For a moment, nothing happened. Then Drew stood from his hiding place across the path. I could tell from the brief wash of surprise over his face that he hadn’t known I was there. Yet after that initial shock, he seemed…relieved. As if he’d been looking for me.

“Come over here and let’s have a chat.” He spoke too softly to be overheard by anyone nearby. Anyone human, anyway.

Titus stood, and Drew’s eyes widened.

Why would he be relieved to see me, but surprised to see Titus? Then I understood.

Corey Morris had told him that I’d asked about the party. Or maybe Brandt had told him.

Did Drew really think Titus would let me go out alone, in a strange city with a shifter murderer on the loose?

Wait, he didn’t know about the murder. And he thought Titus was the only thing to be afraid of in Jackson. Suddenly I was very glad we’d both showered after our latest…connection.

“Shit,” Titus breathed. “We led him right to the party. We have to get him out of here before Justus shows up. Assuming he ever does. I’ll talk to him. You get back in the bushes before someone sees you and panics.”

Reluctantly, I slunk into the foliage to listen. And watch for Justus.

“I assume you spoke to Corey Morris?” Though Titus was whispering, I could hear him perfectly well.

“Brandt, actually.” Drew glanced over Titus’s shoulder at the brush where I was hiding, but I couldn’t tell whether he could see me.

“If you came here for Robyn, there’s no need,” Titus said. “I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”

“I believe you, but… Titus, the council wants her. When they found out I’d taken over the territory, but she’d left with you, they lost their shit. Abby’s dad called to renegotiate. They’re prepared to accept the Pride on a trial basis right now—if I bring Robyn to them. Tonight.”

Damn it.

Drew’s timing could not be worse. And he’d negotiated with my freedom. I’d been willing to do that for Titus and Justus, but not for a Pride without Titus as Alpha.

“A trial basis?” Titus crossed his arms over his chest. “That means they can change their minds whenever they want. Which’ll be as soon as they have Robyn. It’s not a real acceptance, Drew. They’re manipulating you with an empty promise.”

Drew bristled visibly. “It’s more than they’ve ever offered you.”

“Actually, it’s exactly what they offered me. And it’s not good enough. We can’t accept anything other than full recognition by the council. And Robyn isn’t a pawn to be sacrificed.”

My chest suddenly felt too tight. As if my heart had swollen within it. If I’d been human, I would have thrown myself at Titus, arms wide open. But pouncing on him in cat form wouldn’t have quite the same effect.

“No offense, man, but that’s not your call anymore. She doesn’t belong to us.”

“No, but she does belong with us,” Titus growled. “It’s her decision.”

“That’s not how this works,” Drew insisted. “This is our chance, Titus. This is what we’ve been working toward for years. We give them their tabby, and we get everything we’ve ever wanted. And it’s not like they’re asking for anything crazy. They want her to keep her word. Which is exactly what we want from them.”

“You can’t trust them—”

“That’s my call,” Drew said through clenched teeth, and a sinking feeling weighed heavy inside me. I recognized this conflict. It was the same one brewing between Jace and Titus. The same one that had come between Marc and Jace once upon a time, according to Abby.

Drew was an Alpha now. A dominant shifter on equal standing with Titus. Yet he lacked Titus’s experience. He didn’t yet know how to temper the instinct telling him to win this battle at any cost.

Titus wasn’t willing to back down, and Drew didn’t know how to. If something didn’t change, they would come to blows.

Someone would get hurt.

I had no intention of going to Atlanta until I’d negotiated the return myself. But if Drew got a whiff of Justus while he was trying to talk me into leaving with him, he’d figure out how Corey Morris was infected—a capital offense the council would insist that he punish, even if only to show loyalty to the assembly he wanted to join.

Titus wouldn’t be able to protect his brother.

The only way to get rid of Drew before Justus showed up would be for me to go with him. Maybe there’d be time for me to call Faythe and negotiate on the way to the border. If not…I’d escaped the Southeast Territory once. I could do it again.

I stood, ready to intervene, but before I could step onto the path again, a thud caught my attention from the right. From the direction of the fence Titus and I had jumped.

A second thud followed, then a third: shoes hitting the pavement.

Titus and Drew were still arguing. Their human-form ears hadn’t picked up the sound.

I snuck through the foliage toward the fence, listening. Trying to decide what to do.

“Six parties in six days!” The voice was soft, yet obviously excited. “But you can’t bail on us tonight, man. This is the last one.” Three men rounded a curve in the path, still talking. Each carried an open bottle of beer, and none of them had any idea they weren’t alone.

“I’m not going to bail,” the guy in the middle said. “I got sick, I told you. Bad shellfish.”

It was the familiar quality of his voice that made me look closer at him. But it was his face that drove a bolt of shock through me. Looking at him was like looking at a younger version of Titus. A younger replica.

Practically a clone.

A sniff in the kid’s direction confirmed it. Justus Alexander had arrived. He had come to party. And threaded through his scent, I caught a ribbon of his infector’s—

Son of a bitch.

TWENTY-ONE

Titus

“Okay, we’re not going to argue about this.” Drew swept one hand through his hair, and I had to fight for calm, when my instinct was to inform him that he wasn’t really the Alpha. He was a pretender to the throne. A temporary fix until I could be sure I wasn’t a detriment to the Pride.

He had no right to make demands of me.

“You stepped down voluntarily and asked me to do what’s best for the Pride,” he continued. “And that’s what I’m doing. That’s what I’ve been doing, since this whole thing was just a crazy idea you and I came up with in the middle of the night, several bottles in. And this is what’s best for the Pride. It’s not a death sentence, Titus. The council doesn’t want to hurt Robyn. They want to do what’s best for her.”