Into Light (Shadow and Light Book 2) Read online

  She disappeared down the main staircase of the old hotel that Liberty pack used as headquarters. She would need to find Mac, the pack’s grub captain, downstairs. At this time of day, he could usually be found in the kitchens overseeing the crew preparing the pack’s afternoon meal.

  I turned to close my door as Roomie joined me in the hall. Sharra’s announcement had caught his attention, and he had apparently decided to forgo his nap in favor of attending the meeting. Roomie led the way up the stairs to the fourth floor and strutted into the conference room at the end of the hall, confident in his welcome as always.

  Lucas, the leader of Liberty pack (and my boyfriend), was already inside the conference room and greeted Roomie with a pat on the head as we entered. The cat didn’t relax into the affectionate stroke as he did with me, but he tolerated it, which was more than he allowed from most people.

  After a quick look around to be sure we were alone, I stood on tiptoe to brush a kiss across Lucas’s lips. I’d intended just a quick buss of greeting, but he caught me by the waist and pulled me in for more. My worries fell away. I could only concentrate on the feeling of his lips against mine, his hands on my back. I ran my hands across his shoulders, pulling him closer until there was no space between us.

  I missed him immediately when he drew back, but I’d heard the approaching footsteps, too. Though everyone in the pack knew we were a couple, neither of us was the type to put on a show. Playing kissy-face in front of the pack was definitely not our thing, so we moved apart.

  Lucas kept me close to his side, though, wrapping a muscular arm around my shoulders. I leaned against his side and enjoyed the casual embrace, returning it by looping my arm around his waist. Even though we were arguing a lot over Cruz these days, we still loved each other. Some days, I thought I might even Love him—as in, capital-L, real-deal, love and marriage kind of Love.

  I thought he might be feeling capital-L Love, too. He’d said a few things that made me think he was working up to a serious talk about our relationship, but I always managed to redirect the conversation. I couldn’t focus on moving forward with my life until I’d resolved the mess that lay behind me.

  I was relieved to be able to push my complicated thoughts away as a tall woman with skin a shade darker than Lucas’s deep chocolate strode into the room, banging the door against the wall as she entered. Sharra followed on her heels announcing, unnecessarily, “Jessie’s here.”

  Jessie was the leader of Monarch pack, whose territory covered a large section of the city to our west. She was prickly and difficult, but she was a good leader. She was gorgeous, too. One of those women so stunning that it was hard not to stare. Since I’d seen her last, she had clipped her hair almost to the scalp. Most women couldn’t pull off that look, but on her it only highlighted her strong bone structure, large eyes, and full lips. I sighed a little. I could never be sure if I disliked Jessie because of her personality or because she’d had a brief relationship with Lucas before my arrival in the city. She was a tough act to follow.

  Then again, maybe I disliked her because she so obviously disliked me. A sneer twisted her mouth as she shot me a disapproving look. “I asked to speak to your pack leadership, Lucas. I don’t believe your little girlfriend is needed here.”

  I didn’t allow myself to glare back at her, though I dearly wanted to. Instead, I pulled out my most icily polite expression and simply ignored her. She was always much more annoyed by that than by any insults I might fling her way.

  “I invited Poppy,” Lucas said calmly. “Not because she’s my girlfriend, but because I think she’ll contribute to the conversation.”

  He stared Jessie down and after a moment, she looked away with a little huff of irritation. She crossed her arms and tapped her toe as we waited for the rest of the pack leadership to join us.

  I turned away from Jessie to greet Rivers, who had entered the room after Sharra. Rivers was technically second-in-command of Wolf pack, but their pack leader was in poor health and more than a little mentally unstable, so Rivers actually led the pack. Since Wolf and Monarch were allies, I assumed Jessie had asked Rivers to come with her for this meeting for protection and moral support. As Rivers gave me a big hug and offered Roomie a cautious scratch between the ears, I could see from the pinched look on Jessie’s face that she had not realized Rivers and I were acquainted, let alone friends. I had to restrain myself from sending her a smug smile. I didn’t want to make the tense atmosphere any worse.

  Within a few minutes, everyone was settling into chairs at the long table. As pack leader, Lucas sat at the head of the table. I didn’t sit next to him since I had no official standing in this group. Instead, I took an empty chair at the far end of the table.

  Mac, the grub captain and the leader of the pack’s hunters, sat to Lucas’s right and Sharra, the guard captain, was on his left. Rivers sat next to Sharra, and an empty seat next to him waited for Jessie.

  Next to Mac were two older pack members who served as advisors to the leadership team. Mauricio and Julian shared the same short, salt-and-pepper hair, perpetually sour expressions, and ultra-conservative attitudes. They were the biggest proponents of the cautious approach that irritated me so much. Lately, it had gotten so bad that even looking at them put me in a foul mood. Shifting my attention away from the advisors to avoid getting worked up, I accidentally caught Jessie’s eye instead. She was still glaring at me, annoyed that Lucas had included me in the meeting.

  Roomie had noticed Jessie’s glowers in my direction. Apparently deciding it was his job to keep Jessie under control, he strolled over to the bank of windows where Jessie stood. She had refused to take a seat, choosing to lean against the wall instead. Roomie sat down at her feet and gave her a menacing stare of his own. She paled a little at the implied threat but lifted her chin disdainfully, trying to ignore him.

  “Are all your people finally here?” Jessie asked, her voice curt.

  “We are,” Lucas said. “Do you want to explain, or shall I?”

  Her lips pressed into a thin line and for the first time I could see anxiety on her face. Whatever had brought her here had her worried. She took a deep breath and looked around the table before telling us, “My pack has been experimenting with bottling the gas from a Burning Bush. You can use it to set off an explosive reaction, rather like a small bomb. The more bottles you use, the larger the explosion. We’ve found it’s very useful when you need to knock down portions of a building in order to scavenge it.” She paused and swallowed hard before she continued.

  “Yesterday, Mateo was able to get into our base and take our entire stockpile of bottled gas.”

  “How did he get into your stockpile?” Mauricio demanded. “Don’t you people have any security?”

  Jessie’s lips pressed into a thin, irritated line as she admitted, “Mateo was able to convince some of our guards to help him. They are being dealt with. The part you need to know is that when we questioned them, we learned that he’s on his way to Goodland with the gas. He says that he plans to destroy the corrupt government at any cost. With so much explosive power at his disposal, I’m afraid of what he might do.”

  3

  There was a moment of ringing silence after Jessie’s revelation, followed by stunned exclamations from almost everyone at the table.

  “How could you let this happen?”

  “How can we stop him?”

  “I knew nothing good could come of experimenting with that gas!”

  “What are you going to do about this?”

  Roomie’s ears flattened and he hissed, annoyed by the clamor of overlapping exclamations. I remained quiet, but my mind raced, trying to figure out where he would go and how we could intercept him. Lucas let the outrage go on for a minute or so, then held up his hands to get our attention.

  “We’ve all been caught by surprise here,” he rumbled, “but it’s important that we calmly discuss the situation and agree on what to do next. We don’t want to make any hasty decisions.”<
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  Mauricio spoke up. “Respectfully, Lucas, why do we need to decide to do anything at all? Mateo is no longer a member of our pack and so he is not our responsibility. The people in Goodland are not our responsibility either. We’re not to blame if the city doesn’t have the precautions in place to protect their citizens against something like this. Why should we send our pack members into danger to protect a city few of us have ever seen? It’s an unfortunate situation, certainly, but I think that for the good of the pack we should stay out of it.”

  Mauricio and Julian thought so much alike that it was certainly no surprise to see Julian nodding in agreement with Mauricio’s opinion. Mac tapped his fingertips thoughtfully against the table a few times before he said reluctantly, “I’m afraid that I am somewhat inclined to agree with Mauricio on this. It seems heartless to know Mateo’s aims and do nothing to stop it, but we need to consider the well-being of our own pack first and foremost.”

  Mac’s brow was deeply furrowed in distress. “I don’t like to think of sitting back and doing nothing to stop him, but sending our people to chase down a madman armed with explosives is not a safe alternative.”

  He turned to look at Jessie and asked her, “Why are you bringing this to us? Mateo left our pack to join yours. It seems that dealing with his plans should be your responsibility.”

  Jessie’s beautiful face was rigid with anger at being questioned, and she tried to push the blame back at our pack. “He may be a member of Monarch pack currently, but it was his time in Liberty that started him on this path,” she said stiffly.

  With a heavy sigh, she finally took a seat at the table and admitted, “We just don’t have the resources to track him down. Monarch pack is housed in a fairly calm area and we have good walls around our compound, so our guards don’t have the experience with outside dangers that yours do. And because we don’t trade with Goodland, we don’t have contacts in the city who could help us find and stop Mateo. You have those contacts.”

  Mauricio nodded in sympathy and even reached out to pat Jessie’s hand. “I understand your distress, my dear, I really do. But I must ask again, why this is our responsibility? We did not send Mateo on this mission, and we do not condone it. But surely the police force and military forces stationed in Goodland are able to handle one man armed with homemade weaponry? It’s better that we stay safely in our city and let the authorities in Goodland manage this threat.”

  There were nods around the table at this reasoning. Even Lucas and Sharra had begun to look convinced, and I knew it was time for me to speak up. A deep breath strengthened my resolve to stay calm and logical. An emotional response would not compare well to Mauricio’s very rational demeanor.

  I stood, both to catch everyone’s attention and to put myself in a subtly dominant position over my listeners. I wasn’t above using a bit of psychology and body language to influence people.

  “I know that you want to protect the pack, Mauricio, but this is not the way to do it. Isolating ourselves is not the best choice in this situation, even setting aside the moral implications of allowing people to be injured and killed just because they don’t live in our city.”

  Mauricio opened his mouth to argue with me, but I spoke over him.

  “With all the security measures that Cruz has put into place of late, I agree that the security forces in Goodland are probably quite capable of catching and stopping Mateo. That might ease our consciences for not acting on the threat, but it would ultimately be big trouble for us. Once Mateo is in custody, they will interrogate him, and eventually he will tell them about Denver and the packs. And at that point, Cruz will destroy this city.”

  I knew that my next words were going to reveal my identity to Jessie and Rivers, but it couldn’t be helped. I needed to use my knowledge of Cruz to add weight to my arguments.

  “Most of you know that I’ve known Cruz for my entire life. Until he turned on us, I was closer to him than to anyone but my father. So I know him well enough to predict how he will react to this. If he feels personally attacked, which he will, he will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat. He will bomb this city completely out of existence to ensure that there is no one left to challenge him.”

  I made eye contact with each person at the table before I made my final statement. “If we don’t find Mateo first, the packs are doomed.”

  The room was utterly silent as everyone absorbed my words. I stayed standing, arms crossed and face stern. They were thinking so hard I could practically see the wheels turning. After a couple of minutes, Rivers was the first to speak.

  “You know Cruz personally?” Rivers’ exclamation of surprise rang false, lacking any authentic astonishment at this revelation about my past.

  I raised one eyebrow, an expression I had spent countless hours perfecting back in my White House days. “I take it this isn’t a big shock to you?”

  Rivers shrugged and grinned. “You know how gossip travels around here, Poppy. As soon as word got around in Liberty pack, it started leaking out to the rest of us. By now I doubt there’s anyone in Denver who doesn’t know who you were.”

  I glanced at Jessie to judge her reaction. She looked more annoyed than ever but not surprised. Apparently, my history was personally offensive to her in some way. I suppressed the eye-roll that her attitude deserved, still focused on maintaining a cool facade. I wasn’t sure whether the loss of anonymity was helpful, created another complication, or made no difference at all, but I wasn’t going to take time to worry about it right now.

  “Well then, if my secret identity is no secret, it’s all the more reason that we can’t turn Mateo loose on Goodland. If all of you know who I am, Mateo certainly knows. When he’s caught, he’ll use that information to bargain and Cruz will learn that I’m hiding here. That puts us right back into a situation where Cruz destroys every trace of this city. We can’t let Mateo go through with this plan of his. It puts every person in Denver in danger,” I told them.

  “I’m going to Goodland to stop Mateo. The pack has contacts I can use to try and track him down before he does anything. And if things go badly and he’s taken into custody before I can get to him, I still have contacts of my own in Goodland. I haven’t used them in the past because I didn’t know who I could trust, but Lucas and his team have investigated some people for me. I know who I can go to at this point, so I can take care of Mateo before he talks and gives us all away.”

  Mauricio’s eyes were piercing as he asked, “And take care of him means …”

  “If I can break him out, I’ll do that. But if I have to have him killed to be sure that he doesn’t turn Cruz loose on this city, I will do it,” I said flatly. I must have looked and sounded convincing because Mauricio nodded, satisfied that I would do what I had to do to keep our packs safe.

  “I’ll go with her,” Sharra announced. “Poppy can take care of the government side of things, and I can deal with the less official types. I also know people who can help transport Mateo back to Denver after we catch up with him.”

  Sharra caught my eye to see what I thought of her decision to accompany me to Goodland, and I gave a small nod. I would be happy to have Sharra at my side for whatever we might find in Goodland. She was smart, tough, and my best friend. I knew she would be a great ally.

  “Fine,” Lucas agreed. “I’m going, too.”

  For a moment my heart leaped at the idea of going back to face Cruz with Lucas by my side, but the immediate protests from the pack council brought me back to earth.

  “You can’t leave the pack,” Julian protested. “You’re the pack leader.”

  “It would be irresponsible for you to go,” Mauricio declared. “You’re needed here.”

  “You know how much I hate to agree with Julian and Mauricio,” I told him, “but they’re right. You can’t just take off at a moment’s notice.”

  “They can manage here without me,” Lucas insisted. “You can’t just take off on your own.”

  “Because we’re girls?�
�� I asked, arching one eyebrow, daring him to agree with me.

  “Because you’re only two people and there is a whole army of people in Goodland who report back to Cruz! I’m not sending you off on a suicide mission just to keep this city safe.”

  “That’s not what this is,” I promised him. “I’m going to be careful, I swear.”

  “Besides,” Sharra added, “you’re more use here monitoring the e-channels. Then if there are any sightings or chatter about Poppy you can scrub it before it causes trouble.”

  “I have a team that can handle that,” Lucas argued, but I could see that he was giving in. He took his responsibilities as pack leader very seriously and his sudden disappearance would cause problems.

  “Then I’ll go,” Rivers volunteered. “You should have some backup.”

  Sharra rolled her eyes. “The same arguments apply, Rivers. You’re leading your pack, too.”

  “I’m only second in command,” he started.

  “Everyone here knows that you’re actually in charge of Wolf pack,” Sharra snapped. “You can’t go, either. Poppy and I are the only ones in this room who can leave on short notice.”

  “Then you’ll take guards,” Lucas said. “You can take Marcii, Nathan, Gabe, and Len.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, that will make us nice and inconspicuous. No one’s going to notice a squad of guards in black leather trooping through the streets.”

  “Come on, Lucas, you know I can slip a couple of people into the city on short notice, but there’s no way I can manage so many,” Sharra added. “Taking that many people will slow us down when we need to move fast. And it would leave you short on guards here, too.”

  Lucas and I locked eyes. I could see his frustration as he tried to find a way to protect us.

  “I know you’re just looking out for us,” I said quietly, “but I honestly think our best chance is for the two of us to go in and move fast and quiet.”