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I bowed my head and let myself take a moment to feel the thrumming city around me. It was more powerful now without my vision to distract me. “I just need to know if this changes anything between us.”
I felt annoyance in our pack bond, but it was softer than before. “I’m not going to abandon you because you’ve made a stupid decision, Kor. But when it blows up in your face…”
“I wish you’d have more faith in me than that,” I told him, and I felt him recoil a little.
“Let’s just get through this meeting—and if he survives”—he went silent for a long moment—“we’ll go from there.”
It was fair enough. It was likely the same answer I’d have given him if our positions were reversed. “Then take me to them. I want to get this over with so I can get Misha home and start working on the rest of my training. I want to shift before the moon—I want to heal everything I can so when Misha needs my strength, I can give it to him.”
He said nothing, but I didn’t need him to.
Chapter Fourteen
KOR
The drive was longer than I expected for our compound being in tunnels, and I realized that if they accepted my position, at some point I was going to need a map that I could read. I added it to the seemingly endless list of mental shit I needed to grill Cameron on the next time we met. I appreciated being able to fill a glass of water now without spilling it all over myself, and I know Cameron wanted me to crawl before I could walk, but I didn’t have the luxury of time to take it slow.
I needed to be able to walk on my own without holding someone’s arm. I needed to be able to learn my new offices and navigate the new tech that would allow me access to information coming in and out of the compound. And I knew I was getting ahead of myself, but rebellions didn’t really offer time for rehab.
I felt the car start to slow, and I sat up straighter as I smelled them. That many Alphas in one spot raised my hackles, and even with my heart still weak, I felt it thrum harder in my chest and my wolf start to rise.
“Are you going to be able to do this?” Orion asked as he put the car in park.
I licked my lips, then ran my hand down my face. “Yes. I… How do I look?”
“What?” There was something like surprise and confusion in his voice.
“How do I look?” I repeated. “I can’t walk in there looking weak. I know my eyes look… different. And it’ll be bad enough I have to take your arm. But the rest of me…” The reality was, I could feel my muscles re-forming, but I had no idea if I still had the emaciated look of a lab prisoner.
“You look the way you always did,” he said. “Maybe a little thinner, but you put on weight since the last time I saw you. And your eyes…”
“Don’t bullshit me,” I snapped. “Misha already described them.”
Orion swallowed thickly enough I could hear it catch in his throat. “It shouldn’t matter.”
“No, but it will. Lior will jump on it the first chance he gets. My only real hope is convincing everyone else that this is a good idea.”
Orion snorted. “It won’t be hard. They fucking hate him.”
I reached for the door handle, then paused. “I never did ask who else is sitting on the Council.”
Orion cleared his throat. “Zane Bereket,” he said, and I suddenly breathed easier because Zane had always been an ally. “Mikel Ayala, Theo Julius, and Francisco Pio.”
All of them apart from Lior were good Alphas. They were older than I was, more experienced, and all of them had served on the front lines. My gut calmed considerably as I opened the door and waited for Orion to come around. They might still be uncomfortable following a blind Wolf, but they would be most likely to bend.
I gripped his arm a little tighter, then gave my head a single bow. “Let’s get this over with.”
Maybe it was the confidence in my tone, or maybe it was something else, but I could feel a sort of pulsing relief in the pack bond. It bolstered my resolve to make sure these Alphas agreed to my terms. It was the only way to unite the people, and the only way to defeat not just the humans, but the corrupted Wolves now holding seats of power.
“We’re coming up on two steps to the doors,” Orion told me.
My brows lifted as I felt him prepare to take them. “Have you been speaking to Cameron?”
He gave a small huff, and I knew what his face would have looked like in the moment—his vague sort of embarrassment. “It only made sense. He said you wouldn’t need me at all once you gained more skill, but for the moment…” He cleared his throat, and I knew he wasn’t bothering to keep his voice down as we entered the building only because the Wolves would have heard him anyway. “I want to provide what I can.”
I felt something warm in my gut—something unexpected. My men—not just my comrades and those who fought alongside me, but those who had survived the early years of segregation and oppression—they deserved better than this. Better than caves and underground resistance. The treaty should have meant freedom for all of our people, but we were now fighting our own. I let the anger fuel me as he led me into a room.
I could tell from the echo it was large, and I could hear the heartbeats of each and every Alpha. “Thank you for agreeing to see me,” I told them, not waiting for an introduction. Orion brought me to a chair, and I braced my hands on the back of it instead of sitting. It was a show of power, and I knew they would understand it for what it was.
