Page 60 of Power Shift

“It doesn’t make sense. I’d have felt it regardless,” he argues weakly.

“Not necessarily. If there’s a block, it could be affecting everything, even her scent.”

“And how long am I supposed to wait to see if that’s the case? Weeks from now? Months?”

“I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that you’re not helping yourself by arguing on his behalf. Landon is a grown man. We chose him to lead this pack, and he needs to show us that we made the right choice all those years ago.”

Dash rolls his shoulders, as if attempting to wiggle free of the shackles keeping him stuck in his current mindset. I reach out and palm his shoulder.

“Follow our lead. Try to go into dinner without worrying about Landon. He’s going to be angry, and honestly, I’d rather have him angry than how numb he’s been recently.”

“Fuck, Jas. I don’t know how we got here.”

“What if this is where we’re supposed to be?”

He knits his brows. “What do you mean?”

“Briar was meant for us. Broken or whole, we’re her pack. I have to believe that she was always supposed to find us, even if we’re not perfect.”

“You don’t think she’ll take one look at us like this and decide we’re not worth the trouble?” he asks, a tease of nerves slipping through.

“No. And even if she did, I’m prepared to prove to her that we’re still worth it. Are you?”

Dash doesn’t look away from me. The glimmer of certainty in his eyes is exactly what I’d been hoping for.

“Fuck, I’m in. But I’m sending Landon straight to you when he realizes what’s happening.”

I don’t hesitate. “I’m ready for him.”

Even if ten minutes later, Ronan texts me to let us know they’re not going to make it home before Briar gets here. Whether that’s a purposeful move on Ronan’s part or a sheer coincidence, I’m positive we’ll never know. I wouldn’t put it past him to have delayed them on purpose. Not when we all knew there was a chance Landon decided Briar wasn’t welcome here at all.

Regardless of anything else, it’s obvious that this is the worst news we could have gotten. It’s my fault we left everything up to the last minute, but I wasn’t expecting him not to show at all. There’s no telling how he’ll react to seeing her here with no warning, even if only a few minutes’ worth of it.

“What did Ronan actually say?” Dash asks, leaning over my shoulder to look at the texts.

“Be home in twenty.”

“That’s it? Ask him why.”

I type out a message and send it quickly, my stomach hanging between my knees.

Why? What’s going on?

Dash groans. “How long do we give him to answer before we call?”

“Maybe we should do that anyway. It gives us a chance to warn Landon.”

“So what? He can demand they go anywhere but home?”

“Everything is going wrong. This isn’t how tonight was supposed to happen,” I say on a tight exhale.

“Fuck it. Just call, and we’ll risk him not showing up at all.”

“You sure?”

Dash opens his mouth to reply when my phone buzzes in my hand.

Lan insisted we stop by the rink. Needed to talk to the doc.