Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 26 - A Civilised Discussion

Hola y'all. We're getting close, now. Three chapters to go.

They passed it unanimously. It had been a clever way to play it, I had to admit. Either the Lloyd brothers had planned it or they were having one hell of a mental conversation. Dangling Kat in front of Cornell's nose like a prize, making a show of the man with the most cause to hate Vik coming around to his idea, and most notably the threat of rogues dangling like a noose around their necks.

"Shadowless," Vik said, "because, when I look over my shoulder now, I'm not going to see any of you pricks waiting for a chance to shank me."

Alpha Cornell mouthed Shadowless with no shortage of bitterness. I wondered if it was a coincidence that Vik had chosen to make this announcement at high noon, when the sun had chased all the shadows back to whatever they came from. I was beginning to wonder if anything these two brothers did was a coincidence.

"And now onto Kat," Vik announced, sitting up a little bit straighter.

Cornell sprung onto the offensive in the blink of an eye. "You're the bastard who took her, aren't you?"

He snorted. "As it happens, no. But for that sort of money, I wish I was, to be honest with you."

I bet you do, Vik. His share wouldn't be any bigger than anyone else's — that was, ten thousand for acting like a glorified bodyguard. Although I was currently debating whether he deserved a share at all, and how I could possibly deny it to him.

"Then how the hell are we supposed to broker a ransom with you?"

"I have a direct line to the guy in charge. Anything we decide goes through him — is that agreed?"

As if he needed their agreement with me standing in the room. But the Alphas clearly seemed to think he did, because they began deliberating amongst themselves in hushed tones. I let my eyeballs take a lap in their sockets.

"We cannot permit the involvement of a criminal in the intimate workings of a packmeet," the Silver Lake Alpha said sanctimoniously after a while.

Vik made the most exasperated, disgusted face I had ever seen. The Alpha averted his eyes.

"We do need to communicate with him," Ivan pointed out, sighing.

"It is totally unaccep—"

"Oh, shut up," Cornell interrupted. "If you can't handle it, you can bloody well leave, Vaughan."

Alpha Vaughan sat back in his chair and scowled. He was thoroughly disgruntled, but he didn't dare talk back because his pack was relying on cordial relations with Cornell to keep their feud with Pine Forest from escalating into a full-blown war. I knew because Dafydd was fond of discussing pack politics after a few beers.

"Alright. Agreed? Shall we get started?" Vik suggested dryly.

Once again, Cornell spoke up, and I was beginning to get the sense he was the loudest of the bunch. "First, I'd like to raise a topic without involving the rogue, if that is acceptable to everyone here. Full confidentiality."

Oh, this should be good.

To his credit, Vik didn't turn his head in my direction or so much as twitch.

"It won't leave this room," he assured Cornell.

"The rogue got into my pack house," Cornell muttered. "He walked through the front doors, and he lured my mate away from her guards, and he took her off my territory without the alarm being raised. He even freed my prisoners — more than a score of them, vicious bastards all."