Chapter Twelve
TWELVE
The first thing Rufus wants to know is who survived the other night and who did not.
When he gets the full list of the dead, he’s quiet for a long time, and Julius goes into the kitchen to make tea.
I join him, and we do that together while Bishop’s and Rufus’s murmured voices come from the other room.
Julius carries in the tea tray, and I pour. The men all take a cup, and as I settle in beside Bishop again, Rufus says, “You’re not left with much.”
“I know,” Bishop says.
“Oliver is a good man. You’re lucky to have him.
But the rest? Felix is little more than a child.
Augustus isn’t much older. Neither is Etienne.
And Harry?” He shakes his head. “He was a boy when I left, and he seemed smarter than his dad, but that’s not saying much.
He was Henry’s pride and joy. Hell, he named the kid after himself.
It doesn’t matter who actually killed Henry—Harry will blame you. ”
“I would have rather he left,” Bishop says, “but I won’t drive him off. I do think it’s possible to make a good wolf of him, now that he’s away from his father’s influence. But that could just be me.”
“Overly confident in your leadership abilities? Yeah, I can see that.”
Bishop glares at him. “I meant I could be too quick to see good in others.”
Rufus bursts out laughing and then reaches over to thump Bishop on the leg. “Sure, that’s it.”
“Continuing on … There’s Wallace, who joined the Pack after you left.
A good man and a good wolf, though not one who has particularly distinguished himself.
The other two are former Pack from your time.
Lewis and Kenric. Lewis seems good. I’ve worked with him on missions, and he quietly supported me. ”
“He’s fine. A follower, which is what the Pack needs in times of peace but not necessarily in times of war.”
“And Kenric?”
Rufus shrugs.
“You didn’t know him?” Bishop presses. “He’s about your age.”
“I grew up with him, but he barely said a word, and I don’t trust the quiet ones.” He peers meaningfully at Bishop. “They’re always thinking. No man needs to do that much thinking.”
“Compared to Kenric, Bishop is positively loquacious,” Julius says.
“That’s my point. I don’t trust Kenric. Never have.”
“Did he do anything to earn your mistrust?” I press.
“He doesn’t talk.”
I glance at Bishop, but he doesn’t seem fazed by this.
“So what’s the plan?” Rufus asks. “Not taking on a cabal, I hope.”
“Not directly, and not with so few wolves. I’m hoping to renew alliances.”
When Rufus stops laughing, Bishop continues, unruffled, “While I’m doing that, Beryl Levine will have time to rethink continuing her persecution of the Albion Pack. She will realize she has proven her point and, when we return with the support of other Packs, she will allow us to rebuild.”
“She’ll need to be dealt with eventually,” Rufus says.
“Yes, but it will be on our terms, when we are prepared to meet her and persuade her to leave us be. We have reason to believe that her cabal inner circle would prefer to negotiate an ending to this conflict, once enough time has passed.”
“Does that mean giving her back the g—your mate?”
“Cordelia is not mine to give,” Bishop says, his voice cool. “She is a person, who makes her own choices, and I will support her right to make that choice.”
“Including fighting a cabal to keep her?”
“Including fighting a cabal to ensure she is not taken against her will.”
I lift my hands. “If it came to that, there are options besides me staying with the Pack or taking my place in the cabal. I can go into hiding. Or I could temporarily go along with my grandmother.”
“We’re putting the cart before the horse,” Julius cuts in before Bishop can respond.
“Cordelia isn’t going to hide behind Bishop to escape her grandmother, and Bishop isn’t going to let Beryl exterminate the Pack to save Cordelia.
They will find other ways. For now, the first step is visiting the Caledonian Pack and attempting to repair the damage Silas did. That’s why we’re here.”
Rufus’s eyes narrow. “I want no part of any Pack.”
“I mean, we’re here on our way through. To Edinburgh. To speak to the Alpha.”
Rufus stares from one of us to the other. “You two boys and your girl here?”
“The new Alpha of the Albion Pack,” Bishop says, each word clipped. “With his advisor and his mate.”
“And who else? You can’t just trot up…” He pushes back in his chair, arms thrust out. “Oh, no. I’m not falling into this trap.”
“What trap?” Bishop says.
“You’ve come to tell me your plans, and I’ll have visions of you two idiots lying dead on the Caledonian Pack’s rubbish heap, your mate sentenced to life as breeding stock, and—being a decent person—I will offer to accompany you.”
“We have Kenric,” Julius says.
Rufus’s mouth works. Then he scowls at Bishop. “Tell me he’s joking.”
“He is not,” Bishop says calmly. “We needed another wolf, preferably born and raised Pack, one who did not help my rebellion but now stands at our side. That is Kenric.”
“The wolf I just told you not to trust?”
“You gave no good reason. We hoped that time together would let us get to know him better.”
“And how is that going?” Rufus says.
“Not well,” Julius says. “He really does seem as unknowable as the Sphinx. But I’m sure it will be fine.”
“No, no, no.”
“Kenric was the best choice,” Bishop says.
“The only choice,” Julius murmurs.
“I will not fall for your scheming, boy,” Rufus growls. “Are you going to pretend you just happened to come through Leeds? On your way to broker an alliance with the Caledonian Pack? Bringing along no one who can watch your back?”
“I have Julius and I have Cordelia,” Bishop says.
“With luck, I have Kenric, but I am not counting on that. I brought him primarily to verify my account of what happened. As for ‘just happening’ to stop here? There was no direct train to Edinburgh and we fled Trevelyan with the clothes on our backs, and in some cases, less than that.”
“Cordelia was in her underthings,” Julius says, lips twitching.
Rufus turns to me. “Did all this catch you abed?”
“Have you ever tried fighting in a gown and petticoats?”
He stares at me and then bursts out laughing. “I haven’t, but I can well imagine.”
“No,” I say. “You probably cannot.”
“The point,” Bishop says, “is that we needed supplies before we reached Edinburgh. Leeds has what we needed, and since we were here, we were hardly going to pass through without paying our respects. It is, in essence, your territory. I also wanted you to know what happened, so you didn’t hear a secondhand account. ”
Rufus eyes him. “You didn’t come to ask me to join you?”
“No.”
“You didn’t come to ask me to be your enforcer?”
A short pause, and Rufus smacks his thigh. “I knew it. You conniving—”
“I know you do not wish to rejoin a Pack, but I hope, at some future time, that you might reconsider and, yes, join as my enforcer. Once this matter has been resolved and I have a stable Pack to offer.”
“You want me to join you now. You just want it to be my idea.” He pokes a finger at Bishop. “I know how that brain of yours works, boy. Like your father’s. You don’t ask. You certainly don’t beg. You lay a trap that I can’t resist.”
“If I recall correctly, my father offered you a job when you were in need of one, and you accepted. There was no trap. He paid you very well, valued your services—and your friendship—immensely while making it very clear you were always free to go.”
“That’s the trap. Being too reasonable.”
Bishop shakes his head and puts his hand to my back as we rise. “It was lovely to see you, Rufus.”
“I am not going to Edinburgh with you.”
“If I may be so bold,” I say, “I can confirm that Bishop said no such thing to me.”
“Or me,” Julius says.
I continue, “And I’m not sure it’d be wise to arrive with an enforcer in tow. Couldn’t it send the wrong message?”
“It could,” Bishop says. “We must walk a fine line here, neither supplicant nor threat—”
“The enforcer always accompanies the Alpha,” Rufus says. “That’s his job. Showing up without one is like going to a gunfight unarmed. It doesn’t make you strong. It makes you a fool.”
“I am not unarmed. I have Julius and Cordelia. Also, please remember that I defeated Silas Stockwell in an Alpha challenge.”
“You cocky little—” Rufus bites off the rest. “You need an enforcer. That’s protocol. You just don’t know it because Silas cut himself off from the other Packs before you joined. If you think I’m letting you go there without—” He stops and curses. “Fuck.”
Julius squeezes Rufus’s arm. “We appreciate the concern, but we will be fine.”
“No, you won’t, and it’ll be my fault. Your fathers took me in and looked after me. I helped raise you boys. I owe a debt—”
“No debt,” Bishop says firmly. “We’ve always made that clear, as did our fathers. You have never owed us anything. You may have known us as boys, but we are not boys now. I hope to prove that to you, with a Pack that you’ll someday be proud to join—”
“Fuck!” Rufus shouts the profanity at the ceiling. “Fuck!” He waves both arms, as if shooing away flies. “Fine. Yes. Give me an hour to pack. I’m not saying I’ll join your Pack as your enforcer, but I’ll go to Edinburgh and play the role for this visit.”
“I really think we’ll be all right,” Julius says. “We have Kenric.”
Rufus jabs a finger in Julius’s face. “Don’t even—” A growl and a shake of his head, then he herds us to the door. “The train station in one hour. And it’d better be first class. I don’t travel in second, and I sure as hell don’t travel in third.”