Abby shook her head with a glance at me. “He wouldn’t—”

“If he thought making waves would endanger his position or make things rough for Melody, he would.”

She frowned at Jace, but clearly had no argument for his point.

When an uncomfortable silence fell over us, I glanced from one face to the next. “So, I can stay?”

“No.” Jace shook his head. “They’ll come after you with everything they have.”

“We can’t just put her out on the street,” Drew said, and Knox bobbed his muzzle. I gave them each a grateful smile.

“This is temporary.” Titus clicked a button on his key fob, and his car locks thumped. “Drew, go tell the others that we have a guest, and I’ll introduce everyone in the morning.”

Drew nodded, and he and Knox took off into the huge house.

“Titus…” Jace’s tone sounded like a warning, and Titus’s bearing stiffened almost imperceptibly in response.

Two Alphas in one house. I bet that’s a laugh a minute…

“She’s going to call Faythe and tell the council that she ran on her own,” Titus said.

“That won’t absolve us,” Jace insisted. “If we don’t send her back, they’ll have a concrete reason to turn down our request for formal recognition. Then they’ll come in and take her.”

Titus’s eyes narrowed. “It won’t come to that.” But he was obviously as angry at the thought of his territory being invaded as he was at the thought of them hauling me into captivity.

“Okay, clearly we need a plan. Let’s eat while we talk.” Abby tugged me up the steps without waiting for a response from either of the toms. “It’s okay,” she whispered as we crossed the threshold into a three-story foyer crowned with a giant chandelier. “We’ll work this out.”

When the guys followed us inside, Abby pushed a mass of red curls from her face and forced a smile. “I’m starving. Let’s make sandwiches.” Then she took off down a central hallway, assuming we’d all follow.

We did.

Abby pulled out a bar stool for me at a massive granite island, then started taking sandwich supplies from a forty-eight-inch refrigerator.

Titus went straight for an upper cabinet, from which he pulled down a bottle of bourbon and four glasses. “You’re old enough, right?”

“For anything you can imagine,” I said. With no thought about how that might sound.

Titus’s brows rose again.

Jace and Abby both glanced at me in surprise.

“I’m twenty-two,” I clarified. “Old enough to drink, and to make my own decisions. At least in human society.”

“Ham or turkey?” Abby asked at last, breaking the fragile silence.

“Yes,” I said, and she laughed as she set a paper plate on the island in front of me.

“Fancy.” I held up the disposable dish, to contrast it with the high-end appliances.

“No one likes doing dishes,” Abby explained as she piled shaved ham onto a slice of bread on her plate.

“Time to make that phone call.” Titus set his cell phone and a short, thick glass in front of me. Clearly, alcohol trumped the “no real dishes” policy.

“No.” Jace slid the phone out of my reach. “Not until we work out what she’s going to say.”

“She’s going to tell the council that I had nothing to do with breaking her out.” Titus set his phone in front of me again. “And she’s going to do it now, before they figure out on their own that we have her.”

“Then what?” Jace demanded. “We can’t tell them she’s here until we’re ready to send her back, and I don’t think she’s going to go willingly.”

“If we don’t tell them she’s here, we’re actively hiding her,” Titus insisted. “And every second we spend hiding her gives them a stronger reason to consider us enemies and reject our petition!”

“Are they always like this?” I whispered to Abby, as I watched Jace and Titus argue.

“Not always. They’re good friends. But two Alphas living under one roof is always a prickly situation.”

I layered a slice of ham over a slice of turkey on my sandwich. “So why don’t you move out?”

“We will.” Abby wiped the tip of the mustard container with a paper towel. “But it’s complicated out here. Most of the strays didn’t get any help or guidance after they were infected. They figured out on their own that exposing themselves to humanity would be a bad idea, mostly from TV and movies full of government labs and scientists. And those the council knows about got warnings about following all the rules. But until Titus took over, there was no real regulation out here. They’re used to living however they want.”

“Like the Wild West,” I mumbled.

“Yeah. Kind of. And these cowboys have never met a cowgirl of their own species. Most of them are just curious, but…” She shrugged, and her sandwich flopped in her hand.

“But until the law gets a better hold, you’re circling the wagons.”

Abby nodded. “I think we’ve pretty much exhausted that metaphor.”

I laughed. “Agreed.”

“Fine,” Jace growled from across the kitchen. “But if it starts to go south, let me talk to Faythe. She’ll listen to me.”

“It’s not going to go south.” Titus turned to me, holding his cell, with Faythe Sanders’s contact page on the screen. “You’re up, Robyn.”

FOUR

Titus

“We’re in trouble here. Do you want my advice or not?” Jace snapped softly, while Abby and Robyn assembled sandwiches across the kitchen.

The Alpha in me wanted to growl “No.” But my human half, which had spent the past five years expanding my father’s multi-billion-dollar corporation, knew better. A CEO is only as strong and as smart as the advisers he listens to.

The same, presumably, went for Alphas.

“Yes,” I said at last. “I want your advice, but this is my territory. The decision is mine.”

Jace’s jaw clenched briefly, and I saw him struggle to unlock it. I knew exactly how he felt. As valuable as he was as a friend and an ally, and as grateful as I was for his help and advice in forming my own Pride, we’d gotten along much better when we’d worked together from a distance—him in his territory and me in mine.