Page 74 of Understanding Fate

That’s more like it.

“Is she sassing you, too?” he asks me, a chuckle in his voice.

“Yep, but honestly, would you expect anything less? You said it yourself: she’s a part of me. I’d be giving me shit, too,” I say, relaxed for the first time.

“Let's get you showered and off to sleep. You’ve had a long day,” he says, kissing my forehead and scooping me into his arms. Snuggling into his embrace, I inhale his scent, relishing the way it always brings me peace.

Our shower is efficient. Cain takes his time soaping and massaging my sore body before washing my hair while I stand under the warm stream, half in a daze. When I’m deemed clean, he wraps me in an oversized fluffy towel and escorts me into the bedroom. I pull on some underwear and one of his t-shirts and crawl into the bed.

Sleep takes me before my head even hits the pillow, and I spend the night dreaming about the woods, lying in the sun's rays, and chasing a particular black-furred wolf with metallic silver eyes.

Chapter 29

Dante

Silence hangs in the air as the council considers the information I’ve given them. Where we usually have seven members, only five are present today. With Cain being off the grid and Jake on special assignment watching over Bri’s roommate, Liv, I feel like we’re operating as a skeleton crew, and it makes me nervous about the impending war.

“Any ideas?” I ask, opening the floor up and scanning from Pres to Erik before sliding my gaze across the table to Elijah and James. Erik speaks first.

“Do we need a full perimeter for the city, or can we focus our protection on our assets? Feels like we are wasting personnel with teams patrolling open desert that is meaninglessin the grand scheme of things,” he says, his eyes scouring the personnel document in front of him.

“We could back off and focus our intentions on more of our properties, but then we have gaps, and we have pack members all over the city. I can’t ask them all to leave their homes for an unforeseen amount of time. Patrolling the perimeter, keeping tabs on all highways into the city, and using Pres’s extensive drone collection to monitor areas farther outside the perimeter seem like the best ways to identify if they are moving in. Additionally, we can’t attack them in the city. The fight will have to happen away from human eyes. Too many cameras exist, and the last thing we need is a wolf shifter battle being live-streamed to the world.” I finish, realizing the last war didn’t have these additional complications.

“If this goes that far, I’ll be jamming most electronics as a precaution. That being said, shouldn’t we be looking for ways to negotiate a new peace treaty rather than preparing for a war we have a very, and I mean very, slim chance of winning?” Presley asks, concern evident in her tone and tension firmly placed in her posture.

“I can’t see Marlo being willing to negotiate anymore. He lost his Second; then we took Brielle even after he won her from the LLC. If the feud between him and our father was tense, ours has made it even more tenuous. He has no reason to want to trust us, and while his entire case for Brielle was bullshit, it was our anonymous tip that got his original Second thrown in jail, and then we got the replacement shot. It’s not exactly a platform of peace,” I say, feeling even more frustrated and wishing Cain was here with ideas.

“Everyone has a price. We just have to find what he’s willing to trade for besides all of our territory,” Pres says, typing something into her computer.

“Any word on resources? Packs who will help?” Erik asks, looking from me at Elijah and James.

“None of our allied packs believe that the Reno Pack should have been awarded the Unawakened girl, and yet, they won’t support us because the LLC is involved,” Elijah says, and James nods in agreement.

That’s what I found when I reached out as well.

“The only pack willing to assist is my aunt's pack in New Mexico. She is currently working on numbers to see how many shifters she can send. So we have our numbers, which Quinn ran most of last night and this morning, and we have 1,926 able-bodied, plus whatever they can contribute,” I say, supplying Erik with our totals.

“Do we know how many Reno has?” Erik asks as a follow-up.

I shake my head, preparing to answer him, but James pipes in with a response.

“I spoke with a friend of mine from one of the northern California packs, and apparently, his son was sent to work with the Reno Pack last spring. According to him, they have close to a thousand active wolves, and that's not considering any they could pull in for this now that the LLC has basically blacklisted us,” he says.

“Deacon Marlo also has his fingers in several different less-than-legal ventures and has familial ties to the Amatos, who we know have resources they could send,” Elijah adds.

Shit. I’d forgotten about their ties with the Miami pack.

That’s part of what got us into this in the first place.

Dante: Quinn, I need to meet with David Healy asap

Quinn: I will reach out. Any reason I should tell him?

Dante: No, just that it's urgent; try to get him in here before two today.

Quinn: You got it, boss, but remember you have an in-person meeting with a client from Resort World at 1:00 p.m. and a video call scheduled with Doug Martin at 1:30 p.m.

Dante: I’ll have to be fast, or he will have to wait, but it needs to be today.

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