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With Sakurako as an ally, transport to Ransom’s proposed meeting location was simple and expedient. I boarded the helicopter beside Yuki, Elle, and Curly, reluctantly leaving my sister behind after a brief bear hug.
“Be strong. I’ll come back for you tomorrow,” I whispered into the top of her head...which was now closer to my nose than to my chin. In the midst of all the drama, my sister was growing. And her answer proved that point.
“You be strong,” countered my little sister. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
Which left me with only one final family member to speak with before I climbed into the aircraft slated to carry me away for a very short while. “You promised another twenty-four hours of leeway,” I hissed at my grandmother. “I expect you to leave Kira alone while you wait.”
We’d already hashed this out an hour earlier and I thought I’d trapped the wily old kitsune into a binding oath. Well, I hoped I’d trapped her. But it still felt like driving on the left side of the road to leave my sister behind for even a single day.
“You do your job and I’ll do my job,” Sakurako answered, which wasn’t as heartening as she might have supposed.
Or maybe she knew her words weren’t heartening. Perhaps this was just another test to determine whether I was worth cultivating in Kira’s place.
So I stiffened my spine and stooped to rush under the blades of the helicopter, which were already spinning their way up to gale-force speed. I’d neutralize Oyo, relieve my debt to Ransom, then return to take my place by my grandmother’s side.
And Gunner? I squashed the thought as soon as it rose within me. This was why we’d never fully mated. Because my own wishes had to play second fiddle to the safety of those I cared about.
Elle raised her brows as I joined her, widened her eyes yet further when Yuki reached over to pull me onto his lap. The helicopter wasn’t so small we needed to share seating, but I knew the hard decision Yuki would soon be faced with and didn’t argue. Instead, I fingered the cold shard of magic in my pocket and watched Elle pet Curly, wondering whether I’d made the right choice by bringing the werewolf pup along.
Unfortunately, there was no safe place for a bloodling at present. Not when the youngster was too useful to Sakurako to leave behind and too distasteful to hidebound alphas to be integrated into Ransom’s pack. Elle, however, I could depend upon to protect a bloodling puppy. Now that she’d regained her color and her energy, I trusted my not-quite-sister-in-law as much as I trusted Gunner to keep an eye out for the weak.
Gunner. Again, I pushed his face out of my mind. Refused to consider the fact that my partner might be dead already. Couldn’t fathom the thought of leaving him forever if he still lived.
So, instead, I watched the sunset as we flew westward, darkness descending over the half-melted snow beneath us. Was it only three nights since Kira and I had surreptitiously moved into our werewolf-scented cottage? Only seventy-two hours since I’d been hopeful about life as the mate of a werewolf pack leader with no notion of what my heritage meant for those caught in the crossfire?
Then the helicopter was hovering over an open field, a car waiting to carry us to the spot Ransom had designated for our meeting. I’d borrowed a cell phone and called ahead with our itinerary, but I still expected to be made to wait on the other end of our travels.
Only I wasn’t. The instant we pulled up in front of the fast-food joint, Ransom rushed out to meet us. Despite tinted windows, he somehow chose the door closest to me and opened it with a hard yank. Then he drew me out of the vehicle so roughly I had to struggle against instinct, barely managing to keep my star ball under wraps.
Patience, I warned myself, crossing my arms to prevent my fists from striking my accoster. If I had any hope of convincing Ransom to save his brother rather than using me to depose Gunner, I had to keep my head.
Ransom, on the other hand, had descended into that werewolf ball of fury where he was physically human but emotionally a wolf. “I require you to fulfill your debt,” he demanded, eyes blazing as he towered above me. And I knew I’d lost the gamble because I hadn’t even been granted a single second in which to state my case.
“I’m ready.” The words were yanked out of me by magic, my head bending down in submission despite every impulse to keep the angry werewolf in my sights. Had I misread the elder brother’s character? Now, finally, was the moment of truth.
Or it would have been if Ransom hadn’t started pacing a circle around me without speaking. Would have been if he hadn’t waited until my knees were trembling and my breath gasping before he put me out of my misery at last.
“You will go into Atwood clan central, and you will save my brother from whatever danger he faces. That is what I require in exchange for your debt.”
***
“SO HE’S ALIVE?” I GRABBED Ransom’s arm as much to keep myself upright as to stop the relentless, circular pacing that was making my head whirl uncomfortably. In response, his brow furrowed exactly the way Gunner’s did when he wasn’t following the conversation, the similarity sucking away the remainder of my breath.
Unfortunately, Ransom’s answer didn’t help jumpstart my breathing. “I don’t know. I expected you to know. Mate woo-woo and all that.” He waved his hands around to indicate tether magic, and I suddenly wondered whether this so-called alpha had ever managed to see the connections within his own clan during the years he’d spent leading a pack.
So Ransom knew no more than I did. Gunner might be dead already. I closed my eyes for one split second then took a deep breath and returned to my original plan. Ransom had feet on the ground and a wish to help his brother. It was better to use him than to go off half-cocked without any information at all.
I opened my mouth to ask questions...just as Curly leapt through the open limousine door and into Ransom’s arms. Despite myself, I laughed at the incongruous picture. This was exactly the way the puppy greeted Gunner. Too bad the elder Atwood brother was less amenable to the invasion of his space.
“You brought a pet to a war council?” I don’t think he intended to punch Curly, but the hand intended to ward off the youngster’s approach turned into a blow anyway. Yelping, Curly retreated beneath the vehicle, prompting Elle and Yuki to disembark and pull him out.
“And what is that?” Ransom continued, staring at the human while making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end with his use of “what” instead of “who.” Dehumanizing much?
“That’s an ally,” I said simply. “Now tell me what you know about clan central.”
And he did, finally, after Curly was stuffed back inside the limousine and Yuki was similarly out of sight beside Elle. It took the alpha half an hour to tell me, but what it boiled down to could be summed up in just a few key points.
The alphas and selected warriors from three neighboring packs had sealed the borders of Atwood clan central sometime late yesterday. Ransom had managed to send in multiple scouts, but none had reemerged.
What had come out was a message promising to cleanse the Atwood pack of dangerous kitsunes. “When they’re done, they plan to divide the territory,” Ransom finished, his feet once again carrying him in circles which I was now almost agitated enough to join him in.
“They plan to divide the territory,” I repeated, not wanting to state the obvious—that if Atwood territory was about to be divvied up, that meant no alpha remained to head up Gunner’s friends and family.
“Which is where you come in.” Whatever his feelings about bloodlings, Ransom and I were of one mind when it came to Gunner. “They want a kitsune, we’ll give them a kitsune. Then they’ll let my brother free.”