We Are the Wolves

[42] Different Ways to Win

"You okay?" Zander asked me as he drove us home. I sat in the backseat with Ryder's hand was in mine and his head on my shoulder. I looked up and my eyes connected with Zander's in the rear-view mirror.

"Y-yeah," I stammered out a lie. "I...I just think I'll need your help getting this guy to bed because I'm feeling everything I just drank for the last three hours."

Zander initially narrowed his eyes at me, deciding whether or not to trust me–given he could sometimes read me as well as his brother. And then he rolled down the nearest window to me to help with what he assumed was nausea and continued to drive. Ryder's fingers caressed mine at a soothing rhythm so I knew he wasn't asleep but I closed my eyes just as he did so I could focus on the brief conversation I had with Meena.

"What did you just say?" I had asked her. My heart was still racing from my interaction with Theodore and Lacy.

"Help us kill the–"

"The people whose property you're on and can probably hear you threaten them?" I interrupted so she wouldn't put that energy into the universe. "Your family is about to move and the Versailles didn't do anything to you so why...?"

"We were run out of Chicago because of some vampires and now you have a vampire problem. If we go back with the credit of killing them, maybe it'll give us some leverage and power after the Lycan world inevitably hears about our feud with the other packs here."

And here I thought winning a state track title was enough for her.

"Running them out of town was hard enough to wrap people's head around yet you think killing–"

"You don't have to kill them. We will. Just set it up. Think about it...and quickly. We're making a move regardless."

Think about it. She said it like it was some afternoon movie plans we were making instead of killing the parents to one of my friends...Even though I was angry about Theodore killing Malcolm and briefly at Lacy for seemingly threatening me, I had never thought about killing them. My emotions had only crossed over to that line of thinking once in pursuit of Preston and this wasn't all all similar.

"You okay?" Zander asked me in the present. I had been replaying my conversation with Meena over and over again. The rest of me was in autopilot when Zander drove us home. Ryder was upstairs showering (which I didn't think was a good idea given his drunken state) and I was downstairs with Zander who was snacking on food. I don't know if it was the urgency, the alcohol, or my fatigue but I suddenly realized who I was standing across from.

"Can I ask you something?"

His eyes narrowed like before and ticked across my face. "You seem..." He didn't finish it as he took a step forward and just as he balanced the antihero line, he knew how close to be intimate while being far enough I wasn't intimidated. "For a while there, I thought you were working against me...and now...?" I had to wait a couple of heartbeats before the impulsive curiosity of a Ramon would take over. "You know what, screw it. I'll bite." Too easy.

"I need your opinion on something urgent and obviously Ryder's drunk and in the shower right now," I replied. He grew a specifically charming smirk that his brother also had but intelligently took a step back.

"I'm intrigued," he stated.

"Hypothetically, what happens if the Versailleses are killed?"

"By who?" He asked and I didn't falter in staring back at him with an unchanged expression to indicate an answer. He slightly chuckled at my stubbornness. "By a hunter? Probably nothing. By another vampire? Some heavy consequences because Theodore's an officer in their court system and also really old and will have some people missing him. By, say, someone in the Pact or someone bound by the Treaty? Eh, it depends if it was warranted or not."