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His embrace loosened and he put space between us. I stood there for a few seconds before I went about getting ready.
We got to the pack in under a half an hour. He left the motorcycle at the gate, and we walked through.
Richie, who was at the gate, turned toward us. He flicked his gaze over me before it landed on Kicks, and he smiled. They didn’t resent Kicks. Didn’t feel like he had run out on them. But me? I knew exactly how they felt when they looked at me, and it wasn’t warm and fuzzy at the moment.
“You’re here pretty late,” Richie said.
“Alpha or not, when Groza calls, you come,” Kicks said, laughing with him. There was no hint he would’ve even considered declining Groza, even though I was the only reason we were here.
We stepped onto their porch. Duncan opened the door, and we all stood silently for a few seconds as he took us in standing together, arriving at the home of him and his mate. We all seemed to need a second to digest the new reality. It felt like mine had improved, if only in perception. Duncan furrowedhis brow, seeming to second that. As far as his position, there weren’t too many people who seemed to envy it, but he’d made his choice.
Duncan finally nodded, waving us in and finding his words. “Thanks for coming.”
He motioned toward the living room. Groza was there, standing by the window, probably having watched us arrive. I took a seat in the chair. Kicks didn’t sit at all, instead walked over and stood by the chair I’d chosen, resting a hand on the back of it.
Groza took her sweet time settling onto the couch. It was like she’d forgotten in under an hour that she’d had to coerce us to come.
“Not for nothing, but you dragged us here in the middle of the night. If we could speed things up a bit…?” Kicks might’ve posed it like a question, but it came out as an order. If Richie at the gate could hear him now, it might be a bit of an eye-opener.
Duncan narrowed his gaze, as if he wanted to throw down over that comment but was holding back. I couldn’t quite tell if it was what Kicks said, how he’d said it, or just because he was breathing.
“Someone just came down withmarbo,” Groza said.
“That is the issue that warrants our coming here in the middle of the night?” Kicks said, that edge in his tone growing sharper. “Just treat them.”
“What’smarbo?” I asked the room in general.
“What it is, is not your issue,” Kicks said.
“You don’t think so? You don’t think your people are going to be affected?” Duncan said.
“If it does, we’ll treat them as we always have,” Kicks said.
“What ismarbo?” I asked, growing louder. “You two wanted me here. Someone tell me what it is.”
Duncan turned his gaze on me. “It’s a virus that affects our respiratory system and causes a type of pneumonia in us. It’s typically easy to cure, but not when you can’t find any webcap, a type of mushroom that is deadly to humans but cures marbo.”
“That stuff grows all over this area,” Kicks said, pretty much calling them liars.
“Except we can’t seem to find any of it. It’s been wiped out.” Groza glared at us, as if we’d been out picking mushrooms all day just for this occasion.
“We’re surrounded by forest here and you’re telling me there’s none to be found?”Kicks asked.
“Yes. That’s what we’re saying,” Groza shot back.
They were growing louder and louder. Soon the whole pack would know what we were talking about.
“Can we all just calmly discuss this without throwing accusations? I don’t feel like being here all night,” I said, looking around the small group of us, knowing that if this escalated, things could go wrong, and fast.
Kicks met my stare, and I could see his chest rise and fall. “Fine, let’s presume that’s true. What do you need Piper for?”
“You’ll recall the group that settled about thirty miles north of here? The three women that showed up?” Groza said.
“Yes,” I answered calmly, trying to keep this meeting under control.
“We believe they have an entire patch of it growing in the middle of their settlement,” she said.
“Then go ask them for some,” Kicks said.
