Running his hand through his damp hair, he nodded wearily. “Yeah. She didn’t say a single word to me the whole ride back to her house.”
“Do you blame her? A human would have a hard time accepting it under much better circumstances. To find out like that must have been a shock, and a scary one, at that. Give her time. She’ll come around.”
He wasn’t too sure of that, but he nodded anyway. He didn’t want his sister worrying over his love life—or lack thereof—when they had much bigger problems. “I’m going to call a meeting of the troop. They need to know what happened and to be extra cautious.”
“How did anyone find out about us? I don’t understand. We’re the only of our kind in existence, and we keep to ourselves. Are we going to constantly be fending off attacks now?”
“I’m not sure what the answers to either of those questions are. There was one shifter and three humans. It’s possible they were the only ones who knew we exist, but I don’t want to assume that and then be caught off guard later.”
“You don’t think Axel—”
“No,” he cut in quickly. “Our brother wouldn’t do something like that. He might hate how the troop is run, how they do things, but he doesn’t hate us. Besides, you and I hate it too, and we’d never tell outsiders—let alone with the intention of getting us slaughtered.”
“You’re right, of course. I don’t believe he’d do that either. He’s just the only one I know of who’s left the troop.” Pausing, she played with her spoon for a long moment, her eyes sad. “I wish he’d come back. He’s been gone long enough.”
Leaning his hip on the counter, he folded his arms as he nodded. “I know. But he’d had enough of the way Pops forced us to fight each other all the time.”
Lindsey’s eyes flashed as she shook her head. “That’s not an excuse. You hated it too, but you didn’t ditch us because of it.”
“He had his reasons, Linds.” Honestly, he felt some of the same anger and resentment his sister did, but he couldn’t blame Axel for leaving. There had been many times over the years that he wished he could have done the same. “Speaking of Pops, where is he?”
Lindsey’s eyes sparkled as she glanced over at him. “He moved out last night.”
Shocked, Cody stared at her with his mouth open. “He did what?”
“I had to come back here last night because I forgot something. He was packing all his things when I got here, and he said if we—especially you—were going to be so ungrateful and not listen to a word he said, then he wasn’t needed here. He moved in with Arnold, on the other side of our lands.”
Still having trouble digesting the news, he shook his head slowly. “I never thought I’d see the day. I figured he’d die in this house before he ever left. I sure as hell didn’t expect him to back off and leave me to make my own choices.”
“I think he finally realized you were going to live your life, and run this troop, the way you want, no matter what he says about it.”
“If only he’d figured that out sooner,” he replied wryly. “Would have saved me and you a lot of trouble. I bet he wants to come back once he learns about what happened last night, though.”
“Don’t let him.”
“I can’t deny him the right to live in his own home, Linds.”
Standing, she stood in front of him and grasped his biceps. “Cody, listen to me. This is the home of the Silverback. The alpha. This was never his home in truth—it’s been in our family’s line for generations, and with each new succession of the Silverback, the old alpha moved out. Everything got screwed up when Dad died, but Pops leaving should have happened when you took over seven years ago.
“Pops took advantage of your kind nature by staying. He knew you’d never ask him to leave, so he stayed. And doing so gave him the perfect opportunity to try to run your life for you. Don’t back
down now. If he wants to yammer on about how the ancestors ran things, bring that up. Because this is how our ancestors did it.”
Clearing his throat, he nodded, then leaned down to place a kiss on her cheek. “You’re right. How is it possible for so much wisdom to fit into someone so tiny and young?”
She gave him a cheeky grin. “I’m just special, I guess. And while you’re really listening, don’t give up on Olivia just yet. She could still come around. Have some faith and don’t count her out just yet.”
“I won’t. But right now, I need to focus on getting this meeting over with. Can you activate the phone tree? Meeting in half an hour.”
Nodding, she gave him one last smile before pulling out her phone. As she made the call, he left the room, walking outside toward their meeting hall. He wanted to be there when the troop started showing up.
But the whole time, between worries over the strangers in town and the resolve to keep Pops out of the house—and therefore away from trying to dictate his choices—Olivia stayed in the forefront of his mind.
Where he was pretty sure she’d always be.
With that in mind, he pulled his phone out and pulled up her text thread, ignoring that every single message displayed was from him.
Cody: Please talk to me. I know what I am can be scary, but I’d never hurt you. Just give me a chance to explain.