Page 29 of Haunted By the Shadow of Death

“By now, even if you weren’t there last night, you’ve all heard the stories of what happened. In spite of what you might’ve heard, we don’t know what caused Zetti’s death. Whatever happened was not brought about by an intentional act. We are looking into what caused her death, but at most, it was an accident. There are things being said, suggestions being made, that will not be tolerated. I won’t repeat them here because they’re unworthy of being discussed.

“No one will be getting punished for it. No one will be targeted because of it. I will not stand for any acts of aggression in relation to it. That is my final word, and if you can’t live with that, then you’re free to leave this pack.”

Kicks was standing in front of his shifters, giving them an ultimatum, while I stared over the crowd’s heads, afraid to make eye contact. I’d seen their looks once, and I didn’t want to see them again.

This wasn’t the way I’d imagined this going down. I hadn’t expected him to have my back to quite this degree when even he had his doubts. And yet here he was, telling them all they had to accept it or leave.

Part of me wanted to jump into his arms and thank him, maybe sob a bit as I did. The other part was speechless. He couldn’t believe this was going to work, could he? I got it, he was their alpha, but there had to be limits even in this sort of setup, right? That part of me wanted to drop my face into my hands and groan.

“Any questions?” Kicks asked, his tone breaking through my thoughts.

No one said anything. They might have been too shocked to speak.

“Then that’s all,” he said as some still stared, gaping at him.

The crowd slowly broke away, little clumps of people at a time wandering off and looking as shocked as I was. I didn’t wait for Kicks and wandered back to the cabin, although he was right behind me, feeling almost like a bodyguard at the moment.

This wasn’t going to work, was it? I dropped to the couch, reeling even more than I had last night, if that were possible.

He was crazy. I was mated to a crazy man.

Kicks pulled out a bottle of what looked like whiskey from a cabinet in the kitchen. “Want a drink?”

I ignored his question. “You can’t bully everyone into accepting me. If that’s the plan, it’s not going to work.”

“Does that mean you want a drink or not?” he asked, then took out two glasses anyway.

“This won’t work.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, pouring two drinks. He carried one over to me and then took a healthy sip of his own.

He wouldn’t need alcohol if he thought this was possible, but he was going to refuse to acknowledge the situation. I wanted to pull my hair out or bang my head against a wall. I wanted to bang his head against the wall until reality set in, and yet I was also having a hard time resisting the urge to wrap my arms around him. Not once in my life had another man stood up for me like that.

It was insane. His plan had no chance of working, might destabilize his very pack, and yet he’d told them in no uncertain terms they were going to accept me or get out. It was the exact opposite of what Duncan had done, and I could feel myself nearly melting over the whole situation, except for one issue: you couldn’t make people accept others. Life didn’t work like that, even for Kicks.

I nursed my drink, which I had assumed was whiskey, but now I doubted that as it burned like a blowtorch going down. Kicks sat in the chair, doing the same. I waited until he was halfway through his glass before I tried again, wondering if this foul drink might make him more open to reason.

“They aren’t going to accept me.”

He took another sip, as if stalling. “They’ll get past it and move on. It’ll take some time, is all.”

Maybe, just maybe, he was right. Given long enough, some of them would eventually get over it, decide it hadn’t been me, or whatever else they had to do to rationalize living in the same pack with me. But there was one gigantic problem still looming, and it was so bad I was afraid to utter it aloud even as my mind couldn’t move off it. What about when it happened again? Then what? The way people were dying around me these days, it was more likely than not. They might turn and look away once, but they wouldn’t do it again.

“If they don’t?” I asked before sipping some more of the nuclear acid he’d served up.

“Where are you going with this?” His question was laced with enough suspicion that I could tell he already knew the answer.

“This might not be the right place for Charlie and me if things don’t settle down.” I broke eye contact halfway through, feeling like I was spitting on his efforts to help me. It wasn’t like I had another place to go. This was all I had right now, but I wouldn’t hang on for dear life like I did last time, waiting for things to work out when there was nowhere to go but down.

“If this doesn’t work, then we go. I’m not letting you leave here with a child alone. You go, I go. That’s what being mated means.”

“You can’t leave your pack. They’ll fall apart without you. You’re the alpha.” He led instinctively and without effort. People reacted to him, wanted to follow him, and there were at least a couple hundred people here who looked at him like he was a god.

“They’ll adjust. They’ll choose a new alpha, the next strongest stepping up. Probably Evangeline or Crackers. Life will go on.”

He couldn’t be serious, and yet he sat there with a determined look on his face. Kicks didn’t offer up empty promises. He did everything he said he would.

“I can’t have you do that. Give up your home for me.” I finished the rest of my drink in one gulp.

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