by Lola Gabriel
“This must be Dad’s stash of booze,” he said. There was a door in one wall. Rowan went to it, and it opened easily. It was a smaller room. There were folding chairs stacked against the wall, and a felt-topped card table pushed into the corner. He must have made a noise of some kind, because he felt Holly’s hands on him.
“Oh,” she said, following his gaze, “Rowan…”
Abruptly, Rowan shut the door. He leaned against it and pulled Holly to him. He was determined not to cry, not just before he had to be a leader. Instead, he kissed her, hard. He bit her bottom lip a little, then kissed it better.
“I promise not to leave you on your own,” he said. Holly stroked his face.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “That would be preferable. And same to you, Rowan. Let’s both stay alive and together, hmm?”
Rowan took a deep breath. He knew she was being strong for him now. They’d swapped roles somewhere on the walk to the church.
Suddenly, there was a “Hellooooo,” from the church upstairs.
Holly let go of Rowan. “Your duties call, Ro.”
“Okay.” Rowan took a deep breath, and he went to the stairs.
Soon, everyone was sitting around the table. Isaac whistled and slapped the wood in front of him.
“Are civilians supposed to know about this place?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” Rowan replied. “But we needed somewhere to talk about last night. What does everyone have to report?”
Again, Isaac spoke. “I saw a couple of guys. Seen them in the bar, too. One’s tall, buzzcut, tattoos, other’s shorter, about my size. Couldn’t see the color of his hair in the dark.”
Holly looked thoughtful. “Buzzcut is Evan Saunders. He’s… well, a real asshole. He’s been in the city?”
Isaac nodded. He glanced across the table at big blond Bruce, who shook his head almost imperceptibly.
“What’s going on?” Rowan asked. Isaac and Bruce both looked at their laps. Eve and Xander looked confused.
“Tell us!” Holly ordered, and to Rowan’s surprize, Danny Hearten stood up.
“Look,” he said, “we came out for you last night because we’re your friends, as well as members of your pack, but you should know there are some pretty nasty rumors going around about your girl.”
At this, Holly glared daggers at Danny, and Rowan almost laughed.
“About Holly,” Danny corrected. “And you know, they were probably started by these boys who are after her, but they’re all around Anchorage the last few days. And the pack haven’t seen much of you, what are they supposed to believe?” Danny sat down again, looking a little embarrassed at the force of his outburst.
“What are the rumors?” Eve asked. “You understand, Xander and I don’t get out much.”
Rowan was thankful for this. She was taking the heat off him, letting Danny look at her while he made his big reveal rather than at Rowan. But it wasn’t Danny who spoke.
“They tried me first, a few days ago,” Isaac said and leaned back as best he could in his hard-backed chair. “You know, I’m behind the bar, I could be the perfect person to spread rumors, but I’m not one to. They told me Holly here isn’t our kind, and she’s spoken for. I didn’t ask for details, just for them to leave. When you got us out last night, I figured it was all talk, like I thought.”
Eve looked at Rowan, and he tried not to show any emotion, not to react at all.
Bruce stared at the table as he added, “They say she’s a wolf. Well, they didn’t say anything at all, but they were all howling as they left the bar…”
To Rowan’s horror, it was Holly’s voice he heard next.
“I am,” she said. She was sat beside him. He grabbed her forearm under the table, but she looked at him with big gentle eyes and then turned back to the table. “I’m a wolf shifter, that’s true. But Rowan and I imprinted, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Even though Rowan wanted to close his eyes, he had to look strong—he had to look firm right now.
“Also, we’re having a baby,” Holly continued, “but that isn’t important right now. What is important is that my father is an alpha, and he tried to marry me off to keep an alliance going. I want you to imagine that happening to you. I want you to imagine your parents doing that to you, or you doing that to your children if you have them. Your friends’ children. What would you do if Xander and Eve did that to Chloe?”
Xander looked angry for a second, but Eve gave him a look that asked him to calm down, and he held himself in place.
“I’d kill them,” Danny said gruffly. “Sorry,” he said in the direction of his friends.
Suddenly, the room was a cacophony of questions and exclamations. Isaac was shouting at Bruce, maybe for telling. Bruce was shouting back. Someone was asking Xander if he’d known all along. The Hearten brothers were screaming at one another.
Holly looked at Rowan, her face questioning. Rowan squeezed her hand under the table. Then he pushed back his chair and stood up.
“QUIET!” Surprisingly, the noise stopped immediately. “Questions?” Rowan asked, still standing.
“Wolves are fast,” Dylan Hearten said.
Rowan looked at him. “Yeah. That wasn’t a question.”
“How do we… we have to fight them?”
Rowan sighed, crossing his arms. “Probably.”
Holly spoke again, glancing up at him first.
“You have me,” she said, “as hostage or advisor, depending on who you ask.”
Dylan did not look convinced. His brother glared at him. Everyone else was gazing silently at Rowan. His heart was beating at about twice its usual speed. He really hoped it didn’t show. It felt like the whole room should be able to hear it, see it through his shirt.
“Does anyone want to leave?” Rowan asked. No one moved. And then Dylan did.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I won’t tell anyone anything. I mean, I won’t tell the strangers anything. But I can’t. I don’t want to die, and... She’s not like us. And how can you even have a baby? What will it be?”
“Cute!” Eve replied as Dylan stood up. “I mean, look at its parents!”
Rowan wanted to smile at Eve, but he was afraid that if he broke character, he’d never get back into it. The thought of his child facing these questions was getting to him. More, now, than the thought of having a child. He was defensive for someone he hadn’t met yet.
“Dylan!” Danny called after his brother. “Don’t be such a coward! This is for Rowan!”
“Sorry,” Dylan said, and he rushed up the stairs, almost tripping.
“Damn it!” Danny cursed, thumping the table with a fist. “Sorry.”
Rowan looked at the remaining brother: red-headed like all of the Heartens and wearing a thick plaid shirt.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I expected more of you to leave.” Isaac shook his head.
“Like we said, you’re our alpha and our friend. Everyone else, though, might take some convincing. I suppose I can tell you now, there’s been chatter.” He looked to Holly. “Your people have been doing damage.”
Holly sighed. “Of course they have. But my brother is a coward. When it comes to an actual fight, he’ll be at the back of the pack, and so will his idiot friends. I just wish I knew what he was telling my father. I can only imagine he’s stirring things up at that end, too.”
“Do we have a timeline, Holly?” Eve asked.
Holly shrugged. “There should be a messenger the day before, if they’re doing this in good faith, and I think my father will insist on that, at least.”
“So, not tomorrow, then,” Rowan said. “Which means we need to plan today. Presumably, we’ll meet out on the planes…”
“Surround them,” Holly said. “Dylan’s right, we’re fast. Surround them and demand an audience with my father. Send out some sentries as soon as possible, in case they don’t send a messenger.”
Isaac looked almost excited. “Are we a war room, Rowan?”
Row
an cleared his throat. “We are whatever we need to be, I guess. And so this room needs to stay secure. Danny, can you make sure your brother doesn’t let anything slip?”
Danny nodded his head. “On it.”
“Don’t want to lose my authority here,” Rowan said, “but a call for an emergency city-wide meeting is one ring of the bell, right?”
“Yep,” Xander said. “Pretty sure. We learned it in history class. It’s basically telling everyone we’re about to battle, you know.”
“Yeah.” Rowan was tense all over. “I know.” Then he said, “The official council is going to be pissed I didn’t run this all by them first. You guys get to the town hall and sit in the front row.”
Everyone nodded. Holly looked up at him. “What about me?”
“I don’t think you should be up at the podium with me.”
Although Holly looked worried, she nodded her head. “Okay, if you think so. I’ll sit with Eve and Xander.”
“All right, go on,” Rowan said, “I’ve got some bell ringing to do.”
Once the room had cleared out, Rowan took a deep breath before mounting the stairs. He pulled the cord for the light, ducked down to get out the tiny door, and locked it behind him, pocketing the key. And then he began ascending the spiral staircase of the heavily enchanted bell tower. One ring, and all Anchorage shifters, and only Anchorage shifters, would hear the call.
18
Holly
It felt ridiculous to be sitting in plastic chairs in a town hall, knowing what Holly knew was about to happen. When she heard the single toll of the bell, Eve took her hand. She was thankful for it and gave Eve’s hand a squeeze.
Of course, the first to arrive were the council members: all elderly shifters, old enough to look in their seventies, and so probably nine-hundred years old in reality. Most of them had seen four alphas come and go and even remembered wars over territory and the old pacts with the native population before the human Europeans made it to the continent.
They shuffled onto the stage, grumbling. Some of them looked as though they had just woken from naps. They eyed the ragtag group taking up the front row with some suspicion, their eyes resting on Holly in particular. Holly felt her palms begin to sweat. Eve kept on holding her hand, though.
As the hall filled, the noise around them grew. There was confusion from a lot of people. “What’s going on?” and, “War? Can it be?” But there were other grumblings, too; grumblings that included Rowan’s name and, “That girl,” and far worse things as well. Holly was suddenly very, very glad to be somewhat hidden down in the crowd, between friends.
It was only when the hall was full that Rowan entered. Holly smiled when she saw him. He was standing tall, looking like a leader, especially when he climbed up to the podium, and a hush fell across the crowd.
A council member ruined it by shuffling up to Rowan in his dark robes and whispering in his ear. Rowan looked irritated.
“WHAT?” the council member shouted when he received whatever answer Rowan had given to his question.
“I SAID,” Rowan shouted back, “FUCK PROTOCOL!”
The council member shuffled away, still grumbling, and Rowan turned to the assembled crowd. Astonishingly, he wasn’t blushing. He smoothed down the front of his shirt.
“I suppose that’s the beginning of the address, then,” he said, “because what I’m here to discuss with you is rather out of the realms of the ordinary—”
A voice from somewhere in the audience screamed, “Blood traitor!”
Several more people turned to see where the disturbance had come from. And then another voice. “Wolf lover!”
“Homewrecker!”
For the second time that day, Rowan called for quiet. This time, though, he seemed carefully measured.
“Quiet, please!” He waited a few moments. A chair scraped back, and someone made a show of walking out. Apart from that, everything remained quiet. “Thank you,” Rowan said. “Now, some of what you’ve heard, those of you who listen to rumors, is true. Holly, my mate, is indeed a wolf shifter, not a bear shifter.”
Murmurs from the crowd.
Rowan raised his voice. “Despite this, we’ve imprinted. She is your alpha’s mate. And those of you who know her know that she is more than up to that task. She isn’t married to anyone else, as someone just implied. Rather, her family was trying to exchange her hand for a continued accord of peace. In the Anchorage I know, we don’t do things like that, and we don’t condone things like that, either. Would you all agree?”
There was a murmur of ascent from the gathered masses.
Here, Rowan really got into his stride. Holly couldn’t help but find him hot. He told them that alliances shift and change, and that if the two of them could be made for each other, it meant something. It meant the shifter sects weren’t so different. Finally, he looked at her as if for permission. She gave the slightest nod, a smile, though her heart was in her throat.
“If we were so different, then Holly and I wouldn’t be expecting a baby. A new member of your pack, and your future alpha.”
Again, the room broke out into carnage. There was a lot of crying, and Holly couldn’t tell whether it was good or bad. A couple of older men and women ambled onto the stage to hug Rowan, but also several more chairs were pushed back or knocked over as people left the hall.
“This is a lot of pressure,” Holly whispered to Eve.
Eve hummed in agreement. “And more pressure, I think you should get up there.”
“Really?” Holly looked at Eve, who nodded in response.
Rowan looked pleased to see her. The room had quieted down. Holly put out her hand for Rowan’s, and he was shaking. He was sweaty-palmed, not the picture of calm control he’d looked from afar. She wanted to put her arms around him, but of course she couldn’t.
“We will try our best to avoid it,” Rowan said, “but we might be facing a battle. I need everyone in here of fighting age and in fighting shape to be ready.”
The crowd looked stoic. There were actually a lot of them left—Holly could see properly now from up here. Probably two-thirds of the pack had stayed. And most of them were pretty young. Holly cleared her throat.
“My father isn’t unreasonable,” she started. “We’ll try our best to talk to him, but others are. We don’t know when they’re coming, just that they are coming. The alliance makes up about as many as the Anchorage pack. I know them, though, and I’ll be helping.”
Someone else heckled from the crowd. “You can’t let her on a battlefield in her condition!”
Holly laughed, “I’ll just be talking, I promise.”
Behind the podium, where the crowd couldn’t see, Rowan dropped Holly’s hand and put an arm around her waist.
“Thank you, everyone,” Rowan he said to them. “Be ready for more instructions. You’re the best of us.”
Holly waited until the hall was almost empty to lean her whole weight on Rowan. Only Eve and Xander remained, as well as the council behind them.
“You good?” Xander called. Rowan nodded.
“See you later. Thank you.” He turned to the robed men behind him. “Later,” he said firmly, and he led Holly down the stage steps. “That could have gone worse.”
“Right,” Holly agreed. “A lot worse. But I’m exhausted—”
Just as they made it out of the church, Holly felt herself drenched with something slick and cold. As it hit her, someone shouted, “Animal!”
She looked down at herself as the attacker’s footsteps disappeared, followed by Rowan’s. It was blood. She was covered in cold blood, seal or pig or god knew what.
Rowan was back in seconds.
“Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t have chased them. Are you okay?”
“No.” Holly shook her head. “Not really. I’ve never had blood thrown at me before.”
“I’m so sorry.” Rowan put his arms around her, covering himself in blood, too. “I’m sorry, I love you so much.”
“Hey,
” Holly said, “you’re making a mess of yourself.” She pushed Rowan gently away.
At Xander and Eve’s, Eve opened the door with an, “Oh, shit.” She let them in and got towels.
“I’ll stain it,” Holly said, holding the towel.
“Don’t be stupid,” Eve scolded her. “We don’t care.”
Once the blood was off Holly’s face and hands and she had her shoes off, Xander said, “We were afraid of this… or something like it. Someone spit at us, called us blood traitors. Who knows if it’s Holly’s people or ours.”
It was only in the shower that Holly let herself cry. The blood was in her hair, and the shampoo and the water rolling down her body were all red.
She’d made problems not just for herself, but for this whole town. For Eve and Xander, for Miriam, and most of all, for Rowan. Why had she agreed to this stupid plan in the first place? Maybe it had seemed like a fun idea in Seattle. It hadn’t seemed real. She’d been shaken up by that awful meal with John, who had acted like she was an object.
She missed her family, which was a surprise to her. She wanted a hug from her mom, even a hand on the shoulder from her father. He must be so disappointed in her. What he wanted her to do wasn’t right, and she would never have gone through with it. But running away… Wasn’t that childish? And running away, getting pregnant, and starting a small war?
Holly stood in the shower for a long time, waiting for the tears to stop and for the water to run clear. She stood there so long that there was a knock on the door.
“Holly?” Rowan called. “I don’t want to rush you, but I need to go and talk to those haggard old men who were looming behind me, and I’m a little bloody.”
“You can come in,” Holly said. Even now, questioning her choices and washing animal blood off herself, she wanted to see him. The door opened, she heard him walk in, and it closed again. Rowan opened the sliding glass door of the shower fully clothed.
“Can I…?”
“Yes, of course,” Holly cried. Rowan left the door cracked, and she watched as he slipped his shirt off, then his pants. He was shivering a little when he climbed in next to her. He had brownish red smears over his neck and forearms, but she didn’t care. She embraced him.