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“The easiest time to strike will be the full moon,” Xiao says. “You’ll all be in you werewolf forms. Accidents happen.”
“Not to me,” Nathan practically growls.
I wave my stump at him. “To me, though.”
That shuts down his ego a bit.
“There’s something else we need to talk about,” Hannah says, casting a glance toward Xiao. “Something that should be for werewolf ears, only.”
“I trust Xiao with my life,” I say.
Hannah barely waits for me to finish. “We all do. But this isn’t about feelings or civility. It’s not even about trust. This is werewolf business. For us alone.”
Xiao gives me a questioning look and I nod. Without another word, she opens the door and steps through it.
“She won’t listen,” I promise.
“The conference room is soundproofed, anyway,” Nathan says, waving a hand. “What do you have to say, Hannah?”
Hannah takes a breath. “The full moon is coming up.”
“Bailey and I won’t change. We’ll remain here, under guard, at Aconitum Hall,” Nathan declares, and my heart sinks. I’ve gotten to be in my werewolf form once. Just one time. I was looking forward to transforming again.
But Nathan’s right and I can pout about it later. We will be more vulnerable in a dark forest with potential traitors.
“That will keep the two of you safe, but what about the rest of the pack?” Hannah argues. “Two werewolves have failed in their attempts to kill you, the objects of the thralls’ spells. The thralls know about it. So, who’s to say that they’ll even allow us to turn? We’re interfering in something they thought they’d kept secret. They could easily poison us, trap us, do anything to us when we set foot on that ceremonial ground.”
“If all of us stayed home, they’d get suspicious,” Ryan says. “Maybe they’d believe we were against them.”
“Aren’t we?” I ask. “They’re working magic on us against our will, without our knowledge or consent. They’re working against all werewolves.”
“That’s what we theorize, yes,” Ryan says. “But for now, let’s operate under the assumption that werewolves are your greatest threat, because they are. The thrall plan is coming to fruition. That’s why werewolves are getting desperate.”
I place my hand over my stomach. “They’re running out of time.”
Ryan points his pen at me.
I lean my elbow on the table and drop my head into my hand. “You realize that if Nathan and I do run… we’re helping the thralls. We’re basically working against all of you. You all might be safer if they killed us.”
“Never!” Nathan snarls. “I don’t care if we have to put the necks of every man, woman, and child in this pack on the block, they will not have our child!”
“You wouldn’t,” I say, shaking my head slowly. “And I wouldn’t let you.”
“And we won’t let you entertain thoughts of giving up or sacrificing yourself for the good of the pack,” Tara snaps. “This is our pack. No thralls get to manipulate us and wipe us off the face of the earth. Turn your wrath toward them, Nathan!”
“That’s why I wanted Xiao out of here,” Hannah says calmly. “We need to be realistic. If there’s no other way to save the pack, we might have to take drastic measures.”
“Like?” I ask.
“Like putting them down.” Hannah glances around the table. “Don’t look at me like that. We’re talking about a super-powered brand of human that could take over the entire world. Decide the fate of each and every creature on the planet, once they’ve reached their end goal, which seems to be eradicating us.”
“They could kill anyone, at any time,” Tara says. “They would have that power.”
“Or they could keep them from dying,” Ryan adds. “There’s a Twilight Zone episode about that.”
Once a nerd, always a nerd. But he has a great point.
“We know that werewolves want you dead,” Ryan states firmly. “And we know that thralls need you alive.’
“And they need that baby,” Tara adds.
“Exactly,” Ryan continues. “So right now, your best bet for survival is to stay away from werewolves until we can shut down this thrall plot.”
“How do we do that?” I ask. “Just turn out the lights, pretend we’re not home? We’re the king and the queen. We can’t just quietly drop out of our lives.”
Tara points to the book. “Make like Lifthrasir and Lif. Head into the woods.”
We all stare at her.
“We find a secret location and send you there,” she goes on. “We tell the pack that you’ve gone into hiding due to a credible threat from the Saint-Laurent pack. They’ve already tried to kill you.”
“Probably for the same reason Harriet tried to kill you,” Ryan adds. “I’ll look further into the motives behind the Saint-Laurent plots.”
“If we leave, we look like cowards,” I say, not liking the idea of that at all.
“Maybe you will,” Tara concedes. “Or maybe all these rich assholes with round-the-clock security and panic rooms will think it’s totally reasonable.”
