“Uh-huh.” Hal leaned back. His chair nearly tipped over, and he sat back up in a hurry. “Are you thinking of taking over your pack again?”
“I can’t. Pack law says once you go, there’s no coming back. I’ll just kill that asshole...”
Hal looked at me. He has a way about him. He thinks, and it makes you think, too. So I thought about it.
“Son of a bitch,” I said at last. “I can’t. If I can’t be his alpha, I can’t make an alpha challenge. I could just walk up and tell him to fight or die, but he doesn’t do fair fights. He’d refuse. I’d have to jump him fast and murder him in cold blood, or he’d order his pack to rip me to shreds. I can’t fight the entire pack. And some of them are my friends. If Price orders them to kill me, they’d have to try. I can’t do that to them.”
I couldn’t do it to myself, either, but I didn’t want to admit that.
“So, let me get this straight,” Hal said. “You won’t go after the man who plotted to kill you and nearly succeeded, because it would either hurt your friends or be flat-out murder. A lot of people talk about loyalty and fairness, but you’re really walking the walk.”
The way he was watching me made me twitchy. It was like he was reading... not my mind... like he was reading my soul. It pissed me off.
“The fuck I am,” I said. “I’m a fucking gangster. But you’re right, my pack and Price and I are done with each other. I guess I could move in on another pack...”
But even when I was saying it, I knew I was done wi
th alpha challenges. “No. I don’t know what I’ll do, other than leave town. But I’ll go as soon as I can walk, and then I’ll be out of your lives forever. So thanks again for saving me and Manuel. And tell your team thank you. You all have shifters’ honor — the real fucking deal. Anyone can save a friend, but it takes something fucking else to save an enemy.”
Then I shut up, because Hal was giving me a weird look. I know what it means now, but I didn’t then. It’s his I have plans for you look. He said, “The same sort of something fucking else that makes you nearly get yourself killed saving the kid who’d just challenged you to a duel to the death?”
I had no idea why Hal was talking to me like that. It made me really suspicious. I just muttered, “Whatever,” and hoped he’d shut up.
He didn’t. Hal went on, “Twice. We nearly lost you when you shifted so Manuel could run the gauntlet. That took some quick thinking, at a time when it must have been hard to put any thoughts together at all. And courage. And sacrifice, again...”
I said, “What are you getting at?”
He said, “I’d like to offer you an alternative.”
“What?” I asked.
“A job. Why don’t you join Protection, Inc.?”
“You are fucking kidding,” I said.
Hal shook his head. “I’m absolutely serious.”
I could see that he was — Hal doesn’t do sarcastic — but I couldn’t believe it. “I fought every single one of you!”
Hal nodded. “Any wolf who can hold his own against a lion, a tiger, a leopard, and a grizzly is a wolf I want on my team.”
The door flew open. Apparently the rest of the team had been eavesdropping and someone leaned too hard. They nearly fell into the room. It would have been funny if they hadn’t looked so outraged. Actually, it was funny and the outrage made it even funnier. I guess having me in the office for a few days was one thing, but having me actually on their team crossed one hell of a line.
“Absolutely not,” Rafa said. “I’m a Navy SEAL and a man of honor, and I do not team up with criminals.”
Destiny said, “He gave me a permanent scar.” She yanked down her sleeve to show this tiny little white mark on her shoulder. I guess I bit her pretty hard when she was a tiger.
Fiona pointed like she wanted to stab me with her finger. “You think we can trust him to guard our backs? Never!”
Do it, my wolf said.
I couldn’t resist fucking with them. I turned to Hal and said, “I accept.”
And then there was a whole lot of yelling. I’d meant to enjoy watching them all blow their tops while they thought I was serious, and then get to see it all over again when I told them I was just yanking their chains. But Hal sat there and calmly answered all their objections. The way he talked about me — I can’t repeat it, it’s too embarrassing. I’ll blush or something. But he said more good things about me in an hour than I’d heard from anyone since I was fifteen.
Hal convinced them to give me a chance. And after that, I had to give them a chance.
Once I got my strength back, the first thing I did was help them boot my old gang out of the neighborhood. I talked to some of the wolves and convinced them to leave the pack of their own accord. I stood with Hal’s team and watched while they ran the gauntlet, so we’d intimidate Price and his buddies out of killing anyone. The wolves who left got roughed up, but nothing that wouldn’t heal overnight. They made their own pack. Nothing criminal, just a group of wolves in the city. Turned out that a lot of them had wanted out for a while, but they’d been scared of the gauntlet.