Alpha Queen (Claimed by Wolves #4) - Callie Rose Page 0,64

them pay for the attack with their own losses.”

Gwen readjusts in her seat to lean forward and look at me curiously, eyeing through slightly narrowed eyelids as if I’m an oddity. The last time she looked at me this way, I was leaving her cabin to race home before Cleo attacked the East Pack village.

“It sounds like you have this well in hand,” she says finally. “So why am I here?”

“We’re going to march on the coven’s hideout and finish this once and for all.” My jaw tightens a little as I speak the words. “But in the meantime, we can’t leave our children and elderly here alone. And we can’t spare any of our best fighters to remain behind to protect them.”

“Of course not. They’ll need to be part of the front lines,” Gwen agrees, though there’s an undercurrent to her tone that says she sees where this conversation is going. I can’t tell if she’s intrigued or irritated by the prospect of what I’m going to ask her. I did, after all, drag her from the safety and security of her cabin to ask for a favor she has every right to deny.

I take a deep breath and calm my nerves as much as I can. “I’m hoping you’ll be amenable to a mutually beneficial relationship.”

She huffs a breath, regarding me somewhat warily. “What could you possibly offer me?”

“Well, for one, I think you hide in the mountains because you’re afraid Cleo might find you,” I point out. “If Cleo’s out of the picture, I imagine you’ll feel safe again. The coven has become strong and cruel under her reign, and we think they need to go. I’m pretty sure you feel the same?” I lift the last few words into a question, asking for verification that I’m on the right track, but she remains mute and expressionless. So I go on. “Even if you don’t want or need to leave your mountain, if she were gone, you could. I think there’s something to be said for having that choice.”

Gwen taps a finger against the side of her glass, her face thoughtful. “Keep talking.”

“Secondly, I’m offering an allied partnership. If you remain in the village and protect our families, we’ll protect and provide for you no differently than if you were a member of this pack. We’ll trade goods with you. We’ll provide you security, should you need it once you feel safe to leave your mountain. And most importantly, we offer you friendship and a place to turn to when you need it.”

“No, most importantly, you’ll be eliminating my longest and greatest enemy. You could have just started with that,” Gwen says dryly. Anger and pain flash over her face as her gaze goes unfocused for a moment, like she’s lost in some memory. “Cleopatra has poisoned her coven. Some fervently follow her, believing all the lies she tells them. And others are too afraid to speak out against her. A few of us did speak out. We challenged her. And I was the only one who survived the confrontation. The man I loved wasn’t so fortunate.”

Her lips quiver just slightly before she presses them together, forcing whatever emotions are rising up inside her back down. She takes a shaky breath and stares down into her lemonade for a few seconds before she speaks again.

“I’ll tell you, Sable. I don’t think you have much chance of beating Cleo. You don’t understand how long she’s been honing her powers. She didn’t take control of the coven with just her winning personality. She took it by force.”

I nod. “I know. I’m not underestimating her. Trust me. But I’ve been working on my abilities, and something new happened recently. Something that I think has the potential to turn the tides.”

Gwen motions with one hand as if to say well, get on with it. The earlier vulnerability I saw on her face is gone, and I wonder fleetingly if she meant to tell me about the death of someone close to her, or if the words slipped out by accident.

I don’t want to press for more details though. Everyone’s private pain is their own, and I don’t need to know the specifics to understand that Gwen is even more of a kindred spirit than I thought at first. We’ve both been through hell, and Cleopatra is at the root of our pain.

So instead of asking her any more questions, I tell her about the fact that I can pull my mates