Wolf's Call (Wolves Next Door #2) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,169

told him. "Look, I know you think that keeping to ourselves is the only way, but they didn't have to do this. Sam and Theo are trying."

"And when they expose us later?" Pax asked.

She looked over to Seth. "Would you have? If you'd found out your friends were like this, would you have told the world?"

"Nope," Seth said. "Not interested in getting laughed at and being treated like some tinfoil-hat-wearing freak."

She just flailed her arms at him. "See! It's not just me. Guys, that's what you don't get. Sure, it's hard to believe that we're real. I mean, look at how Mom freaked out. But those who know? They're either going to get laughed at or they'll help. Being friends with vampires and werewolves is kinda popular right now. Just look at the movies. Everyone knows that silver kills werewolves, vampires sparkle, and that you can't tell others if you find out about them."

"Vampires and garlic," Trent corrected.

Gabby smiled. "Maybe when you were a kid. Now, they sparkle." And she rolled her eyes to make it clear what she thought of that. "All I'm saying is that if integrating is the goal, then isn't this doing it? Sam and Theo know that Roman saved us."

"Does anyone else?" Ian asked.

Gabby could only shrug. "I honestly don't know. I mean, everything happened so fast, and that's going to help a lot. Mason ran out of the room, Roman followed him, and then we were there trying to help the kids in the hall."

"But there were kids in the hall," Ian realized. "How many?"

"A dozen?" she guessed. "Maybe more?"

"How many saw Roman as a lycan?" I asked.

Gabby just sighed. "I don't know."

For a long moment, we were all very quiet. Trent and Pax shared a look. Seth was rubbing his forehead like it ached. Ian pinched the bridge of his nose. Lane just leaned over and played the video again, and I watched. It was good. The subtitles explained what she was doing, but there was no sound with it - just like the first one.

"We need to tell the pack to share this. Especially the kids," I realized. "The media has moved on, completely focused on the talk about the video, so we have to make sure they see this one. Tweets and Facebook. Maybe even have some kids pick on Samantha for being a dork?"

"Oh," Gabby breathed. "That's it!" And she pulled out her phone. "I'll have Theo tweet that Sam is weird and wishes she was one of the cool kids, or something. And if Lucy says she has a crush on my boyfriend..."

Roman grunted, clearly not impressed. "Why me?"

"Because it's what girls do," she told him, typing at her phone furiously. "We just have to make sure that people notice it."

"Then have Xander put up a rant on Reddit about it," he told her. "If he adds something about being there and almost getting shot, you know it will go crazy."

I just closed the laptop. "Then go upstairs and handle your empire, little alpha. And yes, Roman, you can go too."

He grinned. "Door open, right?"

"I don't care," I told him.

Ian grinned. "I'm going to be right here."

"Gotcha," Roman said.

As they headed upstairs, I turned to look at him. "Was that a threat or something?"

"We hear a little better than you," he reminded me. "Well enough to convince him not to get naked." Then he leaned back on the couch and pulled me beside him. "Why am I so tired?"

Lane grunted. "Because we've been worrying about one thing or another since Monday." With a sigh, he moved to take the other end of my couch, lifting my legs so he could sit with us. "You know it's not done, right?"

"It's not going to be done for a while," I told them. "And once they get this, Sam will be the new target. The wolves will be safe, but we've just let a teenager take the fall for this. Guys, I don't feel good about it."

"We didn't have a choice," Pax pointed out.

"We always have a choice," I countered. "I could've been the one - "

"No," Seth said. "Elena, you do not have a history of being a computer person. Especially not video editing. Do you honestly believe that Gerardo isn't watching the news, or that he wouldn't gladly jump on that to get his fifteen minutes of fame?"

"It just seems wrong to make our kids deal with this," I told them.

Ian turned, then pulled me even closer so he could