“That might be the only reason I’d let him even speak to her,” Meridia said, meeting the other Atargarian’s eye. “We can’t fix her, Donner. But if something doesn’t give soon, she’s lost anyway.”
A savageness tightened Donner’s frame and he turned his head to stare at the water. “You know the things he said. Better than I do.”
“Yes.” Zee had broken down one night, told her everything. Most of the bullshit flying around was little more than assumption, with a few outright lies thrown in, in Meridia’s opinion.
“We should try taking her to Mount Greylock again. It’s been—”
“No,” she said, cutting him off. “She knew nothing but nightmares there.”
“She has people there who love her.” Donner’s jaw locked with stubborn aggression.
“Not enough.” Meridia’s anger at the Wolves of Greylock was an ugly, icy thing. “None of them cared enough, loved her enough to stand for her ten years ago. Fuck, some of them were old enough to fight for both her and Phoenix, her other brothers and the other children when they were being abused, but they didn’t. They won’t love her enough to help her through this either.”
Eyes still glittering black in the darkness, he stared at her.
“Donner.” She touched his cheek. “You, out of all of us, should understand how broken a family can be... even with the bonds of love.”
When he said nothing, she cut around him and strode for the sprawling beach house perched on the edge of the sea.
As she’d expected, Donner had forwarded both Whelan’s number and the entire video exchange between the two males.
Meridia took some devilish pleasure in how Nikolai Whelan’s eyes narrowed just a fraction when Donner offered to pencil him in, but other than that faint reaction, the Prime’s control was flawless.
He displayed nothing but the expected courtesy—and control—when speaking to a chosen representative of another race.
Some of the older Primes still treated the men and women like Donner as beneath them, servants who should kiss their boots.
She didn’t like the fact that Whelan, apparently, was one of the wiser ones.
Not that wise. You saw proof of that earlier.
She nudged the thought aside and smoothed a hand over her hair once more. It was nearly dry and she’d left it to curl wildly around her face, exchanging Donner’s damp shirt for a plain black blouse and jeans, drawing on a pair of boots in murder red.
The boots suited her mood.
She didn’t bother with anything fancy, rarely did.
She was a mermaid, a race that was universally known for being unapologetically beautiful. Under that beauty lay a destructive strength and keen senses.
Some people thought the mer were all beauty on the surface, with nothing much within.
They were wrong.
Meridia’s beauty was a tool to her, a weapon, one second to a mind sharper than most people could even fathom.
Putting through the call, she dropped down at her desk and kicked her boots up onto the scarred surface in a deliberate display of casual disinterest. Nikolai’s face appeared only a second later.
“You rang?” she said, letting the siren song of her voice creep into her words.
He didn’t flicker an eyelash.
“I’m coming into Massachusetts on Therian pack business. I’ll need entry into Provincetown.”
As a Therian Prime speaking to an Atargarian Alpha, this was more of a courtesy call than else, although, Meridia, being the Regnar, had more pull than the other Atlantic Atargarians.
She used that pull now like a blade.
“You didn’t say please, Prime,” she said, smiling sweetly.
“Should I reach out to Olaf instead?”
Meridia smiled, wicked and spoiling for a fight. “Would you like me to call him now? I imagine he needs to be informed of the recent ban concerning one Therian male. He’ll want to know why, of course. He might have questions for you.”
For long, taut seconds, Nikolai simply stared at her.
“Your father won’t deny me entry, Meridia. You know that.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Of course I know that.”
“Then why are you playing games?” The gold of a wolf’s eyes flashed in warning.
She ignored it and leaned forward. “Because, Prime... I want to hear you say please. And I want you to tell me why.”
Whether or not he’d do it would determine her course of action once he arrived.
He was right. If he contacted her father, the Atargarian Prime of the Atlantic would allow the Therian Prime entry. But Olaf, too, would want to know why.
Olaf didn’t have the protective instincts toward Zee that Meridia did, but he was protective of those who’d been offered protection in his lands—viciously, almost violently so. He knew his daughter had taken Zee in, so his protection would extend to Zee.
“I do this only because you’ve cared for one of mine,” Niko said finally, a dull flush on his cheekbones, one that spoke of an anger even Therian control couldn’t conceal.
“Oh?” Meridia tapped a finger against the corner of her mouth. “And just who is that?”
That flush deepened, and another flash of gold. “Zee.”
Playing dumb, Meridia pursed her lips and shook her head slowly. “I don’t have one of yours by that name here, Prime. The only Zee who lives in Provincetown has been mine for the past seven years.”
The year before that, when Zee had first arrived, she’d hidden away when she wasn’t caring for her kids at the school.
Those kids, Meridia knew, were the only reason Zee had held on.
“So you’ve adopted her into your family then?”
“We don’t have packs like you Therians.” Meridia smirked. “We care for and treasure people regardless of whether they swear fealty to the Atargarian, unless they give us cause to do otherwise.”
A taut silence stretched on, shattered like glass when Nikolai all but growled, “Be that as it may, Zee is a Therian wolf who has been away from her pack, her family, her people for too long. Unless she’s given you her loyalty, that means she’s my responsibility and there is no disputing that.”
“Hmm.” Tapping her lips again, Meridia nodded slowly. “Well, you could be partially right. She has been far from her people for too long. But Zee has no pack, Prime. She’s an outcast.” She made the words a purr. “I wonder why that is.”
He flinched.
“As the Appalachian Prime, I would have to agree a lone Therian wolf without pack or home would probably fall under your aegis. Yet, you still haven’t said—”
“Please, for fuck’s sake,” he snarled, the sound clawing free from his throat like an echo of the claws she knew he wanted to use—on her.
Meridia smiled inwardly, delighted. So... it wasn’t just Zee who’s still trapped.
“Of course, Prime Whelan,” she said, outwardly somber. She even dropped her eyes in a brief gesture of acquiescence. He wasn’t fooled. She saw the suspicion in his gaze, running neck and neck with anger. “There are just a few stipulations. I’m sure you understand.”
“Name them.”
“You have only Twenty-four hours to enter my territory—and exit. No more.”