“But can you really understand all the potential consequences this might have?”
“No. Then again, can anyone about to become a new parent say that they understand all of the possible consequences of that decision?”
Gloria opened a hand, conceding the point. “I don’t want to see you do this—make some irreparable move—and then realize that perhaps your motives were not as clear as they seemed at the time.”
I laughed softly. “Gloria, you know better than anyone else that no one’s motives are ever direct or clear or pure.”
She laughed, nodding and acknowledging that point, as well. “Just promise me that you will see somebody, talk to somebody about what happened with Scott before you sign any kind of finalizing paperwork.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I could promise that much. A little counseling never hurt anyone, and if it would ease Gloria’s anxiety about me, I’d do it for her.
And, truth be told, I’m sure I did have lingering issues surrounding the events that Scott had initiated in his attempts to repopulate the lamias of the world.
Those issues weren’t really anything I could tell a counselor about—not if I didn’t want to end up with a schizophrenic diagnosis of my own.
AT LUNCH, I TOOK FOOD back to my apartment for the hyena and Hunter. I was balancing soft drinks and a giant bag of tacos, trying to unlock my door, when I heard the locks clicking open inside.
The door flew open and Shadow stepped into view, her giant ax positioned to strike if necessary.
“It’s me,” I said. “I brought lunch.”
Shadow didn’t apologize, but she nodded and moved her ax back to its apparent spot right inside my door.
“I didn’t know what you liked, so I picked up tacos. I assume you’re probably a carnivore,” I said to Jeremiah.
“Yes,” he said. “Thank you, and I am quite happy with your choice.” His voice hadn’t lost any of the musicality from the night before.
I plucked out a single taco for myself and handed the rest of the food over to Jeremiah. He and Shadow fell on it as if they were starving.
For that matter, they might’ve been. I wasn’t entirely certain what I had in my pantry, but I was sure it wasn’t anything even remotely as appetizing as a taco from Tito’s.
I sat down in one of my kitchen chairs and tried my best to determine how to broach the subject I’d been considering on and off all morning. “Have the two of you come up with a plan yet?” I finally said after everyone had eaten a little.
Shadow shook her head, even as she said, “Sort of. We want to approach Jeremiah’s alpha—”
“Matriarch,” Jeremiah corrected.
That’s right. Not all of the shifter clans used the typical alpha-male structure. Suddenly Jeremiah’s relationship with Shadow made more sense to me—he came from a matriarchal society, so of course he would be interested in a woman who was willing to take charge.
I shook my head a little, reminding myself that it was not necessary to psychoanalyze every single person I met.
“So why haven’t you contacted her already?” I asked.
A single glance at Shadow showed that she, too, was waiting for an answer to that question. She stared at Jeremiah with both eyebrows raised and her head slightly tilted to one side, her long, white-blonde hair sliding over one shoulder.
“I left Savannah without permission.” Jeremiah’s liquid brown eyes glanced from one to the other of us. “I abandoned my position as both a protector of my matriarch and as a Council Shield.”
At that, I came to attention. “You’re a Shield?”
He nodded, a single dip of his head. “I am.”
“Why didn’t you say that before? Why can’t we simply call in the Shields on this?”
“There are a number of wolves in the Shields,” Jeremiah said. “I fear that any report made officially as a Shield will make its way back to the werewolves.”
I hadn’t said so aloud to anyone else, but after the events in the NICU the week before, I had begun to worry about that as well.
I stared at the two of them for a long, silent few seconds and then nodded. “I will help you communicate with your matriarch. Would you prefer to have her come here, or should we attempt to set up a meeting someplace neutral?”
“Is your apartment not neutral?” Shadow asked a hint of amusement in her tone.
“Someplace else neutral,” I corrected.
“I will let the two of you and Keeya decide that,” Jeremiah said.
“One more thing,” I said. “I think we should move your car out of my apartment complex. Too many people know I live here.”
“Where can we leave it?” Shadow asked.
“There’s a strip mall across a field not far from here. Easy to get to on foot, but the surface-road route is a little twisty. It might provide some cover for you.”
“Sounds good,” Jeremiah said, but he glanced at Shadow for approval first.
“I’ll follow you there and bring you back in my car. That’ll minimize scent trails.”
“Let’s go,” Shadow said.
That was all we had time to do before I had to head back to the office for the first of my afternoon appointments.
“HAS ANYONE EVER DIAGNOSED you as paranoid?” I asked the teenage girl slumped down in the chair in my office glowering at me.
She sat quietly for a long time as I counted the seconds in my head, waiting for a response.
After she’d stood the silence as long as she could, she bugged her eyes out, clenching her jaw as she bowed her chest out toward me aggressively.
Her stance engaged every one of my own predatory shifter instincts—I desperately wanted to pop my fangs out at her at that moment.
“Has anyone diagnosed me as paranoid? Like who?” she asked suspiciously.
I half-expected her to look around for people wanting to sneak in and diagnose her, and it was all I could do to keep from toppling over laughing. Her question deflated my incipient antagonism entirely.
“Guess not,” I managed to respond, keeping my expression serious.
My client continued to glare at me, however. “The thing is,” she said, her tone perfectly serious, “just because they diagnose you as paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not looking for a way to get you.”
BY THE END OF THE DAY, I was thoroughly exhausted, but I knew I needed to go see Kade. If nothing else, I wanted to talk to him about Serena—not to have him help me make my decision, but to help me figure out how to best manage what I already knew I wanted to do.
Serpent-Serena would be coming home with me soon.
I simply wanted to make sure I was as prepared as possible for what that might entail.
I didn’t want to admit as much, but Gloria’s attempted intervention earlier had shaken me. I was self-aware enough to know that I still had some post-traumatic responses to the events I’d been through in the last few months.
My human side did, at least.
And Gloria didn’t even know some of the worst of it. She didn’t know that I had helped kill Scott. I had participated in his execution, a punishment ordered by the Council for his murder of several local shifter children.