Chapter 387: Chapter 387

Xander “Bro, | thought wolves were ruthless,” Mason thought to me. “Vamps are even more brutal. Dam n.”

“Tell that to the High Council. And our father, “I thought back grimly.

My brother’s faint smile faded right away. “F uck.

Yeah, | guess you're right. But we aren’t them.”

“No,” | agreed through the mind link. “We need to be cautious. Strong. But also careful not to jump into anything without all the details. | don’t want to be responsible for innocents getting hurt...or worse.”

“What if they’re not innocents?” My brother thought in a practical tone.

“That's what we need to determine.”

“Who are the people who live in Standard that don’t know about Brightsky?” | asked the council. They all looked uncomfortable, squirming around in their seats and refusing to look at me. Not a one of them answered me. | sighed. “They don’t all know about the enclave, do they?”

“No,” said Charlotte.

“How many do know?”

She didn’t reply. | sighed again, and this time, my voice had an edge of command in it. They were all really starting to pi ss me off. They might not respect me just because | was an Alpha...but they would learn to respect me. “How many sources do you have?”

“Three,” Malachi said finally.

I sat back in my chair. “And how many other residents are there?”

“A couple of hundred. No more than that,” Melina said.

“But you're willing to sacrifice every one of those lives on the off chance that some new people are a threat?”

My voice lowered to a growl, and my wolf flashed in my gaze. “That's the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You have an awful lot of concern for a bunch of people you don’t know,” Malachi said.

For the first time since the leadership council had reconvened, Jacques spoke up. | hadn’t had much interaction with Melina’s husband, so | was more than a little wary when the air cra ckled around him.

She'd said he was a warlock, but | couldn’t tell if he was showing emotion or actually trying to spellcast.

“Let him try it,” my brother sent through the mind link, picking up on my thought.

“Who even is this guy?” Jacques’s voice sounded like the pop and cr ackle of logs splitting in a fire. It set my telethon edge.

“Malachi, with all due respect, | get that he’s mated to your kin, but seriously; who is he? Or should | say, who does he think he is?”

“lm Xander Constantine, Alpha of the Constantine pack, son to Orion.” My lip curled back over my sharp canines, and my wolf blazed in my eyes. “Who the f uck are you?”

“Someone who's lived in this enclave a hell of a lot longer than you have,” he shot back.

“Too bad the entire world isn’t this enclave,” | said with a sneer. “Because it’s totally obvious to me that for all of you at Brightsky, you are completely out of touch.”

Mason’s Alpha energy swirled and knotted with mine.

He didn’t say anything though. He just gave me a nod of agreement.

Melina stood up. “I agree with my husband. We aren’t bound by anything you or your brother have to say.

Malachi is right. The arrival of these new people in Standard constitutes a threat. | say we should pull our sources at once. Bring them back to Brightsky. Then we cut the power to Standard.”

“It's the middle of winter in Alaska. Without power, those people will be dead within a day,” Mason bit out the words around a growl. “That’s murder!”

| stood to match her energy. “You don’t even know if any of those people are snooping around or doing anything suspicious. Do you? Have your sources reported anything like that?”

Melina flinched and cut her gaze from mine. She sat back down and muttered a reply. “They just reported the arrival of new residents. Nothing else.”

“Well,” | said, also taking my seat. “All I’m saying is that maybe, just maybe, instead of going off half-co cked, you have your sources monitor the situation. It doesn’t have to be forever, but at least another day or two. See if there’s anythi ng suspicious other than their simple existence before you go wiping out an entire town.”

wolf.”

Malachi snorted. “I have to say, this temperance is not what | would have expected. Not from an Alpha “When you bite without looking first, you tend to end up with a mouthful of something that makes you sick,” | told him. “Better to make sure of your prey before you try to eat it.”

The vampire laughed. The tension in the room eased, but only a little. The warlock was still giving me the stink-eye. So was his wife. Charlotte, on the other hand, gave me a grateful look.

Mason and | were going to have to have a conversation with her.