15. Chapter 15
fifteen
When the room was clear of all but Lily, Gabe, Cyrus, and Tatiana, who seemed to be lingering, Cyrus stood as soon as Lily did. They all seemed to let out a collective sigh.
“Thank you for going to their pack house, risking yourself like you did,” Tatiana said to all of them.
Cyrus nodded. “It was necessary. We couldn’t hold back from confronting them any longer.”
Tatiana nodded in return and placed a hand on her stomach. “I’m concerned,” she said slowly, “I-I would do anything for this pack, you know that…”
Cyrus looked to the side at Gabe. After all, Gabe didn’t know Tatiana the way Cyrus did, so at that moment, Cyrus took the liberty to talk to her in his stead.
“I don’t want you here when this goes down,” Cyrus told her.
“I’m sure Gabe will not object.” He looked over at him for a moment before continuing, “We haven’t spoken about it yet, but I am going to discuss with Gabe getting children and those pregnant somewhere else, and no one who is at risk to fight will be forced to fight—”
Gabe cut him off. “I want no one forced to fight,” he said bluntly. “I meant what I said about betrayal, those who decided to take the out when offered by the other pack, but…it won’t be seen as a betrayal to make sure you are safe, and anyone who doesn’t want to fight does not have to.”
Tatiana’s brow furrowed, and she nodded.
“I would if I could,” she replied. “But this isn’t about me.”
Cyrus swallowed hard. “We’ll figure it out. Make sure you’re safe. Both of you.”
Tatiana left quietly and Lily alongside her. Leaving Gabe and Cyrus there alone.
Cyrus turned to face Gabe.
“I’m…” he started, and Gabe cut him off.
“I know…not the best b—” he started, but Cyrus cut him off.
“No, let me finish,” Cyrus insisted. “I’m surprised. You pulled together what you said to everyone and Tatiana. It is more than I expected.”
Gabe eyed him and smirked a little, “Are you saying you’re proud of me?”
Cyrus looked at the ceiling for a moment. “Yes, I’m proud of you.” He sighed and looked back down at Gabe.
“But everyone is nervous, and if you want to make sure as few people get hurt as possible, we need to make a plan and call a meeting,” Cyrus reminded him.
Gabe nodded. “I guess we have our work cut out for us.”
“Yes,” Cyrus looked to the side toward the lit fire. “But we’re gonna need our strength and all of our mind to figure out what to do. So, let’s not jump into it immediately.”
“If you insist,” Gabe replied. “You’re going to have to help me call a meeting.”
“We’ll have to send out emails to everyone and call anyone without an email.
Set up a pack meeting for a week from now.
That will give everyone enough time to take off work if they need to, get their things together, and us enough time to figure out what our plan is,” Cyrus told him and started out of the room.
“For now, sleep, eat, try not to drive yourself up a wall.”
Gabe snorted softly. “You’re one to talk.”
Cyrus shook his head and disappeared down the hallway.
As Cyrus made his way down the hallway and headed for his bedroom to get some much-needed sleep, he was stopped by Nate.
“You know, Gabe isn’t doing so bad,” Nate told him.
Cyrus blinked, “Well, n—” he started but was cut off.
“He’s doing a lot better than you think, and you should cut him some slack,” Nate said. “Don’t think the rest of us haven’t noticed how hard on him you are.”
“Uh,” Cyrus mumbled and shook his head a bit. “Okay.”
He watched Nate start to turn and walk away, but Cyrus then turned around.
“Hey, wait,” he insisted. “Look, I know it has seemed like I’ve been giving him a hard time, but I’ve been doing what’s best for the pack and a lot is going on behind the scenes. So, don’t assume things.”
Cyrus’s jaw tightened. “Trust me, way more than you know.”
Nate blinked. “Maybe it’d be nice for the rest of us to know.”
“You’ll know when you know,” Cyrus told him. “There’s a lot going on right now. We need to focus on the shit with Lotuslacker. Alright?”
Nate sighed. “Sure.”
Cyrus’s brow was furrowed as he watched him walk away.
With a sigh of his own, Cyrus continued to his bedroom. The door closed, mostly peace and quiet. His stomach was full from the ride home. He’d knew he’d likely wake up hungry since he’d only really eaten one meal that day, but he’d deal with that then.
Stripping his clothing off and closing the blinds on his windows, he climbed into bed and tossed an arm over his face.
As he lay there, he couldn’t help but think about everything that had happened in the last couple of days. It was…a mess, if he was honest, but he didn’t regret what had happened with Gabe. If anything, he felt better than he had in a long while because of it.
There was anxiety throughout his bones the entire time while trying to sleep.
It kept him from getting to deep sleep, as much as he tried.
Waking up every hour or so tossing and turning.
He thought it might just be because it was still too light in his room, so he got up groggily and threw a thick sheet over his windows.
Laying back down, he found no such luck on resting.
Five hours in, with two more hours to go, he found himself sitting up in bed and scrubbing a hand over his face in frustration.
His eyes and head were aching with his exhaustion and stress.
He knew he could call off from work that night, but he’d missed too many days as it was.
Cyrus could have Gabe let them know it was official pack business and he was needed there.
Cyrus would still get paid but wouldn’t need to go in.
They’d respect it, but Cyrus frankly wanted to get out of there.
He needed something to distract himself with for even just the night.
He wasn’t in any mind to talk about a plan just yet beyond the idea of making sure anyone who didn’t want to get involved didn’t have to; getting back to something familiar with him felt like it was what he needed.
So instead of getting on the phone and calling in again, Cyrus decided to hop in the shower and get dressed for work.
His hair was soft and defined, his beard trimmed neatly, and his button-up shirt done up to just one button.
He felt a little less like he’d been run over by the time he went downstairs to get some coffee going.
The house was quiet. He knew people were likely held up in their places in the house and back at their own houses if they didn’t live there full time.
He wondered how many people were planning on even coming back.
He trusted that most of them would ask for permission to leave, to pack up their stuff and join another pack somewhere that was safer for them.
But how many others would just leave without a word, willing to risk the feeling of betrayal of whom they were bound to?
He didn’t expect that it would be very many.
Those who had chosen to join Lotuslacker had done so at the only other option being death.
While he would not have made the same choice, he couldn’t say he didn’t understand.
When he stepped into the kitchen, he knew he’d missed dinner. Dishes were done, everything was cleaned up, and Lily was standing in the kitchen starting a fresh pot of coffee.
“Ah, you think for me, good. Good,” Cyrus mumbled. He stepped over to the large silver fridge with its double doors and two freezer drawers in the bottom.
“Huh?” Lily asked. “Oh, coffee. Yeah, I figured someone might need it.”
Cyrus looked over at her with concern for a moment. “Just doing stuff to do it?”
“Yeah, what else is there to do?” she asked.
He sighed and turned to look in the fridge as he opened it. Sure enough, there were several leftover rice, veggies, and chicken helpings. He grabbed both bowls out of the refrigerator and set out to dig some out for himself and pop it in the microwave.
He turned to look at Lily again after putting everything back in the fridge, listening to the microwave do its thing and the coffee maker drip steadily.
“You gonna be okay?” Cyrus asked her.
Lily nodded. “Yeah, just a long day.”
Cyrus took a slow breath. “Yeah, it has.”
They stood there in silence for another couple of minutes before Cyrus could finally get his food out of the microwave, and the coffee was done brewing.
He poured himself a heavy mug of creamer and then took off for the entertainment room to eat.
Hoping someone was doing something interesting that he could watch while eating.
He didn’t see Gabe the entire time he was in the kitchen, eating, and back in the kitchen again. Not crossing his path. Cyrus figured he might have passed out. Lucky bastard.
He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to see him until the following day when he heard that familiar voice from behind him as he was heading out of the front door.
“You’re working tonight?” Gabe asked. His hair was a bit messy, and he was shirtless. Cyrus’s eyes crept to his chest for a moment but flicked up quickly to his eyes.
“Yeah,” Cyrus replied.
“Oh, you sure?” Gabe asked.
Cyrus chewed on the inside of his cheek as he stood there with one foot out of the door into the dark of the night. The porch light having not even been turned on yet.
“Yeah.” Cyrus nodded. “You can come with me if you want? Probably should be introduced to the guys at Hartland Lokk anyway, Alpha.”
Gabe blinked. “Oh-Oh, okay, let me just”—he looked down at himself—“get dressed.” He then disappeared back the way he had come.
Cyrus shook his head. He wasn’t sure why he was choosing now of all times to do it, but he should be introduced to the other guards and staff at ‘The Lokk’ as they called it.
It was the biggest safe place for other Weres passing through to stay and know that they were welcome.
A lot of very important Weres, wolf and otherwise, stayed there.