“I just got a call from Donovan. He hasn’t found the location of the game preserve yet, but he’s managed to track down the place where the extremists hold their meetings. I’m guessing they’re mostly just ‘we hate shifters’ chats, but it might be worth attending one.”
Later that evening, they did just that. From his spot in the wooded area surrounding the isolated warehouse, Nick closely watched the people gathered in the open building, waiting for the meeting to begin. Derren, Trey, Tao, and Dominic were squatting near him, studying the place just as intently. The great thing about their shifter senses was that they didn’t need to get close to hear and see what was going on.
Dominic shook his head in disapproval. “It’s wrong to bring kids to something like this.”
Tao looked at him incredulously. “It’s wrong to do something like this.”
“You know what I mean—if someone’s going to become a prejudiced shithead and go to meetings like this, they don’t need to pass on that ignorance to their kids and drag them along.”
Derren nudged Nick. “Hey, the blonde on the front row…Isn’t that the girl who works in Kent’s salon?”
Seeing that he was right, Nick nodded. “I guess it’s a good thing that Kent and Shaya kept the fact that they were hybrids from Paisley.”
Shaya hadn’t been at all happy when he’d asked her to remain behind, but she’d been placated by his promise not to act on anything he heard or saw at the meeting. But he guessed that if Taryn hadn’t agreed to remain behind, it wouldn’t have been so simple to make Shaya do the same. Jesse, Bracken, and Zander had wanted to come along, but Nick had needed to know that she was closely guarded. Although Taryn was still slightly wary of them, Nick’s gut and his wolf told him they weren’t involved. It had only been later that Nick realized he’d given the rebels an order and they had obeyed him like he was their Alpha. Groan.
“Logan is walking to the podium,” announced Trey. The humans clapped at the sight. “He doesn’t seem too happy, oddly enough.”
Nick shrugged. “He probably doesn’t like that what he did was plastered all over the Internet and TV.”
When Dominic shifted to lie on his side with his head propped up on one hand, casual as anything, Nick frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
The pervert’s expression was all innocence. “There’s nothing wrong with getting comfortable.”
“Is he always like this?” Nick asked Trey and Tao. They both nodded, sighing.
Logan raised his hands, gesturing for silence. “Friends, thank you for coming. Your dedication to our cause and your unfailing attendance hasn’t been unnoticed. You’ll see here the leaders of three local groups. Tomorrow night, there’ll be another. Yes, that’s right, the groups that are most local to the Sequoia Pack are banding together. And every single one of us will be ready—ready to finally act, ready to finally take on the responsibility of ridding the world of the abominations among us when they attack.”
Trey growled. “The prick’s basically formed an army.”
“If I know Logan like I think I do,” Nick said, listening to his gut again, “he won’t stop at destroying the Sequoia Pack.”
“And that could trigger a domino effect, make other human groups do the same,” Derren pointed out.
“We all know that they will never consent to being chipped,” continued Logan. “Nor will they accept a life of being confined to their territories. They had the chance to do that without our knowledge, but no, it wasn’t enough for them. They announced their existence and tried to infiltrate our communities, mating with our race and breeding hybrids. How many men and women have lost their partners because they believe they’re a destined match for animals? How many of our people have been lost to these ‘packs’ that are more like cults? How many more need to be attacked or raped and forced to produce offspring for these animals before the government acts?” There were a lot of supportive murmurs.
“So he doesn’t know that shifters can only reproduce with their mates,” mused Derren.
Trey snickered. “There’s a lot the humans don’t know. Many of them don’t bother to find out—too eager to fear and reject us.”
Logan held his hands up in a helpless gesture. “Let us be realistic—a war is inevitable. When the hearing is held in two days’ time and the verdict comes back in our favor, the shifters will be enraged and begin to attack our communities. We must be prepared to defend our town, prepared to protect our people.” The crowd was getting riled now. “We have gathered enough weapons to make that possible. Unified with several other groups, we have the numbers we need.”
“But what if the hearing doesn’t give the verdict we want?” another extremist asked, nervous and awkward.
Logan’s smile was truly unpleasant. “Then we attack. If the government refuses to act, we will do it alone. We will wipe out the Sequoia Pack and, most importantly, the small assembly of wolves living here in a local house. The group is run by an extremely dangerous shifter, one of the most dangerous I’ve ever encountered. He once murdered one of our own, and yet he walks the streets. As if that’s not bad enough, he is trying to mate with a female of our race and has drawn her into his cult. The shifters in her house have been gathering in number—it is clear that they plan to attack if the verdict goes in our favor. When that happens, we’ll be ready. And if it doesn’t happen, we’ll make it happen.”
Back in Shaya’s dining room, Nick held her in front of him—her back to his chest—with his arms curled around her as he relayed Logan’s speech to everyone. As he sensed her anxiety increase, he was sure to run his hands through her hair or trail his fingers up and down her arms or lick over his claiming mark—anything to soothe her and her wolf.
When Nick was finished talking, there was a momentary silence. Then everyone seemed to be talking at once, and his mom and Greta were suggesting finding where Logan lived and burning him alive.
“You have to come back to California,” Taryn said to Shaya. The Phoenix wolves all nodded their agreement. “You have to get away from those psychos.”
“I’m not letting anyone run me out of my own home.” Shaya set her jaw and lifted her chin. Yeah, pride could be a dumb thing but, dammit, she was sick of feeling the need to run from other people. Maybe it was time she dealt with it differently. “They’re the ones with the problem. Why should I be the one to leave?”