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“I bring word,” she said in that same distant, creepy voice. “A proposal.”
Byron glanced at me.
I shrugged. “She’s limping.”
“I bring word,” she repeated.
“Wait for a second,” Byron said, holding his hands out. “Do you need sanctuary? I can help you if you need it, Vira. Did something happen to you? Did somebody hurt you? Your people?”
“My people.” She met his gaze. “My people want to gather their own. You have one month from today to comply.”
“Comply with what?” Amelia asked sharply. “Be specific.”
Vira’s gaze slid over Amelia. She sniffed, shivered, then stared at the ground. “The girl. Our Elders sent me to tell you. You’re to send the girl home to the compound. If you comply, all harbingers will leave this pack alone, will pretend it doesn’t exist. In one month, I will return. If the girl is not ready to leave with me, then the Elders will consider it an act of aggression.”
“The girl,” I said. “You mean your daughter.”
She stared at me, and I no longer saw the woman we had met before. She was a shell, an empty vessel speaking words that weren’t hers. Cold expelled from her, surrounding me. “I have no child,” she said. “One month to the day, I’ll return for the girl. She will go to her people or die here with you.”
She turned as if to leave. Byron skirted around her, reaching out to her. She flinched away. A pang of pity hit me. I knew that look, that reaction. Vira hadn’t known peace lately, that was for sure.
“It’s all right,” Byron said coaxingly, dropping his hand. “You’re safe here.”
For the first time, emotion reached her voice. “No, I’m not. And neither are any of you.”
He let her go then, but the distinct chill remained.
“There’s something very wrong with her,” Amelia said, half to herself.
“She wasn’t like that before,” I murmured.
“Something happened to her,” Ryan said. “She was terrified. Shut down, almost. I’ve seen this too many times.” He sounded disgusted.
“She was hurt,” Nathan said. “Half-starved, too, by the look of her. What the hell happened since we last saw her?”
“Maybe she was punished for coming here with us,” Byron said, frowning. “And now they want Margo, too.”
It hit me hard that we might not be on the same page about that. “We can’t let them take her.”
“What if she wants to go?” But I heard the doubt in his words. “Either way, she’ll have to be the one to tell Vira her decision or it’ll look like we’re controlling Margo.”
“Then what’s our position?” Ryan asked in a wary tone. “If she refuses to go, where do we stand?”
“Refuses to go?” Nathan said in disbelief. “We shouldn’t be letting her go after seeing Vira like that.”
“There’s no way Margo would leave her parents,” I said. “She’ll refuse to go regardless.”
“We’ll protect her,” Byron said. “I won’t stand to watch anyone be forced into a situation like this.”
Ryan exhaled loudly. “Good.”
“Of course we won’t let her be taken,” Amelia said. “But what do we do when the harbingers, these Elders or whoever, refuse to accept her answer? What happens if they all come here for her?”
“First, we try to reach an agreement. We try to avoid a misunderstanding. This is our chance to get to know what we’re up against.” Byron’s jaw clenched. “But this is our territory. They can’t expect to bring their entire compound here for a battle. They will lose. We have the upper hand, and we’ll use that to our advantage and avoid violence whenever possible.”
“Except we don’t know exactly what they can do,” Amelia reminded him.
“Any preventative measures you can think of?”
