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I smiled. I didn’t know Night was partial to gardening metaphors. “I know we’ve got a long road ahead of us, but I was hoping there would be more of a desire on the Kings’ side to end the war. Even if they weren’t excited about merging, I thought they would be happy to hear that we wanted to put an end to the bloodshed.”
“There are a lot of old feelings mixed into this, Bryn,” he reminded me. “And there will be opposition to our packs growing closer, not just because war is all they’ve known, but also because there are some who benefitted from the conflicts between our packs.”
I nuzzled into his neck and kissed him there, tasting the salt on his skin. “That’s true, but I feel like there has to be something more that I can do to encourage them to see our side of things. Grant seemed a little open to the idea. I just wish I knew how to get everyone else on board.”
“Sometimes you can’t win over everyone. Sometimes the best way to convince them that it’s a good idea is to show them.” He lowered his head and brushed our noses together. “I believe in you,” he said, kissing me firmly.
26
BRYN
Night left to catch up with Dom, which meant I had plenty of time to walk around the grounds and decompress after the meeting. The bright, sunny day had become a bit overcast as I walked along the perimeter of the village toward the trees.
I still felt a bit uneasy about not having a plan of action to make the joint reconstruction effort more appealing. I had tried to put on a brave face for Night, but I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. That had been the first time I’d ever spoken to a member of the council before.
It was bizarre to suddenly be able to speak to them on their level. I mean, presumably. On paper, I was an equal, but to them, I was just a cockroach who’d escaped from under their heel onto their ceiling. I’d done my best in there, but there was a sense of lingering doubt in my chest. If I didn’t do something now, our unification plans would fall to shit.
I thought about speaking to my mom or Violet about this, but Mom had returned to working in the gardens and I didn’t want to interrupt her. As for Violet, I’d spotted her chatting with Dr. Stan, and the energy of their conversation had seemed very intimate. When she laughed and placed her hand on his shoulder, I knew I didn’t want to insert myself into whatever they were talking about.
Unfortunately, the only thing I could think to do that might settle my nerves was to try talking to someone in the elite, to learn how I could get them to listen to me. I didn’t want to speak to a pack member or their children; I had essentially zero allies here, so I couldn’t trust them to lead me down the right path. I racked my brain for a person I could speak to, and the name came to me with resounding clarity.
Troy.
I went to the Alpha cabin to change into a gray cloak. I didn’t want anyone to spot me while I was on the way to his cell.
The holding facility was located near the northwest side of the compound, and there were plenty of less-traveled paths to get there. Just as before, I kept my head down and tried to blend in. If people weren’t looking for me, they didn’t see me, so I had no trouble sneaking by the dining hall, the food storage building, and the schoolhouse to get to Troy’s cell.
I pulled open the heavy door and closed it behind me. In front of me, stairs led down into a concrete bunker. The holding facility for criminals wasn’t a place I’d ever been to before. I’d had no reason to do it, and as far as I knew, Gregor had rarely visited. His prisoners were held there to rot. As soon as I had the chance, I’d review the prison records to see how many of them actually deserved to be in these cells. Knowing the Redwolfs, it was likely that most of them didn’t.
I headed to the back of the facility, past prisoners who reached for me and begged for help, toward the isolation unit. Troy was the only one in these cells aside from the two guards who kept watch over him. I’d specified that I wanted Troy kept away from the other inmates so he couldn’t try and win favor with them, and I’d insisted that his guards were men who had no connection with the Redwolf family.
My decision, though the best I could do with current resources, was a temporary one. Most shifters—wolves in particular—can’t stand isolation. Shifters thrived in community, and without it, their mental health suffered. Keeping Troy away from others would only exacerbate his insanity. I’d need to think of a long-term solution for him, but for now, this was all I could do.
I temporarily dismissed the guards outside his cell. They left me to speak to Troy, and I peered through the window. His cell was made of thick steel, and there was only a small window in the door that allowed him to see out and me to see inside. Not even the strongest shifter could break through steel, so no one was getting in or out of there without a damn good excuse. I peered into the room and saw Troy’s cot and his toilet. He wasn’t allowed much else without supervision.
At first, I couldn’t see him, and my heart began to tremble, thinking that he had somehow escaped. But soon, his face appeared in the window from the left. He banged on the door at the same time, attempting to rattle me, but I didn’t flinch. He hit the door again and gave a yell of frustration. His glare would have skewered me where I stood if he had the ability to do that.
His hair wasn’t in its trademark bun. Without it, the auburn strands fell in unkempt waves around his face and his shoulders. He wore neon orange sweatpants and a t-shirt of the same color—the uniform that all prisoners had to wear in case they somehow escaped. The bright color would make it much easier to find them.
Around his neck was a thick metal collar. It would electrocute him if he tried to shift. Seeing it reminded me of the collar and chain Tavi had been made to wear when she and I were his captives. The idea of anyone having to wear such an old-fashioned, cruel device made my skin crawl, but we couldn’t risk Troy shifting. That, too, would need to be fixed as soon as possible. I’d need to ask Violet or the Elders if there was a more ethical way of suppressing his shifting ability.
I didn’t say anything to him at first, and he began to sway from foot to foot, his gaze fixed on me like a cobra about to strike. The irony of all this made the situation even more complicated. This time, I was the one who was free, staring in at Troy as my prisoner. I wasn’t the one hoisted up on his wall in my underwear or chained to the wall of a cave for his use.
I couldn’t keep myself from asking, “How does it feel to be the one in captivity, Troy?”
He snarled at me and banged on the two-inch thick glass that kept him and me separated. Again, I didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink.
“What the fuck do you want?” he roared.
“You’re not in any position to demand anything from me. You’re lucky I gave you this mercy when you never granted it to the innocent wolves you’ve killed.”
“You’re an idiot if you think locking me up was a mercy. At least I had the decency to kill my enemies and not let them lose their minds in some cell.”
I wasn’t moved. “I won’t feel sorry for you. You had this coming, and you know it. Or did you really expect your own pack not to turn against you when you started neglecting their needs and killing them?”
“I was thinning out the weak!” he growled. “That’s what an Alpha is supposed to do, but a worthless whore like you would never understand that.”
“You’re the one who wasted all that time and effort on someone you view as a ‘worthless whore.’” I tilted my head, a questioning pout on my mouth. “What does that make you, Troy?”
