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Delilah shook her head, disgusted at herself for even thinking like that. She was tired of running from her problems. She had found a home and a pack she loved, and it was high time she fought for what she wanted.
Exiting the house through the rear door, she found Miranda at the edge of the crowd and nudged her. She turned and gasped. “Oh, good, you’re here! It’s just getting intense!”
“What’s happening?” Delilah whispered.
“Well, the two big ones say someone here belongs to them, but Graham and Jude say they don’t have anyone here. Apparently, they lost a female they were planning on trading as a peace offering to those other two over there. They said they were Silver Tail or Silver Creek or something.”
“Silver Paw,” Delilah asserted grimly. Now that she saw them up close, she recognized the two members of Deacon Claw’s allies, Alpha Travers and Beta Edward.
Miranda looked at her with wide eyes. “You know them? Wait, are they talking aboutyou?” She bounced up and down with excitement. “You didn’t tell me you were afugitive,” she breathed.
Delilah chuckled and shook her head. She should have known no one in the conglomerate city pack would care about the rules of loyalty the forest packs required. Even as she smiled with relief that her friend was still hers, she looked up to find Jonah pointing her out to the crowd.
“There she is! There’s the runaway!” he shouted. That feeling of everyone watching her returned, only this time it was certainly real. Heads turned and eyes widened in her direction as Delilah’s cheeks reddened.
Finally allowing herself to get angry, Delilah decided to handle things a little more confrontationally this time. She blew her hair out of her face in frustration. “Yeah, it’s me. What of it?”
Jonah and Clark looked a little taken aback and she thought she saw Graham hide a smirk and Jude cover a spurt of laughter with a cough.
“What of it? You’re a peace offering. You’re coming with us, or else.”
“Or else what?” she challenged. “What more could you possibly do to me? You already want to sell me into slavery!”
Jonah’s eyes flashed. “You of all people understand the time-honored tradition of cross-mating between allied packs! You have the opportunity to be the tie that binds us together.”
Delilah snorted. “To-may-to, to-mah-to. I’mnotcoming back with you.”
Jonah set his mouth grimly. “You don’t have a choice. Come with us, or face the destruction of your…friendshere.”
Graham spoke up. “Why is that necessary? Consider your peace offering given. You offered her to us and here she is. I don’t understand the problem.”
She loved Graham’s efforts at diplomacy, but Delilah knew that Jonah would always have at least one more trick up his furry sleeve. “The problem, Mr. Grimmaw, is that I called off our deal when I agreed to send her to the Silver Paw pack, instead. If you choose to harbor this fugitive, we will hold you guilty of kidnapping.”
Darkness clouded Graham’s eyes, and a shiver went down Delilah’s spine. She had never seen Graham get angry before. Evidently, unlike Jonah, she believed it to be because he had a long fuse, not because he lacked the ability to retaliate. She was suddenly afraid for Jonah and Clark.
“Then I guess we’re guilty of kidnapping, and you’ll do what you feel you have to.” Shock crossed Jonah’s face at Graham’s words. He had obviously anticipated that his intimidation tactics would be successful and he would leave with Delilah and Graham’s blessing.
“This is stupid,” Travers interjected. “You’re protecting someone who isn’t even yours. Delilah is a lone wolf who didn’t hold up her end of the bargain. I’m not leaving without her and that’s final.”
Watching the storm clouds gather on Graham’s face, Delilah knew Travers had no idea what he was getting himself into.
Chapter 29
Graham
Grahamscrambledoutthefront door, not bothering to pick up after himself. He had been in the middle of important pack affairs, but it would all have to wait. He could do it later. No rage would be spared today. He’d use every ounce of it, if needed.
He’d received a text from Samson that shifters from another pack had entered the Fang District, and it didn’t take much to deduce who it might be. It was one thing to be bothered by the Deacon Claw pack. But when they showed up in his neighborhood, pursuing someone he had sworn to protect—someone heloved—they deserved no more patience.
As Graham strutted down the sidewalks, walking forward to the Fang District, meeting up with Jude on the way, he swore to himself that if it came to it, he was going to offer no pleasantry. There was a time to be civil, to make compromises. This wasn’t that time.
He vowed to use all of his frustration at being so carelessly interrupted and redirect it toward the impending confrontation. He wasn’t just protecting a pack but trying to run a multimillion-dollar business.
Graham had left his suit jacket at home. He was dressed down to the bare minimum, just a dress shirt and a pair of gray slacks. He put his cuff links into his pocket and rolled up his sleeves. He looked up at the series of towers that greeted him in the distance, familiar yet foreboding, and nodded at Jude as they entered the district through the shop entrances. They had no idea what awaited them on the other side.
He was relieved to see that Deacon Claw hadn’t caused an incident. In the teahouse, the civilians were casually going about their lives, unaware of what was transpiring behind them.
As the two of them casually slipped out the back, behind the wooden doors, through the back room, and past the sliding glass doors, they were greeted by three wolves, weaving through a crowd of people while sniffing and growling.
