tone I knew was supposed to make me feel better. “All life is basically a competition for resources. A cuckoo instinctually knows to lay eggs in other birds’ nests, so their eggs can hatch faster than the host birds’. The cuckoo chick grows faster. In most cases, the chick evicts the eggs of the host species, and the baby cuckoos suck up all the food and nurturing. Cicada-killer wasps sting and paralyze insects twice their size and weight, drag them back to their dens, and lay their eggs in the cicadas’ heads so the newborn wasps can eat them.”
“So, this is Alicia and Clay’s version of paralyzing me and laying eggs in my head?” I asked, dumbfounded. Nick rolled his eyes at me. “I’m not good with metaphors!”
“OK, let me get this straight,” Mo said, holding up her hands. “Alicia and Clay are Jonas’s kids.” She continued, “Clay’s the alpha of whatever half-grown pack was left behind when Cooper killed all of the adults. Sorry, babe, but it’s the truth. And Alicia is his slightly-scary-in-a-quiet-way second in command?” Mo shuddered. “It’s like they’re the bizarro version of Cooper and Maggie.”
When we glared at her, she rolled her eyes and huffed. “I said ‘bizarro.’ It means the opposite. It’s not an insult!”
“I got your back,” Nick assured her, giving her the nerd fist-bump. Mo preened. Cooper and I shared a commiserating “we chose them, we did this to ourselves” look.
“So, they’ve been waiting all this time, for what, to do what their parents couldn’t? To move into the valley, like it was some sort of Promised Land? Were they just gathering information this whole time?” Mo asked. “How could they do that? I mean, if they hated you that much, how could they live with you for almost a year? How could they stand it?”
“If you’ve got enough patience, enough will, you can stand just about anything,” Mom suggested thoughtfully.
“Is it wrong that I feel a little sorry for them?” Mo asked, cringing. “I mean, yes, their tactics are obviously questionable, but to be fair—”
“We killed everyone they loved,” I said, nodding. “Even if they started it, we finished it in a really bloody way. And I get it. If somebody killed members of my family, nothing would stop me from ripping them apart. I’m not going to say I feel sorry for them, given what they’ve done. But I get it.”
“What now?” Samson asked.
“Clay said he’s bringing his pack here in three days to ‘evict’ us. We either stand and fight, or everybody moves to Cousin Lee’s packlands, which I really don’t consider an option.”
“I vote ‘stand and fight,” Samson declared.
“There’s a shocker,” Mo muttered.
“This isn’t a democracy, Samson,” I reminded him. “But you’re right. It’s the only way.”
“No, Maggie, you can stop this,” Nick told me. “Break the cycle. Try to talk to them, figure out a peaceable solution. Otherwise, in ten years, Paul and Ronnie are going to come looking for Eva and our kids.”
“So, I’m supposed to what? Go to a mediator? Family therapy? Wolves don’t do that. We don’t talk things through. We don’t share our feelings.”
“Look, you don’t think I understand the kind of pressure you’re under,” Nick told me. “And you’re right, I’ll never understand what it’s like to have a whole extended family depending on me, to be responsible for all those people. But I do know what it’s like to have a family that either can’t take care of you or doesn’t care to. I know what it’s like to have a family that’s more interested in taking from you. Your pack, they’re good people. They didn’t know who I was and, after a few rough patches, took me in. Stop underestimating their capacity for kindness.”
“Our capacity for kindness is what got us into this,” I shot back, regretting again the ease with which Clay and Alicia had been accepted.
“You think we should let them move in?” Cooper said incredulously. “Tell me, Doc, in all your years of studying animals, have you ever seen two herds or whatever able to merge and share living space peaceably?”
“Well, I guess you’re going to have to appeal to their more human sides,” Nick retorted.
“Open our hearts and our homes to the children of a bunch of psychos who tried to murder us?” Cooper scoffed. “This is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
“Do you think maybe Alicia would still want to date me?” Samson wondered.
Cooper pointed a finger at Samson. “I stand corrected.”
“Never underestimate the excitement of sex with the crazy,” Samson said, wincing when Mo smacked the back of his head. “It’s like a Tilt-A-Whirl and a scary movie all in one.”
Mom covered her face with her hands and sighed. “It’s like I’m not even in the room.”
“OK, everyone stop picturing Samson’s upsetting sex life,” I told them. “I need some time to think. Samson, I would really appreciate it if you stepped up patrols, starting now. Keep it quiet; just gradually increase the number of runners and the frequency. Nobody goes out without at least two partners.”
Samson phased on his way out the door and set up a summoning howl.
“I could swear I asked him to keep it quiet,” I grumbled, leaning back against Nick.
“Samson was never one for subtlety,” Mo said, bringing me a bowl of my mom’s chicken noodle soup. “How can I help?”
“The soup’s a good start,” I told her.
Mo leveled that bizarrely calm gaze at me. “You know what I mean.”
As Cooper warned her that any violent acts on her part would be over his cold, dead body, I wondered whether Mo had always been so cool under pressure or if living through so much of our pack drama had given her such strong nerves. Still, I told her, “This isn’t your fight.”
She huffed, “Oh, right, Cooper and I will just trot on home and let you handle this. Because if Clay’s pack runs you off, they’ll just stop at the valley, right? They won’t come after me or my family be cause we’re connected to you. They won’t be threatened by the presence of a strong male wolf in their territory. The same wolf who, you know, killed their dad. They’ll just ignore my family, my baby, except for the obligatory ‘new neighbor’ Bundt cake they’ll be bringing over.”
“Damn it, Mo, stop making sense.” I muttered around a mouthful of soup. “No, no, I can’t let you get involved. The best thing for you to do would be to take the baby to Grundy and stay there until the coast is clear. Or better yet, go to Washington. Go visit your parents.”
Cooper snorted.
Mo was aghast. “First of all, Samson’s wanting to date Alicia makes more sense than me going to visit my parents. Second, this is it for you, Mags. This is the defining moment in your leadership of the pack. And it’s your chance to change things. You can’t keep the dead-liners out of pack business anymore. Or us humans, for that matter. You’re our family. This is our home, too. What are we supposed to do? Send you off into a fight with this bunch of wackos, sit on our hands, and wonder whether you’re coming home or not? It’s not fair, Maggie. I can help. Nick can, too. You can’t exclude us anymore.”
“So, what, you’re going to stand on the battlefield with a fire extinguisher?”
“Helped me kick your ass,” she retorted.
“You didn’t kick my ass, you just bruised it a little.”
Mo smirked, winked at Nick, and dragged Cooper into the kitchen with Mom. I leaned my aching temple against Nick’s shoulder and rolled my options over in my head. I’d charged into fights before, but I’d never led. And I’d never been so frightened—but not for myself. Every face in the pack hovered at the edge of my brain, the feeling of responsibility, of obligation, dragging me under rushing black water. I would never be strong enough. I would never be fast enough to protect all of them. Some of us probably wouldn’t survive this, and knowing that made me want to throw up.
Sometimes being a leader really sucked.
ONCE MY FACE HEALED up to something that didn’t resemble a recalled eggplant, I called a pack meeting and instructed members to bring all of their family members—even the dead-liners. After I convinced them that I was not kidding and they went back home to retrieve said dead-liners, I laid everything on the line for those who hadn’t been invited to pack meetings until now, every weird coincidence and hinky feeling I’d had since Clay had moved into the valley. And when I dropped the bomb about Clay and Alicia’s dubious family connections, two of my uncles literally wolfed out and chose to destroy a couch to express their anger.
