Most of the House has woken by the time Sevro drags in a dead wolf by its legs. It’s already gutted and skinned.
“Goblin has brought victuals!” Cassius applauds daintily. “Hmm. We will need firewood. Does anyone know how to make a fire?” Sevro does. Cassius grins. “Of course you do, Goblin.”
“Found the sheep too easy to kill?” I ask. “Where’d you get the weapon?”
“Born with them.” His fingernails are bloody.
Antonia wrinkles her nose. “Where in the hell were you raised?”
Sevro presents his middle finger to her, the crux.
“Ah,” Antonia sniffs. “Hell, then.”
“So, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, it will be some time before anyone has enough bars of merit to become Primus,” Cassius declares when we’ve all gathered around the table. “Naturally, I was thinking that we need a leader before Primus is chosen.” He stands and scoots away from Sevro so that his fingers rest on the edge of the standard. “In order for us to function, we must have immediate and coordinated decisions.”
“And which of you two fools do you think it should be?” Antonia asks dryly. Her large eyes glance from him to me. She turns to regard the others, voice sweet like thick syrup. “At this point, what makes any of us better suited to lead than anyone else?”
“They got us dinner … and breakfast,” Lea says meekly from beside Roque. She gestures to the leftover picnic victuals.
“While running right into a trap—” Roque reminds everyone.
Antonia nods sagely. “Yes, yes. A wise point. Rashness can hurt us.”
“—but they did fight free,” Roque finishes, earning a glare from Antonia.
“With table legs against real weapons,” Titus rumbles his approval, with a qualification. “But then they fled and left the food behind. So it was Fitchner who gave us the food. They would have given it to the enemy, delivering food like Browns.”
“Yeah, that’s a twist on what happened,” Cassius says.
Titus shrugs. “I only saw you running like a little Pixie.”
Cassius goes cold.
“Watch your manners, goodman.”
Titus holds up his hands. “Merely observing; why so angry, little prince?”
“You watch your manners, goodman, or we’ll have to trade our words for blades.” Cassius wields his looted pitchfork and points it at Titus. “You heed, Titus au Ladros?”
Titus holds gaze with him, then glances over at me, grouping me with Cassius. Suddenly Cassius and I form a tribe in everyone’s eyes. The paradigm shifts that quickly. Politics. I take my time twirling my looted knife between my fingers. The whole table watches the knife. Sevro especially. My Red right hand has collected a million metric tones of helium-3 with its dexterity. My left, half a million. The dexterity of an average lowRed would startle these Golds. I dazzle them. The knife is like a hummingbird’s wings in my nimble fingers. I look calm but my mind is racing.
We have all killed. Those were the stakes. What are they now? Titus has already made it clear that he wants to kill. I could stop him now, I wager. Drive my knife into his neck. But the thought almost makes me drop my blade. I feel Eo’s death in my hands. I hear the wet thump of Julian dying. I can’t bear the blood, especially when it doesn’t seem necessary. I can back this huge puppy down.
I level my eyes coldly at Titus. His smile is slow, the disdain barely noticeable. He’s calling me out. I have to fight him or something if he doesn’t look away—that’s what wolves do, I think.
My knife spins and spins. And suddenly Titus is laughing. He looks away. My heart slows. I’ve won. I hate politics. Especially in a room full of alphas.
“Of course I hear you, Cassius. You’re standing ten feet away,” Titus chuckles.
Titus doesn’t think he’s strong enough to challenge Cassius and me openly, even with his pack. He saw what we did to the Ceres boys. But just like that the lines are drawn. I stand suddenly, confirming that I am with Cassius. It strips Titus of any momentum.
“Is there anyone who wouldn’t want either of us to lead?” I ask.
“I wouldn’t want Antonia to lead. She’s a bitch,” Sevro says.
Antonia shrugs her agreement but cocks her head.
“Cassi, why are you in such a rush to find us a leader?” she asks.