Broken Blood (37 page)

“We’re going to sign a new treaty,” Cord explained. “One that recognizes The Cause and its members for providing amnesty but also one that outlines a plan where amnesty isn’t a privilege, it’s a right. There will be rules and punishments for those who break them but there will be fair trials.”

“How do we know that?” asked one of the wolves.

“Because you and I both will serve on that jury,” she told him, and instead of scoffing like they’d done earlier in the day, the wolves tilted their heads, considering her idea.

At the back of the crowd, I watched the large gray wolf—the Werewolf pack leader—dart away and disappear around the corner of the cabin. I started to follow but Cambria stopped me.

“You okay?” she asked. Her voice came out somewhere between concise language and a growl. “You’re not mad, are you?”

“I’m not mad,” I assured her. “I was worried for you.”

“I’m okay,” she said, clearly still just as surprised as everyone else at her new appearance. She tilted her head, her eyes deep pools of curiosity. “I’m still me inside,” she said. “But I’m ... more. It’s so weird.”

She shifted her weight, stepping sideways as if off balance. “Can we run? For some reason, I seriously need to move.”

I laughed. “Logan was right. I don’t know why I was ever worried. You’re clearly the strongest of us all.”

“Clearly,” Derek agreed, rubbing up beside her. My heart warmed watching them. 

“Is my mom okay?” Cambria asked, her wolfish face clouding with worry.

“She will be,” Derek assured her. “Victoria updated me a little bit ago. Fee’s in with her now. She’ll pull through.”

“Maybe we can send Koby to help,” Cambria said. “He’s pretty great at pain management.”

“I’d be happy to,” he said.

“I don’t think it was management so much as a time share thing,” I said.

“Tara, can you come here?” Alex called. I joined him at the head of the assembled group, next to Cord, and he handed me a pen.

“Tara’s going to join Wes as leader of The Cause,” Cord said.

“I am?” I stared at her and she continued, ignoring me. All I could do was listen along with everyone else.

I caught Jack’s eye and he grinned—the equivalent of his blessing. “There will be a training period, of course,” he said. “I’ll get to teach you again.”

“Great,” I said sarcastically but I was smiling too.

“They’ll act as ambassadors to spread the word of our treaty and all that’s happened today,” Cord explained. “They will still act as a safe haven for Werewolves and Hunters alike. One day soon, we hope you’ll come to trust that you don’t need sanctuary. You’re safe already no matter who or what you are.”

“You want us to sign that thing?” Kristin asked.

“We aren’t going to force you but we hope you will. You did stand with us today against my father’s army.” Cord flashed a smile and a few of the men in the crowd—including wolves—blinked at the sight she made. Blonde hair glowing in the sunlight, teeth flashing as she offered an encouraging smile, shoulders squared with confident power. “We’re already a team,” she added. “Don’t you think?”

There was a heavy silence and then Koby appeared. “Where do we sign?”

I faltered—too overcome with relief and surging hope to even answer—but Alex stepped up and held out the Draven where the parchment with the treaty lay over the page naming Cord as successor. “Here.”

Koby shrank away. “I can’t sign that. It’s the same paper from the book.” His eyes flickered up to Alex and away. “We don’t write in each other’s books.”

“You do now,” Cord assured him. She held out a pen and pointed. “Here, next to my name.”

Slowly, Koby pressed the pen to page and scrawled his name. When he’d finished, he stepped back and flashed me a small smile. One by one, the others leaned over and clapped his shoulder or patted his back. The Hunter woman I’d met first stepped up and took the pen.

“Thank you ... Gail,” Cord said, reading the signature as Gail handed her pen back.

“Thank
you
,” Gail said. “It’s an honor.” She handed the pen back amid applause and shouts.

“I’d like to sign,” said a deep voice.

From the back of the crowd, a man with a long gray beard shouldered his way to the front. He wore a pair of ratty sweats that had thinned to holes in several places. “What’s your name?” Cord asked.

“Abraham,” Jack said, clapping the man on the back and walking beside him to stand in front of Cord.

“You know each other?” Cord asked, looking between them.

“You know me too,” the gray-haired man said. “After today, I should think we can call each other friends.”

“The gray wolf,” I realized.

“My friends call me Abraham. Nice to meet you, Tara,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He looked at Cord. “And you. I’d like to sign your treaty if you’ll have me.”

“We would be honored,” Cord said, handing him the pen.

He scrawled his name and handed the pen to Cord with a broad smile. “My pack will sign but we’ll need some clothes first. Otherwise, your first official gathering as leader might lead to unnecessary frowns in the community.”

“Sir,” Cord said, her eyes sparkling, “We’ve been causing frowns our whole life.”

Abraham laughed at that and Jack joined him, their deep voices filling the clearing with the last noise I expected to hear today. Everyone began talking and moving at once.

Everyone with two hands and working thumbs pressed in to add their names to the treaty. A few at a time, wolves ducked behind the house to shift and share clothes in order to add their names. Somewhere during the commotion, Cambria and Derek slipped away. I started to go after them, still worried for how Cambria was adjusting to her new body.

“Whoa, there.” Wes grabbed my hand, spinning me around to face him. “Don’t run off just yet.” His arm snaked around my waist and he pulled me against him, torso to torso. His hair was disheveled, his jeans slung low on his hips, offering a peek of abs from underneath the hem of what was obviously a borrowed shirt.

“I hurried back just for you,” he said, his voice seductively low.

“I was checking on Cambria. She and Derek—”

“Will be fine,” he assured me, leaning close. He brushed a hand over my cheek, catching strands of my hair between his fingers as he inhaled deeply. “You smell amazing, whether I’m human or wolf, you know that?”

I smiled and leaned in, my mouth upturned to meet his.

From somewhere behind him, George yelled, “Is that my shirt? Are you wearing my clothes again?”

Wes pulled back just far enough to wink at me and I laughed.

“Wes, I’m talking to you,” George said.

“We did it,” Wes whispered. “Me, you, all of us, we did it.”

“We did,” I agreed.

The kiss was magic—pure joy, love, and hope. All light, no darkness or fear, and I pressed harder into it, breathless with the ecstasy of the moment. Wes was right. We did it. And tonight, we’d do the only thing left for us. The one act we’d yet to perform out of such love and light.

Wes pulled back, his mouth hovering hotly over mine, and whispered, “Make love, not war.”

And I wondered how I’d never realized, blood and injections and science aside, we’d been bonded this whole time.

––––––––

J
ack’s backyard bonfire had never looked so huge. More wood than I’d ever seen at once was piled high on the pyre that stood halfway between the farmhouse and the tree line out back. The flames danced and crackled, warming against whatever chill managed to creep inside my fur coat.

It was a first for me. Not a first for attending a Cause meeting, I’d done that before. I’d never attended as a Werewolf though. Apparently, it was a requirement for the ceremony and selection happening today. Beside me, Wes rubbed his forehead against my ear in animal affection. I leaned into him, snuggling right back. In the month or so since we’d returned home, we’d spent lots of afternoons on four legs, making up for lost time.

Energy was high today.

At the head of the flames, Jack and Fee spoke animatedly with two of the newer guests. Professor Kane and Professor Flaherty both listened intently to whatever instruction they were being given. They were being inducted today and I, for one, was still floored about Kane joining up. But as Grandma said, bigger miracles had happened.

Recently, too.

As proof, Cambria yelped and sidestepped Derek, her wide jawline pulled back to reveal shining sets of sharp teeth. Her coat was black as night, still streaked with neon blue. I always smiled at the sight of her as a wolf. And if watching her was any indication, she enjoyed it just as much. She and Derek had been inseparable since we’d left the cabin in Colorado behind four weeks ago.

The only time I had her to myself was our mandatory schooling overseen by Fee. Online lessons three hours daily. “To get caught up on all you’ve missed,” she’d said. And with a matching stern look from my mother had added, “Especially you, Tara.”

Like it was my fault I’d been kidnapped for the fall semester.

You’ll be at your public school soon enough,
I could practically hear Vera’s memory whispering at me.

That was happening lot lately, but not in that chaos-as-noise kind of way I’d had to listen to from my pack or George or even Steppe. This was calm, peaceful, and certain of the future in a way that always seemed to make me jumpy. I was grateful for it; not just her insight but her wisdom and ability to remain calm amid the storm. It was a trait I was working on.

At last, the final member of today’s cast arrived and took his place in the circle assembled around the fire. There was a beat of hesitation beside me and then, across the fire, Jack stepped forward. He cleared his throat and looked out over the faces gathered before beginning.

“Thank you all for coming,” Jack said, his normal deep voice even more of a growl as he spoke though the mouth of a wolf. “This meeting marks the official reconvening of The Cause.”

Jack paused while a chorus of cheers and howls went up among the group. I couldn’t help joining in.

When we’d quieted again, Jack continued. “Originally, we were a small group. The only safe haven for Hunters and Werewolves caught in the crossfire of a world that knew only guilty until proven innocent. But today, we’ve become a part of something much bigger. The very thing we’ve fought and bled for. As of today, we are the official ambassador of peace for CHAS under the new leadership and authority of Cordelia Steppe.”

“Cord,” she said, correcting him quickly. “No last name. Just Cord.”

“Like Cher or Madonna,” Derek snorted.

“Or Bieber,” Cambria added.

Cord glared at her but Cambria was unruffled. Nothing much got to her these days. She was in a permanent romance-induced fog, which was fun to watch on a girl who thought candy hearts should come with candy weapons to pierce them.

“Cord, we’re honored to have you here,” Jack said.

“Thank you, but today is my last meeting,” Cord said. “Tomorrow, I head to DC and will begin rebuilding the CHAS headquarters and repairing the damage done under my father’s leadership. Both structurally and psychologically,” she added.

“My first priority will be overseeing the repairs of the building and establishing a permanent residence. In the meantime, I need you all to get the word out. When the work is complete, I will be personally inviting every leader of every pack or community, Hunters and Werewolves, to visit me there for a summit.”

She looked from face to face as she spoke. Her gaze was direct and her shoulders squared and confident. I knew, without a doubt, I’d made the right choice in giving CHAS to Cord.

The choice was always yours,
whispered Vera’s memory.
But the position was always meant for her.

I felt my eyes go wide at that. “Really?” I muttered, earning a quizzical stare from Wes.

I shook my head and kept my voice internal. After all this time, the anguish and uncertainty about what I would do when the time came, and Vera had always known how it should go. I stared into the flames, trying to resist the flare of temper that came with the realization. I felt like Dorothy at the end of the movie, being told she’d always had the power to go home, she just needed to realize it.

I glanced over at my mother, who stood next to Jack across the flames, and glared suspiciously. She watched Cord, her expression more peaceful and relaxed than I’d seen her in months—maybe years. I wondered if she knew what Vera had known. Maybe. Probably. She’d admitted she’d had the same visions for years before Vera even found me.

She and I would chat later, that was for sure.

I tuned back in as Cord wrapped up her outline for how The Cause would get the word out about her new plan for laws and leadership. “...a democracy,” she was saying. “And you all are the voices. I’m counting on you to make sure the people are heard.”

“Thanks, Cord,” Jack said, taking over again. “We look forward to it.” And then to the group, “We’re officially forming a new coalition of members today. I will announce the nominations and you will confirm your memberships with a group vote. Belonging to The Cause and committed to extending and upholding the burden of peace among conflict are: Fiona Chapman—Fee,” he corrected as she flashed him a look, “myself, Jonah Kane, Anna Flaherty, George Landry, Emma Stacey, Elizabeth Godfrey.” He turned to my mom and said, “Welcome back.”

She smiled.

“Tara Godfrey, Wesley St. John, Derek Carpenter, Cambria Hebert, Koby Elias, Gail Dresser, and our newest—and most unexpected—addition, Alex Channing. All in favor of these faithful members, say aye.”

Around the fire, there was a loud chorus of, “Aye.”

I looked over and found Alex watching me. He winked and said his own, “Aye.”

A strange feeling rippled through me at his gesture. It was so foreign for me to feel it for Alex that it took me a moment to pin it down—pleasure without the confusion of attraction, I realized in relief.

Finally,
Vera’s memory whispered. And before I could blast a sarcastic comeback, the voice added,
You’ve made your choice. And he’s made his. Finally.