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He patted my leg. “The minute we got onto the freeway.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry yer head about that, but ye do have a problem.”

“What’s that?” I asked, straightening in the seat and scanning the surroundings. The terrain resembled the state park, wooded and probably marshy in low spots.

He gave me a sidelong glance. “I brought ye here, but the governing council wants to meet ye before they approve your asylum.”

“Why? You told them about me, right? I won’t take up that much food from your people.”

He scrunched his nose, all jovialness gone. “Even so, lass, ye’ve got to convince them to let ye stay, and if ye have the strength to multi-shift again, they’ll want to see it. My clan is always dubious of any strangers. For all they know, ye could be meant to help take over their territories.” He studied me. “Maybe I should be suspicious of ye, too, but I saw what happened in the parking area.”

“What happens if I suck at convincing them and I can’t shift on command?”

My simple life was no longer simple. Shifter intrigue and all the posturing….Ugh.I didn’t want them to helpkeep me safe, but I needed them. No matter how much I didn’t want to need them.

Jasper shrugged. “Well, they might kill you to keep ye from talking about our clan and our defenses,” he said, “or they might kill ye for posing as the multimorph. Whatever they do, they would do without a second thought, Emma.”

“But they know I’m important,” I said.

“But they have to believe it,” he countered. “Our alpha can agree to ye’re being here, but not everyone on the council will agree with the idea that ye’re the multimorph or that ye should take refuge at Red Tail.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Nevertheless, if ye can’t shift on command, then ye must use persuasion.”

“I don’t think I have that as a special skill.”

He snorted a laugh. “Nay, not many do. Ready to meet the council?”

“No, of course not.”

Shit.

This morning, I hadn’t spent any time thinking about how to plead for protection so I could recuperate from an attack at the end of the day. No, my first thought had been how to get five gallons of coffee into my body and get through a normal Monday.

But normal wasn’t possible anymore, was it?

I was completely unprepared to persuade anybody of anything.

Now it felt like I wasn’t any safer than I’d been before. I had to admit what I was and ask for help. Theycould reject my request for protection, and I couldn’t go home. Whoever had attacked me at work probably also knew where I lived, and I wouldn’t risk anyone I knew or loved in this giant muddle of prophecy and destiny.

Fuck.

It was as though I’d jumped straight from the frying pan into the fire.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

logan

Flynn caught up to me as I paced on the front porch, tucking his cell phone into the pocket of pants Olivia must have given him. Every alpha wore clothes different than they’d arrived in or, in Torbin’s case, none.

My text to Sheila hadn’t yet been answered yet, and not knowing what had happened to Emma while we had been under attack troubled me. I stopped at the top of the steps, and Flynn halted also. Olivia’s head swiveled toward us, and she left the battlefield, hurrying our way.

“It was pretty effing ballsy of Acheron to attack us here,” Flynn said, “as you’re giving us news of the emergence.”

“Sensible, though, if you intend to conquer the packs,” I answered, curious what exactly he’d delayed long enough to discuss.