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Tracy gave a harsh sigh. “It has been a stressful severalyears.”
I’m sure your alpha has been doing his best, I wanted to say, but I bit my tongue. Aaron didn’t look offended. And it would probably be a wise idea for me to make a good firstimpression.
“I’ve already observed a change in the tone of conversations,” Aaron said smoothly. “Seeing the four of us alphas united around Serenity gives everyone the stability we’ve beenneeding.”
Frankford peered at me over his hooked nose. “And this is the girl we’ve been waiting for all thistime.”
He didn’t sound impressed. Had he expected me to come to the table in dragon form? “Here I am,” I said, trying not to show how uncomfortable Iwas.
Servers started to come around with plates of food. Oh, good, at least I’d have something safe to do with my hands—and my mouth. I picked up my fork, jabbed it into a slice of steak... and realized everyone on the other side of the table was staring atme.
My shoulders stiffened. Nate leaned over and said gently by my ear, “At the formal dinners, the tradition is that the five of us don’t start until everyone else is eating. It’s a symbolic thing, orsomething.”
“Oh.” My face flushed hot. I set down my fork as if it had burned me. Great, now I already looked like a nitwit in front of all these bigwigs. The last seven years, mostly living on the streets, waiting to eat often meant someone else snatching your food out from under you. I guessed I was going to need a major attitudeadjustment.
“I’m sorry,” Aaron murmured. “I should have warnedyou.”
I should have waited and followed their lead. Had West just shot a glower at me? Great, one more reason for him to think I couldn’t cut it in thisrole.
I kept my hands folded in my lap until the servers had finished moving around the room. All around the tables, the estate’s guests dug in. When my alphas picked up their silverware, I figured it was safe for me to starttoo.
Now that I could eat, I had to say the food was freaking delicious. Not that I’d expected anything else after spending a day in this place. I chewed blissfully, letting the rich, tender bites of steak overwhelm myembarrassment.
It wasn’t enough to keep Isla occupied, though. She jabbed her fork toward Aaron. “As soon as possible, you need to do something about that feline kin bunch who’ve been running around in the Southend forestlandarea.”
“I’ve already started discussing it with their alpha,” Aaron said in the same even tone as before. He tipped his head toward Marco, who offered a narrow smile. “It’s a big forest. We’re all running out of room where we can exercise our animal natures in private. I think we can find a fairdivision.”
I frowned. “Whydivideit? The cats will mostly be using the ground and the birds the canopy, right? Can’t you all use all of it without muchhassle?”
Isla pursed her lips with a disgusted expression. Her husband cleared his throat. “There are boundaries in place,” he said, shooting Aaron a look as if accusing him of misinforming me. “For good reason. The feline kin have a history of harassing avians. They agreed decades ago they would not intrude on our kin’sspaces.”
So this was a Sylvester and Tweety sort of conflict? I’d have laughed if it weren’t for all those disgruntled looks. I’d put my foot in it again.Shit.
“Oh,” I said. “Okay. I didn’trealize.”
Was thatpitythey were looking at me with now? The back of my neck prickled. Hell, I’d only been preparing for this gig for two weeks, a significant amount of which I’d been busy simply keeping myself and my matesalive. Couldn’t these people cut a girl abreak?
Maybe I should just not talk. That was a surefire way not to sound like a totaldumbass.
The talk turned to some event the Cumberlands wanted to organize for the kin group, and then a couple of business concerns I couldn’t follow. I cleared my plate, sated but definitely still with room for dessert. Just sitting there, listening to conversation that was going over my head, made me restless. How could I be a proper mate to any of the alphas when every other shifter in the room could see how clueless Iwas?
Then Frankford started ranting about humans. “We should have bought up that plot of land when we had the chance. Now those people will be right on our doorstep. Making their stupid human assumptions, offering their stupid human advice. So wretchedlyunaware.”
“But can you imagine the stir if they did know?” Tracy twittered. “The poor creatures couldn’t wrap their heads around the power wehave.”
I couldn’t just sit quiet then. “Not all humans are jerks,” I said. “My best friend has stuck with me througheverything.”
Isla gave me another of those pitying looks. “But would she if she found out what you are? I thinknot.”
A flicker of anger shot up inside me. “Well, you’d be wrong. Because she already knows, and she’s still got myback.”
If I’d thought the shifter bigwigs had looked horrified before, now they looked absolutely aghast. The color drained from Isla’s face. Hubert’s mouth twisted into agrimace.
“You revealed yourself to ahuman?” Tracy spatout.
Aaron raised his hand for calm. “There were extenuating circumstances,” he said. “We made a judgment call. It worked in our favor. Serenity’s friend did prove to be a valuableally.”
“To expose not just shifter affairs, but those of our alphas...” Frankford shook hishead.
