Connor laughed. “Nice job, kid. I’ve never seen Pascal speechless before.”
“I believe this issue is settled,” Anika said. “Pascal will assemble the decoy team for deployment tomorrow morning. What are you envisioning for the stealth team, Shay?”
“Small,” Shay said, running a hand through his hair. “Adne weaves the door, putting us at the entrance to the cave. I’m assuming it’s another cave?”
Silas nodded.
“Connor and Ethan as Strikers. Calla, Nev, and Mason backing them up.”
“We’re integrating the Guardians this soon?” Pascal asked. “We don’t know that we can trust them.”
“You can trust them,” Ethan said. I stared at him, hardly believing what I’d just heard.
“You’re going to trust us too,” Ren said, offering Pascal a cold smile.
Pascal grimaced, but didn’t bother to argue with Ren.
“The decoy team was my idea,” Ren continued. “I’m not missing its trial run.”
Fear needled my skin. Ren’s plan was a good one, but the Searchers were right. The decoy team would be hit hard. They wouldn’t get out of the fight without losses. I didn’t want Ren to be one of them.
“And Sabine, one of my packmates who’s here,” Ren said. “I’m guessing she’ll want in too.”
“She’s only just recovered from her injuries,” Ethan said. “I think she should stay behind.”
Ren laughed. “Have you seen how we recover? I don’t know what happened to her, but if she’s had pack blood, she’s fine. She’ll be more than ready for a fight.” He glanced at Logan. “Besides, if we’re going up against the Keepers, I’d like to see you try and leave her behind.”
Logan shuddered.
Ethan didn’t respond, but his mouth set into a hard line.
I was surprised by how quickly Ren had settled into his role here. We were surrounded by lifelong enemies, but he’d taken command without hesitation. He was a natural leader, confident and strong. I could see it burrow into Shay. Each time Ren spoke, Shay bristled.
Shay was a leader too, taking control of this war in which he’d play such a vital part. And he wasn’t ceding pack rule to Ren. By taking some of our packmates, including me, with him to retrieve Tordis, Shay had made it clear he’d be leading wolves, not just Searchers.
How would the pack respond to Ren’s return? Would any new allegiance they felt for Shay dissolve? Nev and Sabine had loved Ren. Ansel and Bryn had thought he was a good alpha. But I also remembered what Sabine had said. Ren made a mistake. If he wanted you so much, he should have come here. He should have been here to fight for you. He was here now, but was it too late? I wondered if she’d still feel loyalty to her former alpha.
Thoughts of my pack, of our bonds, brought me back to the wolf I was the most worried about.
“What about my brother?” I asked Anika. “What have you decided about him?”
“Nothing’s been decided yet,” Anika replied carefully.
“It wasn’t his fault.”
“According to Logan, your brother betrayed our location to the Keepers of his own volition. He wasn’t forced to do so.”
“You don’t understand what they did to him. They destroyed his wolf. They broke him. They promised they would make him whole again. He had no choice!”
As much as I didn’t want to think about it, I wondered if I wouldn’t have done the same thing had I been in Ansel’s place. I couldn’t imagine life without the ability to shift. The wolf was who I was. Without that part of me I would feel like I was nothing. Just like Ansel did.
“We’re taking that into consideration,” Anika said.
“How could Ansel have told the Keepers about the Denver hideout?” I protested, growing more desperate. I couldn’t make my brother a wolf again, but at least I could try to set him free. I turned pleading eyes on Connor. “You saw what he was like. He didn’t have any strength left.”
Connor looked at Logan, who smiled cruelly at me.
“He didn’t need strength,” Logan said. “All he needed was a simple invocation. A spell that revealed the location of the supplicant. The only thing your brother had to do was read the words aloud.”
My throat closed as I remembered two nights before, when I’d tried to turn Ansel. Tried and failed.
He reached into his pocket, pulling out the crumpled paper.
“Ansel, what is that?” I asked, trying to get a better look.
“Leave me alone.” His eyes rested on the dirty scrap for a moment before he gripped it in a tight fist, pressing it against his chest. “It’s from Bryn, okay? I managed to hang on to it while the Keepers had us separated.”
He’d lied to me. There had been no poem. No last words of love from Bryn. Only betrayal scribbled on a slip of paper. Logan watched me, still smiling while the truth twisted like a knife in my belly.
Shay’s hand was on my shoulder. I let myself lean into him, the reassurance of his touch easing my fear about Ansel’s fate. “They won’t hurt Ansel. I made them promise.”
A growl rumbled behind us. “Could you not touch her?” Ren didn’t make it sound like a question.
“Bite me,” Shay snarled.
“Stop it. Both of you.” I rubbed my throbbing temples, pulling away from Shay even though I wanted him to wrap his arms around me and find comfort. If I was going to referee this game, I had to stay neutral. I could see now while it might make me powerful, at times it would leave me miserable.
“We did give our word, Calla,” Anika said. “No harm will come to your brother. But we also can’t risk freeing him.”
“But you’ll let him come and go at will?” I pointed at Logan.
“If you haven’t noticed, everyone in this room is armed,” Anika replied coolly. “Logan was escorted here from his cell. He’ll be escorted back. Make no mistake. He’s a prisoner, not a guest.”
“Thanks, that’s lovely,” Logan said, blowing smoke rings into the air.
I glared at Logan, wishing I could bite off those fingers and let him try to hold a cigarette without them. As much as I wanted to convince the Searchers they shouldn’t trust him, I knew I was right about Logan. He was here because he’d lost his place among the Keepers. Logan was just like his father: he’d only ever been interested in power. Somehow he thought the Searchers were his way of getting it back. I just couldn’t figure out what angle he was playing.