Page 18 of Shifters Reckoning
She put her hands on her hips. “Our army isn’t ready to attack Acheron without training, so I’m headed to the next territory soon.”
“Come again?”
“I’m headed to the next territory, whoever’s in line for training with the multimorph. East Nuttal Delta was the first one. Maybe that didn’t go so well with Salali, but her warriors were some of the best.”
“Which clan is next? Bears? Raccoons?”
“I have no idea. Gotta check with Olivia. She was keeping track of which shifter groups sent five warriors, and she’ll know. I want to contact everyone today to let them know where I’ll be and in what order. As soon as possible, I’m going to run a training boot camp here at Six-Mile and invite everyone to train here regardless of clan or pack or herd.”
“Over my dead body,” I snapped.
“Listen, I’m not going to hide, Logan. I have to put myself out there and make it clear that I’m following through on my promises for training. It’s the only way to ensure as much loyalty as possible. Beyond that, everyone has to learn to lose their suspicion of other animal shifters. We can’t afford to behave like Marcus or Ville Platte.” She froze. “That’s something else, Marcus—”
“I’ll be going with you.”
“You can’t. You have to stay here in Six-Mile and take care of your pack.”
“I can do that from wherever you go. Olivia can be my stand-in.”
She sighed. “It’s unfair to have her run Blackwood Construction and keep track of everything with the pack. She’s a beta, not an alpha. Doesn’t putting her in charge make Six-Mile seem weaker?”
I pressed my lips into a tight line. She wasn’t wrong, but Olivia could handle it. She’d been handling it since Emma had strolled into my life.
“Fine,” I said. “We’ll fight it out later. Any more to this crazy-assed plan of yours?”
“I’ll announce new pack assignments this week. We need to mix them up as much as possible… a kind of shifter exchange program. That’s what we’ll call it. Surely, there’s an easy way to get the mix as diverse as possible. Once we upset the hierarchy, more traitors will be shaken out of their trees, and we’ll build relationships across the current lines.”
“Shifters don’t inherently trust others outside their family groups.”
“That’s why we have to do this.”
“Gonna be a hard sell.”
“But you’ll support me.”
A grin twisted my face, and I raked my gaze over her from head to toe and back again. “Till death do us part. For better or worse.”
She paled, blinking rapidly.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Why did you say that?” she rasped, her hands drifting to her throat.
“Till death do us part?”
“We’re not married.” She took a step backward. “You’ve never even proposed.”
I guffawed then. Sharp barks of my laughter echoed. “Fated mates might as well be, but we can put a pin in it. Shifters don’t typically go through the trouble of having a wedding, but I might throw a big-ass party if you decided to put a ring on it.” I held up my hand, studying my naked ring finger. “Groomzilla has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
Her eyes went wide. “You want me to ask you?”
“You’re the multimorph, so… yeah, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Her shock cracked, and she laughed, doubling over. “God, you’re an asshole.”
“Alphahole,” I corrected. “Don’t you forget it.”
When she straightened, she took a deep breath. “Felt good to laugh like I meant it, but it’s time to get back to work. Too much to do, and we’re running out of time. I can feel it in my bones.”
