Autumn Feast - Charlie Richards Page 0,60

the woods. “So what do you want?”

“Peace.” He held his hands up. “Didn’t we already establish that?”

“If we did, why are you here?” Donner narrowed his eyes. He no longer trusted their truce.

“I was told you understood politics, Donner. I meant it when I said commerce was my goal. You voted. Now you need to get on board.”

“On board? With you?”

“Yes, I have a lot of the same goals as Prichard—”

The deer grunted, huffed, and stomped their hooves.

“Easy.” Brayton held his hands up. “We have different means of getting what we want. Mostly.”

“What is it you want?”

“Straight to the point. I like that.” He took a few steps closer. “We need goods moved, stored. We want to use your property for it. Simple enough.”

“What kind of goods.”

“The kind the human authorities wouldn’t be so pleased about.”

It all made sense. This wasn’t about the annihilation of their species. Not for Brayton. And maybe it hadn’t been for Prichard, either. The wolves wanted the deer out of the way. Wanted to take their property and use it. How many of those shifters who stood against Brayton were also being used like this?

“No.”

“Then, your war will continue. You want more fighting? For your family?” He deliberately moved his gaze to the children, and it pissed Donner off. He did not like his family being threatened.

“I’m not big on ultimatums, Brayton.”

Rory snorted again, loudly, drawing Brayton’s eyes back to him. “Take some time to think about it.” He flicked a piece of grass he’d been fingering to the ground, then turned back the way he’d come. He walked a few paces before stopping. “Not too long,” he called over his shoulder. Then he transformed, springing through the air as he sprouted fur and fang. He landed on four wolf paws, then ran off into the trees with his pack following behind.

The adults shifted to human and gathered around him. Rory changed first, and he was pissed. “This is bullshit.”

“I know.” Donner couldn’t argue this time.

“What are you going to do?” Eryk asked.

“You don’t get to decide this one alone, Donner,” Rory said before Donner had a chance to answer.

Finley shouldered his way through the adults. “Yeah. This is our problem too.”

Donner didn’t want them around for the conversation. They’d already seen too much. “No. This is for the adults. Why don’t you kids grab lunch.”

“Because we’re not kids, duh,” Alana chimed in.

“You saw my antlers. I’m—”

Rory interrupted him with a hand on his shoulder. “Still too young and talking back to your papa.”

Finley was nearly as tall as Rory and already bulking at the shoulder. “Sorry. I just meant what happens with this affects us all,” Finley said.

“Okay, point taken. Let’s all meet over some lunch.” Donner ended the argument. Finley was quiet and rarely spoke out. If he had something to say, it would be worth listening to, and Donner wasn’t too proud to learn from the young.

“I think I understand the situation,” Finley said after swallowing a bite of sandwich. They’d prepared a quick and easy lunch, mostly using the few leftovers they still had from Mabon. “We’ve been at war with the wolves. The meeting here the other night was to officially change leadership to someone we could work with, but he turned out to be as bad or worse, if you ask me.”

“Sounds like you pretty much got it.” Rory handed Finley a napkin. They never stopped being parents.

Donner sat between the kids at the table. “I need to call Martin and tell him what’s going on, but we need to decide what to do first.”

Alana leaned forward, elbows on the table. “How do we decide?” It was a good question. Perfect to get the conversation going.

“We weigh the pro’s and con’s.” Donner winked at her, and Alana smiled.

Eryk stood up, scraping the legs of the chair. “I can’t believe we’re even considering this. We don’t know what they want to bring here. Drugs? Guns?” He had the smallest child. Lotte had been napping during the other kids’ time outside and was now playing quietly upstairs with Isla. Donner wanted Isla’s opinion on this, as the oldest deer in the herd. He wouldn’t decide without her input.

Finley answered, “If we did let them do this, there would have to be locks. A safe place to store whatever it is away from the house. It’s a big property. We’re old enough to not mess with it, but I assume we’re going to have more children next year.” He sounded like he’d