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“Maybe. Maybe not.” Hands on his hips, Connor looked out the window. “I’m trained to defer to leadership. Here, that’s the clan, the elders. But what happens when shit goes bad? When the elders go bad?”
“Oh, that one’s easy,” Alexei said. “When the elders go bad, you call in the big dog.” He clapped Connor on the shoulder. “In this case, my friend, that’s you.”
TWENTY-FOUR
We walked outside, breathed deeply of fresh night air. Connor moved away from us, stared into the darkness with hands on his hips, strain around his eyes, and anger still tightening his jaw.
“We’ll meet you back at the cabin,” I told Alexei.
He watched Connor for a moment, probably to be sure leaving him was the right move, then nodded. “There any pizza left?”
“There is. And it’s yours if you’ll give Theo an update.” I’d totally forgotten to grab Theo before we’d come to talk to Beyo. On the other hand, Beyo probably wouldn’t have spoken so candidly with another stranger in the room.
Alexei nodded, walked toward the cabin. I waited until we were alone, then asked, “Are you okay?”
Connor’s responsive grunt was heavy with misery.
“Anything I can do?”
He looked back at me, brows lifted. “My Packmate just confessed he’d tried to kill you because, long story short, he thought my family was useless. And yet you offer to help?”
“I... care about you,” I said.
His grin was charming, wicked. “How much did that cost you?”
“A lot, punk. So don’t push it.”
With a laugh that rang with relief, he pulled me into his arms. “I can hardly call you a brat right now.”
“Then save us both the trouble,” I said, and relaxed into him, let the warmth of his body burn away the disgust.
***
I didn’t have my mother’s appetite, but there was no denying the scent of leftover pizza was intoxicating when we walked back into the cabin. Theo, Alexei, and Lulu were already around the table, tucking into folded slices.
“Thanks for waiting,” I said, and grabbed a slice of pepperoni from the nearly empty box.
“It’s fine,” Lulu said. “I painted Theo sprawled like an ancient god.”
I chewed cheese and meat, looked speculatively at him. “Really?”
“No.” Theo sipped a soda. “I talked to the Order—which is on its way to Grand Bay to have a very long conversation with Paloma.”
“Good,” Connor said. “She needs oversight from someone. She’s too dangerous on her own.”
“What did you learn?” Theo asked.
“We’re looking for a cavern,” I said, and gave the group the brief version of Beyo’s story. “Supposedly there’s a cave past the waterfalls used by a prior Sons of Aeneas group. Beyo and the others found it online using information they took from the spellseller, and they made it their HQ. They might still be there.”
“Oh,” Lulu said, swallowing a bite. “I’ve seen this.”
We all looked at Lulu.
“You have?” Connor asked.
“Sure. I was doing some research on the way up, figuring out where I wanted to paint. I was considering the waterfalls because there are photos online of the trails, and they looked cool. There are a few videos, too, and I actually watched the video for this one. It looks like snake city. Sorry,” she added at my involuntary whimper.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I lied.
