I swallowed.
He was right.
“We should think about what we can do and not lose our cool.”
“Emely, just realize it. They have our pack in the palm of their hand. Father wants me to be the next Alpha... I should never have let something like this happen.”
He ran a stressed hand through his hair, as if it was his fault me and Vivienna had gotten into a fight.
“Right. But soon no one will care what happened.”
I felt a little ashamed, because I was aware of my guilt, but would he have done it differently? Would he have let a Quatura push him around?
“Why do you always say that? Why do you always have everything figured out like that, but I don't?”
And suddenly, Nash fell completely out of character.
“Come on, we'll talk outside,” I said and pulled my somewhat distraught brother out into the fresh night air. My body relaxed instantly.
“You don't really believe I have a plan...” I laughed, a little overwhelmed by the situation.
“I just know it. You've always been the strategist.” Nash propped himself up against a car, which on closer inspection turned out to be Hunter's.
“You've always been better than me.”
I rarely experienced Nash like that. He used to be like that, yes, three years ago, before everything had changed. Before Mady had changed him. So, I didn't know how to react to him now.
I did the next best thing and put a hand on his right shoulder.
“Nash, you're the best person to lead this pack. And your reaction up there was the right one.”
He didn't look at me, just looked grimly at the ground while his jaw worked hard.
“You don't understand, Emy.”
It hurt me a little inside that he just said that. I was his sister, and if anyone knew him, it was me, right? Nash didn't see that I stood by him. Every time.
I sighed.
“You should go back to the guys. I'm sure they're wondering what's going on,” he suddenly said, pushing away from the car.
“And you?” I asked hesitantly.
“I need a few minutes to myself.”
I nodded.
Of course, I was worried about him. But the others didn't know what was going on and leaving them up there with the DeLoughreys might not have been so wise.
“You can be reached by phone?” I asked.
Nash held up his phone and smiled slightly before unlocking his lock screen, a selfie of the two of us.
I turned and made my way past the smoking high school kids, ignoring the haunting smell of weed, when I suddenly spotted an all-too-familiar face.
“Mia?!” I looked stunned at the girl in the miniskirt with the cigarette in her mouth. “What on earth are you doing here?”
I took the cigarette out of her mouth and threw it on the ground, stepping on it afterward. Then I gave the other guilty-looking girls around her a suspicious look before pulling Julian's little sister away from the entrance.
I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Julian's number.
“No, please.” Mia looked at me pleadingly, but I waited until an alarmed Julian answered the phone.
“Julian?”
Mia scrunched up her eyes and grabbed her head.
“Are you at the party at the Dark Lion Club by any chance?”
“No. Why should I?”
“Because I ask you now if you'd like to come by spontaneously and pick up your sister.”
“What?! What's she doing there? Is she smoking? Is she drinking?”
He'd told me the other day that he'd caught her smoking outside Lola's Diner. Something you weren't supposed to do as a Senseque if you wanted to keep a usable lung in wolf form.
“No, she doesn't drink,” I assured him, looking at Mia in warning.
