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“Bozeman.”
He furrows his brow. “I thought the Bozeman pack was wiped out by the shadow pack during their reign of terror.”
My friends and I have heard stories about the shadow pack and the crazy alpha who led them, but that was before our time. Our parents, however, have firsthand knowledge, because they fought a war with the shadow pack- andwon.
“Maybe they’re survivors,” Avery suggests with a shrug. “He said there aren’t many of them in his pack, only fifty or so.”
“And when did you get that info, when you were flirting with him?” Tris teases.
Avery gasps, clutching a hand to her chest like she’s scandalized. “I was not!”
“I don’t trust a pack that has been nomadic for that long,” Chase murmurs. “It’s not natural.”
“Savages,” Iver agrees.
“There has to be some reason they’ve never settled down,” Andie speculates. “It can’t just be the hunters, right? I mean they’ve only been around for what, ten years?”
“This is fucking exhausting,” I mutter under my breath, side-eyeing Sloane as the others continue to bicker.
“Maybe this decision should fall to Theo. His pack owned this land before the six-pack was formed.”
“No, this is on all of us. It’s been ours for a long time.”
“What happens if we can’t agree?”
“Aren’t we missing the bigger picture here?” Sloane tries to cut in, but she’s quickly steamrolled by everyone talking over each other again.
“Hey!” I bark out, loud enough to capture everyone’s attention. The room falls blissfully silent, and I nod my head toward my girl. “Sloane has something to say.”
She gives me a little smile of gratitude that makes my wolf preen, pushing up from her spot beside me on the sofa to stand.
“The spirit of the six-pack is inclusiveness, isn’t it?” she asks, sweeping her gaze around the room. “I mean, everyone here but Brooke and Theo were outsiders once. The alliance brought us together, and look at us now! We’re practically family.”
“One big dysfunctional family,” Lo chuckles.
“Well sure, but family nonetheless. All of us. And I’m sure it didn’t start out that way, at least not at first,” Sloane continues, gesturing to her parents and the other older alphas and lunas, “but you still came together and made it work. Because you had a common enemy and recognized there was strength in numbers. Now here’s another pack asking to join, and another common enemy we share. I’m not saying we just invite them in. I’m saying that we should give them a chance and start the conversation. Once they’re fully vetted and we verify they aren’t a threat, we can make things official, but for now, I think it’d be cruel to turn them away. We’re all running from the same thing, so shouldn’t we help each other?”
I may not be fully on board with this, but what Sloane’s saying makes a hell of a lot of sense. And if she’s convincing my stubborn ass, then it has to be working on the rest of the room.
“And what if the hunters are on their trail?” Iver questions skeptically. “What if they brought them right to us?”
“Then I guess we have more ranks to fight them,” I say, having Sloane’s back like I said I would. “Hell, maybe with additional ranks, we can go on the offensive for once. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of hiding out and just waiting for them to strike.”
Iver’s brows shoot up. “You’re on board with this? You trust them?”
“I trust Sloane.”
Ares makes a whip cracking sound and I cut him a glare.
But then Brock speaks up, saying the last thing I expect him to.
“Madd’s right.”
I’m so caught off guard that I almost want to ask him to say it again. Just one more time, so I can pull out my phone and record it, save it to play back for him every time we’re at odds with one another.
Did Brock Masters just actually agree with me on something?
I must be living in an alternate universe.
