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This wasn’t going to go well.
“We have a dead church leader. A pack member in the hospital. A dead human woman, and the site of a massacre. Does that about sum things up?” he asked.
I nodded.
Don’t say anything. Just agree with whatever he says.
“To top it off, I almost lost my niece because she decided to put her life in danger with some cockamamie scheme to expose a murderer. When I explicitly told her to stay out of danger.”
The carpet became interesting to me again.
“What am I supposed to do with you, Genie?” The roar took me by surprise. He smashed his fists into the desk, the wood groaning loudly. My first instinct was to run for the door. “I try to protect you and you defy my protection. I try to give you freedom, and you use it to push yourself away from us.”
“I wasn’t trying to push myself away,” I argued. “I was trying to help.”
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Trying to help? Trying to help? How does it help me if you’re dead? How do I tell my pack I can protect them if I can’t even protect my own heir? Do you have any idea how difficult this has made our lives? I can’t turn on the TV without seeing news about werewolves. Seeing your face on magazine covers. What am I supposed to do with you?” he demanded again.
If he was expecting me to suggest my own punishment, he was shit out of luck.
“Look at me.” He pounded the desk again.
I lifted my chin hesitantly. Now his whole face was red, and his body trembled with barely contained rage. But there was something else there, something I hadn’t expected to see on my uncle’s face.
Fear.
I blinked in surprise, sure I had to be imagining it.
“What would I have done if something had happened to you, Genie?” His voice softened somewhat, and he was holding the edge of the desk again. “What you did was stupid. It was stupid, foolhardy, dangerous and reckless beyond measure.”
I nodded, my heart racing.
“You risked your life to save a pack member. One who has been nothing but vile to you, and who once aided in a coup that almost killed your sister.”
“I didn’t try to save Hank because I like him.”
“So why? Because of Wilder?”
I shook my head. I liked Wilder. A lot. But my attraction to him and the connection we shared had nothing to do with my actions in Franklinton. “Pack is deeper than caring. Deeper than family or blood. You told us Hank was pack, and I had to protect the pack.”
What I’d done, facing off against Deerling, went so much far beyond merely protecting the pack. But I think Callum knew that.
“You would have died to save one wolf you don’t even like.”
“I would have died to save a thousand wolves I’ve never even met,” I replied.
We stared at each other for a long time, and for once I didn’t feel cowed by him. I didn’t want to look away.
“I am so proud of you it makes my heart hurt,” he said at last.
This wasn’t the response I’d expected. I was stunned into silence by my surprise.
Callum continued, “This week you proved to me, more than any wolf ever has, where your loyalties lie, Eugenia.”
“But I defied you.” Perhaps I shouldn’t be correcting him when he seemed so burdened with goodwill, but sometimes I couldn’t help myself, the wrong thing had to be said.
He smiled slightly. “You demonstrated leadership. You’ve shown me you have what it takes to be my heir, in more than just name.”
