sighed and yanked the door’s handle. “Let’s go in there before Gavin thinks we’ve chickened out.”
Joe took the steps two at a time and knocked quickly. Gavin opened the door and waved them in. “We were just getting started.”
The alpha’s wife was seated at the long, scarred wooden table with a young redhead. The girl’s face looked pale, and three angry red claw marks cut across her cheek and the line of her jaw. She lifted tired blue eyes when they stepped into the room, but her tension eased when her gaze fell on Keith. “Mr. Winston.”
“I told you, Keith’s fine.” Keith smiled, the gentle, reassuring one Joe had seen him flash a hundred times. “Sasha, this is Joe.”
“Hey there.” Instead of stepping forward, which might have scared her, he held his ground and raised a hand in greeting. “Nice to meet you.”
She blinked at him and nodded, quick and a little shy. “Hello.”
Gavin cleared his throat. “Keith? Why don’t you tell us what you had in mind for the summit?”
“First off, Lawrence and Irene had to back out.” Keith slid onto the bench next to Sasha, but left a few feet between them. Even with the extra space, Sasha scooted a little closer to Sam, who wrapped a maternal arm around her shoulder.
Keith kept talking as if he hadn’t noticed it. “We need to make a pact, decide if we’re going to take a stand. What happened with Abby’s brother is the final straw.”
“We’ve been taking a stand,” Joe argued. “What you’re talking about is war. That’s what we need to decide on.”
“Then it needs to be war.” Keith sounded nothing like the exhausted, worn-down man who’d come back from Europe a few months ago. The fire was back in his voice. The conviction. “Hiding isn’t working.
They turn men by the hundreds out there. They’re making armies full of entitled men who think that their power means they can have whatever they want.”
Gavin glanced at Sasha. “You think allying ourselves with the wizards is the answer?”
Sasha winced visibly, and Samantha shot her husband an annoyed look as she spoke. “I think we can’t snub allies, no matter where we find them. Keith obviously agrees.”
“Normally, I’d be inclined to agree with both of you.” Gavin reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “But when you start talking about fighting beside the wizards and against other wolves, you’d be surprised how quickly your grand idea puts you in the minority. It’s a tough f**king sell, Winston.”
Keith opened his mouth, but Sam cut him off. “If you light that cigarette in this house, Gavin Hamilton, you’ll be digging it out of your chest.”
Gavin dropped the pack to the table. “Fine, woman. Have it your way. Doesn’t change the conversation any.”
Joe cleared his throat. “Maybe we should have Brynn talk to the other alphas.”
“Brynn?” Sam’s gaze snapped from her husband to Joe. “Explain.”
“She knows firsthand what the alphas out there are doing to people,” Joe explained. “Her sister was turned against her will, she was kidnapped, and her brother was murdered. They have to listen to her. All the hypotheticals in the world can’t match someone who’s been there.”
“Can she handle that?”
Keith spoke up again. “I think she can. She’s strong. She’s determined.”
“More than that, I think she’d want to do it.” He hoped like hell he wasn’t wrong. “She needs something to do. She feels helpless.”
Gavin scuffed the toe of his boot against the floor. “It couldn’t hurt anything, I suppose, if she can handle it.”
“Abby can’t be there.” Keith’s voice was uncompromising. “The last thing she needs is to hear a litany of all the things that have happened to her family. She still takes responsibility.”
Joe made a face. “Brynn wouldn’t want her there. No way.”
“But can Abby take that?” Sam looked at Keith, who squirmed a little under her unwavering gaze.
“Abby’s still learning how to handle her instincts. Can you keep her from feeling like she should protect Brynn from this?”
He looked uncomfortable, but he nodded. “It’ll take a few days for her to get balanced again. But Joe’s been taking care of Brynn, and that helps.”
It was Joe’s turn to squirm as all eyes turned to him. “It’s the helpless thing that’s getting her. I’ve been trying to help, but I don’t know how much good I’m doing.”
Sam’s look was particularly sharp. “I’ve spoken with Cindy. If Brynn makes the decision to follow through with the transformation, Cindy is willing to serve as her Guide.”
He glanced away. He could handle that. Cindy was safe.
Gavin rubbed a hand over his face. “I still don’t like it. I don’t like when people in turmoil try to make this choice.”
“No one likes it, Gavin,” Keith said. “But sometimes there’s no going back to the life you left behind.
Sometimes it’s the only way you can get control again.”
For the first time, Sasha spoke up. “Do you still have the training spell?”
Joe’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What’s a training spell?”
“I-I think it was used for new wolves, in the past.” Sasha fidgeted a little under the weight of everyone’s undivided attention, but she pressed on. “It’s simpler than the bonding spell you use, and temporary. Two people are connected, and one experiences everything the other does. Not physically, but like—like a vision. The new wolves panicked less the first time if they already knew what a change felt like.”
“Huh.” Keith leaned forward and braced his elbows on the table. “Is it something like the bonding spell? Something that we can do, I mean?”
“I don’t know. I know how to do it, but I really…don’t have the training to teach others. I’m still an apprentice.”
Samantha’s arm tightened in a comforting hug. “That’s okay, sweetie. If you can do it, it might be useful. It’s something to think about, anyway, though I don’t know if I’d want to try it for the first time on a traumatized girl. Brynn’s been through enough.”
That was putting it mildly. “I can bring her back tomorrow,” Joe offered. “Let her talk to you two, and to Keith and Sasha. We can see if she’s up for meeting with the other alphas.”