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I’d never been so pleased to hear about engineering foresight before. Hauling ourselves up eighty flights of stairs would have been exhausting. I’d have rather slept in the stairwell. And given how close sunrise was, I probably would have fallen asleep in the stairwell.
Moments later the door chimed and slid open, and we were greeted by three men with guns aimed at our heads.
Chapter Thirteen
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I exited the elevator first, both because I was the pack’s queen and had the most power of anyone in the elevator, and also because I didn’t want to be stuck in the cramped space anymore.
I recognized all three of the men as members of Lucas’s pack, and thankfully two of them were guys I was well acquainted with.
Dominick lowered his gun first, and upon recognizing Desmond and myself, the others did the same.
“Sorry, ma’am.” Jackson, a werewolf I’d rescued from a rogue pack several years earlier, gave me an apologetic nod.
The third wolf was a guy named Bradley whom I’d met once or twice in passing at various werewolf events. He offered a small smile and bowed politely. Jackson and Dominick, realizing they’d skipped protocol, bowed as well.
“Totally not necessary right now, guys.” I touched them each on the shoulder, bidding them to stand. I looked to Bradley first. “A few members of my party are vampires. I need you to show them to light-safe rooms, please.”
He grimaced at the word vampires but didn’t argue, bless him. Clementine, Sutherland and Reggie followed him, but Holden held back for a moment. He placed his hand on my arm and fixed me with a stern glare. “Are you sure this is the best idea?”
“Do you have a better one?”
“I can think of about a thousand other places we could have gone that didn’t involve us crawling to your ex for help.”
“Next time we’re facing death by sunrise, remind me to ask for your best suggestion then.” It hurt me physically to be short with him. But he was being a dick, and it was testing my patience. Now was hardly the best time to get into a fight, though.
“Yes, next time.” He said it as if he doubted the likelihood of there being a next time, and that made me uneasy. If we could avoid getting ourselves into life-threatening trouble down the line, that would be great. But it seemed much more likely he believed we would not be facing any future trouble together.
You made your choice, I reminded myself.
But my choice didn’t need to mean he was out of my life forever, did it? That was too unfair for words. We had been together for years before things ever got physical. Was it beyond the scope of reason we could go back to the way things were?
Even as I considered it, I knew how ridiculous it was.
We could never be the same as we were, because between then and now we had loved each other. We’d loved each other in a way that was fierce and beautiful, and those kinds of feelings changed people. The people we were now might never be able to be friends.
I had to believe, though, we could find a middle ground between friendship and love. A space we could exist in together that meant I wouldn’t need to give him up, even though I’d chosen to spend my life with Desmond.
Today was all about selfish thoughts for me, but they tended to be the best kind when it came to distracting myself from the bigger issues.
“We can talk about this later. For now, can you find somewhere you’ll be safe for the day? Please?” I touched his cheek, and he flinched.
Our healing process was off to a great start.
“Fine.”
I was well versed in the many nuanced meanings of fine, though usually it was because I was wielding the word like a passive-aggressive knife. For Holden to throw it back at me meant that he, of course, was not fine, and when we did eventually talk, it wasn’t
going to be to share our warm-and-fuzzy feelings.
As long as it meant he was still talking to me, I didn’t care.
He followed after Bradley, leaving me with the humans and the werewolves. The penthouse was three stories and had plenty enough room for everyone, even if Lucas had brought half the pack here. I wasn’t sure how many of the wolves would actually be present, given not all of them lived in Manhattan proper. Wherever they were, I hoped they were safe. Regardless of my feelings for Lucas, I cared a great deal about the pack and didn’t want anything bad to happen to the people in it.
“Jackson, can you show everyone else to a room? Des and I need to go have a chat with His Majesty.” I swear I tried to keep the sarcastic tone out of my voice, but sometimes it snuck in all on its own.
Jackson, no stranger to my bad attitude, smirked and led the humans and my sister away. The cops all looked wiped out. The past several hours had dealt us more drama and insanity than most people experienced in a lifetime. They’d seen the dead rise, and I’d watched the living fall.
I swallowed hard, chasing the memory of Keaty from my mind. The time for mourning would come, but I couldn’t face my sadness right now. I had a bigger fish to fry. Namely, I needed to have a tête-à-tête with my werewolf husband before sunrise.
