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The GranitePaw’s aggravation showed in the tic in his throat. “We respect you need time to seriously consider what abdication will mean for SnowFang. Regardless, we have to insist that you leave the city.”
“You insist. Interesting,” Sterling said. “Here I thought this was an invitation to stay.”
“Oh, you two are leaving the city one way or the other,” Kyle warned him. “We put FryerVats down, and posted an enforcer outside your den, but it won’t stop the wanderers long. They’re only regrouping and arguing over who has the right to hunt her. We can only put so many dead bodies on the ledger.”
I was sick of them offering steak in one hand, and a smack with the other. “I guess my copy of Welcome to Manhattan: A Feral’s Street Guide got lost, along with my welcome-to-the-neighborhood casserole and month’s supply of MoonDark edibles.”
Kyle flicked his wrist and an item appeared in his left hand. He chucked it across the space and it landed neatly in my lap: a small plastic bag containing a dozen gummy candies in various colors. “All you had to do was ask, Winter.”
I shoved the edibles onto the ground. “Can you pull some cookies out of that magic lamp, along with Sterling’s pedigree papers and my brother’s scalp?”
“Oh, your brother’s scalp will be delivered soon enough, but not by us. He’ll only live long enough to serve Daniel and Arnold’s plan,” Thessa said.
“What would the GranitePaw know of a SilverPaw Beta’s plan?” I asked.
Thessa gave me a tolerant look. “I thought you’d figured that out by now. Daniel wants to make sure the power of mates remains firmly in the hands of Alphas, not Gaia.”
“That’s always been Daniel’s contention. I didn’t need to figure anything out. I’ve been present when he’s said it,” I said, increasingly rankled by her attitude.
Daniel had believed since there was no outward way to prove a pair were mates, that it meant Gaia had allowed some wiggle room, and a blanket take-all-comers was a bad idea. My father had said that was probably true, but as a species we’d fallen down that slippery slope into the current genetic tar pit. We couldn’t be trusted. The temptation was too strong.
Sterling said, “I do prefer the theory that Jerron is Daniel’s puppet, and that’s why Jerron refuses to acknowledge Winter and I as true mates, even though Rodero did. It’s a dangerous game trying to rewrite history. You never know who you might aggravate.”
Kyle half-smirked, while Thessa just pointed one finger at Sterling. “You aren’t entirely wrong. Jerron has already been in contact to warn us that you two are unsanctioned, and when pressed as to how Rodero permitted his daughter to run away with a rumored hybrid, he couldn’t answer. He is clearly a liar trying to rewrite history to suit his own stupidity. As Alpha, he will destroy himself easily. Beta Daniel just has to make sure he gets out of the way so history remembers him as the long suffering Beta who finally had no choice but to act.” She put her hand over her heart and shook her head in mock sadness. “Such a tragedy. So loyal to Rodero and his family, and Rodero’s children were such disappointments in the end. Rodero was just so blinded by love for his pups. Stop me if you’ve heard this already.”
Darkness clouded in my blood, and everything within me stilled and smoldered. “I’ve heard something like it.”
Thessa’s smile salted every small wound. “You were going to be tougher. Daniel got started a few years ago with you. Dripped all the right poison in all the right ears.”
I felt like I moved slowly, like a lava flow. Understanding oozed through my brain. “Daniel started the rumors I was Unwanted?”
“Started them, fed them, encouraged them, who knows. How do you think they took hold so quickly on such a flawless young female?” Thessa shrugged, feigning boredom.
I’d always known it’d come from political enemies. But Daniel? “No. My father wouldn’t have tolerated that kind of… treason.”
Kyle suddenly had the packet of edibles in his fingers. “It doesn’t matter if you believe that part or not, but it doesn’t change that Daniel is a direct threat to this species. He plans to thoroughly discredit Rodero and set our population politics back three generations. You and Sterling brought those politics full circle. There are powerful wolves that will lose a great deal if history remembers Rodero as Gaia’s Champion. Those wolves want nothing to do with Jerron, but will be pleased to associate with Daniel. Sterling is branded a hybrid, Winter becomes an Abomination, Jerron is disgraced, Rodero is dead. It is over. It is done. And anyone who tries to mention mates where they exist will be seen as allied with a bad-luck family hated by Gaia.”
I really wished Kyle didn’t make so much sense. I couldn’t breathe. My heart refused to beat. My insides turned themselves inside out and if it hadn’t been for MoonDark, I’d have been in my fur howling to silence him.
Kyle flicked the packet. “There are wolves who will protect you if SnowFang does its part, and there are wolves we can cajole to our side, but once Daniel disposes of Jerron, it will be too late. For all of us. You know this better than anyone, Winter. You probably know better than I do.”
His hand moved, deft and swift, the packet disappeared somewhere into his jacket, and he folded his hands into his lap, as elegant as a college professor concluding a lecture on why some flowery poem explained the entire purpose of life.
Thessa drummed her fingers on her knee. “I suspect Daniel will try to dispose of Jerron this summer. Theatrics and witnesses. But he’ll do it sooner if he needs to. Your brother isn’t going to be able to cause too much damage snowed into Montana over the winter. Spring might be a different story.”
If my FrostFur theory was correct, it might already be too late, and GranitePaw didn’t even know it.
Although perhaps if we joined them, and told them… they could help avert absolute disaster.
Sterling stood. He drew me up next to him. “We’ll consider it.”
Kyle rose to meet him, eyes narrowed. “See that you do. Remember, your life is a fabric of snagged threads. One tug and it will all unravel.”
There Was A Catch
We stood on the mezzanine rooftop garden.
It rained softly. Sterling held the umbrella. I would have liked to feel the cold rain, but the stitches in my scalp said otherwise.
