Page 78 of Wolf's Endgame

“I killed three humans.” If anything, the silence got quieter. “I fought in fighting rings for profit. I needed money to survive in the human world, and lacking patience, I chose the easy route.”

“Kezia,” Cannon murmured beside me.

“No, this is my pack now too.” I stood straighter. “You deserve to know who your alpha is mated to.” Pushing my hair back, I steeled myself for the backlash. “I thought I was clever, disguising my bruises with makeup, when in reality, I had already healed myself. I wasn’t clever enough. A man tracked me down, shot me three times with silver, and when I came to…well, it wasn’t going to be a party I wanted to be invited to, if you know what I mean. I fought them. I won’t say I won, but I did get free.”

“You killed them?” someone in the crowd asked.

“I did.” I swallowed hard. “I killed them and then I torched their bodies, and I walked away.” The mumblings in the pack were disconcerting, but I needed to finish this. “The reason that I share this with you is because we know that the Pack Council covered this up.” The mumbles became shouts. “I know you have no reason to trust me, and I have said nothing this afternoon that makes you want to trust me, but you need to hear this. Bale owns the Pack Council—I don’t know how or what he has over them, but he owns them. So when you think about avenging your alpha, my brother, or both, you need to know that the Pack Council is on his side, and we need to fight that too.”

Vic whistled low as he looked around. “You got anything else you want to share?”

I thought about it. “Probably, but I reckon my mate’s going to throttle me as it is.”

Strong arms wrapped around me, and I felt Cannon kiss the top of my head. “She may be a handful,” he told his pack, “but you can’t say she holds back.”

Looking up at him, I saw the affection in his eyes. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.” Dropping his head down, he kissed me briefly. “It’s more than I would have said right now, but it needed to be told.”

Rising up on my tiptoes, I kissed him back. “I do love you.”

Cannon grinned at me, squeezing me softly. “You better.” Straightening, he looked out over his pack. “Well, that was more than you probably bargained for,” he said with a casualness I envied. “We’ll give you tonight to think about it.”

“I don’t need a night,” Vic said as he looked around him. “Doubt many of us do. I’ll fight with you, Alpha. For the crime against you, for crimes against another alpha”—he looked at me—“and the crimes against my alpha’s mate.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“I was ready to fight before the reason why,” Ned spoke gruffly from the back. “I’ve been in another pack. Alpha Cannon picked me up out of the dirt and showed me what a true pack is.” Ned met my questioning look. “We aren’t all that different, Alpha Zia, but hearing your hardships, you have my loyalty and my fists whenever you need them.” He added with a wry grin, “And I’ve seen you fight in those human rings. You need all the fighters to protect you because, girl, you can’t fight for shit.”

“Ain’t that the truth!” Leo bellowed behind me, and I laughed out loud along with the others as the tension eased in the room.

Cannon quieted us all down, his steely look serious. “You sure?” The chorus of yeses was deafening. “All right, you know what to do. We leave in two days.”

As the pack broke down to discuss and plan, I watched Royce and Nikan work their way through the crowd. Leo went as well, and it looked like they were giving orders.

“Two days?” Kris asked from beside us.

“Probably one too many,” Cannon agreed quietly, “but they have a lot to process. They need that time.” His look was thoughtful as he scanned the crowd. “They were already alerted to a threat; this has just clarified our intent.”

“Where do I go?” Kris asked, looking uncomfortable. “I know the pack, but I don’t know the place where Kez was. I’ll go wherever you think best.”

“You stay with me,” Cannon told him. “You fight beside me. Okay?” Kris nodded once and Cannon clasped his shoulder in some manly bro hug-type thing. I still didn’t know how they had become so close, but I was glad that they were.

“And me?”

Cannon looked at me, his lips drawn into a thin line. “You stay behind.”

“Absolutely not.” I noticed my brother taking a step back, but I was too focused on the caveman in front of me. “I go too.”

“No. You don’t.”

“Cannon!”

“I said no, that’s final.”

“You said that we would do this together.” I knew I was glaring at him. “Me staying here, is not together.”

“We will do this together, and you staying here and protecting the pack that stays behind, is helping us both.” He glanced at Kris, and I saw my brother’s head dip in agreement.

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