“I am going to say this one time, so listen up!” Kai said with a deep, booming Alpha voice. “We do not change humans for fun. We have rules that our society has followed for thousands of years. If the rules are broken, wolves die. I can speak for every wolf alive when I say that we will NOT be changing humans to grow our numbers. Go home!” he roared.

A few of the younger teenagers wearing wolf t-shirts booed and walked away, but the man who stood behind his wife in the wheelchair came forward. She was in her early thirties, a breathing skeleton. I swallowed hard and tried to control my emotions. She reminded me of our Anna before we saved her.

“But to save a life? She’s terminal. One month to live.” The husband hunched over her wheelchair, a broken man looking for any option. He was maybe thirty-five years old, but this disease had aged them both beyond that. My heart hurt for them. This was the kind of shit that would keep me up at night. Anna met Kai’s eyes. Oh, Anna. Our sweet Anna who was dying of cancer when I found out she was Trent’s mate.

I could feel Kai’s pity through the mate bond. “Women rarely survive the change. It’s a dangerous process. It’s painful. If it worked, your wife would live on for a hundred years and you would grow old and die,” Kai said as the camera panned back and forth between them.

The man shrugged. “I would rather her die trying to be saved than waste away before my eyes. I would love nothing more than to watch her be a strong and powerful werewolf. Even if it meant I grew old and died without her. Wouldn’t you do the same for someone you loved?”

I saw a flash of weakness fall over my mate’s face, but then it was replaced with a cold, hard Alpha glare. Kai gritted his jaw. “No, that’s not how we work. I’m sorry.”

Kai jumped off of the pick-up truck and I slipped my hand into his as we began to walk away. When we were far enough away that I knew we were alone, I turned to face him. The thick trees surrounded us as I looked up into his eyes.

“Not what you had in mind when you told the humans about our kind, huh?”

His deep brown eyes held so much emotion.

He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. I forgot how weak humans were. Cancer, diabetes, mental illness. We don’t get any of it.”

Standing on my tiptoes, I kissed him lightly. “Maybe it’s something to bring up with the council.” I raised an eyebrow.

“What, take in all the terminal cases and change them? Our numbers would blow up. The human government would feel threatened. They only tolerate us now because they need us, and they out number us. You forget that many wolves die in the process of the change. You haven’t seen that. No!” Kai said and walked off.

I ran after him. “I’m just saying a few here and there wouldn’t hurt. It’s good PR and the decent thing to do.”

He gave me a side glance and shook his head. “Sometimes I’m not sure if it’s your greatest strength or your greatest weakness.”

I stopped. “What?”

“Your heart,” he said seriously.

I smiled. “Probably a weakness, but I don’t care.”

He smiled softly and looked off to the side. “The moment the first human died during the change it would ruin all we have built with them.”

I sighed, because he was right. This relationship we had with the humans was fragile.

Kai creased his brow. “Alexa wants us to come home. The vampire kid is up and feeling better.”

Duty calls. I officially decided that I needed a damn vacation.

*

Jeremy, Alek, Kai, and I sat around the kitchen table. My mom was back in the guest room with Luna and we were waiting on Earl and Todd. Kai’s dad had gone to Seattle with Shamus to have a meeting about Sadie. Ten females had been taken by the vampires. Ten. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we needed to act quickly. Find Layla and snuff out this fire before it grew. She had an entire bag of my blood now. It only took one drink to make her fertile. I had a million questions about how vampire fertility worked. Was she fertile forever now? I didn’t think so because of what Jeremy said about her needing more blood. Did the men need to drink it? Did they drink off of her? I shuddered at the thought. A knock at the door snapped me back to reality, as Kai squeezed my hand.

“Come in!” Kai roared and Earl and Todd entered. They were dressed in full army fatigues.

Earl nodded to all of us and then looked Alek in the eye. “I’ve spoken to the chapter presidents across the country. Most are in agreement that it would be wise to donate blood to the vampires willing to join our fight.”

Alek looked shocked. “Thank you.”

Earl nodded. “We can choose to stop at any time. Our goal is to keep humanity thriving for thousands of years to come. Layla and anyone else associated with her will be wiped out. After that time, maybe we can all coexist.”

Kai grabbed Earl’s shoulder. “Well said. I will get some mobile blood donor trucks up here. Thank you.”

Earl nodded. Todd had been quiet the entire time, he was staring at Kai with an expression I couldn’t read.

“Is there a problem?” I questioned Todd. I couldn’t have a loose cannon on our inner circle.

Earl looked uncomfortable as Todd looked at me. “Is it true that werewolves don’t get sick?”

I sighed. He must be referring to the commotion with the newswoman. “Yes,” I told him truthfully.

He froze. “Is it true that a sick human can be changed into a werewolf and be healthy again?”