Sam
Chapter thirty-three
No. I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t. “That’s impossible. The Council would never—”
“The Council that exists now is not the one you knew.” Talia’s jaw tightened.
“Kane moved faster than we anticipated. He had support we didn’t know about; we believe he’s holding the mates or close family members of several sitting members.
I confirmed I ordered the release of the prisoners, but when you, and they, didn’t show up at the Council for interrogation, he was able to convince or blackmail enough votes to declare you a larger threat.
A conspiracy to undermine Council authority. ”
“He used your actions to justify a complete takeover,” Bethany Rose continued, her voice carrying that eerie calm she never dropped. “Declared a state of emergency. Suspended standard protocols. Anyone who disagreed with him has been arrested or forced to flee.”
I’d given up everything for the Council: my family, my identity, my relationship with my twin. I’d told myself it mattered. That it was worth the sacrifice. That we were doing vital work protecting Shifter communities.
And Kane had ripped it apart in hours.
Good job, Shaw. You handed him the excuse on a silver fucking platter.
“How many?” I asked.
Talia knew what I was asking.
“Twenty-one Council members support Kane now. Six were arrested. Three dead. The rest scattered. We managed to send word to the regional representatives before Kane’s forces closed communications. Most have gone to ground.”
“Fuck.”
I looked at Talia. Really looked. Dark circles carved hollows beneath her eyes. Her usually immaculate suit was wrinkled, one button hanging by a thread. When she lifted her hand to push back her hair, there was a tremor she couldn’t quite hide.
My wolf registered it before my brain caught up; her scent was all wrong. Not the crisp authority and controlled power I’d always associated with her. This was fatigue so deep it had settled into her bones, layered with something sharper. I’d thought it was grief, but I’d been wrong.
Talia Johnson was afraid.
“Three Rivers is one of the few Packs strong enough to resist Kane in the short term. We need sanctuary while we figure out how to stop him.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Annabella said beside me.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
“This is insane,” I said. “The Wolf Council is supposed to stand for werewolves, for Shifters. We represent their interests, we protect them, we guard the peace with humans. This? This is Kane wrapping tyranny in the flag of protection. He’ll claim every rights violation, every arrest, every executed Shifter is for the greater good. For safety. For order.”
The words tasted bitter. I’d been part of that system. I’d believed it was incorruptible.
“He’ll convince the humans he’s the only thing standing between them and chaos while he’s the one creating the chaos in the first place.
He’ll tell them they’re under threat from Rippers, from rogues, from anyone who questions him…
and they’ll cheer while he strips away every freedom the Council was supposed to protect. ”
Talia nodded. “It’s already started. Emergency orders went out an hour ago. Curfews for all Shifters in conclave cities. Mandatory registration for any supernatural. He’s selling it as temporary measures for public safety.”
“And anyone who doesn’t register?” Bethany Rose said. “Anyone who questions the curfews or the new safety protocols? Automatic classification as a threat. Subject to immediate detention.”
“The humans are eating it up,” Talia added.
“He’s got them convinced he’s protecting them while he turns the Council into a weapon against our own people.
He leaked footage of ripple victims to the media; blamed it on ‘elements within the supernatural community that the Council failed to control.’ He’s already positioning himself as the strong leader who’ll finally bring order. ”
It wasn’t my Council anymore. It was a dictatorship wearing the Council’s skin. Using our authority, our resources, our prisons—
Adarcan.
Kane now controlled Adarcan. Every prisoner, every guard, every cell in that hellhole was under his authority. If he wanted to make people disappear, he now had the infrastructure to do it.
I tilted my head as I heard vehicles approaching. The sound came from in front, from Three Rivers territory. Round the bend, I saw Derek’s SUV speeding toward us.
“So the deal’s off?” Annabella asked.
“Fuck yes. The deal doesn’t exist anymore. This changes everything.”
“Thank the Goddess for small favors. Because I was about two seconds away from knocking you unconscious and tying you up to keep you from turning yourself in.”
Despite the shitstorm we found ourselves in—despite the fact that the entire supernatural power structure had just imploded—I felt my mouth curve. “You’d tie me up?”
“Don’t make it weird, Shaw.”
“You made it weird first.”
“Children,” Talia said dryly. “Perhaps we could table the flirting until after we address the coup that will destroy supernatural society as we know it?”
Right. That.
Derek’s SUV skidded to a stop, my twin out and moving before the engine fully died. His eyes swept the scene in a single pass: me and Annabella, Talia and Bethany Rose, Annabella’s family watching wide-eyed from my SUV’s windows.
“This is a cozy little gathering,” Derek said, his voice deceptively casual. “Should I be insulted I wasn’t invited?”
He moved to stand beside me. Close enough that our shoulders almost touched. My twin. My backup. Ready to rip apart anyone who threatened us.
“You got thirty seconds, Talia,” he added, and now there was nothing casual about his tone. “Explain why you’re standing on my Pack’s border before I decide you’re a threat.”
“Kane staged a coup. He’s in full control of the Council.
We need sanctuary while we organize a counteroffensive.
” Talia’s voice was matter-of-fact, even though I knew how much pain she must be in.
The Council was her entire life. “Three Rivers is one of the few Packs with the resources and position to resist.”
“We know about the coup,” Derek said. “Got confirmation forty minutes ago. What I don’t know is why you think you can walk onto our lands and ask for protection after everything the Council’s done.”
“Because you’re pragmatic enough to understand that Kane won’t stop with the Council.
He’ll consolidate power, then come for all Packs strong enough to challenge him.
Three Rivers tops that list, especially given his personal history with you, Derek Shaw.
” Talia’s chin lifted. “I’m not here to beg or apologize for Council policy.
I’m here because Kane is worse than anything you think the Council has done, and if we don’t stop him now, there won’t be a supernatural community left to argue about. ”
Derek was silent, studying her. If I knew my brother, he was running calculations: threat assessments, strategic value, risks and leverages.
“You’ve got nerve, I’ll give you that,” he finally said. “Coming here after what the Council did to Annabella.”
“Annabella is irrelevant to—”
“She’s Sam’s mate and Three Rivers Pack now,” Derek cut her off, his voice going hard as granite. “Which makes her very fucking relevant. You want our protection? You need to understand that. She’s ours. Anyone who threatens her threatens all of us.”
Beside me, Annabella’s breath caught.
Ours.
My wolf settled at that word. Derek said it like a fact. Like Pack law. Like there was no version of this where Annabella McGrath wasn’t protected by every Shaw brother who drew breath.
Talia’s eyes flicked from Derek to me to Annabella. She studied my mate for a moment, a small smile flashing across her face. Then she inclined her head. “Of course. All that matters right now is stopping Kane.”
Derek looked at me. “Sam? You trust this?”
“Kane will come for Three Rivers. She’s right about that. Better to gather allies now and fight while we can.”
He glanced around at the blue Honda that Talia and Bethany Rose had arrived in. They wouldn’t have taken one of the Council SUV’s; they’d be too easy to track. He came to a decision. “Leave your car. You ride with me.”
Talia and Bethany Rose exchanged a look, then moved toward Derek’s vehicle.
Derek paused at his driver’s door. “I’ll take them to Shaw Investigations and call a meeting.”
I nodded, watching them pull away. Then turned to find Annabella staring at me.
Not with relief. With fury.
“When were you going to tell me?” She stepped closer. “About the deal. About you planning to turn yourself in to rot in Adarcan.”
Oh, shit.
“I was going to—”
“When, Sam?” Her voice cracked on my name. “It would have been nice to know before you made the deal. Or, failing that, maybe before we had sex? How about after we sealed the mate bond? Or were you just going to disappear and leave me a fucking note?”
Through the bond, her anger blazed. But underneath it—underneath, where she was trying so hard not to let me feel—was the hurt. Raw and vast and exactly the shape of every person who’d ever made decisions about her life without asking.
“Annabella—”
“We had sex.” She poked my chest, hard enough that I’d feel the bruise tomorrow.
“The mate bond—which I wasn’t even sure I could have—sealed between us.
Do you understand what that means? It means we’re partners.
Equals. It means you don’t get to make decisions like this without talking to me first.”
My wolf whined, recognizing her anger, hating that we’d caused it.
“I was trying to protect—”
“Bullshit!” Her voice rose, and light crackled around her hands.
“You were trying to make the decision for me. To take away my choice.” She was shaking now.
“Do you have any idea how that feels? To find out the man you love—the man you bonded with—was planning to abandon you, and he didn’t even have the decency to tell you? ”
Behind us, a car door opened. Jo stuck her head out.
“Are you two finished, or should we grab popcorn?”
Annabella whipped around. “We’re fine, Aunt Jo.”
“Uh-huh. That’s why you’re glowing like a pissed-off Christmas tree.” Jo’s eyes flicked to me, then back to her niece. “Just checking you weren’t about to murder your mate before the bond’s really had a chance to settle in. Your mom was worried.”
“Tell Mom I’m not committing homicide.” Annabella’s voice was tight. “Yet.”
“Yet. Great. Very reassuring.” Jo withdrew back into the SUV, but not before adding, “For what it’s worth, Shaw, you look appropriately terrified. That’s a good start.”
The door closed.
Annabella turned back to me, the fury still burning. “This conversation isn’t over. Not even close. We are going to have a very long, very detailed discussion about this. Soon.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” I said.
She blinked. “You’re looking forward to me ripping you a new one?”
“Well, no. But I’m looking forward to proving I can do better.” I caught her hand before she could pull away. Her magic nipped at my skin—tiny sparks, involuntary. “And, honestly? Watching you go full pissed-off Christmas tree is kind of magnificent.”
“Do not try to charm your way out of this, Shaw.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I kept my voice light, but I meant every word underneath.
“You’re right. I fucked up. Not the strategic kind of fucked up—the personal kind.
The kind where I fell back on old patterns because making a sacrifice felt easier than trusting someone else to fight with me.
” I held her gaze. “You deserve a partner who trusts you enough to let you carry the weight too. I’m going to be that. Starting now.”
Something shifted behind her eyes. I felt the fury ease. Not disappear, not by a long shot, but make room for something else. Recognition, maybe. That I wasn’t just saying what she wanted to hear.
“Fine,” she said. “Get in the car. But this reprieve is temporary, Shaw. Very temporary.”
“Understood, Moonbeam.”
“And stop calling me Moonbeam when I’m mad at you.”
“Would you prefer ‘terrifying pissed-off Christmas tree’?”
She glared at me. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No,” she admitted. “But I’m working on it.”