“We have a lot to explain to you, and it’s going to come fast and hard. And the only thing I’m sure of right now is that the council’s going to want your head. But I’ll be damned if I’ll let them take it.”

Robyn

“You think they believe him?” Knox set a pesto, provolone, and mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich on the bar in front of me, cut into two triangles. On a paper plate. It smelled better than any three a.m. snack I’d ever tasted, but I had no appetite, despite the fact that I’d shifted two hours earlier and had yet to replace the calories that had burned.

“I don’t know.” Titus had been on a call with the council for more than an hour. Because they were gathered for Isaac and Melody’s wedding, he’d caught several of them in one place and the others were all conferenced in, and everyone wanted a chance to talk. To yell. To make demands. To ask questions.

“Even if they don’t believe him now, they will once they meet Justus,” Lochlan said, cutting into a fresh omelet. “Drew’s scent is on him, plain as day. They can’t possibly think Titus infected anyone after that.”

“Yeah, but that’s part of the problem.” I picked up half of my sandwich and truly contemplated taking a bite. “I think he’d rather take the blame than let them hurt his brother.”

“How could they possibly hold Justus responsible for what he did, after Drew manipulated him?” Naveen demanded as he dumped a splash of whiskey into his coffee in lieu of cream. Or sugar. Or more coffee. They’d started drinking the minute they saw Drew’s corpse and smelled Justus’s scent, yet not one of the enforcers had so much as slurred a single word. Difficulty achieving intoxication was one of the benefits—and drawbacks—of a shifter’s insanely quick metabolism.

“The same way they held me responsible,” I told Naveen. “But since Justus isn’t a woman, they have no reason to offer him the ‘mercy’ they offered me.” And for the first time since my sentence had been handed down, I realized what a mercy it truly was.

Titus was afraid they’d execute Justus. Swiftly. The council needed me, but they neither needed nor wanted another male stray they weren’t sure they could control. A stray who’d infected four people, including a woman who’d died from scratch fever. They had no reason to let him live.

My gaze fell on Justus, sleeping off his pre-dawn breakfast in clean clothes on the window seat at the back of the kitchen. He was only three years my junior, but he looked so much younger and more vulnerable than I’d ever felt, even after everything that had happened to me over the past few months. Justus was less than two years out of high school. He’d lost his parents. And in a way, he’d lost his brother, when Titus was infected and began putting distance between them in an attempt to protect him.

And if Titus couldn’t pull off a miracle, he’d very soon lose his life.

TWENTY-FOUR

Titus

I pulled the heavy drapes closed and turned off the overhead light, then sank into my leather arm chair with my eyes closed, treasuring the final minutes of darkness before the sunrise would drag this nightmare into another day. An hour and a half was longer than any conference call should last, and sharing it with ten other Alphas—eleven including Marc Ramos—had made time seem to stand still.

And still, I had no answer.

They’d believed everything I’d told them, probably because I’d offered to ship them Drew Borden’s body as evidence. But as usual, most of the council members had less use for the truth than they had for what it would buy them.

Faythe and Marc had argued on my behalf, of course. And Rick Wade had been a voice of reason, to the best of his ability. Which was limited because in many ways, he agreed with most of his fellow council members.

Justus had broken the law. He was dangerous. And asking the council for a favor on his behalf wasn’t a good way to engender their good will, considering that they hadn’t yet ruled on my last request—to have my Pride recognized. And that I hadn’t returned their wayward tabby.

Minutes after I sat, my phone rang from the arm of my leather chair, illuminating my darkened office with a bolt of bright white light. Rick Wade’s name appeared the screen.

I took a deep breath and accepted the call.

“Okay, Titus, we’re ready to make you an offer.” Wade’s voice echoed over the line, in that telltale way speakerphone mode has of making a caller seem a little too far away.

“I’m listening.”

“As you know, infecting a human is a capital offense. Which carries the death penalty. The same goes for exposing our species to the world. By our count, your brother infected four people—one of whom didn’t survive scratch fever—and took actions that could easily have exposed us at the Jackson Zoo. We are well within our right to demand his life on all five charges. But we’re willing to spare him, considering the circumstances of his crimes. On one condition.”

I knew what they were going to say before Wade could even form the words.

“You turn both Robyn and Justus over to us, and we’ll take the death penalty off the table for your brother.”

“So, I give you Robyn, or you kill my brother?” My voice sounded cold and dead. I didn’t even have the energy to summon anger.

“That’s not what we’re saying. We’re asking you to do the right thing, for its own sake. And in return, we’ll agree to see your brother disciplined and rehabilitated, rather than executed.”

“Disciplined, how?”

“We haven’t discussed that yet, but he’s committed very serious crimes. The most common measures are incarceration, declawing, and the loss of both incisors. Though that last one’s a bit archaic and unlikely.”

“You want to lock him up and cut off the ends of his fingers?” I stood and began pacing at a feverish pace. “He didn’t even know what he was doing!”

“We have to make a statement, Titus. If we let him off easy, we’ll be eroding our authority. Inviting insurrection.”

Bullshit. “What about Robyn?” I demanded. “How much is left on her sentence?”

Wade’s silence made the hair at the back of my neck rise. “She broke her word. We can’t let that go unpunished either.”