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“What the...?”
I chose not to evade my companion’s blow since I figured I had it coming. But her right hook hurt a heck of a lot worse than I’d been expecting, making me wonder whether Blue-eyes had been practicing self-defense on the sly.
“That’s for Ophelia,” she spat out. Then, launching toward me yet again, she added, “And this one is for Carla.”
I caught the girl’s wrists, lowering them so she battered at my chest instead of my face. I was hard-headed, but not that hard-headed.
“Carla?” I asked when Angelica’s rage finally appeared to be petering out.
“Carla Darter, you sycophantic idiot,” the teenager growled. I wasn’t actually sure what “sycophantic” meant, but figured it probably wasn’t good.
Then my brain finally connected the dots as I glanced at the walkie-talkie Angelica still held in her quivering left hand. “You were listening in on the judgments?” I guessed.
Now Blue-eyes’ presence and her sparkly pink notebook made more sense. Why would the girl want to ride along to the peacekeeping grounds just to sit alone in the car all day? And why would Stormwinder allow a pack princess to be cut off from his assistance amid the dangers of outpack territory? Obviously, the pair had set up their technological can-on-a-string ages ago and were now reaping the rewards of their ingenuity.
“I’m sorry I upset you,” I started, channeling my ex-CO’s calm. He’d always been able to defuse the worst civilian angst with a few short sentences, and those sentences generally started with an apology. So I figured I’d follow suit.
“You’re sorry you’ve upset me?” Blue-eyes’ voice rose so high on the penultimate syllable that I took an unconscious step backwards. “What about the women whose lives you’ve ruined?”
I cringed away from her accusation. Truth be told, leaving Ms. Darter’s—Carla’s—fate in the hands of my boss might not have been the best move. But the preceding damsel in distress was an easier matter to justify.
“Ophelia was being kidnapped,” I explained carefully, not tacking on a final “you idiot” the way Angelica would have done. I was uneasy about some of my recent decisions, but protecting a defenseless pack princess who was being claimed against her will wasn’t one of them.
“You are such an...”
“...Idiot,” I interjected, completing her sentence. “Yes, I know you feel that way. But would you care to clue me in as to your reasoning?”
I half expected Angelica to hit me again. Instead, she attacked with flashing blue eyes and sharp-edged words. “I was going to say asshole, but whatever.”
When I simply let the insult roll off my broad back, the teenager deigned to expand upon her accusation. “Ophelia had to say that she wanted to go back to her father once she was caught in the act. The plan was for her brothers and cousins to pretend to fight, then for Colin and his friends to give them the slip. Her daddy couldn’t afford to let his daughter marry into a lower-caste pack willingly. But he could save face by accepting reparations after she was ‘kidnapped.’”
I winced as Angelica clawed quotes into the air inches away from my unprotected face. I wasn’t entirely sure I followed the teenager’s logic, but she had definitely succeeded at her goal—making me second guess the only decision I’d been proud of making since exiting the military.
“And now her father has bulked up the guard,” Angelica continued hotly. “So even if she could get her brothers to try again, Colin can’t come get her. So she’s stuck in her father’s house forever.”
A tear trickled out of one of those vibrant blue eyes and I felt every bit like the idiotic asshole Angelica had accused me of being.
Time to change the subject.
I opened my mouth to ask why Stormwinder would send me to break up what amounted to a lovers’ tryst, assuming Blue-eyes’ analysis was indeed correct. But then I realized I could guess the answer to my own query.
The Tribunal member had been using me to manipulate events in his favor just like he’d done on the peacekeeping grounds. Chances were good he was an ally of one of the packs in question and was using the aborted elopement to curry further favor.
If so, then it wasn’t so much a question of right and wrong for my boss as it was a question of which eventuality would most effectively shore up his own power. And since I was merely a tool in his arsenal, that made me equally culpable in those recent actions.
Speak of the devil. Stormwinder had slowed in his mad dash down the hillside after speaking to his daughter, but he’d kept advancing and was now only about twenty feet distant. Plenty close enough to protect Angelica from any errant evildoer. Plenty close enough to be the one in charge of soothing a tearful teenager who I had no idea how to cheer up.
I, on the other hand, had places to go and wrongs to right. So, ignoring the fact that I was ditching my wallet and cell phone, I launched myself forward, slipping out of my clothes between one breath and the next. Then, wolf brain at the fore, I ran back toward the site of my first flawed enforcer decision.
