Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
I smiled as my heart swelled a little. It felt good to have done something right with the other gargoyles for once—something that wouldn’t immediately result in a grievance being filed against me.
“I’ve been watching you,” he continued. “I’ve been watching your crew and your mate. I’ve thought a lot about it, and if you’ll have me, I’d like to join your team.”
I froze, immediately repeating that back just in case I hadn’t heard him correctly.
Then I thought I’d better make certain anyway.
“What was that?”
“I can start at the bottom and work my way up, if that’s how you do things,” he said, speaking a little faster now. “Or I can challenge my way into Alpha Steele’s pack, if that’s the preferred method. Regardless, I’d like to ask for inclusion.”
“I…” I gulped, not having expected that, trying to keep my cool and not dance or scream or fist-pump the air. Having him would be a dream come true. He was strong and fierce and a great leader. He also had great respect within the gargoyle community.
There was only one glaring issue. His history.
“Are you safe?” I asked, deciding not to beat around the bush. “Niamh seemed to think you might not be.”
“Neither is she,” he said without hesitation. “Neither are you. But there is an issue that we do have to discuss. I didn’t want to bring it up unless you were seriously thinking about bringing me on.”
“Which is?”
“As far as gargoyles are concerned, I don’t have any cairn history. I’m a nobody. Nelson purposely chose to look the other way when I joined his cairn because of my size and strength. Now he holds it over my head, threatening me with exposure that would tarnish my reliability in the gargoyle community.”
“Is that a fact?” I said softly, leaning against the armrest, trying to curb my anger.
A smile slowly spread across his face. “You just can’t hide that protective instinct, huh?”
“I don’t see any reason to. Why would that tarnish your reliability?”
“No previous cairn means no history, and that means no birth status or known stability. I’m a wild card.”
“Were a wild card, though, right? You’ve been in his cairn for nearly fifteen years.”
“Not very long by gargoyle standards. I took my time deciding to join up.”
I wanted to ask why, to ferret out that history he protected so closely, but knew I couldn’t. Not after making such a big deal about not caring and not wanting to ruin his future. If I knew what he was, a random creature I hadn’t grown up worrying about, I doubted it would mean much to me. Because of that, I might let it slip to the wrong people. To mage kinda people, maybe. If it meant a lot to the magical world at large, that slip might create a problem for him and, given I would be signing on as his protector, for the whole pack.
“So what are you saying?” I asked. “If you leave him and join with us, he’d out you?”
“Yes.”
“Which basically just means people would know you have an unknown past?”
“Yes.”
“And…” I stalled, thinking I’d missed something. “Why does that affect me?”
“It would greatly lower my status, and in turn, lower yours.”
I scoffed. “From what I’ve heard, my status can’t get much lower.”
“I wouldn’t be able to help your status, then.”
I smoothed back my ponytail, suddenly tired of this whole thing. “I honestly don’t care. Is that the end of the bad news, then? He won’t come with torches and pitchforks and chase you or anything?”
His smile stretched again. “He might’ve…if it were anywhere but here. He’s in no hurry to return to this territory.”
“Good. Well, fine, then I guess it’s my turn to potentially scare you away. That attack the other day was no fluke. We’re attacked all the time.”
“Sounds intriguing.”
“You’ll need to get along with the shifters and take orders from Austin. We co-rule this pack, as you’ve seen. He’s just and fair, but he’s strict and doles out harsh punishments if you step over the line.”
“He’s an incredibly competent leader. He and his pack are an attraction for this territory.”
“And now the most serious part. I’ve drawn the eye of a mage with a magical empire, and our feud has barely even begun. I’m not sure if he sent the attack the other day, but he has a target on the shifters and on me.”
I told him about helping Kingsley and that we’d have to eventually venture into the murky depths of the mage world.
“We’re going to help Kingsley combat the mage attack. We’ll leave almost immediately. Within a couple weeks. It’ll be incredibly dangerous, much more so than the other day. Much more so.”
“You had no idea the attack was coming?”
“None. We were utterly blindsided. Sebastian and Nessa hadn’t heard a peep through their network that this was coming. They’re currently piecing together who it was and why they might’ve attacked. I’m damn glad you guys decided to hang around. The timing really helped us out. Not to take pleasure in the situation, since some people got hurt, you included, but…without all of you, we might’ve lost someone.”