Page 48 of So I Won a Werelion

And terrified. Her eyes were wide, and they found mine. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t have to.

“Celebrating what?” Lucy stalked toward Wendy, but she didn’t flinch. “You got that relic with you?”

Wendy nodded.

“Let’s see it.”

“Not so fast,” Bibi commanded. “I refuse to let these artifacts be used as weapons. They aren’t meant to divide us. They should bring us together. This is some powerful energy, and if Wendy hadn’t been at that housing development to find them, all of them could have fallen into the wrong hands.”

“Bibi and I have come up with a plan,” Wendy added.

“Oh,you’vecome up with a plan? This sounds rich.”

Everyone glared at Lucy.

“It’s more than you’ve done,” Leo said. “Let’s hear it, and then we’ll make decisions.”

“Work on Ranchero Hills must stop immediately. Which means we have to go public with our finding,” Wendy said.

A few gasps and protests rose from the members of our pride.

“This is why we’ll need a local shifter alliance. Bigger than the council.” Bibi’s energy couldn’t be contained. She strutted alongthe perimeter of the small circle we’d formed. “We’ll need to pull all permits on this land, and make sure it was acquired fairly. Or see if we can find a reason to have it registered as protected shifter land. Wendy will lead the search—”

That earned more groans.

“Which one of you is a trained archeologist? Oh, just Wendy? That puts her in charge of the search. We’ll be working with Laura at the Colorado Ranch library as well to see if there was anything we missed in the documents she has access to, or if we can connect the dots using multiple documents—”

“Let me get this straight.” Of course it was Lucy. “You want to put two humans in charge of the most important shifter discovery of this century?”

“Wendy’s my mate, which means she’s part of this pride, and she’ll act with our best interests in mind,” I growled. “I’ll be working right alongside her, every step of the way.”

“She rejected you.” Lucy’s gaze slid from me, to Wendy, to Bibi, and finally to Bjorn and his camera, and she groaned.

“A girl’s entitled to change her mind,” Bibi said.

“You should’ve mentioned you’re back on the show, Gabe.” Leo shook his head. “That makes things more complicated. But I’ll talk to Saint, Jackson, and the rest of the pack leaders. Nothing should be done until a plan is in place.”

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Wendy said. “The worksite needs be shut down like yesterday. My sister and this Derek Jared guy will fight us with everything they have. And the reporters will want to know why construction was stopped after the groundbreaking. It’s only a matter of time until they realize they have something valuable.”

“We need to get that piece back.” I stood beside Wendy and put my hand on the small of her back. “No matter what it takes.”

Leo raised a brow, warning that I was treading back into dangerous territory.

Lucy sauntered over to us. “You need to start thinking about your children. And your grandchildren. The lionesses demand to be involved in these plans. If we don’t approve of them, we’ll be leaving this pride once and for all and forming our own.”

She didn’t wait for anyone to argue before she left.

“Lucy has a flair for the dramatic.” Leo groaned as he rose from his seat. “But I have to agree, I’m uncomfortable putting so much of this mission into the hands of humans. I’ll talk to Saint and Jackson and come up with a proposal for the council.”

“Wendy should be there too,” I said.

My alpha considered my mate. If he said no…

Was I willing to walk away from my pride because they rejected my mate?

I’d already done it once, going all the way to the other side of the world to keep myself from breaking their rules. But now I was back, and nothing would keep me from Wendy.

“You’re right,” he finally said. “Her knowledge will be pivotal to making the right decision. In the meantime, we need to make sure these artifacts are safe.”

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