behind Conrad, and a quick glance revealed it to be his wife, Larissa. She blanched at Eli’s dominance, then quickly muttered, “Everyone’s here,” before tugging on Conrad’s elbow and slipping away to avoid the alpha’s evident outrage.
“He should leave. You know it’s bad luck to have him here.”
“Well done, Scrappy,” I remarked drolly, “you have a voice.”
Conrad glared at me. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You’ve made my welcome quite evident throughout the years,” I murmured, priding myself on the lack of intonation in that statement. He’d tried to make our lives hell on a regular basis.
“Conrad, get over with the others,” Eli barked.
“But, Alpha, they shouldn’t—”
The growl snapped through the room like a whip of fire lashing through the atmosphere. When the scent of urine floated through the air, I smirked, perched my ass harder on the desk, and settled in for the show.
“Well, that wasn’t embarrassing, Connie, was it?”
The councilman didn’t even look at me. His eyes were trained on Eli’s like an electromagnet had turbocharged the link between them, making it impossible for Conrad to look away.
“Do you purposely challenge me?” Eli grated out, his voice like silk slithering over broken glass.
“N-No! Of course not, Alpha,” Conrad stuttered, and before my eyes, I watched as he tried and failed to break the hold Eli had on him, wriggling around like a mouse caught in a cat’s paw as the alpha forced him to shift.
All around us, there was the throbbing hush of people who couldn’t believe their eyes. I could feel that pulse in my veins, could feel it tunneling down into my being.
Most had scuttled away to the far end of the room, just out of range of the wrath-fueled dominance Eli was pouring out in waves. Even Brandon was starting to quiver in the face of it, but me?
It rolled through me, charring me but not hurting me.
When something inside Eli clicked, I felt it. I felt that click like it was my own control being attacked, and when another growl rumbled along the air, I wasn’t surprised at the wave of shifts that occurred.
From a room filled with twenty-four fawning councilors in their human skins, to a mix of humans and wolves suddenly cowering against each other.
The sight filled me with amusement, for these were the ones who’d treated us so badly all our lives.
But even as I let their shame fill me, even as I bathed in it somewhat, I twisted around and murmured, “Eli? We have things to discuss.”
The alpha, in the brink of releasing a growl that would probably have more than one shifted beast in the room peeing themselves too, adding to the growing puddle emanating from Conrad’s feet, blinked and cut me a look.
I stared at him, let him see that I was unaffected by his wrath, and murmured softly, “Sabina.”
The word had him jerking back, and I wondered if, in the haze of his wolf raging against the verbal challenge from men who weren’t strong enough to clean his boots, never mind help him lead the pack, he’d forgotten exactly what it was she meant to us.
With that singular mention of her name, however, it secured his attention.
He straightened his shoulders and muttered, “Conrad, shift back.” As his anger ceased rumbling through the room like storm clouds in the night sky, I could feel them start to relax, could feel them lessen their holds on their wolves.
Conrad shifted back, but his face was a ruddy red. On another man, in another world, I’d have probably seen hatred on his features. Hatred and the urge for revenge. But because I was looking for both, hoping for both, I was disappointed to see only shame.
He wasn’t behind Sabina’s attack.
And his shame was focused on the fact that the alpha had debased him so utterly.
Conrad had, it seemed, lost the pissing contest between them.
“What are you chuckling at?”
Austin’s words slithered into my brain. I could hear nuances, could hear moods, and all without him uttering a word.
I wasn’t sure why we had this ability, but it made it damn handy in situations like this one.
“There was a real-life pissing contest in the council chambers,” I informed him. “Conrad lost. He’s standing in a puddle of pee.”
Austin snorted, but it was Sabina who stunned me by muttering, “Gross.”
She sounded clear as a bell tolling through a valley, and it stunned me because, even a few hours ago, when she’d accidentally transmitted her appreciation for my brother’s ass when he bent over to pass her