The Humans’ Summit

MAX

In the courtroom, Kalindi raised her eyebrows at me.

I quickly looked away, rearranging my papers on the long, oblong table at the International Summit.

I realized I had been spacing out at her while she was drinking coffee…

Just like I had caught myself staring at her cleavage on the way to the summit.

~Horn dog!~

Wringing my hands, I brought my attention back to the important task at hand.

When I talked to King Dmitri that morning, he had agreed with Ela’s plan.

He thought it could be the only way to make the humans sympathetic to our case.

And even though Hades was hesitant about the plan, I didn’t pay too much mind to what he wanted. He was Ekon’s cousin, sure, but that man was always anxious.

No matter what any advisor told me, I knew it was important to make a good impression with the human government.

They thought all werewolves were the same, even when we told them we despised the Rogues and their violence as much as they did.

It would be better to ~put our money where our mouth is…~

But by money, I meant ~brute-fucking-force~.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” the summit Speaker boomed from the long table at the front of the room. “…and the…animals…who are our guests.”

I could hardly stifle the growl that rose from my throat.

To my right, Hades gripped the arm of his chair so tightly that it broke into splinters.

King Dimitri touched Hades’ arm as he shot me a look, warning both of us that now was ~not~ the time.

We both knew that the rogue civilian attacks had altered public opinion of supernatural beings.

Now, the humans didn’t even bother to disguise their prejudice. But soon, they would be eating from our hands.

“The first order of business is the werewolf strategy,” the man went on. His beady eyes were magnified by his glasses.

“We will hear first from the Director of Homeland Security, Barnaby Smit.”

The man was quite foreboding; he didn’t look like his name at all. He stood, and his large shoulders expanded to their full, menacing breadth.

Smit’s bald head shone like buffed metal, and his black eyes stared out at the werewolves, hardened with disdain.

He cleared his throat into the microphone.

“It is not only of ~grave importance~ that we stop these mongrels from killing innocent citizens,” Barnaby roared, “it is our honorable duty to eradicate the threat!”

Around us, the members of the summit murmured their approval.

“Every moment that passes without enacting a plan puts another life at risk. Which is why I propose that ~all werewolves~ be exiled from society. I have spoken to the honorable leader of Greenland, who has offered up a plot of land.”

A few whistles and cheers went up from the audience, and I glanced uneasily at Kalindi.

She nodded back to me, urging me to stay confident in our plan.

“This act is long overdue!” Barnaby slammed a massive fist down on the table. “These monsters have proven their humanity is secondary to the beasts inside them.”

I continued to scan the crowd. Many people were nodding and whispering, enlivened by the prospect of banishing my kind.

~Greenland.~

At least the British human convicts got sunny Australia back in the day.

Wolves didn’t mind the cold, but there wasn’t much to do on a continent covered in ice.

I could hardly believe anyone would take such an absurd plan seriously, but the response of the audience and the other speakers at the Summit proved otherwise.

~Then I will prove them wrong.~

“Our next speaker is Alpha Supreme Maximus of the Woodard Pack,” the Speaker said.

As the room settled into uncomfortable silence, I moved the microphone closer.

“I would like to remind all of you,” I began, “that the violent Rogues are the enemies of upstanding werewolves all over the world.”

I felt hundreds of eyes on me, but none burned with such beady intensity as Barnaby Smit’s.

“To demonstrate our commitment to the human cause, I propose a military alliance between the US militia and the Woodard werewolves.”

The room burst into a hubbub. Even my fellow diplomats at the table turned to one another in shock.

“Order!” the Speaker cried.

I scanned the excited room, stopping on Barnaby Smit. He was still staring right at me, and his hardened expression had changed. He wore a discreet, devilish smile—

Which was somehow even ~more~ troubling.

“Response from President Nelson?” the mediator prompted.

Nelson rearranged his tie.

Beside him, the hulking military man continued to smile.

“It’s such a good idea,” the President began, “that I’m surprised I didn’t think of it myself. Then again, no one knows the mind of a beast like a beast. We will move forward with the alliance.”

As other politicians at the table voiced their agreements, I knew I should be relieved.

Our plan was working.

But when the session ended, and I moved through the whispering crowd, I had a foreboding feeling.

Public perception of werewolves, and all magickind, had changed.

We had always been feared…but it no longer encouraged the same respect.

Now, we were something to be controlled.

“…the most dangerous weapon in the US arsenal,” I heard as I passed through the whispering men and women in suits.

~Weapon?~

~Do the humans forget that we are human too?~

I glanced at Hades as he ran his fingers through his thinning hair. He was feeling the same anxiety I was.

And he had tried to warn me…

“This concerns me, Max,” Hades said under his breath. “The warm reception will end up burning us.”

Before I could reply, Kalindi grabbed my arm, and I turned to find her beaming with pride.

“Max! It worked!”

“Maybe too well…” I grumbled.

The humans’ exuberant reception of our plan left me feeling uneasy.

“Come on,” she said dismissively. “We just dodged a silver bullet. The humans are on our side again.”

I nodded.

Maybe she was right. Hades was taking this too seriously, and I didn’t want his anxiety to cloud my own judgment.

Ela caught up to us, and we left the courtroom. We went to the garden, and I pulled out my cell phone.

“I have to tell Bambi.” I was curious what my sister would think of this.

She had grown to be my most trusted political advisor, and I wanted her advice.

“I’m calling Hunter.” Ela smiled whenever she said his name.

We raised our phones to our ears, but I quickly got a series of beeps.

“Her phone’s dead,” I said. It wasn’t like her to be out of reach.

“Hunter’s too…” Ela added uneasily.

Hades continued to tug at his already struggling scalp.

The four of us shared a worried glance.

“I’ll try Ekon,” I said.

“I’ll call Holly,” Kalindi offered.

But their lines, too, were cut off.

~What’s going on at the compound?~

HOLLY

As I headed down the small street, I kicked a stone and sent it flying into a telephone pole.

~If only my aim had been so good when I’d fought Devina.~

But when it really mattered, I had fucked up.

I had ~failed.~

And the most frustrating thing about it all was that I hadn’t lost to Devina because I couldn’t beat her.

I had lost because I was a coward.

I had been too scared to use dark magic.

I had been afraid of its evil potential, and as a result, that evil bitch had overpowered me.

It was just so ~ironic~!

If I avoided using dark magic and darkness prevailed anyway, then what was the fucking point?

The asphalt beneath my feet became the wooden slats of a dock. I didn’t even know where I was going, but I had to get out of the house.

The family home was beautiful and all, but even the seaside manor was caging me in.

I had to stretch my legs. I wanted to see the ocean.

A harbor materialized before me with small sailboats and canoes tied to metal cleats.

They bobbed in time with the lapping waves.

The scene was calm and eased my addled mind.

“Aquaholic,” a raspy voice said beside me.

I almost jumped as Rose appeared at my side. I didn’t know if I would ever get used to the old woman’s voice in Tyler’s young body.

“What?” I asked.

“The name of that sailboat,” she explained. “Silly, huh?”

I nodded absently, and we were silent for a moment.

“I feel rather silly,” Rose said bitterly.

I turned to the powerful witch.

“That makes two of us,” I replied.

“Because you didn’t use dark magic.”

I wasn’t expecting Rose to be so blunt…I thought she might tell me that I actually ~wasn’t~ silly.

The honesty was…kind of comforting.

“Yeah. Because I could have beat Devina, but I was too scared of dark magic.”

Rose smiled. It was both eerie and cool that her smile was so different from Tyler’s even though they smiled with the same body.

Rose’s was crooked and mysterious…

“I’ll help you, young one,” she replied. “I’ll teach you a spell that will help you embrace your light ~and~ dark sides.”

EKON

Someone once told me that people can be hypnotized by fire and running water.

As I stared into the flames curling in the fireplace, I understood the sentiment. I felt hypnotized.

With my eyes busy for the first time in so long, I fell into a meditative state where I could think of only one thing.

Guilt.

Because ~I had taken Bambi’s sight.~

We were alone in the beach house’s living room, and though it wasn’t cold, a fire helped make the place feel comfortable.

I wanted to make Bambi as comfortable as I could. She was at my side, and I pulled her even closer.

“How are you?” I asked, for the hundredth time since it had happened.

“Good,” she replied, leaning her head on my arm. “You’re right, the fire feels amazing. Maybe even better when I can’t see it.”

“Bambi, I feel so guilty,” I burst out. I had meant to keep my emotions to myself, assuming they would only make her feel worse.

But I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

She squeezed my arm.

“You can’t feel guilty about something that isn’t your fault,” she told me.

“But I can see, and now you have to carry my burden.”

I let my head fall in my hand.

It was so unfair.

As much as I had cursed Devina when she had taken my sight, I cursed her more now that she had given it back.

That my mate had to hurt was so much worse than my own pain.

“Ekon, this disability isn’t a burden…it’s a strength,” she whispered. “That’s what you always told me.”

I looked down in wonder at the young woman in my arms.

Her face was turned up to me, her unseeing eyes crinkled as she smiled.

~Angel.~

~What did I do to deserve her?~

Nothing. I had only proven that I didn’t deserve to be with anyone, let alone this divine creature.

Long before I had taken her sight, I took something else…Bambi’s parents.

Because I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I asked Bambi the question that had weighed on my heart.

“After what you found out about me…do you still love me?”

She hesitated…

And I waited.

With each passing moment, I became more uncertain that the most important thing in my life…Bambi’s love…could endure…