“Is there a suggestion somewhere in our immediate future?” He said a little more angrily than he intended.
“Stop trying to take them down. You can’t.” She looked at him carefully, wanting him to really hear her. “When you can’t destroy something, you accept it and then you do something better. You make it yours.”
“If you’re suggesting that we try and join them again, you’re farther out of your mind than I thought was medically possible.”
“No. I’m not suggesting that at all. I’m suggesting that you take these people, all these people that are coming to you and pledging themselves to you as their ruler, and I’m suggesting that you make the Council yours.”
He glared at her and looked around at the rest of the people nearby with even more panic than before. “That’s not what we set out to do here. I’m no king or warlord or Council Speaker that I can lead people like that. That’s not why we’re here. All we ever wanted was legitimacy and equality for our people.”
“You’ve been dealing with the Council for a long time now. Your family devoted generations to doing things by their rules, and they still didn’t give it to you. How else are you going to get that unless you change the rules?”
He let what she said settle on his mind for a moment, his concerns forgotten in the light of the possibility she was suggesting. “You’re talking about a rival Council. Not just us against the Council but a separate alliance of packs against the established Council.”
“I can tell you that not everyone who follows the Council now is pleased with the things that they do. There are more people, other Alphas, people who could share the burden…who would support you.”
“And other packs, of other elements, would be distractions from us here.” He could see the logic in what she said, and he looked her over appraisingly. “I know of a few packs that we could start with, but you’re talking as though you have a few in mind.”
“I was their servant. I knew things that happened with them. Their relationships with people. I thrive on such things, remember?”
“What about your own people in Amsterdam?” He said with actual curiosity. “Or even in Rio de Janero? Isn’t there a pack there as well?”
“There’s a reason why packs are sparse on Heartborn. I’m not stupid. Get too many of us in one place, and it becomes a game of relationships. If you want this to work, focus on your base first. Then bring them in if you want.”
Nick watched her cautiously, trying, as always, to pick apart her advice for any poisonous traces of her former masters. But everything she said made sense. “If I do this, then it will be about all wolves. Not just pureborn. I will not start another Council to rival the first only to become what we hate.”
“Even more reason for people to love you.”
His eyes narrowed, and the momentary buzz of possibility passed in a heartbeat, leaving only the defensive nature that had defined him in recent days behind. “Now you’re mocking me.”
She looked confused and shook her head. “Not at all. I mean it. They need a reason to love you if they are going to be willing to follow you.”
He looked in her eyes for a few more moments, trying to tell for himself whether she was being genuine or not. He didn’t want to trust her or anything she said, but what she said made sense. He needed help, and he needed it from other packs, other groups of wolves that could show the Council that they were a force not to be taken out quickly. They had started a war on their own terms. If there were others willing to take it up, then he had no reason to deny them.
“If I’m going to start this alliance, then I will need to know which of my allies I can trust, and which I can’t. I can do that better through your eyes.”
She held his gaze, hoping that he would really believe her this time. She wanted him to believe her. “If that’s what you truly want.”
He didn’t blink for a long time as he stared into her violet eyes, and she could feel the fear and anger in him at the prospect of what he wanted from her. Look into my mind this once, Zara, and see what will happen to you if you lie to me. He said the words purposefully, deliberately, intending for her to hear them since he knew she would be listening, but what came after was quieter, since he didn’t mean for her to hear it, though he was feeling it anyway. The way she lied.
She took a step closer to him, but no more. It was clear what would happen to her, what he would do, what would happen to him. Zara had spent enough time around the people, around Aura, to know that Aura had always wanted to run. She’d always been looking elsewhere for something that would be hers, something that she could love on her own terms. But Zara and Aura were not the same, and she continued to look into his hazel eyes as she spoke. She ran, she lied, so that she could feel like she could choose what she wanted. I’m here by choice. What reason do I have to lie to you?
He looked her over once more and nodded. We’ll see. He stepped away past her, brushing against her in the process, but not looking back afterwards.
Zara watched him walk away and she smiled. Maybe he would finally warm up to her. Maybe he would finally see that she was more than a set of violet eyes. Once he was
