Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Austin nodded, took the key card from Broken Sue, and waited to hear our room number before starting forward again.
“And honestly, we don’t need them,” I told Austin. “The shifters, I mean. We were able to fight Momar off with what we have. Niamh is confident we can gather more mages, and I’m inclined to believe her. We’ll be enough without these people—it’d be a bonus to have them, sure, but we can stand without them if they turn out to be fools.”
He didn’t wait for the elevator, pulling me toward the staircase instead. The resort was a sprawling complex of two-story buildings.
“I stayed in O’Briens all those years ago to give people a refuge,” he said. “To give them a safe haven. I became alpha to provide that safety for you. This convocation is to protect the vulnerable. The masses. I cannot allow them to be idiots, not when it might mean their lives. Momar will try again, I feel it. We nearly lost the last time, and he knows that. Next time, he’ll be better armed. Without a larger force, we won’t be. We might not even know it’s coming, not if we aren’t connected with the packs. I need to make these alphas see reason to ensure shifters as a whole aren’t taken down bit by bit.”
And there it was. Austin wasn’t confident he could make them see reason, and while I would just shrug, he wouldn’t accept that outcome. In his head, he was already king of the shifters, the alpha of alphas. But he didn’t want to force them to agree. He wanted them to come to him of their own free will, and he knew it would be an uphill battle. He knew he’d keep trying anyway.
My heart swelled.
“We’ll convince them,” I said softly. “We will, I promise. We’ll fight, barter, and plead if we have to, but we’ll do it.”
He scanned the numbers as we passed and stopped at our room. Before he opened the door, he pulled me into a hug. “Good cop, bad cop,” he murmured into my hair. “Usually, you’re the good cop. I have a feeling you won’t be this time.”
“Why is that?”
“Good cops don’t usually call people idiots, and I see that in your future.”
I laughed and pulled away, then he scanned us in.
The suite was gorgeous. In the more public area was a small kitchenette, a sitting room, and a dining table, plus a bathroom with a shower. For Austin and me, a king-sized bed awaited in the next room, along with another little sitting area and a bigger bathroom with a lavish tub made for two. As Mr. Tom was in the kitchenette, organizing snacks, we inspected the bedroom area. Someone knocked at the door as Austin’s phone rang.
“Don’t you dare answer that door,” Mr. Tom scolded me as I turned in that direction. “Were you born in a barn? You’re an alpha, not to mention the Ivy House heir. You do not open doors.”
Except…how would the door get answered when he wasn’t here? Because whatever he might think, he was certainly not camping out on the couch.
“Bags,” came Broken Sue’s voice as Austin wandered toward the bedroom window to answer his phone. “Does the alpha want to get the car himself, or should I send someone to collect it?”
Mr. Tom swung the door open wide.
“Send Tristan,” I said, meeting them at the door. Mr. Tom nearly knocked me over to prevent me from reaching for my bag, and I rolled my eyes as he took it. “Tristan will want to drive it, and this is the last chance he’ll get to. Tell him not to wreck it.”
Broken Sue nodded but didn’t move away from the door. He gazed at me expectantly.
I sighed. “If you’re trying to say something, I have no idea what.”
“Of course you don’t,” Mr. Tom said as he came back to collect Austin’s bag. “You can’t speak stone.”
“Aurora has asked to visit her father before you all go to dinner,” said Broken Sue. “They should probably talk before this gets underway. They haven’t spoken in months.”
Kingsley was holding firm on the silent treatment, trying to scare Aurora into returning home. He didn’t want her in a dangerous pack, which he thought we led…and in fairness, we kinda did. We were targets, after all.
Aurora clearly wanted to clear the air. She wasn’t here in a pack capacity, but rather as family. She’d wanted to speak to her dad face to face, which I thought was mature of her.
“It’s her dad. She can go whenever she wants,” I replied.
Broken Sue nodded. “Tell Alpha Steele to call me when you’re ready.”
I agreed and closed the door as Austin appeared from the bedroom. “That was Kingsley,” he said. “We’re going to go off campus for dinner. All the other packs are here, and they have people stationed everywhere. He advised us to keep our people in their rooms.”