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“In a minute.” He clamped me tighter. We sat together for a few blissful minutes.
Two sharp knocks echoed through the door. Derek. He always knocked twice.
“Kate?”
“Come in,” I told him.
Derek walked in. “I have a wolf out here who wants to see you. He says it’s an emergency. Probably another challenge. What do you want me to . . . ?” His mouth hung open.
Curran looked at him. “Bring him in. Don’t tell him that I’m awake.”
Derek closed his mouth with a click and went out.
“Help me up?”
I grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bed. He blinked at the windup clock on the wall. “Is today Wednesday?”
“Yes.”
He picked up the bowl of soup and drank from it.
The door swung open. A large Hispanic man stepped through. He saw Curran and froze.
Curran finished draining the bowl and looked at him. “Yes?”
The wolf dropped down into a crouch and stayed there, his head bowed, his gaze on the floor.
“Nothing to say?”
The wolf shook his head.
“The Council is due for a meeting in three minutes. Go down there and tell them to wait for me, and I might forget you were ever here.”
The wolf turned, rising, and left without a word. The door shut behind him.
Curran swayed. I caught him. My leg gave and we crashed down onto the couch.
“Ow.”
Curran shook his head.
“Are you sure you’re ready for a Council meeting?”
He turned to me. Gold rolled over his eyes, cold and lethal. “I’m sure. They better be ready for me.”
He pushed himself up and headed to the bathroom. I followed him in case he tipped over. He did, on the way back, and caught himself on the wall.
I slid my arm around his waist.
“The soup will kick in in a minute,” he said.
“Sure. Lean on me.” He did and we slowly made our way to the door. “Some tough pair we are.”
“Tough enough,” he growled.
Five minutes later he walked to the Council room on his own power. The shapeshifters saw him and stepped aside, silent. We reached the room. I could hear people mumbling inside. Curran took a deep breath, thrust the door open, and roared.
The sound of leonine rage burst like thunder, shaking the windows. People in the hallway cringed. When it died, you could hear a pin drop.
Curran held the door open for me. He walked to his seat at the head of the table, got another chair, put it next to his, and looked at me. I came and sat. He lowered himself into his seat.
The alphas stared at the table. Not a single pair of eyes looked up.
Curran leaned forward, his eyes drenched in furious gold. “Explain yourselves.”
EPILOGUE
THE BUILDING WAS SOLID BRICK, CONSTRUCTED according to the new fashion, rather than the old—
only two stories in height, squat, thick metal grates on the windows, and a very sturdy-looking door. It sat on a quiet street just past the northwestern industrial district, which was now an old ruin. Aside from being sturdy and in good shape, I couldn’t see anything special about it.
“What is this?”
Curran smiled next to me. “An early Christmas present.”
I looked at the house again. After the last three weeks, a Christmas present was the last thing I’d expected.
Curran felt betrayed by his Pack. From his point of view, he’d worked years for the benefit of his people, and their loyalty had lasted less than forty-eight hours. In return for his service, they’d tried to expel his mate, and when she wouldn’t leave him, they’d tried to kill her. Curran took the marathon of my fights to the death very personally.
Each year the Pack celebrated the traditional Thanksgiving feast, which consisted of a dinner of epic proportions. Curran usually spent hours there, talking to everyone. This time he walked in, growled, “You have my permission to eat,” and walked out. We had a private dinner in our rooms and he gorged himself on pie. Aside from that, he refused to leave our quarters. For fresh air, we went out on the roof, where he had a giant patio, complete with a fire pit and a grill. I built a snowman, and Julie practiced shooting it with a crossbow. We visited his private gym. That was it. So when he asked me to come to the city with him, I decided it was a good sign. It took us less than an hour to get here and I enjoyed the drive.
I cocked my head and looked at the house from a different angle. No special insights or revelations presented themselves.
Maybe he bought me a new place to live. “Is this your convoluted way of inviting me to move out?”
“You’re never moving out, as long as you want.”
Curran strode to the door through the snow and opened it.
I walked in. From the inside the house looked just as sturdy. The windows were small and barred, but numerous enough to let in plenty of light. The front room took up most of the floor. Two desks waited in opposite corners. Filing cabinets guarded the walls. I strode through to the doorway on the left. A narrow, long room full of shelves, half empty, half filled with jars and boxes of various herbs. Looked like someone did a decent job stocking up on alchemical supplies.
“There is more upstairs.”
A cursory inspection of the second floor showed a basic armory and a room with some diagnostic equipment, magic and otherwise. It wasn’t out of this world, but it was enough to get by.
I came back downstairs and sat on the staircase. “What is this?”
He gave me his Beast Lord look. “It’s yours.”
“I’m sorry?”
“The house and the contents. It’s yours if you want it. The Pack is backing you up as a business: it purchased the supplies and is fronting your salary and a modest operating budget for a year, after which it will have a twenty percent claim on your profits. It will drop to ten when your loan is paid off. I had Raphael draw up the paperwork.” He crossed to the desk and lifted a manila folder. “All you need is to fill in the name, and it’s off to the Secretary of State.”
I looked at him.
“Your own Order. Or your own Guild. Whichever way you choose to go.”
“Why?”
He crossed his arms on his chest. “The Pack cost you your job.”
“I cost myself that job, and it was rotten anyway.”
He shook his head. “You came to help. It’s the Pack’s chance to help back. Everybody has something, that one thing they must do to feel happy. I think this is yours, and I want you to be happy. You don’t have to do it, but it’s here if you choose to come back to it.”
