Page 17 of Bear Your Fate

“Everyone’s shock seemed genuine. I don’t think any of the council members were behind it.”

“Not even Ricardo?” The lion shifter had been vocal in his disapproval of Selene joining the council a year ago. It’d caused discord between us, which was unfortunate since he had played a role in getting Braden and Tahlia together because he was the one who’d suggested she work for the council as an enforcer.

He’d seemed to warm up to Selene a little, but there was always the possibility that he’d just been biding his time and waiting for the perfect opportunity to force her out. I hated to think it of him, but like I’d told Audra—everybody but family was a potential enemy in the current situation until they’d proven themselves otherwise. And it’d take a fuck of a lot to get me to relax my guard around Ricardo when I knew he’d been pissed enough about Selene joining the council to have confronted Seth over the decision. He’d only backed down when he’d learned of the additional parts of the prophecy that Damien’s hold had previously decided to keep to themselves. At that point, further resistance would have been futile since the other council members had fallen into line with the plan.

“Ricardo offered to put some of the lionesses from his pride on the trail of the person behind the anonymous petition. He has some of the best hunters.”

“But not the best or else he would’ve recommended they serve as enforcer instead of Tahlia,” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t take him up on the offer,” Seth assured me. “Like I said, the only steps I’ve taken are diplomatic. Giving Ricardo my blessing to go after this person would’ve been overstepping. And that would be true even without considering how he handled everything a year ago.”

“Part of me was hoping it was him because then at least we’d know who was behind this,” I sighed. “I don’t like not having any leads. It’s hard to fight your enemy when you don’t know who they are and the motives behind their actions.”

“The one thing we know about them is that they’re not too bright.”

I stared at Seth, turning over what he’d said in my mind while I tried to figure out how we knew that.

Audra must not have gotten it either because she asked, “What do you mean?”

“With the guaranteed support of three council members, there’s virtually no chance of it being given serious consideration.”

“Three?” I echoed.

“You, Audra, and me,” he clarified.

“Maybe they were banking on the fact that Selene would be unavailable to vote,” I suggested.

“That’s possible.”

I thought it was more than possible, but I wasn’t going to quibble over minor details like that with Seth. “And maybe they figured that would leave only one guaranteed vote in favor of Nixon and Nyssa. Me.”

“Which brings me back to my original point because only an idiot would think that I would ever consider excluding the first shifter-witch babies from our community after I worked hard to make sure Selene was accepted as Camden’s mate and a member of the council.”

When he put it like that, it was hard to argue. All of the council members would be aware of how everything had played out a year ago, too. “It has to be a non-council member.”

Seth and Jane nodded, while Audra groaned, “The same is true for the Council of Four. Which leaves an entire world of shifters and witches as the potential culprits.”

“It would’ve been a fuck of a lot easier to locate them if they served on at least one of the councils.”

“Yeah, it would’ve narrowed the list considerably,” Seth agreed with me.

“At least it’s a good news/bad news situation,” Jane pointed out. “The council meeting should basically be a formality since we know how the petition isn’t going to be accepted by the majority of the members.”

“It’d better be,” I growled.

Jane was proven mostly right when the meeting began two hours later.

“Call to order.” Seth banged his fist against the table for emphasis. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at him. “We have a petition which was submitted to us two days ago which needs to be discussed and voted upon.”

“I beg to differ. I’d say there are two matters needing discussion tonight.” Ricardo’s gaze swept towards Audra. “Since you made a unilateral decision to replace Selene with another witch without asking for our input first.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed as he turned his attention to the lion shifter. I leaned back in my chair and flung my arm around Audra’s shoulders when I felt a wave of Alpha energy snap across the table. Seth was pissed, and I was okay with letting him handle Ricardo since the stupid bastard had basically challenged his authority as council leader.

“Damien,” he snapped out.

The dragon shifter had been leaning against the wall near the door, but he moved to stand behind Seth. “Yes?”

“You’ve served as one of the council’s enforcers for longer than any of us have had the privilege to sit as this table.”

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