“Ehh, you know I detest acting like Umbras aren’t of importance,” Quinn said.
All of the terms that were being used, I wasn’t super familiar with, but I had heard them in other conversations. I stood slightly behind Quinn, present but not part of the discussion. I saw the female lean to the right to look behind Quinn.
“So, she isn’t dead?” she said.
“Wait? Then why are we waging war?” one of the men said.
“Tell us what’s going on, Quinnlyn,” one of the older men said.
“I’d like to wait until the rest of us are here, so I don’t have to repeat myself,” Quinn said.
Callie had walked up and stood right next to me, shoulder to shoulder. Her way of showing me solidarity.
Within ten minutes, everyone who was expected was there. Most of them had stolen long glances at me.
“Alright,” Quinn said, then clapped his hands together. “It’s time to end someone’s run a little early.”
“How do you think we’re supposed to do that?” one of the men asked.
“Well, Leroy, after he shifts back in the morning, he will go to bed, like he has been doing, because it has been reported that he’s exhausted after shifting, especially after the first moon sliver. Then several of us will move in,” Quinn said.
“And what about the rest of us?” another said.
“You’ll be there to control anyone who doesn’t stand down and wants to remain loyal,” Quinn said.
“And the Nova?” one of the females said.
“Off. Limits. Other than if she needs to be subdued, no harm comes to her,” Quinn said. The way he dropped his voice a couple of octaves made me crumble a bit.
“Who’s the Nova?” I whispered to Callie.
“My aunt, Ravik’s wife,” she whispered back.
I nodded slightly.
“The plan is simple, really. From my intel, no one has been staying at the pack house after shifting, except Ravik and the Nova. We need to make sure Benji or Daxyn don’t catch wind, or don’t interfere until after Ravik is dead,” he said.
“I don’t get why we’re still going after him if the girl is still alive and no crime was committed,” one said.
Before my brain fully processed, my mouth started moving. “Sure, I’m alive, but my child is not, and that is Ravik’s fault. Secondly, the only reason I live is that he thinks I’m already dead. I can’t go back to my family until he has been taken care of.”
Everybody fell into an awkward silence. All of them dropped their eyes to the ground. The truth I spoke wasn’t what they expected.
“Maybe I don’t agree with all of it, but now she knows oursecret,” one of them said.
“She does because she's seen Daxyn shift because he's careless… but it doesn’t matter, she would have figured it out anyway… as I’m bound to her… so all of that is irrelevant,” Quinn said.
Everyone’s eyes locked onto Quinn, and shock painted most of their faces.
“Ravik doesn’t know this?” one shot out.
“No… he doesn’t,” Quinn said.
“Don’t you think if you had told him from the get-go, he would have gone about this differently?” the older man asked.
“And what? Do you truly think he would have been willing to let his nephew raise his grandson?”
“We won’t know now, will we?” the old man replied.
