Lec Rus inhaled. Everyone in the room waited for the explosion over being questioned by a non-Alpha, a man from Cariboo, no less, where all this shit started. Fucked up Gathering no matter what Anson did.
“Standard,” Rus said with a lip-curl. “For trading outposts.”
“Warded?” The smirk in Pike’s question hit home. The Alpen’s face reddened. While the moment overflowed with entertainment value, it was a delay I didn’t want. Sure, I wanted to see Lec Rus get his ass kicked, preferably by someone other than me. I had a need for violence. It came from being forced into this room with these alphaholes and not home, talking to Noa. Working through the strain between us.
The Alpen was posturing. His canines were out. “Are you implying that I’m careless?”
“I’m asking because what I see here is Amal, probing for weakness. If you’re trying to break into a secure compound, you look for the hole where the rats get in.”
Anson stepped in before the Gathering got out of hand. His snarl rattled a few chairs. I stared down at the coffee to hide my smirk. Pike had balls; I’d give him that. Alpha material if he survived the next few months or years. However long it took us to claw Amal out of her fortress beneath the glaciers and into the open, where we’d face the battle and end it. No more hiding in plain sight and attacking later. Something she’d done for centuries.
Cavell—Adriel’s father and the new leader of the Sutter rebels—spoke up. “Did they open new passages, or use existing ones?”
“They attacked in the dark.”
“Did you send a team to investigate or rely on victim statements?”
The Alpen flashed his canines a few more times, but then said, “No surviving victims means I obviously sent a team. They followed the scents. Led to an old passage no one uses because of an avalanche decades ago. Closed off the entrance in the mountains.”
“Where?” Anson asked, turning to the map.
“Here.” Rus stabbed with his finger, then traced a route to the small red pin. “Comes out here.”
“Then anywhere along this stretch…” Anson dragged his finger along the route Rus had traced. “There’s a breach. We need to find it. And if it’s a passage Amal opened on her own, and if it’s still open, we have to follow it back to the source.”
Arguments broke the silence while I caught Anson’s attention and arched a brow. “How many men?”
“Limited patrols, infiltrators, while we create distractions,” he said quietly. “If this is her way in, we can attack before she realizes we’ve broken through. But I’m interested in your gut impressions. You’ve fought more hybrids than we have.”
Everyone sat at the polished table. The food delivery reestablished decorum, at least for a little while. I stood at the wall of monitors, watching the silent loop, the sacking of Azul. Dozens of Amal’s abominations, shock troops charging through a slit in the air. Sending wolves in every direction, leaving a clear path for Amal. She didn’t engage in physical attacks. She preferred her enemies shackled to the walls.
“Amal is a hybrid,” I said without turning. “She has the strength of both wolf and vampire, but also their weaknesses. She keeps her enemies at a physical distance. Take that a leap further and say she doesn’t want to be touched.”
“The queens could syphon,” Mace pointed out. “She’d be wary of Barend’s hybrids, his preference for failles. He told Noa what he wanted. Another weapon equal to Amal.”
“Noa’s not going in with the infiltrators,” I said.
“Why?” Lec Rus placed both hands palms down on the table. “She’s our best chance.”
“Because we don’t know where Amal is—or if that passage leads into a trap. Amal will kill Noa if she can’t turn her into a hybrid. I don’t see another faille to replace the loss. Do you?”
“You can’t keep her out of this when she’s probably the cause.”
My anger pulsed toward the television monitors, and as one, they all went black. “Expensive equipment,” murmured Anson.
“Solar flares.” I stalked back to the table. “You should have surge protectors in place.”
Jade Pike pushed his sandwich remains aside. “Either way, Cash and I are Cariboo. The only men here, other than Donnelly, who’ve been to her fortress. You’ll be going in blind without us on that team.”
Cavell agreed. “Sutter can recognize the Alpen wards and passages.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at the Mule. “Might be more reliable than some.”
The Mule flashed his canines. “Alpen has a stake in this.”
“Let’s just say you’re known for hunting your own, killing them even when they’re innocent.”
“Fuck you.”
Cavell shrugged. “It’s easier to eliminate the unreliable at the source.”
