Page 61

Grey

“There’s a town hall meeting starting up in about five minutes, Blossom,” I call out to my mate who’s talking to Amelia in the parking lot. She gave me a minute to speak to my father off to the side, but he’s gone in.

“I’ll head home. Brunch the day after tomorrow at Roxy’s?” Amelia asks.

“Sounds awesome,” Stacy says.

Amelia waves at me and gets into her car. Jase’s mom drives away with a traumatized Sherry in the passenger seat. I turn to watch Linc and Joel pull the unconscious, hog-tied Wyatt out of the back of Jared’s RV. They drop him on the ground.

“Oopsie daisy,” Linc quips.

Joel throws his head back and laughs.

“I’m gonna grab my suitcase,” Stacy says, stepping over her brother. “And use the bathroom in there real quick.”

“Okay. See you in there.” I kiss her and follow the guys inside.

Bailey comes in from the opposite door that leads to the library. Crossing the space quickly, she catches up to me, saying, “Good, you’re here. Everything okay now?”

“A lot happened,” I tell her. “A lot. Get into it later, yeah? This is about to start.”

“Okay, here you go.” She hands me a sheet of paper.

“What’s this?” I eyeball it.

“Stacy’s family tree. Was waiting in my email this morning from the librarian that runs the archives for the SCC.”

I feel relief that my mate will have her answers. I can see those answers now and feel a second wave of relief. “Thank you, Bailey. I appreciate this.”

“Any time,” she says and quickly walks past Jase with her nose straight up in the air. He frowns and I see him watch her sit beside Aphra Starling, holding out her hand and introducing herself.

Stacy comes in and I watch her smiling face as she waves and greets people before walking straight into my arms and getting up on her tiptoes to kiss me.

“Hey,” she says. “Let’s get this done so we can go for a run.”

“A run, Blossom? Know I wrote some checks on the drive over but think I might be crashin’ when we get home. I haven’t slept since… since I don’t know when the fuck.”

“Oh,” she pouts.

I poke her nose. “But maybe if you do all the work, you can have my knot.”

“Deal,” she whispers, eyes lighting up. “In fact, I have an idea.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“You’ll see,” she teases.

I laugh again. This is when I notice a set of eyes on her so do a double take. The blond guy standing beside Brody looks the other way. Malachi Carswell?

I remember what I’m holding and hand Stacy the piece of paper.

“What’s this?” she asks.

“Read it,” I tell her.

First, her body tightens, but as she looks it over I feel her body sag against me with relief.

Wyatt’s mother and Stacy’s mother are cousins. But neither were blood-relations to John Meadows. Wyatt’s mother was adopted and they were not blood relatives. Stacy’s mother was Wyatt’s mother’s cousin by blood on her birth father’s side of the family, so it appeared , also not blood-related to John Meadows. So, the families retained contact despite the adoption, which wasn’t unusual back then. There wasn’t a national adoption system for shifters until about two decades ago, so adoptions most often happened between folks in the same pack or neighboring packs meaning contact would tend to be more frequent. Wyatt’s mother’s mother was only fourteen when she gave birth to her so adoption tracks.Wyatt and Stacy are technically half-siblings as well

“Good news, Blossom,” I say, pressing my lips to her head.

“Yeah,” she whispers, love shining in her eyes. “Thank you for getting this for me.”

“Thank my sister,” I gesture.

“I’ll do that.” She looks about to move that way, but Brody and the blond guy get on the stage so she changes her mind seeing things are about to start here.

All seven of us council alphas are here. So are four of the previous council, including my dad as well as Jase’s.

Dad looks like he’s only physically here. I think he’s mentally somewhere else. I got Stace to message him to meet me here as we got close and he was in the parking lot when we arrived.

“Where’s Mom?” I had asked.

“At Riley’s. She’s with Erica, Skye, and Cat.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s… fine,” he said.

I knew there was something he wasn’t saying but I’ll have to find out later. I put my hand on his shoulder and Dad went perfectly still when I then told him Soleil was behind the drama, but she’s now dead. I told him I’d give him the full recap after this, including messages she had for him. Tomorrow if he didn’t mind waiting. He said nothing, but his expression looked absolutely wrecked.

His eyes are now on Bailey and Aphra. Dad has always made no bones about the fact he doesn’t trust witches and I get why now.

“Okay, listen up,” Brody calls out and the room hushes. “We’ve got your former alpha here and input is welcome, but my opinion… the logical choices are to either send him off to have the SCC deal with him, which Dr. Blakely already told us is what they’d like to do. Or… you can decide as a pack if you’d prefer to sentence him to death. We can set up a ballot box after you all determine what options we want listed on ballots and then you get to decide by popular vote.”

“Death?” The blond guy standing beside him asks with shock. “We’d do that? One of us would kill him?”

Definitely Malachi Carswell. Now that I’ve looked twice I remember him from the surveillance footage the night after I claimed Stacy when Rye mauled her cousin Jimmy.

“Death,” Brody confirms. “And if this pack sentences him to death then I think this pack will have to decide how and who does it. As for alternatives, unless he can be rehabilitated with punishment, which… from what I know of this asshole, that’s not doable, right?”

There are murmurs of agreement from the crowd. My mate scoffs like the idea of rehabilitation is unthinkable. And she’d be correct.

Brody continues, “If you don’t vote death, my opinion here is that the alternative is to let the SCC mete out whatever punishment they deem in a sentencing. I say let the SCC take on the burden unless you’re ending his life. Unless you all wanna take on feeding and clothing him yourselves for the rest of his miserable life as well as building a prison to keep him in. I think this pack has enough to worry about.”

The space is quiet and a few look shocked.

“By all means, opposing views are invited. Speak up if you’ve got something to say, folks.”

The patched-up town hall has all of the Silver Hills people in it, including the children, who are gathered together behind the rows of chairs with Lucy Savage who sits with them. She brought in wooden puzzles, a tub of Lego, and a stack of coloring books with crayons.

The roof and floor got patched up by Riley, Ty, and Mase and the Silver Hills folks are staying here on a combination of air beds, camping cots, and sleeping bags. It’ll be tight, but Mase called while we were on our way back and patched in Jase as well. He explained he, Ty, Riley, Linc, and Joel had a quick conversation just before the buses pulled in. They all felt strongly about keeping this group together, rather than integrating them with the rest of the pack. Ty argued we don’t know which of the males in this pack might not be thrilled with our intervention into their pack matters.

All good points, so we readily agreed. Trust will need to be earned. We’ll be having the building watched over with surveillance and a few posted alphas and betas on security detail for the time being. Ty told me a few of our pack members dropped off their own RVs to loan and three more will be rented and brought over from the resort across the lake. Families or couples can take turns using them one night at a time in order to be fair to everyone staying in the town hall. He also told me Brody put his offer in on the property he wants and is waiting to hear back on it. His offer stipulated a two-week closing date.

“Every voice matters here, folks,” Brody continues. “This is a new day and input from the pack is needed on pack matters, yeah? The floor is open for anyone with something to say.”

Nobody says anything.

Brody taps his fist as if it’s a microphone. “Is this thing on?”

There are a few laughs, but there’s tension and uncertainty in the air. It’s clear these folks are accustomed to being told what to do instead of being asked for their opinion.

“I say, damn straight,” Eloise finally answers loudly. “Either we end his life or let the SCC worry about him. Though, just sayin’… if the SCC gets him, we have no guarantees they won’t let him go later on.”

“His long list of crimes? I don’t see that happening,” Jase pipes up.

“Even still,” Eloise goes on, “The only way to make sure Wyatt Meadows can’t harm another of us along with any of you here in Arcana Falls is if alpha…err…Wyatt is no longer breathing.”

I look at my mate and I can tell she agrees. No second thoughts about her brother? Good .

“Can everyone vote?” a small girl asks.

“I think… everyone over the age of eighteen,” Brody responds. “Agreed?” He looks at the crowd.

“I think everyone over the age of sixteen should be able to vote,” a teenage girl calls out. “Because sixteen-year-olds who were forced to go to a certain place they didn’t wanna go and do things they didn’t wanna do should maybe have a say in what happens to our past alpha.” Her voice is scratchy and her face is red.

It’s clear she’s not typically a public speaker, none of the females in this pack are accustomed to being allowed to have a voice, but everyone in the room knows this is important to her and knows why. And seeing her expression and the wetness in her eyes, I want to kick the absolute shit out of Wyatt Meadows right now. And I already wanted to do more than just that.

“The only problem I have with this pack vote is that I probably won’t get my hands on him,” I mutter.

“Yeah.” Jase scoffs, eyes blazing with anger.

“I agree,” I call out and the teenage girl looks at me. I give her what I hope is a reassuring expression.

“I might only be fourteen but I think I should have a say, too,” a teenage boy calls out. “My dad got killed comin’ here the other day.”

“Sorry about your dad, buddy,” Brody says. “You know it’s nobody’s fault from Arcana Falls that your dad died, right? You know your past alpha attacked this pack repeatedly despite Greyson Blackwood reaching out to try to keep things amicable even after attacks were made.”

“’Course I do. Our alpha blamed you guys for what happened to my dad but he’s the one that sent off my seventeen-year-old sister to that same place Jenny went in order to line his pockets, buy guns, and such. My sister won’t stop cryin’. Everyone knows it was our alpha that fucked ever…sorry for my language, that screwed everything up.” The kid sniffles but gets a lock on his emotions and stands taller.

Brody clasps his hands together. “Okay, then does anyone have a problem with the fact that everyone who wants to vote should get a chance to do that?” He looks at Malachi sitting in the chair beside him. “You agree?”

He looks like he’s a few years younger than me. Tall. Lean. Blond hair. He looks thoughtful for a moment. “Yes. I agree. As long as fathers or mothers aren’t directing their kids? If someone wants to vote, they have to have an opinion of their own?”

“Anyone disagree?” Brody asks the room.

Nobody answers.

“I got a question,” the same teenaged boy calls out.

“Shoot,” Brody invites.

The kid looks like he’s trying to gain composure before he finally speaks. “We’d like to know where my dad is buried so we can pay our respects.”

Ty speaks up. “We were holding your deceased pack members in the basement here with plans to let you all bury them. But with the building repairs and the time that has passed, we had to act earlier today. We cremated them individually after getting their names from Malachi Carswell. Speak to me after we’re done if you want to claim their ashes.”

“Th-thanks,” the kid says, red-faced.

His mother squeezes his hand. His sister, sitting on the other side of the mother leans into her mother and her shoulders shake with the crying she’s doing.

Fuckin’ Meadows.

“Thank you, Tyson,” Malachi says, though he’s looking at the crowd. “We appreciate that very much.”

Malachi’s eyes now coast over to my direction and that’s where they stay – on my mate who is leaning into me, her arms around my waist as we stand against the wall inside the door.

I see it, plain as day – he’s carrying a torch for her. My lip curls and the temperature of my blood begins to rise. Stacy’s grip on me tightens and I look down at her questioning face. My eyes move back to Malachi and I feel her body go rigid for a beat, but she waves at him while also giving my waist a tighter squeeze, as if to send us both a message.

His expression goes tight before he jerks his chin up at her in greeting.

I hear the growl leave my mouth before I’m able to get a lock on it.

A lot of heads turn our way and I’m sure the majority of the room reads the situation because Malachi takes one look at me and immediately tilts his head slightly, enough to submit, casting his eyes off to the side.

Brody clears his throat and says my name, so I tear my eyes off Malachi and rein it in for the sake of the proceedings here.

“Good, Grey?” Brody checks.

“All good,” I reply while I pull her closer and caress her mate mark with my thumb, again watching Malachi, silently daring him to look over here again.

A long silence stretches on until Eloise breaks the silence by asking, “Um… so… when will we vote on who our new pack alpha is?”

Brody answers, “Me and Malachi have talked a little so far but not about that. Do you want to address this, Malachi? Thoughts?”

He clears his throat before answering, “I actually think we should deal with Wyatt first. Maybe we should…” He looks at Brody and seems lost for words.

The silence feels awkward. He’s shaken up, probably because of me, but he’s also looking like a fish out of water here, as far as I can tell.

He's already looking to Brody as his leader and they would’ve only met a couple hours ago.

“Maybe take a bit of time with things as is while we…” He shakes his head. “Honestly, who am I kidding? As much as the idea of campaigning for your votes is an opportunity I appreciate, I can already see this is a huge undertaking without us having usable land. We can’t go back there. I know I don’t want to. With what Brody is offering us, I think it’s probably in our best interests to go ahead with his plan. I don’t think I have the experience to lead us when we’re starting with nothing. No resources or money or connections like Brody has to make essential things happen. And we all know how sheltered our lives have been – I don’t know that any of us have the diplomacy experience to go to the SCC on our behalf to request aid. Everything Brody told me so far … I think him leading would be good for us. He’s also related to the council here, has access to their construction company for things we’ll need. He’s a trained and experienced construction project manager so can handle all that himself. The money needed to fund building a village for us… it’s… a lot. Though I’d be more than happy to help however I can, perhaps as one of your lieutenants, Brody?”

“I’m not building an army, bud,” Brody states. “A pack isn’t that. But yeah… if it’s me that leads I’ll need plenty of help. I’ll need the whole pack to kick in.”

“We don’t know him,” a man I vaguely recall from the barracks calls out. “Should we just appoint some stranger our alpha when we only just met him?”

“He saved us. Pulled us out of that shit hole. Literally,” Adelaide snaps from the back corner where she’s sitting with several other girls. “You think he’s doing it because he’s got a scheme in mind? What could he possibly gain from taking all of us on?”

Brody’s eyes zero in on her I can feel the crackling energy between them.

They’re in an eye lock for a long moment and the electricity is such that no one seems to want to interrupt.

He’s still got that edge about him. And I see no mating mark on her throat. So they still haven’t officially mated.

Fuck, Brody. How?

“Do we need to lock them up in my cabin next?” I hear Ty mutter to Riley. Riley’s shoulders shake with silent laughter. And because you could hear a pin drop in this place and Ty isn’t exactly soft-spoken, everyone would’ve heard.

It’s obviously more than just me that just noticed the lack of claiming mark on her throat.

“Does someone else want to put their hat in the ring?” Brody asks. “I want you all to have choices. You all, every one of you… deserve that,” His eyes are still on Adelaide.

“What about a trial period?” Patsy calls out. “If we have a trial run with Brody and set a date to make our permanent decision?”

A blonde female sitting beside Adelaide who was rescued from the massage parlor speaks up. “This alpha is willing to put all his own money into a property and develop it for us, saving us from the literal shit show back home and we’re what… going to take him up on his generosity but not commit to anything? He’s going to make a place for us and we’re going to just use him and maybe change our minds later? How is that fair?”

Brody wags his finger in correction while shaking his head. “I am putting my own savings into it, but the Arcana Falls alpha council has agreed to finance the rest and hold the mortgage. Since they insist on doing that interest-free, I’ll be looking to all members of the pack to help me in ways that include contributing labor to whatever we get into so we can pay that down as fast as possible. Like I said, there’s a building suitable for a number of business opportunities on site and I have some ideas. But there’s no rush; we won’t go hungry while we establish our pack and business. What I’m tryin’ to illustrate is this is an opportunity for me as well. And I’m buying that property to set up a pack and want to get into the black on the books as soon as possible. The way I see it, if you all decide to leave after a few months to go on and forge a different path, that’d be acceptable. I’ll be puttin’ word out that we’re open to families and able-bodied individuals applying to join us, starting with sending that bulletin out to those on the waiting list to move here to The Falls. I’m not holding any one of you prisoner. All this has shown me I’m ready to do this, so if you all choose to come with me… provided that they accept my offer… you don’t have to stay unless you want to. If this works out long term, we’ll consider buy out options for your homes, too. I don’t intend it all to be just my land.”

“That’s what you say now,” an older woman mutters.

“That is what I say,” Brody responds. “I’m not planning on a bait and switch situation. The main house and twenty-five acres will be in my name as that’ll be my home for me, my mate, and our future family. I may want the majority share of the business in my name with the pack as my partner. Arcana Falls council members might also have some equity. It’s all to be determined and we’ll outline all that. The rest will be in a company name I set up and once it’s built and working well, we can talk about stocks or profit sharing for whatever business we start for the pack. Do I deserve a stake in it as the one who put up the risk, the money, and the sweat into it? Yeah. That’s fair, isn’t it? Arcana Falls council is backing this project because it’s me and because of Stacy Blackwood’s connection to you all. They’re doing it also for all of you because of the shit you’ve been through and I know they want your pack to be able to stand on its own feet. This is who we are here in The Falls, plain and simple. We help.” He pauses, then adds, “Though I can appreciate apprehension after what you’ve all been through with your previous alpha, I’m happy to outline something in writing with accountability. Accountability for not just me but also for all of you. A pack is only as strong as its people and this hasn’t been a functional pack in a while. It’ll be blood, sweat, and probably a few tears getting everything going but it’ll also be very worth it to build something great together. Something we can all benefit from now as well as set things up for our next generations. So we can be the sort of pack that helps others, too. Pay it forward.”

Conversations are now buzzing through the space and there’s excitement.

“Guys…” Malachi calls out, then blows a wolf whistle, which has the desired effect of halting the conversations. “Maybe we should deal with the vote for Wyatt’s fate here and now, and we can talk more about the rest after we all get some rest. It’s been a big day. I like Patricia’s idea of a trial period. It sounds like Brody isn’t holding us to anything and his generosity is something we can show appreciation for. He showed me the property listing and it’s… you guys, it’s absolutely awesome. A hundred times better than what we had. There are ponds full of fish, there’s loads of forest, even a trickling waterfall coming from a spring. An actual spring, you guys. The property has artesian wells, too. How much have we all yearned for clean water the last decade? And he has a list of improvements he wants to make so if we all do our best to help him build the property into a great community then we’re not just freeloaders. Once everyone is in and settled and contributing, you’ll pay your own way. We’ll contribute to pack money matters. We’ll have a bookkeeper and the books will be open to anyone in the pack to see them. Based on everything Brody’s said to me, it won’t just be a tribute paid to someone who uses it however they want. Those who invest in the business Brody sets up with their sweat equity could have a stake in it.”

“What if we’re too old to work?” an old man asks.

Malachi looks at Brody.

“The elderly in a pack are treasured and revered for their wisdom and their contributions to the pack, whatever those are,” Brody tells him. “It’s not all about manual labor. Though anyone who can work will be expected to. We can talk it all out and address all concerns. We can have weekly town hall meetings until things are running smooth and then we can have them monthly, quarterly, whatever. Every voice matters.”

“Seriously?” an older woman calls out.

“Seriously,” Brody says and flashes a big, probably disarming smile.

“That’s amazing!” the young female called Misty who lived in Stacy’s trailer calls out. “When can we see the property listing?”

“Tomorrow,” Brody says, “I’ll get the projector set up in here and we’ll show everyone.”

Malachi claps his hands together. “This all sounds good, Brody.”

“This sounds like a good plan,” Eloise says and there are others chiming in their agreement.

“I think you should be our alpha,” an older woman calls out. “I’m ready to vote.”

“Why don’t we consider tabling the leadership conversation for tonight?” Brody suggests. “I’ll show everyone the property listing tomorrow and we can talk more if you want, but I think we should revisit all the logistics in a few days after everyone has had a chance to catch their breath and by then I’ll know if they’ve accepted my offer on the property and when we can move in. Take time to catch our breath. And of course, after we’ve all moved on from what we’re here to do right now.”

There are calls of agreement.

“He’s rousin’,” Joel announces from behind me. I turn and see him look down to the floor at Meadows before he says, “Rise and shine, princess.”

Meadows is just inside the doorway, groaning. His mouth is taped and his eyes are closed but he’s obviously feeling pain.

“You kick the shit out of him?” Mase asks Jase.

“Woulda liked to, but Sher did that,” Jase says.

“Good goin’, Sherry. Where is she?” Linc looks around. “She should be here for this, no?”

Other than Bailey who sits near the stage next to Aphra, my present pack members are all against one wall just inside the hall right near where we were when Meadows walked in here with a knife pointed at my woman.

“Naw, Ma took her home,” Jase says. “She didn’t wanna be here. He and Sher had a tussle when she shifted after giving him that poison, planning to tear him apart. She hesitated and he backhanded her wolf and commanded her to shift back. She shifted back but gave him a right hook.”

There’s laughter from the crowd. Some of these people really like the idea that Meadows’ new mate gave him a black eye.

“Why didn’t she rip his throat out when she had the chance?” Linc asks.

“Mate bond,” my father pipes up. “As angry as you can get with your fated mate, truly harming them… it’s not something easily done. Just about impossible in fact.”

Dad’s eyes bounce to me and I see how wrecked he is with the memory of Soleil and what went down today.

Brody’s voice booms with, “Right, so, let’s get the guest of dishonor up here, yeah? Time to make some decisions.”