Page 53 of The Awakened Wolf

The last to arrive, and late by ten minutes, were Tony and Gigi, the Alpha and Beta of Staten Island. He had leaned into the androgyny of the moment with a gold and pearl spiked neck chain laying over his pink percale button-down. She wore a shimmery dove gray camisole that left almost nothing to the imagination. It set off her mauve lipstick, which was, of course, on point for the season. If it didn’t decorate lips twisted into a perpetual sneer, I’d have asked her the brand.

A matching sneer flitted across my sister’s face before she caught herself, and it dawned on me that Kiana and Gigi had never been face-to-face since she’d missed the last all-pack meeting. The one where Blaze told everyone that I was supposed to be the Bronx Alpha. Something Kiana probably hadn’t taken into consideration in her plans to rescue him for Jesmyn. Shit.

“I’d like to thank you all,” Kiana began, “for finally finding the time to meet.”

“Yes, well,” Tony sniffed, “it seems we have no choice given the chaos taking over your boroughs. How do we even know you’re in charge, Kiana? At the last meeting, this one—” He indicated to me with a curled lip. “—barged in claiming to be Alpha with Max’s support while you were nowhere to be found. Now Max is dead, and we’re told you rule both Manhattan and the Bronx despite Sebastian and…” he trailed off, looking at me. “I’m sorry, honey. What was your name again?”

I bristled, but I swear I could feel Evan bristling even bristlier at the other end of the table. No one called me honey in that condescending tone except him. Or maybe I was just trying to convince myself those bristles weren’t coming from my sister who wasn’t above murder. Every personal survival instinct told me to tell her what really happened at that meeting, but Blaze had five pups to come home to. I would have to take the heat.

“Don’t be rude,” Kiana said, her manicure testing the hardness of the glass desktop. “You just admitted that you know my sister Elyse. As for leadership, it’s true that she was firstborn, but given that she’s found her fated mate, she and Sebastian have decided to apply their talents elsewhere so that I can govern without distraction.”

Gigi raised a perfect brow and exchanged a glance with Tony, who sniggered. Sebastian threw an arm around me, deepening the false impression. I suppressed the urge to shove his arm off, knowing he’d meant to be protective. Then again, if I were free, I could leap over his lap and throttle my sister, who’d started this whole thing.

“If I cared about shifter drama,” Julius broke in, his voice taut, “I’d watch that pathetic excuse for a television show. Can we please get to the purpose of the call?”

“Now, Julius,” Tony said. “I think this is all very relevant, given we wouldn’t be in this mess if Max and Phelan hadn’t refused to come out of the shadows when the rest of us wanted to address Alma Mater Animalis.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Gigi chimed in but didn’t speak. I marveled at the way she managed to skirt the rules of protocol but never truly break them. Except for the clothes. No protocol allowed for necklines that low.

“I agree,” Yeh said quietly. “There’s no amount of PR that can get this situation under control now. Especially with this so-called hunter. What was it? Godrey? Goodman?”

“Godwin Moone,” Kiana said, her voice growing eager. “I can’t speak to the decisions made by previous Alphas—” She looked pointedly at Tony, whose eyes drifted to my stone-faced father. “But I can suggest a plan of action to deal with Moone. Our pack has learned that this disease he’s spreading is actually rabies, which is great news because there’s a vaccine for rabies.”

“Please,” Tony scoffed. “You expect us to believe it’s something so simple as that? And that your pack has the geniuses that figured this out?”

“Yes, Kiana,” Julius agreed, “though I might have phrased it differently, I’d like to know how you can be so sure it’s only rabies.”

“Easy,” Kiana said, gesturing to Jayla. “Everyone, our guest here is an old friend of Elyse’s. Her name is Jayla, and she happens to be a doctor. She can explain.”

“Actually—” Jayla began.

“What is the meaning of this?” Tony shrieked, his voice heading into a register only heard by bats. “You’d bring a human to an all-pack meeting without discussing it beforehand? Are you completely out of your mind, you stupid, brazen fema—”

It was Tony’s turn to be cut off as he buckled, groaning, flipping his video off for a few moments. When he flickered back on, he’d regained his composure, but Gigi’s face had rearranged into a smirk, and I bit back my own smile. Though it had been off-camera, I was certain she’d stomped her brother’s—her Alpha’s—foot mid-rant. Gods, I loved her for that.

“Due to the extenuating circumstances,” Kiana growled, “I’ll let that go. For now.”

Tony raised his chin, but even I saw the twitch in his jaw muscle. It was easy to be condescending to my sister on a Zoom call, but he sure as shit wouldn’t be so swaggy if they were in the same room. She was a bitch, yes, but she was also an Alpha who’d usurped two packs already.

“But I find it shocking,” she continued, “that you’d be so thrown by the idea of one human being part of our pack when, in fact, we have many former humans counted among our ranks now, thanks to my sister.”

I’d been leaning my forearms hard on the table, but when she threw me to the literal wolves, my ass came out of my seat so fast the chair rolled out from under me before I could straighten the rest of my body, and my knees plummeted toward the floor. Sebastian’s strong arm swept beneath me, catching me around the waist. When our eyes locked, the heat that blossomed beneath his hand had nothing to do with my embarrassment.

With a knowing smile, he lifted me suavely back into my runaway chair. His fingers trailed slowly across my stomach as he pulled away, and for what felt like an eternity, there was no sound but the beat of my heart. Or maybe it was just ticking of the giant digital Grandfather clock as the four faces on the screen gaped at all of us with unabashed disdain.

“Kiana,” I said, voice trembling, and then stopped. I couldn’t say, “What the ever-loving fluff did you just do?” in front of everyone. It didn’t matter though, because she barreled on like always. Her chair wheels rolled like thunder as she rose and came around Sebastian’s back to yank my neckline over my left shoulder before I could even think to stop her.

“This is the Mark of Chann,” she announced. “It was foretold in the prophecies that one would be born with this mark. And with Chann’s ability to create new shifters. Elyse has that ability.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“Bullshit,” Tony said, bursting into laughter along with Gigi.

Though Yeh and Julius didn’t laugh, their doubt tugged at their brows and lips. Their growing anger roved with tongues over teeth.

Kiana never slowed down, pulling her own neckline aside. “This is the Mark of Marrak. Also foretold. The one who bears this mark can take a shifter’s wolf away, rendering them human again.”

All laughter ceased.

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