Chapter Four
FOUR
I walk and talk with my uncle for a while. While my intention was simply to express my condolences, I find that I really do need someone to talk to. And, yes, someone who won’t see my worries as a sign I want to leave.
I talk mostly about my guilt over what happened last night.
I keep replaying it in my head, looking for a way I could have responded to Beryl that would have saved Claude, that would have kept her forces from attacking the Pack and murdering wolves, that would have stopped her from burning down Trevelyan.
Deep down, I know nothing I did would have changed things, but I still worry.
More than that, I worry that the Pack will blame me and, by extension, blame Bishop, as if he sacrificed half his Pack to protect me.
Even if they don’t think that, I fear it sets his Alphahood off to a bad start, forever stained by what came immediately after he won the crown.
I spill my fears to Oliver, and he reassures me, but they’re thoughtful reassurances, not empty ones, and he gives me space to feel guilty, doesn’t tell me I’m overreacting.
Bishop makes sure there’s meat for us when we return from our walk. And then it’s time for him to talk to the wolves.
We’re gathered under the trees. Ann and Tabitha keep their distance until I summon them over.
I suspect it’ll be up to me to reinforce their new position, not servants but equal members of the group.
The wolves all treat them with kindness but forget they aren’t there to cook and clean.
Bishop is too busy with the Pack to notice and, to be bluntly honest, too accustomed to seeing them as maids.
Bishop takes his place at the front of the group, with Julius to one side and Oliver to the other. When I try to tuck in with Ann and Tabitha, though, Bishop waves me to the front.
I’m not a Pack wolf, and I’m only the Alpha’s mate by my father’s command.
But I was raised to understand that, as a woman, if I want power, I need to take it, because no one is going to hand it to me.
It’s enough that I was willing to stand with the others.
Now, at Bishop’s wave, I have the right to take my place at his side, so I do.
First he speaks about those they’ve lost and how the dead will be remembered. He then addresses the elephant in the room—the fact that the person who did this to them is the grandmother of their new Alpha’s bride.
Bishop doesn’t try to downplay that. He hits it head-on, and when he does explain the extenuating factors, they’re given as information, not excuses.
“Silas told no one about his deal with this witch?” someone asks.
“As far as we know,” Bishop says. “I can swear, on my life, that he didn’t tell me. However, I also didn’t find the information out on my own, and I accept responsibility for that.”
“You were a little busy,” Julius says.
“With his new mate,” Harry grumbles.
“With his plan to challenge the Alpha,” Julius says firmly.
“I still take responsibility,” Bishop says. “But what matters now is recouping our loss—our home.”
No one points out that Trevelyan is a burnt husk. It’s the symbolism. Trevelyan is the ancestral home of the Albion Pack.
“Why not just go back and take it?” Harry interjects. “Are you afraid to?”
“Yes.”
Silence falls, so deafening I inwardly squirm.
Then Bishop continues, “I am afraid of the Levine Cabal because I am not a stupid man.”
“A cabal? Led by witches?” Harry scoffs. “Silas didn’t fear them, obviously.”
“And look where that got us. While Cordelia and I were out earlier getting food, I scented a werewolf and determined he likely worked for Beryl. I trapped and overpowered him. From him, I received information on the cabal.”
Harry sneers. “And you trust it?”
Julius shifts, clearly wanting to tell Harry to shut his mouth, but Bishop only continues in that same calm voice.
“I believe he was telling the truth because he was attempting to negotiate with me and prove his usefulness. I will still confirm everything he said.”
“Which was?” someone asks.
“What we saw last night was the contingent Beryl Levine brought to England—exactly enough of her forces to overpower us. A first wave that they were willing to sacrifice to tire us out, and then more to finish us off when we fled the burning house. Beryl brought seventy-five supernaturals to Trevelyan. That represents one-fifth of her forces.”
That silence again, but uncomfortable now, wolves shifting as this sinks in. Last night they’d wiped out that first wave, and I think they expected they could return after some rest, kill the remainder, and thereby destroy the Levine Cabal.
Bishop continues, “When I say I fear them, it’s the healthy fear any predator has for a much larger one. We can’t annihilate the Levine Cabal. So what we need to do is show them that we’re more trouble than we’re worth.”
“Which starts by returning her,” Harry says, pointing at me. “That’s what this witch wants.”
Bishop’s eyes flash, and I know he’s about to lose the calm he needs right now.
“If that worked, I’d go,” I cut in, and both Oliver and Julius send me grateful looks, even as Bishop’s jaw clenches.
“But as we just said, it didn’t work before,” I say, “and there’s no reason it would work now, when she routed us from Trevelyan with relatively minimal damage to her forces. She let us go and didn’t track us, and there’s a reason for that.”
Harry snorts. “A kindness to her granddaughter?”
“My grandmother will never show me kindness,” I say as I meet his eyes.
“I’m a pawn to her, as I was to my father.
She has stopped her assault because it endangers her sole viable heir.
I proved last night that I will fight alongside Bishop, and that means I might die alongside him, being a silly girl who’s had her head turned by romantic notions. ”
“She’s giving you time to reconsider,” Oliver murmurs.
“To decide that no man is worth sleeping on the hard ground and wearing”—I pluck at my men’s shirt—“ill-fitting peasant clothes and eating plain bread and plainer cooked meat. Give me time, and I’ll run to her and then she can track down the Pack and complete her revenge.”
“Cordelia is our shield,” Julius says.
“It won’t last,” I say. “But it will give Bishop time to plan his next move.”
“Which is?” someone asks.
Bishop steps forward. “Renewing our alliances with the Caledonian Pack, for starters.”
There’s some grumbling there.
“We need help,” Bishop says. “Unless you’d rather I sought other supernaturals?”
That answer is clear. While the Albions won’t be thrilled going to another Pack for help, they’d never lower themselves to begging for aid from non-werewolves.
“Ultimately,” Bishop warns, “I may need to seek out supernaturals, for information, but we must fortify our position first or others will try to take advantage of us.”
“And other Packs won’t?” Harry says.
“I won’t allow them to. If I can’t forge alliances then I’ll find another way.
I’m starting with the Caledonian Pack because they were our allies.
Silas decided the alliance no longer suited his needs, but I believe their Alpha would consider renewing the bond.
Without it, they’ve lost the ability to move freely through London and use English ports.
That has hurt them financially. Scotland has ports, but none to rival ours.
While we may have lost Trevelyan, we haven’t lost our business interests. There is a deal to be made there.”
“What about the Cambrian Pack?” Augustus says. “They have a young Alpha, and I know Reginald was concerned about their growing power. That could help us.”
“It could,” Bishop says. “My plan is to go straight to Edinburgh and speak to Hamish Campbell as the Alpha of the largest Pack. Then to Cardiff to speak to Franklin Doyle about the Cambrian Pack. The Cambrians are new and small but looking to establish themselves as an official Pack, which is to our advantage. There’s also the Hibernian Pack in Ireland, but for now, they’re too far away to be reliable help.
Even getting to the Caledonian Pack will require train travel, which means we can’t all go.
I have thoughts about where the rest of you can stay, just as soon as I get money. ”
To get Bishop and Julius’s money, we start by moving the Pack northeast. The men change to wolves and run.
Transforming isn’t easy or painless, but Bishop says they grow accustomed to it, and if they need to travel far and fast, they can do it better as wolves.
He asks Felix to stay in human shape and ride the third horse.
Being the youngest means Felix hasn’t yet reached that point of tolerance with the transformation.
Felix and Ann take the mare and gelding, with Tabitha riding behind Ann. Bishop asks me to ride Cinder, and I happily do so. The other horses are very sweet, but they’re coach horses, and Cinder is a proper riding mare, young and spirited and agile.
Last night, when we’d fled Trevelyan, the men had changed forms to run, but it’d been too dark to really see them.
Today I can enjoy and marvel at the sight of them.
Nine wolves, and they truly do look like wolves, though larger, maintaining their weight from human form.
Their eye color stays the same and their hair color matches their fur.
I’m riding behind a wave of wolves, ranging from pale yellow to deepest black, but I can always pick out Bishop, up at the front, tall and rangy, running as soundlessly as a black wraith.
We travel into the afternoon. Along the way, the wolves hunt where they can, chasing down a rabbit here and a hedgehog there, like humans grabbing snacks on a long journey.
When we near a village, Tabitha and Felix take some of Lynch’s money to buy food for those of us who can’t hunt.
They return quickly, and then we’re off again.
An hour later, we reach the point where Bishop and Julius need to separate from the others. They all change back to human form, and Bishop talks to Oliver and then confirms that Augustus knows where to take the others for the night.
“I would like you to come with me,” Bishop says when we’ve walked away from the others, and there’s a tightness in his voice that has me looking over sharply.
“Is there a problem?”
“No, I simply would like you to come.”
I peer at him, his gaze outward, face impassive. “Bishop … I’m more than happy to accompany you. If you expect trouble, though, I need to be forewarned.”
“No trouble. Just…” He rubs a hand over his face. “You’ll see a part of my life that I’d rather you didn’t, but I also believe you should.”
“That sounds ominous.” I’m teasing, but his face tenses.
“I’ve been less than honest with you in the past, Cordelia, and I need to be thoroughly honest now. I’m torn between wanting to hide the worst of it and wanting to show you, so you have all the information you need to decide whether or not to stay with me.”
“May I ask where we’re going?”
“You’ll see. Just please be prepared for something you may not have expected. And to see a side of me I would rather not show.”
“If you’re about to reveal another mate and three children, I’d really like that advance warning.”
His lips press together in a tight smile as he kisses the side of my head. “Nothing like that. There are no other women, and I have taken every possible step to ensure no children.” He looks at me. “Do you trust me? You will be safe. I swear it.”
Biting back the urge to joke again that it sounds ominous, I only kiss his cheek and give my answer that way.