Craig jerked in surprise and Portland smiled in satisfaction. “I told you she’d figure it out.” She patted his shoulder teasingly but sobered quickly. “That’s why we need to talk to you.”
“Come in.” Silver gestured for them to precede her deeper into the den. She hung back to speak to Tom, who was waiting just out of sight, curiosity quivering beneath the surface of all his muscles. “Get some food and drinks, then chase people out of earshot,” she told him. He bobbed a nod and bounded off. She had to call the rest after him. “Including you!” He waved to acknowledge it without turning around, and she had to laugh.
They all sat and Silver and Portland made strained conversation about the weather and how it was affecting the prey populations in Portland’s territory until Tom had set down the food and drink and disappeared. Silver only sipped at her drink, but Portland nibbled and nibbled, probably not even realizing how much she was eating.
Silence fell, compacting under the weight of important things to follow. Craig broke it first. “I have a petition for you, Roanoke.”
Portland jerked straight backed. “You said that you wanted to discuss it, not—” The rest of her words trailed off into a rolling growl, and her wild self bared its teeth and snapped at Craig’s.
Silver straightened too, stalling through her assumption of a formal expression. She and Dare had continued a tradition of Roanoke under other alphas: A Were of any rank could formally present them with a petition and be heard in full, their alpha barred from making any arguments until the petitioner was finished. It had come up only a few times, and she’d never before felt so biased. She’d much rather believe anything Portland said than Craig, but that didn’t matter. She needed to hear him out. “Do you wish to make your case privately?”
Craig hesitated and glanced over at his alpha, who didn’t give him time to answer. “You mean for a formal petition I can actually be kicked out?” Portland glared first at Craig, then at Silver.
Silver wanted to grimace, but she kept up her formal mask. “If the petitioner requests it. Or if keeping silent proves difficult for you at any point.” She pressed her lips together, then unbent as much as she dared. “It’s to keep low-ranked Were in a bad situation from being intimidated out of getting help. Obviously, there’s no intimidation here.” She raised her eyebrows at Craig for confirmation, and he dipped his head in a nod and even exhaled on a note of humor.
“She can stay.” Craig waited as Portland crossed her arms and settled back, scent indicating she was seething inside. He grew even more expressionless in his own version of formality. “I am petitioning to have Michelle removed from the position of alpha.”
Death laughed. Silver closed her good hand into a fist in her lap, hidden from view. Oh, how she’d love that fist to connect with his square jaw. “What?” She didn’t growl, but she put that vibrating rage into her tone. How dare he ask such a thing? “Why?”
Craig set his hands flat on his thighs. “Alphas come under a great deal of stress. Stress that could trigger an unwanted shift and harm the child.”
Silver could see the thought so plainly on Portland’s face she voiced it for the other woman, though with less anger. “Stress like having an unsupportive beta?” Death’s smugness deepened so markedly that she examined the words and winced internally at how badly she was doing at listening as an unbiased alpha. When she shoved emotion aside, this did not seem to be as similar to his opinion of her in the past as she’d thought. She’d supposed his suggestion to kill her had been laziness and a wish to avoid trouble, unleavened by empathy. This wasn’t avoiding trouble, it was causing it—in pursuit of what goal? Was Craig really motivated only by worry for the safety of his alpha’s cub?
“Are you trying to say that no woman can be alpha without choosing between the position and having cubs?” Silver spoke quickly to dispel her last jab with a more logical argument. Female alphas were clearly the real issue here.
Craig drew in a deep breath and glanced at Portland with a flash of concern so deep and surprising that Silver reevaluated her earlier assumption of his lack of empathy. “That depends if the other female alphas have lost children before.”
Portland choked something back, and Silver was grateful for the excuse to stall before giving her response. She knew Portland had lost a cub to an early-term shift, but she hadn’t thought of it in quite those terms until Craig voiced them. These things happened, but they happened to some women more than others, and only the Lady knew all the causes and factors. “I will have to think about this.”
Silver hated the words even as she said them, but she couldn’t think properly with both of them staring at her, and Craig was right: it wasn’t just about being a female alpha, it was about being a female alpha who had already lost one cub. Portland smelled frustrated but didn’t protest.
“And consult with your mate?” Craig dropped his head in acknowledgment without waiting for an answer, as if his question was only a formality. If anything, that made it worse.
Silver shoved to her feet, the violence of the movement cutting off Portland’s reaction. A small part of Silver whispered urgently that she was supposed to keep her temper because she was Roanoke, but the rest was all icy clarity for her next words. “Think very carefully. Are you telling your alpha that she cannot make a decision on her own?”
Silver took one step, another, and touched Craig’s chin to make him meet her eyes. She didn’t bother to measure her dominance against his, as one might normally. She overpowered it, smashed him flat as he gasped. She’d told him she’d consider his petition, and yet he still felt the need to bully her. She walked with Death in the place of her wild self, and he dared to say she could not make a decision on her own?
Craig twisted his head away from her, panting. “I can make this big, Roanoke. I’m not the only high-ranked Were in the sub-packs who feels this way. Not by a long shot. Children are too precious to endanger them for posturing about status.” His voice was a frightened whine, but his words stopped Silver short anyway.
She stepped back. She could believe that he’d get support. Lady, she didn’t want to, but she could. Were had few children and they all felt the longing, if not as strongly as she often did, denied the chance for her own. And what a convenient excuse for the packs that disliked being united under Roanoke to agitate for their independence. The Western packs had been united for only three years, and even the original Roanoke sub-packs had their share of troublemakers, always bucking for more power.
Thinking about defending against all that made Silver realize she knew her answer to the petition, even without time to think further. You couldn’t let fear for yourself, or fear for your cubs, keep you from living your life. At some point, you had to leave it in the Lady’s hands. But having made the decision, now she couldn’t voice it. She couldn’t match dominance with everyone across the entirety of their territory, one by one. And if she lost one sub-pack, others were likely to follow. Better she and Dare work together, Dare using his skill with words on them, persuading and ordering where necessary.
“So don’t posture,” she told Craig. “Mention this to no one and I’ll consider your petition. Yes, and discuss it with Dare.” She cut him off as he drew breath for a further objection.
That didn’t stop Portland, however. She stood and crossed her arms, anger rolling off her in waves. “Roanoke, how can you—”
“Roanoke?” Tom’s voice was loud, to be heard over their argument, but his wild self had its tail tucked far between its legs. “One of the patrols found an unknown Were. He was at the—”
He said a word Silver knew she should know, but at the moment, that was about as much use as looking up at the tiny dot of a bird against the clouds and knowing it could be eaten. Both hypotheticals, when they were impossibly far out of reach.
“The place where people arrive from far away,” Death said. “Another visitor for you. Wouldn’t want you to get lonely, with your mate gone, would we?”
“Have the p
atrol bring him in,” Silver told Tom. He bounded off. She wished she could escape this situation so easily. “I’ll have to ask the two of you to find accommodations of your own while I deal with this. Rest assured, we are not done with our discussion.”
She held her arm wide to the exit, and Craig left without fuss. Of course he would, he’d gotten what he wanted. Now she would be mired in talk and argument when her voice was already heavy with the weight of the decision she wanted to make.
Portland hung back. “Roanoke, please.” Her voice was low, thin with the frustration of the choice her beta wanted to force her into.
“If this could be fixed with a pronouncement, Portland, I’d make it.” Silver massaged her temple as she walked with Portland to the exit. “We need to work things around carefully, all right? Leash your temper.” She glanced ahead to make sure Craig wasn’t lingering to listen. “What does the father think?”
“You just heard.” Portland tipped her chin ahead of them.
Silver stopped short to stare at her. “Lady preserve us, tell me you’re joking.” When Portland shook her head, Silver smacked the back of her head, as she would a cub. “Why do I have to say this to any of you? Don’t play chase with your beta! Look what happened to Sacramento and hers. Did watching that fall apart teach you nothing?”
“Sacramento’s girlfriend was crazy,” Portland said challengingly, but her wild self’s tucked tail admitted her guilt. “We’re not lovers anymore, anyway. We were already drifting apart, before—” She dropped her hand but stopped before touching her abdomen. “And arguing about it finished off the intimate parts of relationship.”
She sighed. “However much of a cat he’s being, it’s not about him wanting to keep a woman from holding authority. I’m sure of that. He supported me without reservation when I challenged for the alphaship back in the beginning. I think the idea of having a child has just got his voice so twisted up, he doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore.”
“Mm,” Silver murmured, still dubious. That was a nice excuse. He loved his child too much. What about loving his child’s mother?
Once she’d seen Portland out, Silver returned to the den and found some more substantial food. She waited for the unknown Were to arrive and ate while staring into nothing in particular. As a healthy den, their home had a deep glow of the Lady’s light about it, and Silver drew on the sight of it as a comfort.
Felicia arrived home and lingered just out of sight, probably catching up on all the gossip from Tom or one of the others. Silver felt irrationally like her decisions were being judged by the young woman, being compared to what Dare might have done. What Dare might have done didn’t matter—they were equal alphas, and he wasn’t here right now. Still, the itchy feeling of a judging gaze lingered. When things died down, Silver would have Felicia lay out today’s accomplishments in finding herself occupation, even if Silver couldn’t understand all of them. Just because Felicia had been out of the den didn’t mean she’d been working.
Silver had time to finish her food, clear it away, and set her chair to face the entrance with Pierce standing near, an alpha relaxing ready to deign to offer an audience, before the new Were arrived.
He was younger than she’d expected, only a few years older than Felicia. He was dark in coloration in both tame and wild selves, as Felicia was, though his wild self was more dark gray than black, in a wash along its back and head.
He knelt before her and tipped his head to one side to show his neck, formal in his respect. Too smooth by half, Silver decided, as he lifted his head to smile at her. His wild self held its head high, pleased with itself. But arrogance didn’t necessarily mean evil intentions. “Roanoke. My name is Enrique. My birth pack is in South America—” He said a name of a place, but it meant nothing to Silver, especially tinted into something warm and exotic by his accent. Not North America, not Europe, that was the important part. If he was telling the truth. Silver could smell no particular lie. Dare had warned of Madrid sending someone, but to an outlying pack. Silver doubted Madrid would be so foolish as to send someone to Roanoke’s home pack.
“We are very isolated. I want to see more of the world. I hoped you would give me permission to … explore?” The stranger hesitated over the word.
“Roam,” Silver suggested. She glanced at Death, to read his reaction to the young man, but he was apparently dozing, watching events through half-open eyes. “Felicia? Do you know this man? Is he someone Madrid could have sent?”
Felicia started. “What? No.” She shook her head a beat later to emphasize the answer, though her face still showed confusion at the question. Her wild was on high alert, ears high and nose straining forward at the young Were. Silver narrowed her eyes at it. Was Felicia trying to hide something?
But then understanding dawned. Young was the important part here. Young woman, young man. Silver gave the face of Enrique’s tame self more careful attention in that light. He was handsome enough, she supposed, though his self-satisfied air was too much a barrier for her to class him as truly attractive. Felicia smelled sharply of excitement and anticipation under her surprise.
“You may roam Roanoke territory,” Silver told him, and motioned for him to rise. She needed to get back to dealing with the problem Portland’s beta presented. “So long as you don’t cause trouble, and you seek permission again before you settle anywhere.”
“Thank you.” Enrique smiled even brighter and sought out Felicia immediately among those of the pack who had gathered to watch. Silver rubbed at her temple. A new chase might put Felicia in a better mood, but it wouldn’t keep her nose to the trail of her father’s orders. But if Silver needed to drag the young woman back on track, she would—Dare would come home to a united Roanoke and a daughter with work, if Silver had anything to do with it.
* * *
Felicia could hardly wait to speak until she’d pulled Enrique out to the backyard. She dragged him across the wild grass to the bushy trees planted at the fence to block nosy neighbors. It wasn’t completely private, but it would do. She faced the house and watched for any windows edging up to indicate one of the kids was eavesdropping. She used Spanish too, just in case. “I can’t believe I lied for you. Lady. What are you doing here?”
She pressed fingertips to her temples. She hadn’t even thought about the lie, it had just slipped out, which was probably why Silver hadn’t smelled it. She’d seen her childhood reflected in Enrique’s face so strongly, she couldn’t stand the thought that he’d be sent away before she could at least talk to him.
“What kind of greeting is that?” Enrique laughed. Felicia remembered him being hot when she’d been back in Madrid, but Lady above. He’d cut his hair shorter since she’d seen him last, turning curls into lush black waves. Just standing here smelling him, she wanted to run her fingers through it.
He opened his arms, and after checking for observers again, she embraced him. Inhaling his scent filled her voice with all the tones of home, but she quickly pushed away. “Lady, you’re so lucky my father wasn’t here. He’d have seen right through you even if he didn’t recognize you from when you were a child. Chilean? Seriously? That accent never even watched a TV documentary about Chile. You didn’t smell even a little like you were lying, though. How’d you manage that, when it was a planned lie?”
“You think that was luck? I knew Dare would never let me near you, so I was bumming around in Mexico until he was out of town or you went traveling on your own. Mexico City has too much to do with keeping his people out of the human violence to worry about lones. And Silver’s too crazy to understand place-names. You only smell like a lie when you’re worried about it.”
Felicia snapped off a twig and tapped the flat needles against her upper lip, as if in absent thought, to discreetly use the evergreen scent to block out his distracting one. She needed to remember that he was—or had been, at least—part of the Madrid pack that had kept her from her father when her mother died, and then tried to use her as a pawn against him.
Even as she reminded herself of that, though, memories kept intruding of nipping at his tail in childhood games. “My father wouldn’t let you near me to say what? Why are you here, Enrique?” Her chest tightened at a sudden thought. “Is everyone all right? I haven’t e-mailed anyone since just after I decided to stay here, but I noticed everyone’s still posting status updates. I mean, it’s stupid stuff, since it’s where their human friends can see, but it means they’re still online, with enough time for the stupid stuff.”
Enrique clasped her upper arm briefly, but his expression twisted. “It’s not that bad for most of the pack. After what your father did, Madrid lost everything outside the city limits to Barcelona, except for one hunting ground. But inside the city, we’re reasonably safe. Madrid himself makes sure of that.”
Felicia looked down at her feet. What she’d helped her father do, Enrique could have said. But her father hadn’t injured Madrid, he’d only humiliated him in front of the other European alphas. If Madrid didn’t have the physical strength to keep his territory after that, it wasn’t her father’s fault. But being constrained to a single city sounded pretty frustrating to Felicia. No wonder Enrique wanted to get out. But he’d chosen to get out to here, not actually to South America, or anywhere else in the world. She let her silence indicate her first question still stood.
“As for why I’m here—they didn’t treat you fairly.” Enrique bowed his head, granting her a greater angle of respect than she really deserved. He was presenting himself as a lone and she was pack, yes, but he was also a few years older and more experienced. “I told Madrid that, I told my parents that, but I finally got tired of arguing. So I left. I figured you’d be old enough now that your father would finally let you out on your own a little, so I could talk to you.” He hesitated. “I do think … if you came back, it would be different. Madrid obviously couldn’t show weakness to me, but he knows how he treated you was wrong—”
Reflected Page 6
