Matthew nods in agreement with his packmate, reclining back in the seat. “I’ve heard rumors of a stronghold that they’ve been living in?—”
“Wait. Wait. Wait.” Emery waves his hands in the air to garner his father’s attention. “You want to attack a Hunter stronghold? Isn’t that where their…families are kept?”
His brows furrow.
The twins’ father is usually jovial and full of life, but just now, his expression clouds with a darkness I’ve never seen before.
“We didn’t start the war, Emery. We’re only finishing it,” he says gravely.
“But there could be children there?—”
“Children who will grow up to be Hunters,” interjects Ted, speaking for the first time.
An uneasy feeling skates down my spine.
I don’t like the sound of this. At all. Something about this entire situation isn’t adding up. What was the Hunters’ end game? Just to kill as many of us as they can? I know they made elusive comments about Izzy, but this entire thing couldn’t possibly be about her, could it?
Thousands of questions flood my mind, and I begin to sort them into careful boxes in my head, filing them away so they may provide some coherence once I have all the missing pieces.
“And what about Kain?” Ashton begins to tap his fingers against the table, the tick almost eerily similar to his father’s. “How did the Hunters manage to involve a wolf shifter?”
“Some shifters despise what they are,” Gregor confesses softly, his gaze glued to a water stain on the table. “It’s possible the Hunters corrupted Kain. Made him think that there’s a demon inside of him.”
Reid’s scowl deepens. “I don’t think that’s it?—”
Gregor slams his fist down on the table, causing it to shake. He levels Reid with a penetrating glare that causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand at attention, despite not being at the receiving end of it.
“I don’t care what you think.” Each word he speaks is curt and concise, a slash of a whip lacerating skin. “You’re not a member of the Council yet.”
Fierce indignation ripples across Ashton’s face before he carefully masks it, adopting an inscrutable expression once more. “That may be, but we are being trained. We deserve to have input.”
“The kid’s right, Greg,” Kyle interjects, causing Gregor’s head to jerk in his direction.
“You’re not a member of the Council either,” Gregor snaps, a vein pulsating in his temple. “None of you are.”
He focuses on Kyle and Silas, then Hale and Gerry, before finally turning his piercing gaze onto me and my father. I notice that he skips over Travan, as if he’s too afraid to stare directly into the unhinged man’s eyes.
“We’re a part of this too.” Gerry’s voice is practically a growl. “Get your head out of your ass for one second, Gregor.”
Gregor takes a deep breath, his muscles shuddering, before he lowers his head. All I can hear is the sound of his ragged gasps.
And I realize…
He’s not thinking rationally. This attack no doubt reminded him of the loss of his mate and pack.
What is it that my mother always used to say?
Men will often see things how they appear, instead of how they truly are.
Instead of how they truly are…
The wheels in my head begin to turn.
“I think you guys should go,” Matthew says, his voice significantly calmer than it was moments ago. He flashes his sons an apologetic smile. “Find your mate. We can discuss things later.”
I confidently raise my hand in the air but speak before they can call upon me. This isn’t a classroom, and I’m not a five-year-old student desperate to impress the teacher.
“If I may, I have a theory?—”
