Page 46 of Dark

He passed his phone over to Brody, everyone on their side of the table clustering around to see. After a minute, Brody handed it off to me. Cal and August leaned in as I swiped through grainy images of a rail-thin man in a canvas jacket that looked like it had gone a few rounds with a hay baler. Matted hanks of dark hair hung down into his face, months of unkempt beard growth pretty much holding up a flashing neon sign that screamed Feral.

“Not much to go on.” Cal passed back the phone. “Looks twenty to thirty if we’re talking human years.”

Which didn’t tell us anything. Shifters aged at a rate comparable to humans until our twenties, after which things slowed down considerably. Ben used to color his hair silver at the temples so his age would match his driver’s license. Others stayed off the grid entirely, relying on less than savory methods of bringing in funds. Those who wanted to live a normal life were typically forced to pack up and resettle every few decades under new identities. And with advancements in digital technology and facial recognition software, that was growing increasingly hard to do.

Brody steepled his fingers. “Cal, get over to the campgrounds tonight and do some sniffing around. Cell tower pinged this guy in Austin, but we’ve tracked him through town the past few days on foot. Could be he’s staying somewhere local.”

“Send the pictures to me,” I told West. “It’s a long shot, but Hayden might recognize him.”

Brody turned. “Dallas?”

My brother cut his eyes over to me but shook his head.

“Lacey?”

She poked a piece of crust around her plate. “Look, no one wants to say it, so I will. Having Hayden here is putting us all in danger.”

I let my head fall back. “Are you serious?”

Dallas locked eyes with me across the table. “Shut the hell up. She’s got the floor.”

“This isn’t our problem. She wasn’t bitten in our territory, and now she’s got a pack of Ferals after her. We’re in this now, and there’s no going back, but this should have been brought up for discussion before we were asked to put ourselves and our families at risk.”

I stabbed a finger into the table. “This pack doesn’t turn people away. Mom and Ben took you in when you had no place else to go.”

Lacey bared her teeth. “That was more of a homegrown problem, in case you’ve forgotten. And I wasn’t putting the pack in danger with trouble I dragged here from Austin.”

“Enough.” Brody got to his feet.

“So you’d kick Hayden out on the street, all because you’re so jealous we’re together you can’t see straight?”

Dallas hurled his beer over my head, sending it crashing against the side of the house. “Enough of that shit.”

“I said lock it up.”

The table fell silent. Tucking tail, the dog slinked over to the back door, no doubt looking for Ellie and her pocketful of cookies. Brody ran meetings differently now that he was in charge. A lot of the younger, more progressive pack leaders were allowing for a more democratic pack structure involving discussion and debate rather than the outdated models ruled by ranking, power and challenges. More voices being given agency allowed for a greater sense of community, even if Alphas still presided over the pack as a whole. It was different as hell from growing up under Ben’s roof. And we were all still experiencing a learning curve.

West sopped a slice of bread through his barbeque sauce and loaded it up with brisket. “Even if we ID the Feral responsible for changing Hayden, it doesn’t get us anywhere. Deadline’s up, as far as the Council’s concerned. They find out we’ve been harboring her and didn’t call it in—"

“Council’s been informed,” Brody cut in.

I whirled on him. “The hell—?”

“It was time. This is over our heads. I made the call.”

“They’ll kill her.”

“She’s under the pack’s protection,” Brody countered calmly.

“And we’re just supposed to take their word on that? She’s unsired. You know damn well how they’ve been handling loose ends ever since the leak got out.”

“Can’t be helped.”

Screw that. “I claim her. Formally. I’ll call the Council.”

Now you really could have heard a pin drop. All eyes zeroed in on me.

“Once you declare, there’s no takesies backsies,” Dallas warned. “You change your mind—”