“Time?” My immediate worry was that Astaroth was here, but he was way too calm. “For what?”
“The meeting. The Alphas are waiting.”
It was like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. The shock that I’d completely forgotten about the stupid meeting was that sharp.
I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than what I was doing right that second—making sure that we had everything we needed to take down Astaroth. The Seven and other Alphas weren’t going to like that I was about to demolish their whole system of rule. Telling them now was not only going to be a waste of my time, but also extreme drama. And that was all before factoring in the fact that in my visions, Astaroth showed up during the meeting.
To say that I was unmotivated to show up for the meeting would’ve been an extreme understatement. It was the last thing I wanted to do. “Can we reschedule?”
“There’s no rescheduling.”
“You’re joking.” When he started to shake his head, I put down the pen I’d been making notes with. “Why would they care if I was there or not? I’m just some kid. A newbie Were when you think about it. They won’t care if I skip. Let them sit around and argue about the Seven. I’ll get this done in the next day or two, and that meeting will be moot. Tell them I’m having really bad cramps or something.” I honestly didn’t care what excuse he made. Going to the meeting wasn’t a priority.
Mr. Dawson stepped fully into the room. “You might be new to this life, but you’ve already proven to be a very strong alpha, especially to the group that’s gathered for this meeting. And according to the media, you’re also the unofficial spokesperson for the werewolves. If I could get you out of this by saying you were having cramps, believe me I would, but you’re going to have to trust me that this is something you have to do.”
Trust him after he kept important information from me?
He meant well. He was just trying to do his job. Being Alpha.
By keeping us ignorant of a brewing problem? If he’d come to us two weeks ago, we would’ve had more time.
I know, but he didn’t. So you have to let that go, and deal with what’s in front of us.
That’s what I’m trying to do, but now I have to go talk to the Alphas? I glanced around the room, but my friends were just waiting for me to decide. All except for Cosette. “If you go, I’ll go, too,” she said.
“Thanks.” I appreciated that, but I didn’t want to go at all.
“Your ultimate goal is to unify the wolves, right?” Mr. Dawson asked.
I wasn’t sure my goals were that lofty. “I just want to live.”
“And beyond that?”
I shrugged. “Honestly, I’ve been living a little day to day since I got bitten. I’m just trying to keep up with everything.” It was weird how I’d gotten accustomed to living crisis to crisis.
“Well, I’d like to think that you want to keep the peace between werewolves,” Mr. Dawson said.
That didn’t sound like a bad thing. “Sure.”
“You skip this, and you won’t. Maybe I could convince them to have the meeting without you and Dastien, but when you do this spell and rework our whole system of governing? They won’t forgive you. You’ll be making very powerful enemies for life.”
A chair squeaked behind me. “As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right,” Lucas said as he stood from his seat, pulling Claudia with him. “We’re going. I won’t tell you what to do, but I will say it would be stupid if you didn’t at least show up and give them a warning.”
Cosette started toward the door, too.
“It seems like a massive waste of time,” I mumbled to myself, but it sounded like I was alone in that thinking. I guess we go?
Adrian and Raphael can keep digging up the ingredients. We can always walk out, but I think we have to at least warn them. They can’t stop us from what we’re going to do, but we’ll have to deal with the Were community eventually.
“Alright. Let’s go,” I said, and Mr. Dawson looked a little relieved at my words. “Adrian and Raphael? Do you mind staying to keep working on this?”
“Sure,” Adrian said.
“You want me to stay here and help?” Chris asked.
“Nah. Come with us.” He’d been key to getting Cosette to show up, and I figured that meant he’d earned his spot there.
His eyebrows rose. “Okay. Sure.”