Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“I know. Keep going.”
Grateful, her body said. “Nessa is our best bet. And Edgar. Although Edgar…might do something hasty, like dismember whomever he finds or something.”
“Jessie can rein him in. Mostly.”
She nodded. Truth. “But Nessa is attending the party at Jessie’s. We’re headed there now. It’s wise to tell them in person, within Ivy House walls. I doubt your cell phone is bugged, but…who knows. Also, this is something they should weigh in on anyway. And we’ll want to set up some sort of surveillance to see if that mage uses that area again. Oh! And that mage seemed to know exactly where we patrolled, which is on the boundary line. We always patrol on the boundary line, which is easy to pinpoint. Because maps. We need to change it up. If we need to trespass on the neighbor’s property, we need to trespass. We’ll send a gift basket in apology if we get caught.” She paused, her fingers tapping on the armrest. “Did I miss anything?”
“One thing. These people think of shifters like animals and gargoyles like monsters. The reason we’re not crossing onto the neighbor’s land is out of respect for them. We don’t want to drag them into the crossfire. Mages don’t operate on respect. They probably think our patrol routes mimic that of a dog marking its territory, nothing more. We need to lean into their misconceptions. When we veer, we need to do so in secret. We want them to keep underestimating our intelligence.”
She nodded slowly. That was a very good point. “If they don’t notice any tracks, they won’t catch on that we’ve veered until we make a stink about it. Which goes back to not acknowledging the breach as a pack, and instead we send in a couple people to try to track them down.”
“Yes.” He tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel. “The details of sending in Nessa and Edgar will then be turned over to Austin and Jessie, making us the backup for when we’re needed. And we’ll wait to be told how we’re needed.”
He was still using we even though this was his function and not hers. She suppressed a thankful smile.
“This is how the convocation differs from a pack,” he said. “We have people with expertise well beyond our knowledge. We’ll need the rest of the team to come into this with their various skill sets.”
She showed her pride in her bearings. “And that makes us the best.” She twitched up a shoulder. “Well…except that the mages have a better potion than ours.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Except for that, yes. We’re lagging on the mage side of all this, but getting gargoyles and shifters in place was necessary. Once that is locked down, we can solidly enter this fight.”
A wave of shivers washed over her, and she looked out the side window. “I dread that,” she admitted.
His reply was soft. “Me too.”
They rode for a bit in silence, nearing downtown now and about to turn toward Ivy House.
“Dad never could’ve done this,” she said. They’d both already shared uncomfortable truths. Might as well go all in. “I never could understand why he didn’t push harder to bring the shifters together. I get it now. He’s smart and an excellent alpha, but he doesn’t have the raw ruthlessness that’s needed to get this done. He won’t sacrifice his standing within the alpha community because he worries it’ll trickle down to his family. To Mac and me. He doesn’t want to do something that will inherently hurt our futures. And so he plays by the rules and only pushes far enough not to break things.”
“It’s an admirable trait. You shouldn’t fault him for it. A father’s top priority is protecting his children.”
His expression stayed stoic, but she heard the pain in his words. He hadn’t been able to, but, if given the choice, he’d do what Aurora’s dad had. He’d protect over pushing so hard that something broke.
She nodded, looking away again. “I don’t fault him. But to break through, someone needs to blow the rules and social customs to hell.”
“I’ve come to that realization as well. Austin has no problem taking that route.”
“No. And Jessie doesn’t know any better.”
“Even if she did, she’ll do whatever is necessary to protect her people. She doesn’t see rules. She sees results.”
“Hmm,” Aurora said as they got closer. She wondered where she fit in. She wasn’t as buttoned up as her dad—Ulric and Jasper had painstakingly made sure of that. She wasn’t hellbent on following the rules. Nor was she totally raw ruthlessness. Sure, when she let herself go, even Aljoe sat back with widened eyes…and then a grin, but she lived in her head as much as she relished feeling her beast.
She was realizing that she existed somewhere in the middle. She loved the idea of throwing all this in Armendale’s face, but she also wanted rules and order. There was a time for the sort of ruthlessness only a beast could inspire, and a time for words and talking things out. She wasn’t quite sure how that would dictate her future. Where she’d fit if this all worked out the way Uncle Auzzie and her dad wanted it to. Would a generational pack be enough to appease her wildness? And if not…what would become of her?