Roland paused by the door, his face wise, his eyes timeless. “I’ve often asked myself why I could never raise my children to be the people I envisioned them being. I believe it was because they were with me. Power corrupts, it is true, but none succumb to its rot as readily as the young. You don’t see it this way, but what I am giving you now is a blessing. You will understand in time.”
He put his hand on the door handle. “Almost forgot. Teleportation by water requires an incantation and the ignorance or agreement of the one being teleported. Aar natale.”
The words clicked in my mind, their meaning clear. “Interrupt?”
My father nodded. “That’s all you have to say to stop a teleportation incantation.”
He walked out.
If I stayed with Curran, Atlanta would burn and the Pack would die. I could do nothing to stop it.
“Fighting him will be difficult,” Curran said.
“Yes.” Understatement of the year.
“Do you like being the Consort?” he asked.
“You’re kidding me, right?”
He came over, crouched by me, and took my hands into his. “Kate, do you like being the Consort?”
I couldn’t ask him to give up the Pack for me. But I couldn’t lie to him either. “No. I never wanted to be the Consort. I just wanted you.”
“Then problem solved. Barabas!” Curran called.
The door opened and Barabas stepped inside, his face puzzled. “I just saw a man leave. I’ve been at the guard station since we got here. I’m positive he didn’t come in. Unless I’m insane, none of us let him in.”
“I want you to release a general announcement to the Pack,” Curran said.
“Should I get a pen and paper?”
“No, it will be short.”
“I’m ready,” Barabas said.
Curran looked at me. “Effective tomorrow, we are retired. Jim has our blessing.”
What?
Barabas opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
“Take your time,” Curran said.
“You what?”
“We are stepping down,” Curran said.
“You can’t!”
“We just did.”
“But—”
“We’ll talk about the details in the morning.”
“But what do I tell them?”
Curran sighed. “Which them?”
“Them!” Barabas waved his arms. “Everybody.”
“Tell them we quit. Thank you, Barabas. That will be all.”
Barabas blinked several times, turned around, and left the room. The door behind him closed.
“You’re leaving the Pack?” I couldn’t believe it.
“No, we are leaving. Together. It’s freedom, Kate. Freedom from paperwork, freedom from sorting through petitions. We can have a day off whenever we want. We can have sex whenever we want. You can run Cutting Edge, I’ll help you apprehend bunnycats, we can go to Julie’s plays or whatever the hell she does, without having to make excuses . . .”
I put my hand on his lips. “But you’re the Beast Lord.”
He kissed my fingers and took my hand off his mouth. “I haven’t liked being the Beast Lord for a while now. I built all this so my family—so you—would be protected. Then I almost had to kill my own Council so that I could leave to save my mate. In the end, Roland just walked past all of my defenses. Screw this. I’m done with it. This is the best way to protect you and Julie for now.”
“You created all of this. I can’t ask you to give up your life for me.”
He smiled. “I know. You did it for me. You moved into the Keep with me. My turn.”
Words came running out of me, one over the other. “You realize that my father won’t leave us alone? He can’t help himself. He meddles. He won’t attack us directly. Instead, he’ll find some ancient god with an axe to grind and suggest to him that Atlanta might be a nice place to put down roots, just so he can watch us take him down. Didn’t you see him? He was so happy I passed his little test. He’s already thinking of ways he can manipulate and use me and you.”
“That’s fine,” Curran said. “He’ll meddle with us instead of the Pack and we’ll deal with it. The real question is, will you still love me if I’m not Beast Lord?”
I put my arms around him. “Of course I’ll still love you, you stupid idiot. The Beast Lord is an arrogant jerk. I never wanted him. I only wanted Curran.”
“Stay with me,” he said.
“Always,” I told him.