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It was my father who broke first, looking away from me and down at my gorgeous young mate.
“It’s not your fault, little one,” he said in a gentle tone. “Iknow all witches and warlocks aren’t evil or dangerous. But not everyone feels that way. Just as your high warlock treated my son and his friend with ill intent, the hostility between our two races is high, and there are some...” He trailed off, and Kyle stepped up to stand on Monique’s other side.
“We won’t let anyone hurt you, beautiful,” Kyle said, wrapping an arm around Monique. “With time, they’ll accept you both. Don’t worry.”
Michael tapped me on the arm. “I don’t have to stay...”
“You stay,” I snapped at him. “You said you’ve met shifters before, lived with humans. Don’t chicken out now.”
To his credit, Michael’s only reaction to my taunt was a half-smile.
Then, as a group, we walked along the main street and up the small rise where the town hall sat on the hill.
“It’s huge,” Monique said, staring up at the double high doors.
“We have all our main events here,” Kyle explained. “Weddings, parties, meetings. As you can imagine, it needs to be big to accommodate a whole bunch of shifters.”
“Let’s not keep everyone waiting,” Dad said, and opened the main door before gesturing for us to enter.
I could have easily turned around and left once we got inside and saw the gathering waiting for us. Apparently, it wasn’t just the council members we were meeting. The hall was almost full. At least a hundred people sat on seats, and every one of them turned to stare at us as we entered and stood at the back of the room.
“Fucking hell,” Kyle whispered. I couldn’t have expressed it better myself.
I gripped tight to Monique’s hand, took a surreptitious deep breath and exhaled slowly, before leading her up the aisle to the stage at the front of the hall.
The testosterone in the room was intense, the scent rising into my nose and making my wolf growl and pace inside me.
These weren’t our pack family and friends any longer. This was a hostile group, looking for a reason to arc up into anger. Whenever I caught the eyes of an old friend, there was a snarl in his gaze, one that I knew too well.
I lifted my chin and marched up onto the stage.
Mom jumped up from her seat in the front row and took hold of Monique’s hand, preventing her from ascending the steps to the stage. “These three can sit with me, Xander. You go ahead and talk.”
Monique looked up at me, fear evident in her eyes.
I glanced down at my mom. “Okay. But she’s my mate. She’s everything to me. Don’t let anyone upset her.”
Mom nodded and dragged my family away to sit with her in the spare front seats she’d obviously been saving for them.
I shook myself and straightened my shoulders, then walked up the final couple of steps onto the stage. The council members were all there, including my father and four other Betas. Five men in total, and of course, no Alpha in sight.
Anger rose at our Alpha. He had a lot to answer for. Not only was he forever absent from the leadership role he was supposed to do, but it was on him that the curse had been enacted in the first place.
Dad walked forward, microphone in hand. Wolves had great hearing, but there were so many people here today that those at the back might struggle to hear the proceedings without it.
“Thanks for joining us here this morning, Xander,” my dad said. “We were hoping, instead of repeating the story a hundred times over, you could just tell everyone at once what you told me last night. Then we can give people the opportunity to ask questions.” Dad handed me the microphone, then went and sat down with the other council Betas.
I suppressed my annoyed groan. I had known he wanted me to go over it all, again, but hoped he’d at least do some of the explaining for me. For fuck’s sake.
I ran a hand through my hair and turned to face my pack. These were the people I was planning to lead one day. Was this a test of my Alpha abilities? Maybe—and that meant I couldn’t shy away from the spotlight now.
I lifted the microphone and began. “All right, well, as some of you may know, we’ve always suspected that there was some sort of curse on the pack. A curse that was stopping our women birthing female children.”
“No fated mates, either,” Thomas called out from the third row.
I nodded. “Exactly. Our pack was dying out, so Kyle and I left to find a solution.”
The crowd went completely silent and nervous adrenaline sizzled in my veins. “What we found, hundreds of miles from here, was a town hidden by magic, full of witches and warlocks and run by one high warlock.”
