“We’re going to bring him in,” I corrected, and she frowned at me. “The council wants to question him, and our job is to make sure they get that chance.” But she still seemed to be having trouble with the idea that we wouldn’t be killing him on the spot.
“We?” Chase pulled a soda from the fridge and popped the tab with a pointed glance at Abby. “Are we sure that’s a good idea?” He looked more hesitant than usual to question my judgment, so I made a conscious effort to relax, because my mood influenced all of theirs. No Pride was a democracy, but any good Alpha would listen to advice from a respectful and knowledgeable source, and my enforcers needed to feel free to advise.
Though so far, my newest hire had had no problem voicing her opinion.
“No, taking Abby along is a horrible idea,” I admitted. “But we’re going to make the best of it, because I’m not letting her out of my sight until every one of those bastards is in the ground.”
“She won their first fight,” Warner translated as Chase tossed him a soda.
Abby caught the next one. “It wasn’t our first.”
“And no doubt it won’t be our last. Let’s round everyone up. I’m taking Teo, Warner, Lucas, and Abby. Chase, you, Isaac, and the others will stay here, and I want at least two of you in the lodge with my mother and sister at all times.” My half brothers would be there as well, but they were untrained because neither of them wanted to serve as my employee. “Respect their privacy, but keep them safe. Got it?”
“Loud and clear.”
“And double the patrol. If there’s a foreign scent in the woods, I want to know about it. Abby?” I turned to give her instructions, but she was gone. Based on the echo of her boots in the hall, she was headed for the great room, where the displaced west cabin residents had probably camped after their patrol. “Damn it, Abby, you can’t just walk out when I’m…”
Chase and Warren laughed as I stomped after her.
I got to the great room just in time to see her launch herself across the room like a cat in human form. She landed on the couch on all fours, and Lucas made a pained oof sound beneath her. “Damn it, Abby!” He pushed her over and sat up. “That was only funny when you were four.”
“Get up!” She grinned in response to his scowl. “We’re going to ki—I mean, catch Hargrove. Warner found… Hey,” she said, with a glance at the three empty sleeping bags on the floor. Two of them belonged to Warner and Chase. “Where’s Isaac?”
Luke tossed back the blanket, which wasn’t long enough to cover his feet anyway. He always got the couch, because there wasn’t a sleeping bag invented that was long enough or broad enough to fit him. “Isaac?” he called, standing to stretch.
“He’s probably in the bathroom.” My sister Melody appeared in the doorway in a halter top and short sleeping shorts.
“Go put on some pants,” I snapped when she flopped into a chair and propped her bare feet on the coffee table. “It’s twenty degrees outside.”
“Well, it’s plenty warm in here,” she purred, stretching just to provoke me. Or to catch Lucas’s attention. She was successful on both counts.
I growled, and Lucas blinked, then looked away. They’d all seen her naked, of course, but this wasn’t nudity for the purpose of a shift or a run. This was flesh intentionally put on display because she lived for attention. “Go!” I shouted, and she jumped, startled.
Her eyes narrowed as she stood, moving as slowly as possible to obey my order, and as she passed Abby, Melody’s focus took on a riling gleam. “So,” she whispered, loud enough for the whole planet to hear, and I realized what she was going to say an instant before the words came out. “Are you sleeping with my brother?”
I was about to start shouting when Abby pulled herself up straight and propped both hands on her hips. “Would that make us even?” she asked softly. “Since you’re sleeping with my brother?”
“Whoa, what?” Lucas snapped.
A murderous growl rolled up my chest.
Abby slapped both hands over her mouth, as if she wished she could take the words back.
“You!” I glanced from Luke to my vindictive little sister. “She’s only nineteen years old!”
“Okay, wait, that’s not the point.” Abby stepped in front of me and turned my head by my chin until I looked down at her. “Only nineteen is nineteen enough,” she insisted gently, and I knew she was right, but I found it really hard to give a damn in that moment. Melody was nineteen in chronological years, but psychologically, she was as stunted as my remaining half brothers, who’d been raised by their psychotic father.
Calvin Malone had ordered Alex, his second-youngest son, to murder Brett, his oldest and the closest thing I’d had to a real brother. Four years under my leadership were nowhere near enough to mop up the mess Cal had made of their lives.