I took a drink of the bitter liquid, flinching as it scalded my tongue.
“Where are we with Griffin?” he asked quietly.
I blew out a long breath. “He’s thinking about joining us, too.”
Rhodes’s brows went up. “No shit?”
“No shit,” I confirmed, taking another sip and praying the caffeine would somehow make things clearer.
“Would they come here, too?”
Larkin glanced back at us. “They have over six hundred people in their pack, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Getting them would be big.”
She bit her lower lip, worrying it between her teeth. “But if they come here, that’s a lot more people we need to find housing for.”
“I don’t think they would come here,” I admitted. I didn’t see Griffin leaving his pack lands. His family had been there for hundreds of years. “But we need their numbers, and they need our support.”
“Joining us might be their only play,” Dante said as he entered the kitchen from the stairs, followed by Ryder.
Ryder sat down in the stool next to mine, but Dante stayed standing behind him, settling his hands on Ryder’s shoulders.
“Norwood has taken the packs in Missouri and Louisiana,” Dante explained, his gaze meeting mine with a type of seriousness that made my jaw clench.
“That was fast,” Rhodes grumbled.
Ryder leaned back against Dante’s chest. “That means even with us and Windale, Norwood now has more pack members than we do. If this turns into a dog fight, we’re seriously outnumbered.”
“But not outmatched,” Rhodes remarked darkly. “We could still take them if it came to it.”
Larkin put a loaded platter of pancakes on the island, but none of us reached for them. Her worried eyes met mine. “Will it come to that?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly, frowning into my coffee mug.
“What about the GPA packs that are our allies?” Sam asked, bracing his hands on the granite of the island. “We can count on them, right?”
“We’re behind the eight ball, kid,” Ryder told him grimly, drumming his fingers on the counter. “Norwood knew this was coming, so they’ve had time to plan. They have footholds across the country. Even if our allies don’t join them, Norwood has enough power and people to isolate them until they either give up or die unless we can move quickly.”
I steepled my fingers, thinking. “We need to lock down all the packs in the Pacific, especially the smaller ones.”
“It won’t be enough,” Katy said as she and Dax rounded out our group in the kitchen. “We need the Canadian packs, too, and we might want to look into some of the Southern packs.”
“Long Mesa is a Southern pack,” Larkin pointed out. “I don’t see them offering us much help.”
“And we wouldn’t fucking take it,” I retorted coldly. Once I was finished with Norwood, Long Mesa would be next. I would dismantle that pack shifter by shifter.
“But Long Mesa has a pretty significant enemy in the south that we could use,” Katy pointed out, pulling a pancake off the top of the pile and taking a bite. “Stone Valley.”
“But with the history they have with Addie, do you think they would join us?” Rhodes asked reluctantly.
“Maybe,” I said, thinking that over. Stone Valley was a decently sized pack based in Texas, but they were also friendly with most of the Mexican packs. Those packs had been their allies when they were warring with Long Mesa.
“But they may just see it as joining us means they’re against Long Mesa,” I mused, rubbing my jaw. “There’s still a lot of bad blood between those two packs.”
“Again, because of Addie,” Dante pointed out quietly. “She’s from Long Mesa, and the reason their feud started.”
I shot him a dark look. “Addie is Blackwater now, so it doesn’t fucking matter.”
“It might to them,” he said slowly, playing devil’s advocate.
“It might not,” Katy countered, leaning against the island. She reached for my coffee and took a drink before making a face. “Seriously, Rem? You can’t even use sugar?”
I wasn’t a huge coffee drinker. I was drinking it now for the caffeine buzz I needed thrumming in my veins, not for taste the way Sam and Katy did.
I scowled at her and grabbed the mug. “Get your own.”
She rolled her eyes and headed to the coffee pot.
“What’s the plan for today?” Dax asked, finally speaking up.
I glanced at my brother, frowning. “Don’t you have school?”
He snorted. “Dude, it’s the end of the fucking world and you want me to worry about school?”
“You’re a kid, so yeah,” I snapped, glaring at him and then Sam.
“We can help,” Dax argued.
“You can help by getting your asses to school,” I replied archly.
Dax opened his mouth to argue and I cut him off.
“Dax, I don’t know what’s going to happen next week or next month,” I admitted, letting the weariness of the last few days into my tone. “So for now? Just … be a kid.”
Larkin turned to both the twins and gave them a soft smile. “Actually, it’s probably for the best you two are in school. It will help the younger kids see that there’s nothing to worry about if they know you guys aren’t missing.”
Dax sighed, still annoyed, but Sam seemed to understand what she was saying.
The two of them should have been finishing out the last months of their school year with the pack before going to GPA in the fall. The school for the pack covered grades kindergarten through ninth in one building.
Sam and Dax were Holts, part of the Alpha family. Like it or not, the kids looked up to them.
“Let’s go get ready,” Sam said finally, coming around the other side of the island and motioning for Dax to follow him.
Katy waited until they were upstairs before she snorted. “Are we supposed to go to school, too?”
I frowned. After GPA had closed, a makeshift school was set up for those students. I had been doing a hybrid version of it at home since I needed to go over plans for the Summit. But looking around the room, I realized none of us had any idea if or when we would be going back to school to finish our senior year.
Shit. I hadn’t really stopped to consider that pulling my friends into council duties might be fucking up their college plans.
“I already talked to Amanda,” Larkin said, lifting her chin as she mentioned one of the teachers from GPA. “She’s going to compile all of our assignments on a weekly basis so we don’t fall behind. They’re giving us a lot of leeway to get them done, and counting a lot of what we’re doing for the pack as independent study. Anything you guys fall behind in any of the basics, I’ll tutor you or she will.”
I smiled at her as Rhodes grabbed her around the waist, kissing her neck.
“I love when you tutor me,” he said playfully, nipping at her throat.
Blushing, Larkin ducked her head.
I cleared my throat. “Thanks, Lark.”
“What’s on the agenda today?” Ryder asked, leaning forward.
“Larkin and I are meeting with the architect for the new houses,” Katy spoke up, sipping her coffee. “We’re hoping we can expedite the timeline and have the first houses done this week.”