Page 6 of Pack Rage
“Stop reading my mind,” I whispered back.
Glen and Sergeant were arguing about the political ramifications of attacking Eastern and taking over the Council. Glen got up and started pacing. “Aidan was the one assigned to liaise with the Alphas from the other countries. He’s the one with the connections. If Brand goes in there with an army, with the biggest pack in the world, and with those silver eyes, you know what they’ll say. They’ll say he’s the next Alpha of Alphas, and they’ll all come for him. For us.”
The Alpha of Alphas had been Grigor’s father, centuries ago. He’d been a true monster and a despot, forcing all the packs on that side of the world to bow to his perverted rule. Grigor had killed him and gone on to become even more of a legend, though I was certain he didn’t deserve a reputation as blackened as hiswas. For the few months I’d known him, he’d only killed shifters who more than deserved to die.
Sergeant nodded in agreement. “Six thousand shifters, you said? That’s almost a quarter of all the wolves left in the entire world. I wouldn’t be shocked if Eastern has allies on their side, lined up and ready to move against us.”
I thought of Ivan. “Allies like the Russians? Ones with magic? Witches, even?”
Brand shrugged. “I would put nothing past him.”
Glen paced faster, cursing under his breath.
“If it wasn’t us about to get buried under a whole ocean’s worth of shit, I’d be impressed with his planning,” I said. “This kind of hunt for power? He’s been planning it for a long time. It’s evil, but it’s clever.”
“Too clever,” Glen muttered. “Aidan isn’t the genius in that family.”
“No,” Brand said. “That would most likely be Elina, Finn’s mother.”
“Elina?” My mind started to spin. The woman who’d been here, who’d showed up during the battle. Torran had called her Mistress. She was his boss.
Elina was Finnick’s mother. I let myself remember her high-heeled shoes, and her icy voice, calm even as she stood in the middle of a bloodsoaked field.
“Yes,” Brand said, seeing her in my mind. “That’s her.”
“Sergeant, have you ever met her? Did you see her at the battle?”
He frowned slightly, probably wondering why I was asking. “No. She was gone by the time the Tenebris pack arrived. To my knowledge, she never came to any Conclaves at Northern. And I never traveled to one after Bradley’s father gave me sanctuary.” I wanted to ask a whole lot of questions about that, but now wasnot the time. “All I know of her is that she mated Aidan at the Conclave Eastern hosted eight years after the Betrayal.”
The Betrayal. He had been there, had witnessed everything. “The Southern Conclave, where all the shit hit the fan and Western was thrown under the bus? You wrote about it, but the details of exactly who did what to cause the fight were sketchy.”
Sergeant let out a long, slow breath. “I’ve never spoken about it. I couldn’t, not when almost every shifter in the pack had been commanded not to speak of Western, or magic. But I didn’twantto speak about it either. No one knew I was from there. Your parents hid me, in exchange for my help with… many things.” He and Glen exchanged a solemn look. “Some of which I should not have done. I gave up honor for safety and solitude.”
“You’ll have a chance to regain it,” Glen replied.
I tapped the table, something bothering me. We were missing a clue, and I had a feeling it was all tied into that old Conclave. If Aidan wasn’t the smart one, Elina was. And if she was as good at strategy and planning as Finnick was supposed to be…
“How old is Elina?” I wondered aloud.
Brand answered. “Older than my parents. Older than Aidan as well. She must be close to sixty.”
“Sergeant, you wrote about the fight. You said your father was killed with silver. By treachery. That your mother went mad with grief and…”
“And led the rest of our pack to our doom. Yes.”
Brand’s voice was quiet. “Can you tell us the story?”
Sergeant’s brow furrowed, and his voice was gruff. “Someday. But now isn’t the time for stories. We have to act.”
Glen ran his hands through his hair in frustration, pulling my attention back to the here and now. “We need more time to plan. We can’t go racing in there with Enforcers, and get slaughtered.Maybe end up facing guns again. They’ll have traps ready for us. We’ll lose every advantage. But if we wait, my parents will be…”
“They’ll be fine. I’ll start out for Eastern today,” Brand said, his moon-bright eyes on mine. “And I’ll go alone.”
“You said—” I began, then bit my tongue to keep from sounding like some whiny brat. I knew he had to go. We couldn’t let the Hilliers die.
“Flor. Wildflower.” Brand’s voice was raw as the others stepped away, giving us a moment. “If there was another way…”
“I know.” He’d promised he would stay with me from now on, and I could see in the lines of strain on his face what this was costing him.
