“Hear, hear,” Connor said. I squeezed his hand, had to fight back tears as I looked at them, my weird little family.
“Thanks,” I said. “The floor is open for location suggestions.”
“I’m on that,” Petra said. She’d pulled out her screen and was scrolling. “I’ll get back to you.”
“Appreciate it.”
“I’ll advise the Pack,” Connor said.
I frowned. “I don’t want them in the middle of this.”
He ignored that, typed something into his screen. And when he glanced up at me, his eyes were steady. “We’re already in the middle of this; the Pack helped create this problem.”
“Saving her was a decision I made,” I insisted. “It was a choice, and I’d make the same one again.”
“I know you would,” Connor said, voice softer. “But that doesn’t mean the Pack won’t help as it can. If all else fails, we’ll leave Chicago. Go to Memphis and enjoy blues and barbecue.”
Memphis was the Pack’s ancestral home. While I wouldn’t have minded the blues or barbecue, I hoped it wouldn’t come to that—when running away was my only viable option.
“I’ll tell Yuen,” Theo said and turned his attention to his screen. Roger Yuen was the actual Ombudsman, and our boss. “He’ll want the CPD there in case things go south. But he’ll coordinate with them to give you some room.”
I nodded.
All but Lulu had pulled out screens now, all sending messages to protect, to rally, to defend. A strange assemblage, I thought again. But I was so lucky to have found them. “Thank you.”
They all looked up at me.
“You’re welcome,” Theo said, understanding in his kind smile. “But I’m pretty sure you still owe me twenty for coffee.”
***
We finished cleaning up the party and said goodbye to everyone but Connor.
Lulu gave me a hug. “We’ll figure out a way through this. Maybe you aren’t measuring the flour correctly.”
“Funny.” I pulled back, looked at her. “You have to be careful. I don’t think they’ll approach you, but I didn’t think they’d show up at my door, either.”
“I’ll be careful. And it’s my turn to add to the community collective mural, so I’ll be around people all week.”
Lulu was part of a volunteer group that painted murals in urban areas that needed care and brilliant colors. Even though she didn’t live as a Sup, she kept supernatural hours. That meant even outdoor murals were painted at night, usually under the glow of work lights she’d picked up secondhand. She liked working at night, being awake in the relative quiet of sleeping Chicago. And she especially liked working through to dawn, when the colors began to shift and change as the sunlight rose and spread.
“Okay. If anything weird happens, let me know.”
“You’ll be the first I call.” She went to her room, Eleanor of Aquitaine trotting behind, head and tail high.
When her door closed, Connor pulled me into his arms. I wrapped around him, breathed in sunshine and cologne and Pack. And breathed deeply for the first time in hours.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine. This is going to be a mess.”
“It won’t be the first one you’ve handled. But if I find out someone in Minnesota reported you, we’re going to have some words.”
I put a hand on his chest, felt his heart thud beneath my palm. “Don’t take it out on the Pack. It was probably Ronan. He was furious when he discovered what I’d done.” I thought we’d worked through some of that anger before I left Minnesota, when he realized I hadn’t changed a human because I was spoiled and out of control. But it had only been a few weeks ago. Maybe something had festered, or gone wrong? It had been a few days since I’d checked on Carlie. I made a note to send her a message.
“So we assume the AAM didn’t tell your parents what they’re doing. Are you going to tell them?”
“No,” I decided. “Not yet. I don’t want them feeling like they have to fly to my rescue. And their being here would... complicate things.”