48. Mai

Chapter forty-eight

Mai

R yan and I took our time walking back to the others, but we got there just in time to see a group of newcomers striding towards us, their faces hard and their eyes cold.

At their head was Talia, looking as regal and imperious as ever. She had arrived with impeccable timing with a contingent of Wolf Council enforcers, their clean black uniforms and wolf pins marking them out as the elite force.

I had never seen Council enforcers in action before, but I had heard plenty of stories. They were ruthless, dangerous as hell, and highly secretive. The kind of werewolves you called in when you expected serious trouble, and needed it quashed quickly and brutally.

Talia barely spared me a glance as she strode past, her gaze sweeping over the scene with a calculating intensity. She barked out orders to her enforcers, her voice sharp and commanding.

"Secure any survivors," she snapped. "I want them alive for questioning."

The enforcers nodded and fanned out toward the group from Brock's Pack. I watched them go as Talia turned her attention to me. Her eyes narrowed as she strode over.

"Why wasn't I informed about this?" she demanded.

I felt so fucking tired. I just wanted to bury our dead, go home and curl up in bed with Ryan holding me. I was still covered in blood and mud. My shoulder was a sharp pain stabbing at me in time with my heartbeat, and here was Talia Fucking Johnson, with her perfect hair, and clean suit, demanding answers. I met her gaze unflinchingly. "Brock suggested that you were working for him, keeping his role hidden from the Council. We couldn't be sure whose side you were on."

Talia scoffed, her lip curling in disdain. "And you believed him? Brock was manipulating you, trying to keep me and my enforcers away from him. Did you think of that? That maybe he was scared of what we can do. If you had told me, maybe I could have prevented all this." Her arm swept out, taking in all the carnage before us.

"We considered that possibility. But given your history with us, Talia Johnson, Ryan and I decided it was a risk we couldn't take."

Talia's eyes flashed, and for a moment, I caught a glimpse beneath her usual calm, controlled exterior. Oh, I had pissed her off.

"If we did believe Brock, even for a moment, it's your own damn fault. The way you treat people, the way you manipulate and scheme and lie…can you really blame us for not trusting you?"

"You dare question my loyalty?" I could feel the power radiating off her, the usually contained fury that was leaking out.

But I refused to back down. I had faced far worse than Talia Fucking Johnson in the last month, and I wasn't about to start cowering now .

"You brought this on yourself," I said softly. "You've made enemies of everyone around you, burned every bridge and alienated every ally. You left yourself open to suspicion."

Talia opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, one of her enforcers came running up to us, his face tense with urgency.

"Bethany found something. You need to come quick."

"This conversation is not over," Talia shot me a final glare before turning to follow her enforcer. I went after them; whatever they'd found was unlikely to be good for my Pack. There, at the tree line, two more Council enforcers were standing in front of a familiar figure. Esme.

Shit!

Jase stood between the enforcers and Esme, a determined set to his jaw. Talia strode forward, had a murmured conversation with one of the enforcers, and then turned to Jase.

"Get out of the way," she ordered. It was the tone of voice of someone that knew without a doubt that she would be obeyed.

Jase stood his ground. "No."

Well, fuck me over with a feather! Little Jase Miller just stood up to the fucking Wolf Council. I couldn't decide if he had just morphed into the badass enforcer he always wanted to be or was just insanely stupid. Either way, I had to stop this now.

I could sense Ryan behind me. He didn't say anything, though; he was letting me handle this.

Esme put her hand on Jase's arm and said softly, "It's okay, Jase. I can go with the bird people."

Bird people? What was she talking about now ?

I pushed past the enforcers and came to stand beside Jase.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

Talia turned to me. "You brought a witch here, Mai Parker? You let her do magic in these lands?"

I frowned. "I think that's unlikely. We all know the laws about witches."

I was treading a fine line, trying to make sure that I didn't outright lie.

"Mai Parker, this is Bethany Rose," Talia gestured to one of the enforcers standing beside her. I took a closer look and realized that this enforcer was different from the others.

The rest were all the epitome of werewolf warriors—tall, muscular, all radiating an aura of contained aggression. But Bethany...she was something else entirely. Her bone structure was delicate, almost fragile looking, so different to the solid, imposing frames of her fellow enforcers. She radiated a kind of eerie calm. It was unsettling, like the stillness before a storm. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was something about her that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Bethany is a very special werewolf," Talia continued. "Her sense of smell is exceptional. She has been trained to scent out witches and magic, and she says that this whole area stinks of it. Especially her." She nodded at Esme.

Damn it. There goes my plan try to bluff our way out of this.

"Yes," Esme whispered. "Yes, I know you, Bethany Rose."

Bethany frowned, her piercing gray eyes focused on Esme. "I have never met you before."

"Yes, not met, but I know you. "

I stepped forward, making sure to place myself between Esme and Talia. "Talia Johnson, this is Esme…" I realized I didn't know Esme's surname. That wouldn't do; I had to make Talia see Esme as a person not a witch, and if there was one thing I knew about Talia, it was that she needed two names for everyone. "…Parker."

Did I really just give a witch my surname? My wolf shifted inside of me, suddenly alert, and for a moment everything froze; an unerring sense washed over me that in naming Esme a Parker, I had just changed the future of our Pack.

Shit!

But without Esme, the bullets would have ripped us to shreds.

"Esme Parker," I repeated, and the world turned again, "saved us. We would all be dead if it wasn't for her."

Talia shook her head, her expression hard and unyielding. "That's irrelevant. As the Wolf Council representative, it's my job to kill the witch. Anyone who stands in my way, their lives will be forfeit, too."

I felt a chill run down my spine at her words. Esme had saved Jase at the lab when Talia abandoned him. She had come here, into a battle between two werewolf Packs, and put her life on the line to protect us all.

"You're not touching her," I said, my voice low and dangerous. "I don't care what the Council says. Esme Parker is a member of the Three Rivers Pack," and there it was again, that sense that I had just changed history, "and you nor any of your meat-head bully-boy enforcers are going to lay a finger on her."

Talia recoiled. "A witch? As a member of a Pack? Are you out of your mind?"

"Her name is Esme Parker, not ‘ witch.'"

"Am I a werewolf now?" Esme asked behind me. "I've always wanted to be a wolf. She will be beautiful, my wolf, and will soar on the winds."

Amidst all this death and carnage, it was such a lovely image and I almost wished it was true and I could see that.

"And then I'll breathe fire on all my enemies until they are tiny flailing pieces of ash, screaming in pain, lost in the horror of their deaths."

I blinked. Okay then.

Talia motioned to her enforcers. They were going to take Esme. Brock's words echoed in my mind, What's the loss of someone like Amara to a whole Pack? Nothing.

Only this time, it was Esme. And she was a witch, not even a werewolf that I was protecting. If I stopped Talia, it would mean war with the Wolf Council. That was a battle we were unlikely to win. This is what it meant to be an Alpha. To weigh up one person's life against the rest of the Packs'. To make these decisions over and over. I realized then that they would never stop. And when I started, where was the line? Was one person acceptable to lose if it meant the whole Pack was saved? What about two people? What about five? What if they were children?

It wasn't the Alpha I wanted to be. But I was learning that each situation was different, and it was my job to judge. Talia wanted me to stand aside and let her kill Esme. But that wasn't who I was. Not now, not ever. Nothing, not even a war with the Council, would make me cross that line.

I stared at the enforcers. "You touch her, you die. "

The heat of Ryan's body radiated into my back, and I knew he was ready to strike. If he could repeat his true werewolf trick, they were going to be in for one hell of a surprise.

"Well, hello there! You must be Talia Johnson," Sam said jauntily, as he sauntered up to our group. It was a ruse. Sam was getting as close to Talia and the enforcers as he could so that he could attack. That was the danger with Sam. He was all fun-loving and easy-going, but he hid a sharp, calculating mind that was just as ruthless and dangerous as any of his brothers.

"I've heard so much about you," he continued, his voice dripping with charm. "I've got to say I sure am looking forward to working with you."

Talia frowned, her eyes narrowing as she studied Sam. "You are Sam Shaw?"

Sam bowed, his grin widening. "The one and only," he said, his voice filled with confidence, and when he stood up, he moved even closer to Talia. He would attack if we couldn't deescalate this now. "I've been reading up on the Council and what you all expect from your representatives."

"The first thing you will need to learn, Sam Shaw, is when it is appropriate to talk. And now is not the time." Talia held up her hand again, about to motion her enforcers on, when Sam continued.

"Actually, I think now is the time for me to make my first decree as the new Wolf Council representative."

"Your first decree?" Talia frowned, not seeing where he was going with this.

"Yes, I pardon Esme Parker for any use of magic she may or may not have used in the defense of her Pack. "

"You can't do that, Sam Shaw," Talia snapped. "You need to be sworn in before you can pardon anyone."

Sam's smile never wavered. "True, but I'll be sworn in soon. And during my research, you know what I found? Turns out there are different factions on the Council, all fighting for what they think is best for Shifters. Maxime Ribet finished her rotation a month ago. She went back to her Pack. But she was a neutral member, wasn't she? She didn't vote with one faction, but weighed up each issue and voted as she saw fit. She held the balance. Now, with me, there's a fresh opportunity to recruit me to one faction and give it ultimate power for the next four years." He paused, letting his words sink in. "Wouldn't it be a good move to have me owe you, Talia? On the other hand, do you really think it would be wise to make an enemy of me today?"

Talia's jaw clenched, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. Finally, she let out a long, slow breath.

"I think I'm beginning to understand why Mai Parker nominated you for the job."

She turned to me, her eyes hard and unforgiving. "Very well, then. Esme Parker is pardoned of all magic use up until," she glanced at her watch, "sixteen hundred hours today. Any more magic, though, even to light a candle, and her life is forfeit, along with any who harbor her."

With that, she turned on her heel and stalked away, her enforcers falling into step behind her.

Sam turned to me, his grin still firmly in place, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "You know, being on the Wolf Council might just be fun after all."