"Lillian keeps calling?" Sadie asked.
Hudson eyed her. "It's not important. If we just ignore her, she'll stop calling eventually. And there's no reason to worry about it. She's controlled where she is, and she can't possibly get to us. She doesn't know you exist."
"I know that. And while I appreciate that, maybe her mind would change if I talked to her."
"No!" I said, three other voices joining mine.
Sadie looked around at us, then rolled her eyes. "I've dealt with worse. Come on. Give me your phone, Hudson. I won't tell her anything important. I just want to know who I'm up against. Maybe I can come up with something to outwit her."
He hesitated. I sighed and offered mine over. "She's in the contacts. Don't stay on longer than a few minutes. I don't know if tracing works on these phones, but if it does, she's likely to have someone trying to do it."
She nodded, took the phone, and kissed Leo's forehead as she slid away. I watched as she descended the ladder once more and held my breath until she was on the ground. She went back into the house and I looked back at my alpha pack mates, trying to keep the worry out from under my skin.
It didn't work. Hudson grabbed a hammer and beat the shit out of a nail, bending it and breaking it as the rest of us ground our teeth. Lillian didn't need to be within breathing room of Sadie, much less on a phone call with her. But it wasn't like we had any choice. We weren't about to deny our omega what she wanted, and if she wanted to talk to Lillian? Well, that's what she was going to do.
I tried to focus on something else, but it just wouldn't come. We'd found happiness only for it to fall to pieces before our eyes. The Meet was coming sooner than any of us wanted.
And no matter what we did, no matter how well Sadie performed, I had a feeling that we were fucked.
Chapter 13
Sadie
My thumb hovered over the call button. I only knew the woman by reputation, but steeling myself for the upcoming conversation was the least I could do. The phone cupped in one hand, I ran the opposite over Bosco's giant head and considered my options.
I guessed that I could simply not call her. I could go into the Meet as blind as the rest of my pack was, only assuming why she had such an enormous bone to pick with me. That wasn't what I wanted to do, so I knocked that off the list.
I could head into town in the night, find her place; there was an address attached to the contact on Xav's phone, and try to speak with her in person. I'd get her body language down, perhaps see more than I would simply by speaking with her. I'd watch her movements and attempt to understand if she was lying to me, if she was playing me into a trap.
Though I had to admit, I'd never been very good at things like that. Heck, I'd almost ended up playing a Carrie role at my senior prom for no other reason than I thought I'd finally made pals with the popular kids. I'd been blindsided when they tried to take pictures of me making out with a guy behind the gym, like so many other class members were doing at the same time. Yet they hadn't mattered; only I had.
I really hated to be a target.
"Please enjoy this playback music while your party is reached," chirped the phone.
Beethoven's 5th blared out of the speaker, horrible and tinny. It sounded as if they were playing it on a rusty washboard. I waited for ten, fifteen seconds, then pulled the phone away from my ear and reached for the end call slider.
"Xavion?"
Her voice was gentle, a quality I hadn't really imagined her having. I frowned at the phone as my finger hovered, debated myself once again, and gave in. "Not exactly. My name's Sadie and you're the one threatening my pack. ...Because of me?"
"Sadie!" She gasped, her tone thicker than honey during a blizzard. "Oh, goodness gracious. I didn't expect to get a call from you. How are you? Are you adjusting well?"
I hadn't expected that, either, but I was a newbie to the world of werewolf warfare. Maybe you were fake-nice to people for a time before you ripped their guts out? I cleared my throat. "I think things are coming along well. Tommy's the sweetest kid I've ever met and the guys seem to like me well enough. But I don't think that's the focus of the conversation, ma'am."
"Oh honey, don't ma'am me. We're just a pair of bitches having a quick conversation, aren't we?"
Were female werewolves really called that? I added it to the internal, ever-growing list of things to ask one of my pack mates. At this point, I was going to run out of time asking them questions. "I guess we are."
"Of course. I just want to be sure those boys aren't brutalizing you. They're a rough pack to get bonded to. I know. My sister was part of it and they went and got her killed," she paused, tears in her voice. I could almost see her dabbing at either eye with a handkerchief. "Terrible thing that it was, I want my nephew to be safe. I'm sure you understand. And Hudson lets him loose in the woods in freaking winter, lets him ruin your life-"
"My life isn't anywhere near ruined," I broke in. "And I adore Tommy. He really seems to like me, too."
"Well yes, darling, but any little alpha would
