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“How’s your mom?”
He sat on the bed and closed his eyes. He was quiet for a while as he tried to gain control. “She’s fine,” he said finally. “She’s been staying in my spare room. She helped take care of you.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know why that surprised me, but it did. Maybe because my own mother had never taken care of me? “That was nice of her.”
“She was happy to do it. She’s the only one I’ve let near you besides the medic. I can’t risk…” The tick along his jaw was back as he fought for control again. I waited patiently, not wanting to add to his struggle. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. I knew my pack was bad, but I never imagined it’d be like this. It was selfish of me.”
“Don’t.” I gripped his hand. “I chose to come. Your pack might be a complete mess, but I still think it can be fixed.” Maybe I was delusional for thinking that, but after meeting some of the Weres at the sparring session, I knew they weren’t all bad. He just couldn’t see that right now. “I’ve only been with you a few weeks, and in that time, you’ve been running all over the place. Before that, you seemed like this impossible, amazing guy who could do a million things at a time.” He laughed, but it wasn’t because I was funny. The sound he made was more of a resigned half-laugh. “But now I know you’re just a normal person. A very strong and powerful one, but nonetheless, a normal person. There are only so many hours in a day, and you have to decide what’s most important to you. Being on the Seven and running the pack? It’s too much.”
He lay down on the bed beside me, careful not to touch my side. “I can’t believe it’s always been this bad.”
“It probably wasn’t. It takes time for a healthy pack to turn.” The next words were hard to say, but I had to say them. “If you had to choose—because I think you’re going to have to decide—would you leave the Seven or the pack?”
“I don’t know. I can’t believe I’m even thinking it. But I can’t leave my pack. They’re mine.”
That was what I thought. But he was going to undermine his rule of the pack with this meeting.
He sighed. “If I left the Seven, who’d take my place? Anders from the Scandinavian pack has too much on his plate right now. His mate just had a daughter. He’s not going to want to leave them for stretches of time. Vasile is in the same boat. Farshid doesn’t have a mate yet, but he’s dealing with enough right now. His region is in so much flux right now that it’d be too dangerous to leave his pack.”
Donovan was talking, but I wasn’t really listening. I had a crazy idea. It was perfect. Positively brilliant. I wasn’t sure anyone else would agree, but if they did, it’d be epic.
“What? What’d you think of?”
I almost didn’t want to say it aloud, but I couldn’t keep it from him. “Tessa. She should take your spot.”
His face paled. “You’re out of your mind. There’s no way the alphas would accept it. She only learned of our kind a few months ago when she was bitten.”
I sat up on my knees, nearly bouncing with energy. This idea—it was the answer. “She’s stronger than any alpha I know, and she has absolutely no desire to run or even be a part of her own pack. Ever. And her being bitten? That’s exactly why she should be on the Council. Even if she’s not human anymore, she grew up that way. She gets how they think. The humans know about us, and there are going to be more problems. Plus, she’s part bruja. She can help smooth things over with them, and she’s already our unofficial spokesperson. So, why not take it a step further?”
Donovan scoffed. “She’s a few centuries too young.”
“She’s as old as I am.”
He gave me a look.
“You going to insult me now?” Because even if my side was still aching, I wasn’t going to take that.
“No. I wouldn’t dare. Not after you distracted Bhrunyz from my mother.” All of his joking disappeared. “Never do that again.”
“Not agreeing to that. It was going after your mother.” I still didn’t know why the beast had come after me instead.
Donovan ran a hand over his face, and I noticed the lines around his eyes had deepened. “You’re exhausted,” I said.
“I’ve not slept a wink since you got hurt yesterday.”
That was too long without sleep. “You have to rest, Donovan.” I was worried about him. He wasn’t getting any rest. Just because werewolves seemed invincible, didn’t mean we actually were.
“I will when this is over.”
It needed to be over soon. Now that Donovan had calmed down a little, maybe I could reason with him. “I know you say you have no idea who did this and that it doesn’t matter because you’re going to order it out of them, but I think that’s a cop-out. You have to know. And forcing it? That’s going to break your already broken pack. So, let’s talk this through. For now, my list is Vivian, whoever it was that attacked me on the run, Feidhelm—”
“It’s not Feidhelm.”
Why not? “He’s a jerk and he hates me.”
“He hates everyone. It’s not personal, and he’ll grow on you.”
It sure felt personal. Especially when he made faces at my hair. And I wasn’t so sure about him growing on me. “And the wolf who attacked me?”
