Chapter 188

Grace

I hesitated, not sure what he was up to, but I slipped out of the chair, and he shoved it aside. He took my silverware and my cup and set the food to float off the plate, taking the plate.

“What are you doing?”

“Your cutlery, your furniture, and all that are human products.” He smiled and fluttered his fingers. My phone leaped out of my pocket. “Your cellphone is human-made… Your shoes, your clothes, I could go on. Your house was built by human hands and maintained by mostly human hands. The werewolf population isn’t that large. So, for this little experiment, what do you do when you’re naked, cold, and homeless?”

I looked around, shaking my head. “You’re lying.”

“Do you even know what the States produce?” He asked, tilting his head. “Medicine advances in some areas of technology that are just enough for the little piece of territory of the States. Everything else is imported. So, do you boycott humanity? Your public transit system is going next.”

I set my jaw. “You’re going too far.”

“No, Grace, you’re not thinking far enough. You’re not thinking beyond yourself. A member of the Noir Coven may have been involved with the attack, so you hold it against the entire coven: hundreds of thousands of people you will never meet, who have never even heard of you and wouldn’t even notice if you dropped dead right now.” He shook his head. “And you’re shooting your foot to spite your face to boot.”

“I can replace the memory bank attached to the pack’s system.”

“What about the tablet that found Eason?”

I set my jaw. “I wouldn’t have needed it if Blood Moon hadn’t attacked.”

“And Blood Moon wouldn’t have existed if the WSU didn’t,” he cocked an eyebrow. “So, do you hate werewolves now?”

“Now you’re really taking it too far.”

“A group of any type is not a hive-mind. It is made of multiple minds banded together under one name with a history, good and not. You’re holding an irrational grudge because you feel you can afford to because of werewolf isolationism, and you have no idea what it would really mean to do so… More than that, you aren’t even prepared to do without cooperating with anyone and everyone who will do so.”

“I know that Mooncrest isn’t where it should be, but that’s not to say we’re so helpless that we’d ask for a terrorist’s help.”

“How would you feel if someone who had never met you, never even known you existed, held it against you what one werewolf may have done?”

“The damage a werewolf could do—”

“Murder is murder, Grace,” he said. “Are you going to hold it against Charles that werewolves lost the Werewolf-Lycan war so miserably that your land stake is as small as it is?”

I pressed my lips together. “The States take up most of the continent.”

He laughed. “Did a State map tell you that?”

I opened my mouth and felt like I’d been slapped because, yes. Yes, it had. He chuckled. My food and things returned to place. He set the chair back in place.

“For the record, werewolves started that war, and if Charles’ ancestors took the same stance you are right now, werewolves would have been hunted to extinction ages ago… long before you could evolve into controlling yourself and contribute what you have to the world.”

I swallowed, my blood going cold.

“You know… so little about the world, Grace. Don’t cut yourself off from learning more about it because you feel personally slighted, because you’re afraid of having your whole world changed. You’re too smart for that. You have… too much potential for that.” He sighed. “And I assure you, a witch may have led the attack, but if not the witch then some werewolf in the same position of power so long as the WSU and your president were willing to pay for it. Maybe it wouldn’t have been bombed, but a band of raiders or a large-scale poisoning of the water supply.”

He shook his head. “You have every right to still be shaken and utterly frightened, but don’t take it personally. Almost any werewolf city would have done the job of the same size as Mooncrest would have done the job. You just happened to be at the top of the list, and if you continue to take it to heart and behave like the States haven’t done horrible things like one piece of history determines the future of the race, then your path to Senate is going to be impossible.”

“But—”

“You don’t want to work with anyone who has slighted you, right? I have a feeling that the States’ education made that list quite long.” He shook his head. “Challenge yourself. Get out of your comfort zone, and look a little further than your nose.”

“You’re saying I should forget about it.”

I couldn’t. I could still feel the terror pumping through my veins.

He scoffed. “I’m saying you grow past it before you cut yourself off before you can even get anywhere worthwhile. It would be one thing if you were really interested in just being one of the many empty-headed werewolves who have never sought more, done more, or even questioned a damn thing, but you’re not. Your desire to make the longevity drug while coming from a place of survival took courage.”

He met my gaze. “You saw the information presented to you about when you would die, how you would die, and you asked why. And more than that, you said no. And that took courage… What I don’t understand, and what I now understand, is Eason’s main point of irritation with you is how you can look at your mortality and say I want more and not look at your life, your world, and say, this isn't enough.”

He shook his head. "Maybe that didn't make too much sense. It's… a conversation Eason and I have had too many times for me to trust my thoughts on it, but I hope… it gave you something to think about."

He took his plate, finished eating, and left me there. I couldn’t even eat. My stomach was turning, so I put the food away and looked around my house. I huffed, not wanting to believe it, not wanting to think about it, but…

But George was Charles’ right hand for a reason. He’d been an ambassador for years before all this with Devin. He had experience and knowledge that I just didn’t have. I shuffled down the stairs that led to the basement and sighed. Then, my gaze fell on the washing detergent box, the old one that I used to use. Charles washed our clothes in something else.

I pulled out my phone and walked downstairs to look at the brand’s information.

Made in Evanston.

Distributed by the Warren Pack.

I frowned. Evanston? Not the Evanston Pack? I went looking, but there was no Evaston Pack.

Evanston was a human territory.

I checked the other boxes that Charles used, but all of the boxes were placed within the Clans’ territory. I went back upstairs to check the dishes.

Made in Giuseppe.

Distributed by the Romano Pack.

It seemed like everything that had been in the house before Charles had come had the same set-up: made in a human territory and distributed by a werewolf pack. Even the dishwasher.

I heard the door open as I stood in my kitchen, feeling a bit overtaken and unsettled. Another part of my world had been cracked and shattered, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

“Grace?” Charles called.

I turned to him slowly. He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

I swallowed and looked down at my phone. I pulled the panel off the back.

Made in Riverside.

Distributed by the Silver Eclipse Pack.

My jaw trembled. I felt… stupid and miserable. Charles wrapped his arms around me, stroking my hair.

“You seem troubled.”

“I feel dumb… George made me feel dumb.”

He chuckled. “Did he? What’d he do?”

“… told me I was dumb for trying to not do business with the Noir Coven just because of the actions of one person.”

He hummed. “And?”

“He basically told me to take the same stance with anyone and everyone… and that I’d be homeless and naked.”’

“Harsh.”

I closed my eyes. “I feel like I… like everything I know for sure are just… guesses.”

“That happens when your worldview is shifted so drastically,” he pulled back, cupping my face. “Though, I’m proud that you’re… seemingly trying to process how little you know.”

I looked up at him. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“No. You’re just unknowledgeable right now,” he said. He kissed my cheek. “That’s not something that has to remain that way forever.”

I slumped against him. “Could you… Could you show me a map of the continent?”

He pulled me close, pulled out his phone, the magical one, and flicked across a few screens. Then, he turned the screen toward me, and the tumbled, tumultuous feelings that hit me almost made me choke.

It was nothing like what I knew.