Page 71 of Escaping Wildfire

“Hey, Alpha wants to see us in his office.” He suddenly stopped, looking past me and into my room, with its disheveled sheets. “Really? Again? I thought you said you were done with her?”

“I was,” I shrugged, “But things changed.” I tried to make it seem that I didn’t care, but Ax and I both knew I did care, and I hated myself for just falling into bed with Evie again when I told myself I wouldn’t.

He let out a deep sigh as he shook his head, clearly disappointed in me.

“Let’s go.”

I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed that he hadn’t reprimanded me, but I knew him keeping his thoughts to himself was never a good thing. He was always the most honest one out of the three of us. The one we could count on to tell it like it is…but if he wasn’t doing that, then that left me a little clueless about where I should go with all of this.

ALPHA KEDRICK

I was leaving for a Shifter Council meeting this afternoon and wanted to touch base with the boys before I left. They were hard workers and had been doing great with every task I gave them, and while they were a great addition to my pack, I knew they belonged back at Cobalt Falls, leading their pack.

“Come on in guys,” Isaiah opened the door for them, and we all sat around the conference table.

“I don’t have anything too big to discuss today, so I just wanted to see how you were all doing. Are the kids all settling in well?”

“Yeah, I think they’re doing better. I talked to my sisters about taking over as their guardian, and they’re on board with it.” Jordan was all business as he talked about his sisters. The kid was going to make a great alpha.

“Good, good…I’ve been in touch with Olivia. She’s made contact with most of her cats, and they’re ready for an attack as soon as we give them a time and date. We’ll just have to give them plenty of time for travel as they are spread out over the country. That woman has some serious connections all over the nation.”

“Do we know how many there are?”

“A couple hundred so far, but she’s still trying to get in touch with some of the more secluded shifters.”

“That’s good right?”

“I think so, and we also have Brown Claw. They’re a smaller clan, but that still gives us another 100 or so.”

“And then we have about seven wolf packs willing to help, so far?”

“Yeah, I think we’re doing great, but I’d like you to reach out to Cristian’s sister again and get an idea of how things have been going since the others left. We need to get a feel for when it would be best to strike.”

“Are we going to be able to get my sister out before we strike? I don’t want her getting hurt if anyone thinks she’s with Wildfire.”

“That’s what we’re hoping for, Olivia’s been working on a plan, but we need more information from your sister before we proceed.”

“I’ll text her and see when she can call next.”

“Good. Gabriel’s in charge while I’m away, so bring anything urgent to him. I’m going to try to feel out The Council again. I doubt anything will change, but we want to know that the bears don’t know about Alpha Tate wanting to help us.”

My wolf, Rainer, had been going on high alert whenever we spoke with Alpha Keenan, and the feeling had gotten worse since he decided to put a hold on his retirement. It just rubbed me the wrong way that he wanted to block Tate from taking his place just because he had voted to help us.

“I’ll be flying out in a few hours to Mistwood and be back on Monday. I’d like an update on your sister, and hopefully, I’ll have more news for you guys by then.”

The Shifter Council had a monthly meeting, mostly over video conference. They’d meet in person two or three times a year, and this go around Mistwood, Alpha Dawson’s territory, was hosting our weekend-long meeting. They tried to even out the location between council members so that the same packs wouldn’t have to be traveling all the time. Mistwood was in California, just north of Wildfire Pack’s territory, so I didn’t have too far to go from my pack in Arizona.

I had stayed the night at their pack house and was expected downstairs for breakfast before we started our meeting. I sat next to Luna Beatrix. She was from the Riversong Pack in Washington and had been helping a lot with gathering the other wolf packs against Wildfire. We had agreed not to speak of our work during the weekend just in case any of the foxes and bears overheard.

“Kedrick, how are Ellis and that adorable little boy of yours?”

“They’re good, Oren is excited about starting school this month. We’re just hoping he doesn’t drive his teacher crazy with all of his antics.”

We chuckled at my comment and shared a moment of levity that was, unfortunately, marred by Alpha Keenan’s entrance into the room.

“Beatrix…Kedrick…” he greeted as he nodded his head our way. “I got word that you’ve been talking to Tate. I hope you aren’t still trying to convince us bears to join your ridiculous fight against Alpha Marek.” His voice was dripping with condescension, and my wolf, Rainer, was on the alert inside my head.

“As a council, we have already decided not to involve ourselves in the matter, so you can go against the decision but understand there will be consequences.” He took a drink of his coffee and smiled as if what he said was just part of an everyday friendly conversation.

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