Page 184 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

Slowly, Griffin and I strolled toward the door that must lead into the council meeting room. We moved at a snail’s pace as we tried to wait on Rosemary without being too obvious. A tall, commanding figure hovering near the doorway caught my attention.

Yelahiah.

I wasn’t too shocked, since Rosemary was getting coffee, but the older woman’s attention wasn’t on her daughter. She was focused on me. Her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to piece a puzzle together, and even when my eyes met hers, she didn’t look away. Instead, her interest seemed to be piqued even more.

Unease filtered through me, and I wanted to run away. I’d never experienced such intense scrutiny before. Normally, I wasdrawn toward a fight or confrontation, not repelled. That was how silver wolves were wired. But this was different. I didn’t know how to explain it.

Remember those papers Dick stopped by to pick up at the house?Griffin sounded miserable, and his body seemed to shrink.

Yeah.I remembered that day clearly. Dick had tried to push me into leaving and had even tried threatening me when he saw that I had every intention of staying. The douchebag had wanted to make me run, and I’d thought it was solely because of his daughter. Luna had been desperate to make Griffin her own.You didn’t read the forms,did you?I tried not to sound accusatory, but I couldn’t help it. Dick had been desperate to have him sign those papers quickly, and now we knew why.

I did.He growled, making the vampire sweeping the floor pause. Griffin didn’t even notice and continued with his tirade.But I didn’t know how it would impact the guards’ watch schedule. I assumed they’d always keep at least one or two behind.

Dick had banked on Griffin not scrutinizing the details. The conniving prick.Did you ask any questions?

No, it seemed so straightforward.He turned toward me.I fucked up.

You trusted the wrong person.That was what this all came down to.But we’ll figure a way out of this.Dad had taught me not to fret even when there wasn’t an obvious strategy. That was what the enemy banked on, and I needed to keep a level head in order to seize the next opportunity to turn things around.Thatwas you being naive and wanting to see the best in people. You did nothing wrong. Why would you ever think anyone on the council would do something to sabotage the safety of the city?

I should’ve done something that day, but instead, I’d let the man go with the papers. I had known something wasn’t right andshould’ve followed up on my instincts. Because I hadn’t, now my mate could lose his place within his pack and city. All those changes his father and he had dreamed of might remain just that.

A dream.

I was also to blame here. But beating myself up over it would be caving and doing exactly what the asshole wanted.

I was stronger than that.

Griffin and I were more powerful together.

We had to remember that.

Rosemary hung back, most likely due to her mother. We needed to pretend, at least for a little while longer, that we weren’t allies. That bit of information needed to be dropped at the perfect time.

“Well, hello there.” Yelahiah’s musical voice sounded like a lullaby.

There was something pure and raw about her that made me feel safe. But I couldn’t tell her who I was. She was angry about what had happened to her brother, but I was very far removed from him, my blood containing only a fraction of his after all these generations. “Hi.”

“You seem awfully familiar to me.” She arched an eyebrow, reminding me of her daughter. “Have we met before yesterday?”

“No, we haven’t.” We hadn’t even been officially introduced. Instead, I had been an observer to the show.

Griffin took a step closer to me. “She’s my mate,” he said simply.

“I got that much yesterday.” However, her focus stayed on me. “What’s your name?”

“I have many.” I forced a laugh and hoped that the sound wasn’t as crazed as it seemed in my head. “But the one most people call me is Dove.” That wasn’t a lie. All the customers at Shadow Ridge Coffee Shop on the university campus called meby that name. Only my closest friends and family knew my birth name.

“Dove.” She grinned, which made her look more human. The superior angel facade slipped away, if only for a moment. “I like that.” She licked her blood-red lips and motioned for her daughter. “Word to the wise—you two better get in there. If I know Azbogah and Richard, they’re about to begin the meeting five minutes early.”

Griffin’s lips parted, revealing his surprise at her support.

“Thank you,” I said as I looped my arm through Griffin’s, directing him inside. If I didn’t know he was gawking at her because she’d helped him, I might have gotten jealous. She could easily pass for mid-thirties, despite being centuries old. Angels were immortal.

As we entered the room, I scanned the area, looking for Ulva. I spotted her sitting next to a dark-haired woman on the end of a row of chairs against the wall close to the door we’d walked through. More chairs were set around a rectangular table with a cut-out section that faced the door. Twelve people sat around the table, which I’d expected: three angels, three witches, three vampires, and the wolf shifters, representing the shifters as a whole.

Dick stood in the middle of the table facing the door, with Azbogah on his right and Alex on his left. Erin’s deep brown eyes darkened even more as she glared at my mate from next to Azbogah, and the red in her hair seemed to emphasize her anger. Then each council member’s seat rotated between the supernatural races. Based on what Griffin taught me, I was able to sniff out each one. The only two vacant seats were the ones closest to Ulva.

The wolves represent all shifters,Griffin explained as he ushered me to the seat beside his mom.The original council refused to let every shifter have a representative because thenthat general race would have the most say. They wanted it balanced, and the one race every shifter trusted was the silver wolf, so a vote was cast that silver wolves wouldbe the shifter representatives. After all, they’d been the ones to organize the civil war against the angels. The silver wolves left before the first council meeting, but the decision couldn’t be undone, per the other council members,so the strongest alpha wolf took that spot instead.

---