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“Let’s go. Get this done.”
I nodded. “Yep. Rip this whole situation off. Like a Band-Aid. ‘Cause it’s gonna suck.”
Dad was waiting for us in the dorm’s common room. A few people were hanging out, watching the TV and snacking, but the talking stopped when I came in.
I really, really hated when that happened. And after today, I was pretty sure that would happen everywhere I went for a long time. “Please tell me there’s time to practice this little speech?”
“Of course. Let’s go back to the conference room.”
“How’s Mom taking all of this?” I asked as we headed outside.
He blew out a breath. “She’s upset. She knew a lot of the people who died, even if she’d been out of contact with them for a long time. It still hurt her.”
I hadn’t even considered that. “I’m sorry.”
“She’ll be okay. Your brother wanted to come today, though. I told him it was probably best if he stayed away.”
“Why should he stay away?”
“I know that you can do this, that you’re strong and can handle it. But this is going to be a circus, and I can’t promise that some of these people won’t act out. Your brother wouldn’t handle that so well. He’s spent his childhood protecting you, but he can’t do that anymore. Not from this.”
“I guess that’s true. Sometimes I wish I could hide from all of this. Go home—” I looked back at Dastien, walking behind us, and then back at my dad. He worked hard to stay fit, but the worry lines were there. “But I can’t. I’m different, and officially an adult.”
“No. You’ll always be my baby girl. You never get too old for that. And you’re only a few weeks past eighteen. I’d hardly call that adult.”
It was weird, him not knowing about last night. That I’d basically gotten married without him there. Without any of m
y family around.
Do you regret it?
Not for a second.
We can always have a more traditional human ceremony.
That would be nice, but it seems silly now.
We’ll do it, but you have to tell Meredith.
Crap. I hadn’t even thought of that. When I’d gotten ready for the ceremony last time, she’d helped. She’d been so excited. I should’ve told her what we were doing, but there hadn’t been time. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too upset.
When we got to the conference room, Mr. Dawson, Donovan, Sebastian, and Lucas were having a hushed conversation in the corner. The rest of the alphas were gone, but Meredith, Chris, Adrian, Shane, Raphael, and Claudia were huddled together reading a newspaper.
“What’s going on?”
Chris moved over so I could read the headline. Eight Families Murdered By Monsters.
Why had no one mentioned this?
Mr. Dawson separated from the group in the corner. “It just hit the news. There were a few gruesome murders around three in the morning last night. They weren’t far from here—about thirty minutes away—in the outskirts of San Antonio.” He paused, and his jaw ticked. “They’re being blamed on werewolves.”
That was stupid. Werewolves wouldn’t hurt humans. Not unless they were defending themselves. “But they’re not—”
“No.” Donovan cut in. “These remains look like the policemen’s.”
The truth hit, and I sat down hard in one of the chairs. “Demons.” Luciana wouldn’t… But obviously she had. I couldn’t be totally surprised, but what did she stand to gain from that? Was she letting innocent people die just to make the Weres look worse?
“The crowd outside has grown. We’ve set up a podium and lectern just inside the gate. We’ll let them in, you read the speech, and then there’ll be time for questions. I’ll be there with you, in case you’re unsure how to answer. And if things get too heated, we’ll cut it off.”
