them.
“What were you saying before about attacking from all angles?” I ask before the room can break out in another yelling match now that the effects of my magical bitch slap seem to have worn off.
“I was saying, if you give yourself to Adriel, that means we have you, Lachlan, and Keegan on the inside.” Kallan points to Siah. “If he can gather the lamia who want out from underneath Adriel’s thumb, then we’d have another group on the inside too. If we could coordinate something with us on the outside and you all on the inside, we could attack from all angles.”
“Has anyone ever done that before?” I turn and ask Siah.
“No, at least not like how he’s suggesting. When your mother escaped, the prisoners were capitalizing on an attack that was happening, but the attacking group and the escaping group weren’t working together.”
“Do you think you could get other lamia to join in the fight against Adriel?” Aydin asks.
Siah shrugs. “There are some I know that would, but it’s hard to say how many would actually fight other members of the nest. It would also be very tricky to try to more or less plan a rebellion without it being whispered into the wrong ears or brought to light by a weaker member wanting to win favor with Adriel.”
I nod my head in understanding and lose myself in thought for a moment. “Wolf?” Torrez’s eyes move from Siah to me, and I see a hint of something I can’t identify in his gaze. “Do you think you could convince the Volkovs and any other packs they know to fight with us?”
“I don’t think they’d take much convincing,” he tells me with a grin. I smile and nod back at him, they were pretty amped for a good fight.
“How many lamia are in Adriel’s nest?” Enoch asks Siah.
“About two hundred and fifty, give or take. A third of that number is actually skilled fighters. He sends out hunting parties all of the time, so there could be anywhere from ten to sixty battle-ready lamia gone at any given time.”
I look around the room as Siah talks about the size of the nest. There are fourteen of us. How the fuck are we going to take on those numbers in a head-to-head fight? Kallan’s suggestion just became the best shot we’ve got. If we can get the Volkov pack to fight with us, then we’d be a hell of a lot more evenly matched.
“Is the nest predominantly male?” Valen queries, and I can see the spark of calculation in his eyes.
“The ratio is about seventy-thirty, but the females are just as deadly as the males, if not more so. It can be hard for other supes to kill women, and female lamia will use that to their advantage.”
I look around the room. “Anyone else have a better plan?” I ask, meeting each of their eyes in turn. Every single one of them hesitantly shake their heads slowly or answer no after a beat or two.
“Then, let’s do this.”
17
Bouncing around the room is a cacophony of: “Wait, what?”; “Fuck no,”; “Killer!”; “Think again, Witch.” Aydin, Evrin, and Kallan move to block the door. When Siah stands up, a handful of voices yell at him to sit the fuck back down. It would be kind of funny if everything about this situation wasn’t deadly serious.
“We’ve talked for all of ten minutes, and you’re ready to just walk up to Adriel’s front door and ring the bell?” Valen demands, stepping closer to me, his irritation pushing uncomfortably up against me.
“What’s left to work out?” I challenge. “You guys continue to train, Torrez is going to get the pack involved, Siah is going to rally as many lamia as he can, and I’m going to pretend to get taken and wait for my chance to kill Adriel.”
“Oh, just like that, huh?” Sabin argues, and I try really fucking hard not to roll my eyes.
“Excuse us, we’re going to go have a little chat with our mate,” Knox announces to the room and then picks me up and starts to carry me out.
Enoch moves to follow, and Bastien steps in his way. “Chosen only,” he growls at him. A tic starts in Enoch’s jaw, but he doesn’t argue or move. Siah watches Knox manhandle me out of the room, and the rest of my Chosen fall in line behind us.
“You’re lucky I like being carried around, or all of you’d be begging Ryker to heal