Page 40 of Shifters Unifying
“I don’t know. I can’t tell,” I panted. “It’s just in my head, like it’s happening right now, and it’s not fading.” Primal power tickled the edges of my mind, and my hands twitched.
My geography-loving Mom scowled. “Acheron? Isn’t that a river in Greece? Rumored to be the entrance to the underworld.”
I gave her a tight smile. “It’s somebody named after the river, yes. He’s a mutual acquaintance of ours.”
Jasper gestured to John and Izzie. “What about these young things? They’d like to take ye up on yer offer to come back to Six-Mile, if ye’ll still have ‘em.”
I waved at the vehicle. “Then get them back inside. We have to get back to the manor.” I jogged back to Mom, hugged her once more, and then rounded on the passenger door of the SUV. “Bye, Mom. See you soon!”
“Ye heard the lady,” he barked. “Get in the car, and don’t make no arguments, or I’ll bend every last one of ye over my knee and use Ms. Sophia’s wooden spoon on ye.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
logan
Two Hours Later
The Gathering Place
Between Bear Trees & Red Tail Territories
“It’s an emergency meeting,” I announced for what seemed like the hundredth time to the gathered crowd of complaining attendees.
They were angry about being roused from their lives and beds, angry about being summoned, but mostly, they were angry that Emma wasn’t standing next to me in front of the filled council table at the front of the natural amphitheater. Torbin sat in his seat at the council table, his gavel-rock sat in front of his seat. He must have already sent his fighters to Six-Mile for Emma to train, or no one was willing to challenge him. Either way, I was glad to have his immovable presence on the stage with me.
More of the future and likely council members were in attendance, but they had chosen to sit in the assembled crowd.Probably because they knew they hadn’t earned a place on the council until they provided five warriors to the multimorph.
I cupped my hands around my mouth to amplify my yell. “It’s an emergency meeting. We have to discuss a recent development concerning Acheron.”
“Where is our multimorph?” one of them, probably Salali, the feisty squirrel alpha, called. “We want the unifier.”
“Didn’t she call this meeting?”
“If she’s going to make us show up, she should be here!”
I groaned, fighting the urge to tell them all she wasn’ttheirmultimorph.She is mine.
More emanated complaints came from the crowd.
Fuck me sideways.Emma wasn’t wrong. They were like toddlers; they wanted what they wantednow. No patience, no chill. So damn childish.
Olivia shot me a look. Her gray gaze narrowed, and she shoved several lose strands of her blonde hair behind her ear. She marched nearer, stopping beside me to whisper-yell over the growing din of dissenting alphas and their shifters. “You’re sitting on a powder keg, Logan.”
“I’ll handle it,” I said. Since Emma had booted me from having a spot on the council, I didn’t take a seat in any of the spots at the table. However, they were all pissed off anyway, and I considered taking a seat before beginning my monologue.
“How?” She crossed her arms and glared. “How are you going to convince them that Emma called this meeting when she’s not here?”
Deciding against taking a seat or using Torbin’s rock to bang on the council table or pitch dramatically into the crowd, I raised my hands to silence the growing tumult but only succeeded in slightly diminishing the uproar.
“Emma called this meeting,” I shouted. “But she won’t be in attendance tonight. It’s too dangerous for her to be with us.”
“It’s not any more dangerous than it’s been. Why is today different than any other day?” This came from Salali again, and she put her hands on her hips. Hell, she had that squirrel-tail-shaking stance down.
I leaned back against the council table. “We’ve discovered a recently unwarded encampment at the edge of our territory, and we found the remains of many shifters.”
A buzz rolled through the crowd.
“Who are they? Did you identify them?” Torbin’s voice rumbled from his spot at the table.
