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)
His sobs refreshed. His fingers dug into her.
“Share them with us,” she said, leaning over him, still holding him tightly. “Share their memories. Don’t keep them inside. Let us share in their life so that we all might know them. So that we might know Spencer.”
That was his birth name. So unlike the eccentric name he had today. But he needed to merge these halves of himself. He needed to trust his team to support all of him, not just the part they knew.
His emotion subsided slowly. His hold on her didn’t.
After a while, neither of them moving or speaking, he calmed and finally said, “This is embarrassing. Alphas don’t cry.”
She rubbed his shoulders. “I remember watching my uncle sobbing over Jessie in front of two packs, without apology or embarrassment. My whole world changed that day. Alphas should cry. To show emotion is to prove you aren’t dead inside. A leader is someone who needs to understand the people they lead. You can’t do that if you can’t feel. If you feel, you shouldn’t be ashamed to show it.”
He took a deep breath and shuddered against her. He didn’t release her.
She continued to hold him, breathing deeply, encouraged when he unconsciously matched the breaths, helping to further calm him. He didn’t tuck the pain away but made peace with things once again.
“Indigo is downstairs,” she said. “I think we should go see her.”
His arms constricted for a moment before loosening again. “Who orchestrated this? Jessie?”
“No. Tristan, amazingly enough. He’s got you, Sue. We’ve all got you. C’mon. Let’s go down to Indigo. If I go down alone, Mr. Tom will just manhandle me back up here and then force us both down again.”
He took a deep breath, moving so his forehead was against her lower stomach. “What would’ve happened if I’d dunked you in the bath, I wonder? How would this situation have changed?”
“I would’ve hog-tied you and thrown you down the stairs. Same result, different delivery.”
He shook with laughter. “Okay, let’s go see Indigo.”
13
Austin
Day one. All these many months of preparation, and he still wasn’t sure he was completely ready. Wasn’t sure they could be completely ready.
The procession of SUV limos wound up the mountain to the community center at the top. It had ample space for the large dinner hosting all the pack and cairn leaders. Food trucks would service their people, the outside set up with picnic tables and areas to chat. It also had a stage, where Austin would introduce his convocation. Everyone always wanted proof of his setup. He planned to give it to them early.
“No reason to be nervous,” Aljoe said, currently wearing a bit of magic over his face so that he wouldn’t be recognized until his identity was unveiled.
Tristan and Sue rode with them, with Jess next to him at the rear.
Jess’s fingers were entwined with his, a sure and steady grip. She wasn’t nervous. Not at all. And that meant she thought of this like she was going into battle.
“I’m not,” Austin said, and it wasn’t a lie. They were going into battle.
Shifters could be territorial, ego driven, and uncomfortable without a firmly set hierarchy. It was how their world was set up. Now, with all the other packs and alphas in close proximity, some would quickly get power drunk. They’d start spinning, reacting to and creating animosity that would set others off, producing a chain effect that resulted in mayhem. Mimi had explained the phenomenon at length.
But just like when he’d first shown up in this town, Austin planned to define the limits and defend them with blood and sweat. He had a lot of experience keeping the peace, more so than any generational pack leaders here. He was about to prove it.
“Just me, then?” Aljoe glanced around with a grin, the magic on his face wobbling a little. You weren’t supposed to show expressions, or the magic couldn’t hold firm.
Tristan smirked. “None of us are coming back from the dead. Well…except him, maybe.”
He glanced at Sue, who grunted and said, “I’m not a celebrity.”
“The gargoyles are going to incite a lot of challenges,” Jess said, looking out the window. “The visiting cairns have been trying really hard to mind their manners after we talked to them, and our resident shifters are fine, but they are used to gargoyles. The incoming packs won’t be.”
“If they step out of line, they’ll get put down.” Austin didn’t leave room for debate, not that any of his crew would. He planned to start how he’d continue. Hard lines. Concrete boundaries. Everyone living by the same rules, with no favoritism or exception. Some of the generational alphas would take great offense to that. Austin didn’t care.
“We’re all going to get challenges,” Aljoe said. “We’re more expressive than any alphas here. We’re going to do things differently than the shifters know or expect. It’ll make some of them unsure, and to hide it, it’ll make them aggressive. They’ll lash out.”