AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah,” Connor said again. “We already know he doesn’t trust the younger shifters, and we’ve handed him proof he was right. If he was smart, he’d use this situation to cement the elders’ power—call it proof the younger generation isn’t fit to rule. Instead, he’s focused on Chicago versus the clan or vampires versus the clan.”
“Outsiders versus the clan,” Theo said, and Connor nodded.
“Exactly. Even if we’re going, the intraclan struggles will still be there, simmering. Eventually, that pot boils over.” He looked at Georgia. “You should consider putting more guards on Beyo.”
“I want to object and say Cash wouldn’t try to hurt him. But that would be a lie.”
I nodded. “He’s an eyewitness. The only certain link between clan and creatures.”
“Beyo has responsibility here,” Connor said. “But he’s not responsible for everything. Cash takes Beyo out, and he’s got a very tidy answer to his very thorny problem.”
“Blame it on the spellseller and the bad egg,” Theo agreed. “And everything’s hunky-dory until the hybrids come back.”
“Short term,” Connor said again. “He’s just arrogant enough to think that if he can solve the immediate problem, he’ll have plenty of time to address the rest of it.”
“A fucking disgrace,” Georgia said, gaze narrowing at the lodge. “This clan has become a fucking disgrace.”
“Unfortunately,” Connor said, “I’m inclined to agree.” And he watched warily as Maeve approached us. She was alone this time, and the obvious malice in her eyes was gone. Her expression was blank, so it didn’t give me any idea of what she was actually thinking.
She nodded at Georgia, then turned to Connor. “That was quite a story you told.”
“Not a story,” he said. “The absolute truth.”
She looked pained, but nodded. “I don’t want to believe it, but I know Zane and the others. They’re arrogant, sometimes stupid, and always complaining about the elders.”
“Do you know anything specific about the creatures?” I asked.
She shook her head. “We weren’t friends. Just acquaintances. It’s not the kind of thing they’d have talked to me about.” She looked away, then back at me. “Could we talk?”
I lifted my brows. “About?”
“You’re going to make me say it aloud in front of everyone?”
I watched her for a moment. “Could you give us a minute?” I asked Connor.
He watched Maeve just as I’d done, considering, then nodded. “All right. Meet us back at the cabin.”
“Sure.” I waited until they’d walked away, then lifted my brows. “Well?” I asked Maeve.
Her eyes flashed, but this time I thought I saw respect in them. “You’re a hard-ass—you know that?”
“I’m a vampire.” I gave her a toothy smile. “So that’s a compliment.”
“Fair enough.” She cleared her throat and didn’t make eye contact for a long moment. “Miranda was rude about the Connor thing. I thought she had information about you—knew something about you using him. I don’t know you very well—”
“You don’t know me at all,” I said.
“That’s fair,” she said after a moment. “I only know what I saw in the media, and what I’ve heard.”
“From Miranda.”
“From sources,” she said. “There were rumors this was just a game for you. And I took those rumors for fact, because I didn’t take the time to, you know, talk to you about my concerns. To be up-front. I just assumed and accused and was wrong, so now I look like the asshole. Because it’s pretty obvious that you aren’t using him.”
“Finally, something we can agree on.”
A corner of her mouth quirked. “I don’t like you, but I kind of like you.”
“I’d say the feeling’s mutual.”
