Of course it was Lisette who interrupted me. “It is my understanding that you need the fey courts as well as a lunar eclipse to re-make the Seven. Is that not correct?”
“No. That’s correct, but—”
“And do you have a way to get around the eclipse and also have fey queens come out from hiding for us?”
Little lines formed around her mouth and she slowly shook her head.
“You don’t. No one does. It’s over, and it’s best if we all just let the idea of the Seven go right now. Okay?”
The room was so quiet I could only hear my own breathing.
“Great. So, now when I say I’m going to form something new, something entirely different, I hope each of you will understand why we have to do this.” I walked around the table, stopping to look at each Were sitting. “We can’t keep holding on to something that’s broken and hope that it’ll magically save the day. Because it won’t. This is a new day, and that means a new chance—a new opportunity—to build something lasting. So here’s what I know.”
I started explaining my plan to form a bond that included Weres, fey, witches, and myself, but as soon as I mentioned that there were going to be only three spots for Alphas, they all started bickering about who would be on it.
I sat back, letting them fight it out, because when it came time, I was going to have to the final say and I had some ideas of my own.
Me.
Three fey: Cosette and whoever she could get. I couldn’t be picky there.
Three witches: Claudia was in for sure. It couldn’t be Raphael. He never loved the witch stuff, and that had only gotten worse. Plus, I was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to stick around once all of this was done.
Three werewolves: Dastien was a given, because I wasn’t doing it without him. Lucas was too, because I was sure Claudia was going to feel the same way about her mate being a part of this. Which left one spot, and for some reason, I really thought Chris should have it. Chris wasn’t very alpha, but even if he wasn’t as strong as the other werewolves in the room, I couldn’t deny his link to the fey. I didn’t know what the link was exactly, but he’d gotten Cosette to show up when no one else could.
But if I picked Chris, then the rest of the Alphas in the room were going to be pissed because I’d left room for exactly zero former members of the Council of Seven.
Even knowing all of that, I still had a lot of empty slots to fill.
Cosette showed up, but she was alone. Could she even get two others to agree to my whackadoodle plan? And if she could, would the queens let two other fey out of hiding?
What other witches did we know and trust? Could I convince Shane to come back? Would that seriously piss off Adrian? Did Adrian’s feelings really matter when we were talking about such high stakes?
Just about everyone I wanted in the spell straddled the line between supernaturals. Claudia was a witch, but she was mated to a Were. I was witch and Were and Dastien was mated to me. Cosette had been living with the witches when we met, and she was a part of the Lunar court, which was tied to the Weres.
So the fact that Chris had a tie to the fey—even if I didn’t know what it was? That was huge. He was in. The more I thought it through, the more right it felt.
Which meant this room was about to be filled with a bunch of pissed off werewolves.
When should I tell them? I asked Dastien.
There’s no sense in waiting if you’ve already made your choices. And I think you have. So, might as well get it over with.
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
Maybe not. But this isn’t a time for procrastination.
Albert was currently telling the room that he should be in on the new Seven and Sebastian was shaking his head.
I agreed with Sebastian one hundred percent. Not a chance. I hadn’t been around for long, but even I knew a power-hungry Were was an extremely dangerous creature.
Say something.
I turned to my mate. Now? They’re all fighting.
We don’t have much time. The sun is setting. We have to wrap this up and be prepared for whatever might come.
I checked the time and gasped. Jesus. This conference room is in a time warp. I hadn’t realized how late it’d gotten. Just knowing it was night again had my heart racing, but I didn’t want to be the one to stop the meeting. To tell everyone exactly what they didn’t want to hear.