“Apparently the husband had made his way over here and you took him in about eight years ago. I had Derek pull his record and it’s clean, so if he’s stealing, he’s brilliant at hiding it. I’ve met him. He seems like a decent guy. This September, the small local pack asked to join your Pack, and of course, you took them in again. Now they are stuck. The husband has someone else, the wife also has someone else, but by wolf law they’re mated for life and the grandparents on both sides are horrified. It doesn’t help that all of them are Japanese. I put them in the same room—nobody talks. Everybody is embarrassed and they keep apologizing to me nonstop. I don’t know what to do.”
“Have you tried the Second Chance Law?” Curran said.
I shut my eyes tighter. I was losing my mind. Now I imagined him talking in my head.
Even an imaginary conversation was better than nothing. “No, what’s that?”
“It’s the law that says any shapeshifter joining the Pack has a one-time right to a new identity. If the husband didn’t use it when he joined, declare him officially dead and let him rejoin under a new name. His former wife will officially be a widow.”
A warm arm hugged me. My eyes snapped open.
He was looking at me. He was pale, his eyes were sunken, but he was looking at me.
“You stayed with me,” Curran said.
“Always.”
He smiled and fell asleep.
Curran stirred again, an hour later. I raced into the kitchen, and by the time I returned with a steaming bowl, he was sitting up and pulling the IV out of his arm. “What is this shit?”
“It kept you alive for eleven days.”
“Well, I don’t like it.”
I handed him a bowl of soup. He put it aside, reached for me, and clenched me to him. I buried my face in his neck. My eyes grew hot and I cried.
His hand stroked my hair. “You stayed with me.”
“Of course I stayed with you. Did you think I would abandon you?”
“I heard you reading. And talking.”
I kissed him and tasted my tears. “Through your sleep?”
“Yes. I tried to wake up, but I couldn’t.”
I just held on to him. “Let’s not do this again. Ever.” “That sounds good.” He kissed me.
“You need to eat.”
“In a minute.” He clamped me tighter. We sat together for a few blissful minutes.
Two sharp knocks echoed through the door. Derek. He always knocked twice.
“Kate?”
“Come in,” I told him.
Derek walked in. “I have a wolf out here who wants to see you. He says it’s an emergency. Probably another challenge. What do you want me to . . . ?” His mouth hung open.
Curran looked at him. “Bring him in. Don’t tell him that I’m awake.”
Derek closed his mouth with a click and went out.
“Help me up?”
I grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bed. He blinked at the windup clock on the wall. “Is today Wednesday?”
“Yes.”
He picked up the bowl of soup and drank from it.
The door swung open. A large Hispanic man stepped through. He saw Curran and froze.
Curran finished draining the bowl and looked at him. “Yes?”
The wolf dropped down into a crouch and stayed there, his head bowed, his gaze on the floor.
“Nothing to say?”
The wolf shook his head.
“The Council is due for a meeting in three minutes. Go down there and tell them to wait for me, and I might forget you were ever here.”
The wolf turned, rising, and left without a word. The door shut behind him.
Curran swayed. I caught him. My leg gave and we crashed down onto the couch.
“Ow.”
Curran shook his head.
“Are you sure you’re ready for a Council meeting?”
He turned to me. Gold rolled over his eyes, cold and lethal. “I’m sure. They better be ready for me.”
He pushed himself up and headed to the bathroom. I followed him in case he tipped over. He did, on the way back, and caught himself on the wall.
I slid my arm around his waist.
“The soup will kick in in a minute,” he said.
“Sure. Lean on me.” He did and we slowly made our way to the door. “Some tough pair we are.”
“Tough enough,” he growled.
Five minutes later he walked to the Council room on his own power. The shapeshifters saw him and stepped aside, silent. We reached the room. I could hear people mumbling inside. Curran took a deep breath, thrust the door open, and roared.
The sound of leonine rage burst like thunder, shaking the windows. People in the hallway cringed. When it died, you could hear a pin drop.
Curran held the door open for me. He walked to his seat at the head of the table, got another chair, put it next to his, and looked at me. I came and sat. He lowered himself into his seat.
The alphas stared at the table. Not a single pair of eyes looked up.
Curran leaned forward, his eyes drenched in furious gold. “Explain yourselves.”