It was the words he’d said to the council that were a problem. “You’re not my Alpha anymore, remember? You kicked me out of your Pride.”
“This has nothing to do with the Pride, and you know it.” He brushed a tumble of curls off my face, and his hand lingered at the back of my jaw. “I’ve made mistake after mistake. I missed so many things I should have seen, and you stepped up where I failed. You risked everything to protect Robyn when that was my job. She was infected in my territory, and I should have been the one helping her through it.”
“You would have, if you’d known.”
“I would have known if I’d checked on you,” he insisted. I tried to argue, but he shook his head. “I stayed away from you because you weren’t mine, but I wanted you. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was just neglecting my duty. I’m not going to mess this up, Abby. I’m not going to let them chop off your fingertips to declaw you.” He took my right hand and kissed each of my fingers, and my heart suddenly felt too swollen to fit in my body. “Or pull out your teeth.” He slid his thumb between my lips and skimmed the tip of my incisor.
I sucked his thumb into my mouth, and Jace’s eyes fell closed. I ran my tongue over the pad, my heart slamming against my chest.
“And I sure as hell couldn’t let them lock you in a cage.” Jace rubbed his thumb across my lower lip, where his gaze seemed stuck. “I can’t let that happen to you. Not ever again.”
I pulled him close and wrapped my arms around his neck, giving in to the sudden urge to touch him. The sudden need to maintain contact with as much of him as possible, because an ominous certainty growing inside me said that I’d soon lose that chance. Even if they weren’t going to execute him, they probably wouldn’t consider spending more time with his girlfriend an appropriate punishment.
“What do they want from you?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he whispered as he leaned down to kiss me, but I put one hand on his chest to stop him.
“Yes, it does. What do they want?”
Jace exhaled slowly. “The vocal minority wants me off the council. They’re trying to kill our wildcat resolution, and they think Isaac will be easier to manipulate than I am. Especially after they’ve just spared his only sister and sworn him in as Alpha in record time. Faythe said Mitchell wants to kick me out of the lodge and leave me rank-less in the Appalachian Territory.”
“They can’t do that.” But I knew better even as I said it. Finding him guilty of my crimes would finally give Mitchell and his allies a legitimate excuse to replace Jace as Alpha. Leaving him rank-less would be an extra dose of humiliation.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He leaned down for a kiss. “It’s done.”
“But—”
“No.” He shut me up with another kiss. “I don’t need to run the Appalachian Pride. I need to be with you.” Jace tilted my head for greater access, and his mouth opened against mine. His kiss felt desperate. Urgent.
When we finally came up for air, Jace buried his head in my hair and spoke against my ear, his voice an intimate whisper. “Let’s just think about this.” He lifted me, and my legs wrapped around his waist. “About now.” He carried me three steps forward, and I felt the wall at my back, the cool paint a blissful counterpoint to the heat of his body pressed against me.
“Only now,” I whispered, but I would have agreed to anything he’d asked for in that moment, with his arms around me and his mouth on my neck. With our future spread out in tatters before us.
His kisses trailed toward my collarbone and I closed my eyes, concentrating on the heat of his tongue against my skin. The council could take everything away from us any second, but they couldn’t take this moment, or the memory of it, once it had passed.
This was mine. Jace was mine. And if we were going to make a memory, we were going to make a damn good one.
“Jace.” I murmured, tightening my legs around him.
“Mmm…?” he said against the dip at the base of my neck, and his voice sent shivers through me to settle in intimate places.
“Put me down. Just for a second.”
Jace growled lightly, but complied, and a second after my feet hit the floor, my dress followed.
“Jace.”
He turned to me, buttoning his jeans, and part of me wanted to take them right back off him. “Will you do something for me?”
“Anything.” He had his shirt gathered over both arms, but paused before pulling it over his head to kiss me.
“Join the Southeast Pride.”
His eyes widened, and his shirt fell to the floor. “What?”
“If you have to be rank-less somewhere, move to South Carolina with me. We could rent a little house and go running on the weekends. I’ll transfer and finish school. You can work construction, or do whatever you want. We’ll be rank-less together.”
“Are you serious? It’s only been a couple of weeks, Abby.”
I shrugged. “Do you love me?”
“You know I do.”
“Any doubts about that?”
His brows rose. “None.”
“Any plans to sleep around?”
“Of course not.” Jace pulled his shirt over his head and shoved his arms through the holes.
“Good, because it may take all five of them, but my brothers would kick your ass.” I picked up his shirt and handed it to him. “Assuming I leave anything for them to kick.”
“I don’t want anyone but you.” He tugged me closer, but I tripped over my shoe and threw us off balance. Jace righted us with one hand against the wall, then pressed me against it with his whole body. He bent down until his forehead touched mine. “If I come to South Carolina with you, could we do this a lot?”
“Every waking moment. Except those moments when we’re doing other things.”
He gave me a slow, smoldering smile and slid his arms around me. “That sounds amazing.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Maybe.” He shook his head. “Yes. But Abby, this is crazy.”
“So what? I know what I want. And anyway, according to Warner, if it’s not crazy—”
“It isn’t love. I know.” Jace ran one hand through his pale brown waves, and I could practically see the thoughts running through his head. Scrolling past his eyes. “Abby, your dad…”
“He might be pissed at first, but he’ll come around. My mom will help. She likes you.” I pulled him down for another kiss, then spoke with my lips still brushing his. Then in a couple of years, when my dad’s ready to retire...” I let him draw his own conclusion.
“Abby, that’s a beautiful idea, but it won’t work. They won’t let me back on the council after I’ve been voted off. Even if we get married, eventually, it’ll be your Pride. Your council seat. And I think that’s the way it should be. I can kick just as much ass behind the scenes, with you wearing the crown. Especially if you promise not to wear anything else…”
The heat in his eyes was stunning. It almost stole my breath.
“But you’re an Alpha and that won’t change, even if you’re not running a Pride.” Alphas do not take orders. “Do you really think you could go back to being an enforcer? Even my top enforcer?”
“Well, our history would suggest I’m no good at being your boss.” His grin lit me up on the inside. “We both know you were really running the show while you worked for me.”
“And you can see how well that turned out,” I said with a gesture in the general direction of the main house, where his fate was still being decided. “I’m willing to learn, but you belong at the top of the heap with me, Jace. If Marc can co-Alpha, so can you. It’s not like the council will have any choice if we’re married, right?”
Jace’s brows rose. “I don’t know. That may be uncharted territory. But if anyone can talk them into it, it’s you. You’re more than enough to keep a man on his toes.”
“I’d rather have you on your back,” I said, and Jace growled softly as he kissed his way down my neck. “We can han
dle whatever they throw at us today, right? We’ll make the best of it. Promise me.”
“We’ll make the best of it. I promise,” he murmured with his lips against my skin. “We’ll make history. We’ll make love. And if you want, we’ll make babies.” He stood to look at me, and his blue eyes sparkled. “But only that middle part’s set in stone.”
“Agreed. Let’s tell them we’re getting a place together after they read your sentence.” Anticipation made me giddy. “I’m dying to steal their thunder if they’re going to steal your Pride from you.”
His brows rose. “Does nothing scare you?”
“There’s nothing left for me to be scared of.”
Jace hesitated for just a second. Then he nodded, and my heart felt like it was going to explode. “Let’s tell them. They can take my rank, and my home, and my job, but they can’t take you away from me.” His mouth met mine again, but our kiss was interrupted by a single loud knock on the front door of the guesthouse.
The council was ready to speak Jace’s fate.
The Alphas were already waiting for us when we got to the dining room. Jace took his place, standing at the end of the table opposite Ed Taylor, where I’d sat all afternoon. I was relegated to a spot against the wall with Michael.
No one else was allowed in the room except for Victor Di Carlo and Brian Taylor, who closed the door, then stood to either side of it, in a much more formal stance than enforcers typically assumed. That made me nervous, even though they were both Faythe’s men.
Why would the council need an obvious display of muscle? Did they think Jace would fight his sentence after voluntarily accepting my charges?
Ed Taylor cleared his throat, and my heart hammered in my chest, even though I already knew what he was going to say. Let them deliver their unjust, politically motivated sentence. Minutes later, I would be driving down the highway with Jace, browsing South Carolina rental listings on my phone.
Screw the council.
“Jace Hammond, the Territorial Council hereby finds you guilty of all the charges leveled against your former Pride member, Abby Wade. Do you have anything to say for yourself before we read the verdict?”
Jace nodded. Then he turned around and held his hand out to me. I glanced nervously at my dad, then took a bold step forward to intertwine my fingers with his. Jace squeezed my hand and looked right at Ed Taylor. “Do what you have to do.”
My dad’s frown deepened, but I didn’t realize something was really wrong until I noticed tears standing in Faythe’s eyes. By then, Taylor was already speaking.
“We hereby revoke your status as Alpha of the Appalachian Pride.”
But we’d been expecting that. That wasn’t bad enough to account for the silent tears trailing down Faythe’s cheeks or the strained line of my father’s jaw.
“Furthermore,” Taylor continued. “In light of the severity of the charges, we sentence you to permanent exile in the Mississippi free zone, effective immediately. If you ever again enter one of the US territories, it will be at the forfeiture of your own life.”
Jace’s hand tightened around mine, and some inarticulate sound of horror got caught in his throat.
“What?” My pulse raced so fast the room had taken on an odd hue. “Exile? But that’s not even… You can’t…”
“There are precedents,” Faythe said miserably. “Murder and insubordination have been grounds for exile in the past, even when the offender wasn’t an Alpha.”
“We must hold Alphas to a higher standard,” Blackwell added, knowing full well that Jace hadn’t committed any of the crimes he’d pled guilty to.
“We were outvoted,” Faythe elaborated, with a glance at my father. “There was nothing we could do. I’m so sorry.”
“Effective immediately?” Jace asked as I clung to his hand, stunned. Devastated.
My father nodded. “I’m sorry, Jace. Faythe will send two of her men to escort you to the border.” He waved Vic and Brian forward, and all at once, I understood why they were there.
“No!” I stepped in front of Jace, shielding him with my body as Melody had done for Isaac. “You have to reconsider. Please!”
“Young lady, you are in no position to make demands,” Ed Taylor snapped. “The sentence stands as it was read.” He turned to the enforcers by the door. “Vic. Brian. Please take Jace Hammond into custody and escort him straight to the territory border.” Taylor turned back to Jace. “If you go peacefully, we’ll see that your mother ships your belongings to your forwarding address along with the balance of your personal bank account. If you resist, we’ll have no choice but to declare everything you acquired as Alpha of the Appalachian Pride to be fruits of the position and pass them on to your successor.”
Unfortunately, there was a precedent for that as well. After the war, one of Jace’s brothers had been expelled from his territory without a cent to his name, for crimes committed during the war.
Vic reluctantly came closer, his jaw clenched. Even Brian looked uncomfortable with the order they’d been given. They’d both served as enforcers with Jace, when my uncle was Alpha of the South-Central Territory.
“No.” I stepped between Vic and Jace, without turning away from the council, desperate for a way around a sentence we’d had no reason to expect. “I demand a recount of the vote.”
“There’s no grounds,” Taylor said. “Denied.”
“Then I refuse to let Jace accept charges originally leveled at me.” I turned to Michael, desperate for his legal advice, even though the Territorial Council operated very differently from a human courtroom. “What are my options?”
Michael exhaled deeply and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “Unfortunately, you don’t have any. That was Jace’s decision to make, not yours. Only he can take it back, and it’s too late for that, technically.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jace said, before I could reason with him. “I wouldn’t do it even if I could.” He reached for me, and I could see resignation in his eyes as he pulled me close.
“You can’t give up,” I said into his shoulder.
“I’m not,” he whispered into my hair. “But our best bet is to accept the sentence for now, then appeal it later, when overheated tempers have cooled.”
“No!” I let go of him and turned back to the council, because I knew his plan wouldn’t work. Our appeal would lose. If we accepted the sentence, Jace could never come back into any of the US territories. Ever. And my father would never let me spend serious time in the free zone, where I’d be beyond his protection.
Not as long as he had any authority over me, anyway.
I stood straight, fighting to project an outward calm, even as my brain raced and my heart pounded. I only had one option left, and it had never been tried. “Fine,” I said, relieved when my voice didn’t shake. “Kick him out. But I’m going with him.”
“Abby, you can’t—” My father began, but I spoke over him.
“I renounce my Pride membership and reject the authority of my Alpha and of the council appointed to protect and defend me. I reject all sworn allegiances. I waive all rights to property, resources, lineage, and protection of or by the Pride.”
I only knew the right words to say because I’d studied the formalities of our ruling body to contrast it with those of the human world. But I understood the process well enough to know that it was both legal and binding, based on long-standing tradition.
My father stared at me, stunned.
Faythe stood, fresh tears gathering in her eyes. “Abby, please rethink this.”
Ed Taylor slammed both hands down on the table and glared at Jace. “Are you going to let her put herself in that kind of danger because of you?”
Jace opened his mouth, already turning to argue with me, but I was faster.
“Jace has no authority over me. He can’t stop me. And the same goes for all of you.”
“Abby,” my father said, and I could see his heart breaking. I blinked back tears of my own, then rounded
the table into the hug he already had open for me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as he squeezed me. “They didn’t leave me any other choice. I have to do this. Tell Mom I love her. You guys are welcome to come visit me. I’ll be in Mississippi.”
My father’s breath hitched—that was as close as I’d ever seen him come to crying. He inhaled deeply, then he slowly, deliberately let me go.
I smiled up at him through my tears, well aware of what that had cost him. Then I turned to Jace as the other Alphas all started arguing at once, most of them demanding that my father try to stop me—one of our few, precious tabbies—from defecting.
“Ready?” I took Jace’s hand while he stared at me in shock.
“I can’t believe you did that,” he whispered as I tugged him from the room, then down the hall, toward the front door. In the chaos, Jace’s escort to the border had been forgotten.
Lucas and Teo caught up with us on the front porch. “What the hell happened in there?” Luke demanded. “I’ve never seen so many Alphas all shouting at the same time.
“They kicked Jace out.” I looped my arm through his. “Total exile. Effective immediately.”
“Are you serious?” Luke said. “Man, I’m so sorry.” He frowned, studying us closer. “Why don’t you two look more upset?”
I shrugged and gave him a secretive smile. “Part of it’s shock.”
“The rest is because Abby defected,” Jace said, while his former enforcers gaped at us. “By the way, you both now answer to Isaac. Or you will soon, anyway.”
“Wait, you’re leaving?” My brother looked like he couldn’t quite wrap his head around that concept. “I’ve never heard of a tabby defecting.”
“Holy shit!” Teo swore, and I laughed.
Lucas’s mouth opened and closed. “I don’t know what to say,” he finally spat out, after a couple of false starts. “I can’t believe you’re leaving! Either of you.” He scowled with a sudden new realization. “I can’t believe I work for my little brother.”
“I know. It’s crazy, but we have to go.” I pulled Lucas down for another hug, anxiously aware that as soon as the Alpha’s finished arguing, they’d try to stop me from leaving. We needed to be gone by then. “We’ll call you when we know where we’re going.”