I saw red the moment I walked into Evershaw's office and found Carter there, snarling about fighting and settling things with Evershaw. That lion jackass thought he could fight my battles for me. Went to my enemy to try to head things off and protect me – without asking permission, or my opinion, or anything. He just did it. Typical.
By the time Eloise dragged Carter out of the office and Todd quietly excused himself, I still couldn't see straight. Evershaw stood next to his desk chair, though the desk stood on its end across the room. No doubt from Carter's temper. I bared my teeth. "What the fuck are you doing, Evershaw?"
"Eloise owed me a favor. I called it in. I didn't ask Chase to come here, he just showed up with her. I have no business with him." Evershaw looked older suddenly, but that didn't make him any less dangerous. "But I have business with you."
"Look," I said, wanting to throw something at him just to see some kind of emotion on his face. The man was as expressive as a chalkboard. "I know you're trying to get the jackals and hyenas with you to try to get rid of my pack. I see it, Miles. You're not that sneaky, and it's a small city."
"I wasn't trying to be sneaky." He crossed his arms and watched me. "That wasn't the point. The point was to demonstrate to you the lengths to which I will go to secure power in this city – for myself and for you. Yes, I want my pack to be the lead pack in this city. And I want you to be the alpha female of that pack. What happens to BloodMoon and Rafe, I don't care. If the Council votes the way I suspect they will, there will be a single wolf pack in this city. Rafe can move outside the city limits and try suburban life, or he can swear fealty to us. Either way, we would be in charge. That's how it should be, Ruby."
I shook my head, even though Carter's betrayal made Evershaw's offer more tempting. I would never write off Natalia, but the Chase brothers could go fuck themselves. Only the wolves, working as a single unit, could hope to offset the power of the lion pride. "We won't just give up, Evershaw. We'll fight you, alpha to alpha, to decide rank among the packs. It shouldn't be up to the Council. This is between wolves, it should stay among wolves. Why the fuck would you ask the lions and bears and hyenas to vote on who we should be?"
"Because you wouldn't see reason." Irritation narrowed his eyes. "I gave you plenty of time, Ruby. But since you'd rather fuck around with the lions, I had to take another route."
The blood drained from my face so quickly I swayed, almost embarrassed myself and lost my rank by fainting. Sheer stubbornness kept me upright in the face of Evershaw's grim triumph. "Did he tell you that?"
"Of course he didn't." Evershaw righted his desk in jerky movements, still riled up, and started collecting all the shit that had flown off. "It's obvious. It was obvious a week ago in the gym."
My heart sank. If it was obvious to everyone else, then it couldn't only be an infatuation. Maybe it meant more, and I would never be able to escape the draw of Carter Chase. I couldn't move, watching him stoop to gather up the pieces of his computer. "You don't know what you're talking about."
Evershaw shot me a dark look. "Grow up, Ruby. Whatever it is, it won't last. He's a lion. You're a wolf. You should be with a wolf. He will never understand you. He will never understand how a pack works, or what it means to be a pack. The lions pretend like they know, but they're too different."
He said exactly what my own doubtful head told me, despite that my heart remained steadfast. Even knowing why Evershaw would say those things to me, I almost believed him. Feared he was right, regardless of what my heart said. "I'm not interested in…"
"The Council will decide where we go from here. Unless you want to accept my offer?" Evershaw shook his head as he studied his computer monitor and placed it on the desk. "If we team up, Ruby, everything changes."
"You won't blackmail me into mating with you." I clenched my fists at my sides.
"It's not blackmail. It's not a threat." He sighed and collapsed back into his chair, looking too tired to be threatening. "You're an adult. Make your own damn choice. I'm doing what I have to in order to keep my pack strong and on top. I'd expect no less from you."
"Fine." I channeled the fury and hurt of Carter's betrayal and gritted my teeth. "Ditch the underhanded shit, Evershaw. I'll face you, alpha to alpha, and we'll decide this by the old laws. Fight to first blood."
He opened his mouth to argue, or say he wouldn't fight me, or proposition me again, but I stormed out before he could speak. I'd had enough of Miles Evershaw. And I'd had enough of Carter Chase. Men in general, really. I stormed through the warehouse, ignoring Todd as he tried to get my attention, and flung open the steel door to the outside until it banged off the wall and almost shut in my face.
Outside, I called Natalia and asked her to meet me at the bar. She might know more about this. Whatever the Chases planned, if Nat knew and didn't tell me, then I had a pretty clear idea of who I could rely on in the coming week. The Council would vote to establish a single pack or to let the wolves sort it out among themselves, and we would have to live by their decision.
I rode the motorcycle more recklessly than normal, white lining and cutting off cars on the crowded city streets, but I didn't care. Carter betrayed me. Went to Evershaw to talk about pack business. Which only cemented how Evershaw saw me – a prize to be won or stolen, some trophy he could take from the lions to decorate his pack. I gritted my teeth as I strode into the bar, heading for the office so I could confront my brother.
Rafe stared at a spreadsheet so hard I thought I smelled something burning, but he looked up as I stormed in. "What the hell, Bee?"
"We have a problem."
"Does that problem have anything to do with Edgar Chase sitting upstairs, waiting for you?"
My heart seized up. But he said Edgar, not Carter. And I could face Edgar any day of the week. The security chief pretended to be tough as nails, but in reality there was a genuinely nice guy inside. I raked a hand through my hair as I stared around the office, not quite ready to go face Edgar. "It might. Evershaw called in his favor from Eloise. I don't know what he asked for, but it will be bad for us."
"Then we should challenge Evershaw now, before the Council gives a verdict. At least we have some control over the situation," I said.
"If we challenge him, we're the instigators. Makes him look like the victim," Rafe returned.
Rafe snorted, leaning back in the chair. He watched me for a long time before he went on. "What were you doing at Evershaw's, anyway? Are you two involved?"
"Don't be ridiculous." My stomach flipped at the thought. "I went there to confront Evershaw about all the shit he's doing, stirring up the jackals and coyotes and hyenas against us."
"You went to SilverLine territory, into his den, without telling me? Without asking me to go with you?" Rafe sat forward, expression difficult to decipher.
I took a deep breath. "Yes, but —"
"Fuck, Ruby." He lurched to his feet to pace. "We work together. That's how this works. If you start going off to negotiate with other packs without me, you're undermining my authority. Just because you're a better fighter doesn't mean you're the top dog. We both bring strengths to this pack. That's why this works. But it obviously doesn't work if you feel like you can take on an entire pack by yourself, and you don't even bother telling me you're going to do it."
"Rafe," I said, then cut off. He was right, after all. I scrubbed my hands over my face. Everything was falling apart. Everything. "I'm sorry. I got too focused on being pissed at Evershaw. I didn't think."
"No, you didn't." He turned his attention back to the computer. "Go talk to Edgar. I need to take a minute before I say something I regret."
The wolf snarled in the back of my head, but I couldn't tell if she was angrier with me or him. So I turned on my heel and walked away without another word, slamming my fist into the door as I passed. My heart ached as I climbed the stairs to the living room, dreading seeing Edgar. I just wanted to curl up in my bed and hold the pillow that still smelled like Carter. It had been too perfect.
Edgar sat in the recliner that faced the stairs, so he saw me when I finally dragged myself around the corner. His eyebrow arched when he caught sight of me. "You okay, Ruby?"
"No." I leaned back against the wall but didn't want to get any closer. He looked just enough like Carter that I might lose my good sense and admit something I shouldn't. "But I don't want to talk about it. What do you want, Edgar?"
The other eyebrow joined the first. "Logan sent me. SilverLine called another emergency session of the Council for tonight. Something about the coyotes joining. John and his crew are ready to accept Council membership. Logan wanted to make sure you and Rafe knew and were able to attend."
My lungs seized and I couldn't breathe. The coyotes unbalanced the Council relationships. They'd support Evershaw, without a doubt. I rubbed my forehead and wondered for the first time if I could just walk away. Leave the pack, leave Rafe, leave Carter, leave everything behind. Find a new city without all this bullshit drama and start over. Being alpha had been fun. And it had been my goal for so long that I had no idea what to do after achieving it. Managing a pack was headache after headache.
When the silence stretched and I couldn't speak, Edgar rose and shoved his hands in his pockets. He got that thoughtful expression that usually meant trouble, and the lion paced toward me with more scrutiny than my wolf liked. "Did something happen today, Ruby? You don't look surprised that the coyotes are joining."
"I had a conversation with Evershaw today. He was planning something. I figured it would be something like this."
Edgar didn't buy it. But at least he didn't call me on the half-truth. He glanced at his watch, then headed for the stairs. "Let me know if you need to talk about anything, Ruby. We'll see you at the Council meeting tonight at eight."
I didn't say anything as he left. Instead, I collapsed onto the leather couch and buried my face in one of the blankets. Running away seemed like the best idea I'd had all week.