Chapter 24 Still No
Liza POV
The snowcat ground its way down the service road through fresh powder, and I sat between Dominic and Shane with my boots braced against the floor pan and my eyes still heavy.
We smelled like each other. All three of us. Shane’s arm rested behind me along the bench seat, not quite touching my shoulders. Dominic sat with his wounded left side angled away from the wall, his jaw tight whenever the snowcat lurched over a buried rut.
I should have been thinking about the mountain. The avalanche chute still needed control work, the road below was sealed under debris, and the resort would want a full conditions report before noon. Instead, the night before lingered in my body like heat soaking into cold hands.
The service road joined the main access near the lodge parking lot. Rudy killed the engine and opened the rear gate, letting in a blast of cold air that tasted like pine and diesel. I climbed out first, then turned to help Dominic step down without twisting his left side.
“I’ve got it,” he said, and took my hand anyway.
Shane dropped out behind us, stretched his back with a grunt, and spotted Everett before I did.
He was standing outside the infirmary entrance in borrowed clothes, his left arm strapped flat against his chest. The sling held his shoulder immobile, and his right hand hung loose at his side.
He was thinner than the last time I’d seen him.
His cheekbones looked sharper, and his eyes were deeply shadowed.
But he was upright, and he was waiting, and when he saw me, he didn’t move toward us.
“Liza.” His voice carried across the packed snow, rough and careful. “I need to talk to you.”
Shane’s hand found the small of my back.
“Then talk,” I said.
Everett’s gaze moved to Dominic, then Shane, then back to me. He didn’t ask them to leave. That was new.
“A man came to the bridge before dawn,” he said.
“One of mine. Craig Lutz.” He paused, and I watched him decide how much to give us standing in the cold.
“Kurt’s been holding meetings in my hall every night since I crossed the river.
He’s telling the pack I’m compromised. That Dominic is keeping me prisoner and West Valley is coming for East’s land. ”
“He’s lying,” Dominic said.
“Yes.” Everett didn’t look away from me. “Kurt’s called a gathering at the full moon. Two nights from now. My absence gives him the pack without a fight. If I show, he challenges.”
I felt Shane go still behind me. Every bit of the anger rolling off him was aimed at Kurt.
“And you’re in shape to take a challenge,” I said.
“No.” I hadn’t expected such a plain answer. “Craig thinks I won’t survive it. He’s probably right.”
Wind cut across the parking lot and found the gap between my collar and my neck. I waited.
“The avalanche didn’t change anything,” Everett said.
“What I owe you doesn’t shrink because I took a slide.
What I did on that platform doesn’t get smaller because I got hurt.
” He drew a breath, and his face tightened.
“I’m going back to the same hall. I’m going to stand where I stood when I rejected you and tell them what I did and why it was wrong.
I’m going to strip Kurt’s rank and face whatever comes after.
Some of the pack want the old feud. Others want an Alpha who never has to admit he was wrong.
Even if Kurt doesn’t take the rank from me, I may lose it. ”
I heard what he was building toward before he said it.
“I want you to stand beside me,” he said. “On the platform. So the pack sees the woman I wronged and knows who I’m answering to.”
The request hung in the cold air between us.
I remembered the silence and the platform above me. Everett had made me carry the whole room’s stare once. I would not help him manage it now.
“No,” I said.
Everett’s face didn’t change. The bond carried his hurt in one hard pulse, but he didn’t argue.
“You don’t get to put me on display again, Everett. Even for an apology. You stood on that platform alone when you rejected me. You can stand on it alone when you answer for it.”
He nodded once.
“I’ll be in the hall,” I said, and his eyes widened a fraction before he controlled his expression.
“In the crowd. With Dominic and Shane. I’ll watch.
The whole pack can see me watching. But you say what you need to say on your own two feet, not with me propped up next to you like proof that you’ve changed. ”
Shane’s hand pressed more firmly against my back in agreement.
“The harm was public,” I said. “I’m not going to pretend it happened in private.
And Kurt’s campaign isn’t just an East problem.
If he takes your pack, he’s going to push that boundary until somebody dies on it.
He already tried once. I’ll go because what happens in that hall affects both sides of the river. Your request isn’t why.”
Dominic stepped forward. He didn’t touch me, and he didn’t look at Everett.
“When?” he said.
“Two nights,” Everett repeated. “Full moon. The gathering starts after dark. I need to be in that hall before Kurt closes the doors.”
“Your shoulder won’t take the road today,” Dominic said.
His tone made it a statement of fact rather than concern, as close to kindness as he was going to give Everett right then.
A muscle worked beneath his beard, and I could feel through our bond exactly what it cost him to stand here and plan a trip that brought me back to the place I’d been publicly humiliated.
“We leave the night of the gathering,” I said.
“I’ll drive,” Shane said. His gaze went hard as if he could already see the man who’d led wolves onto West land. “Kurt’s going to be standing in that hall with enforcers at his back.”
“About half of them,” Everett said.
“And you think telling the truth is going to pull them back.”
“I think the truth is the only thing I haven’t tried.”
Shane looked at me. I looked back. That was enough, because he gave Everett a short nod that carried about as much warmth as the snow under our boots.
“Shane and I ride together,” I said. “Dominic rides with us. How you get across is between you and Dominic.” I paused. “I walk in through the front. I don’t hide behind anyone, and I don’t stand behind anyone. I watch from the floor, and when it’s done, I leave.”
“And if Kurt challenges before Everett gets through his speech?” Shane said.
“Then Kurt challenges,” Dominic said. His flat tone promised that he would meet violence with violence.
Everett looked at Dominic, then at Shane’s hand on my back.
He stood on Dominic’s territory under Dominic’s authority, while Shane would take the place beside me in East Valley.
Dominic stared back without softening and made no effort to hide his distrust of East Valley.
Everett took both arrangements without protest. They were consequences of the world he had built for himself.
“I won’t ask for anything else,” Everett said.
“Good,” I told him. “Because you’re out of things I’d give you.”
His eyes narrowed in recognition.
He turned and walked back toward the infirmary. His steps were careful and slow, the gait of a man conserving what little strength his body still had.
I watched him go.
“You all right?” Shane asked.
“Yeah.” I leaned into him, just enough to feel his warmth through our jackets. His mark throbbed once beneath my collar.
Dominic moved to my other side. He didn’t touch me, but through our bond, I felt both his struggle and his decision.
“You don’t have to go,” Dominic said.
“I know.”
“He doesn’t deserve you in that room.”
“It’s not about what he deserves, Dom.” I turned to face him.
“Kurt went through the fence, threatened Abe, and came after your pack.” I touched the front of his jacket over the bandage on his ribs.
“If Kurt takes East Valley, the next time he sends wolves across the river, it won’t be four.
It’ll be every enforcer he can muster, and he’ll be doing it with an Alpha’s authority instead of a Beta’s grudge. ”
Dominic covered my hand with his.
“I know why you’re going,” he said. “I don’t have to like it.”
“No,” I agreed. “You don’t.”
Shane had been quiet, which meant his anger was the kind that went deep rather than loud. When I looked at him, he was watching the infirmary door where Everett had gone, and the easy, teasing warmth I’d fallen for was nowhere visible.
“I’m not worried about Everett,” he said. “I’m thinking about walking into a room with Kurt Lamb and however many wolves he’s won over. I’m thinking about what happens if he doesn’t wait for speeches.”
“Then we don’t let him separate us,” I said.
“Damn right we don’t.”
“Shane.” I pulled him to face me by the front of his jacket. He came, and the anger in his eyes softened just enough to show the fierce protectiveness underneath. “We go in together. We stand together. If it goes sideways, we leave together. No one breaks away alone.”
He leaned his forehead against mine. His unsteady breath brushed my face.
“I’m going to need you to remind me of that when I see Kurt,” he said.
“Count on it.”
Dominic’s hand was still covering mine against his jacket. I felt my bonds with Dominic and Shane through their touches, while the open bond with Everett lingered as a thin ache.
Shane kissed my forehead and stepped back. Dominic released my hand. The morning spread across the valley, pale and cold and sharp.
“Two nights,” I said. “Then we watch.”