Page 42 of Forbidden

Ira clenched his jaw, his gaze going distant—not distant like a vision, but deep in thought. “So I have to meet with her.”

Wolf growled, and Ira shot him an exasperated smile.

“You can’t argue after you just basically told me I have no other choice.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Wolf said.

Ira smoothed a hand over his hair. “Well, we can’t kill her yet,” he said, mostly to himself.

“What do you meanyet?” Shadrach asked, looking gleeful. “Are you saying Lilith dies?”

Ira hesitated. “I don’t know exactly. I just know she won’t always be a problem.”

Shadrach looked thoughtful. “Then how do you know we can’t do it now?”

Ira’s gaze went distant again. “The glimpses I’ve seen… suggest someone else does it.”

“Who?”

One corner of Ira’s mouth quirked. “Spoilers.”

Shadrach let out a groan, his head falling back. “Buzzkill.”

Ira shook his head with an exasperated smile and returned his attention to Wolf, contemplative. “She didn’t say I had to meet with heralone, did she?”

He hesitated. “No. There’s no way she’d let me stay with you, though.”

“Then we take someone she can’t boss around.” Ira turned, casting a beatific smile at Talon, who did a double-take at the attention.

“Wait, what?”

“He’s right,” Wolf said. “She can order me away. Threaten Ira if I don’t comply. She can’t use that leverage with you, and she knows you can own her ass if she tries.”

Talon brightened with understanding. “Oh. You’re right. She’ll be pissed for sure, but she can’t really order me to leave. I don’t take orders from her, and she knows it.”

“Aw, come on,” Shadrach whined. “I want to piss her off, too. Let me do something fun.”

“Having both of us in the room would feel far more overtly threatening than just one,” Talon said. “You can hang out downstairs, and I’ll call you if we need you.”

Shadrach blew out a gusty sigh. “I never get to have any fun.”

“You’d really do this?” Wolf asked. Warmth bloomed within him. He and Talon had been friendly for many years, but Talon was offering to do something incredible for him. He’d avoided facing off with Lilith for a very long time, and now he was doing so to protect Ira, someone Wolf cared deeply about. He would owe Talon a great debt for this.

“I would be happy to,” Talon said, uncharacteristically soft.

Alex drifted closer, tucking himself under Talon’s arm, and Talon kissed his hair. “I’m glad, Talon. I don’t want anything to happen to Ira.”

“Nor do I,” Talon agreed, “hence my offer. Reluctant as I am to be in a room with Lilith, arrogant and self-important as she is, this needs to be done. She can meet with Ira, and I can make sure she plays nice. We’ll make sure she knows this won’t be a regular occurrence, too. You’re not at her beck and call, and she needs to understand that.”

“I’m coming, too,” Alex said. “Not into the meeting, but to the club.”

“So will we,” Luke added, looping his arm in Malachi’s.

Wolf ducked his head to hide his smile. He’d never felt like he belonged to anything before. He’d been on friendly terms with people like Talon, Xyra, and Malachi, but in the end, he’d mostly been alone, watching the slogging passage of time with resigned apathy. Now, humans and demons alike were rallying around him to help protect him and his human from a common enemy. He was so unnaturally grateful for all of them that he was lost for words.

“We want to come, too,” Zachary said, and Angela nodded fervently.

“Absolutely not,” the three humans chimed together.

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