Graham folded his arms. “Can’t a Shifter get sucked off in his own kitchen without his neighbors having a meeting about it? It’s my business who I mate with.”
“A Lupine, you said,” Norval went on. He’d gone white about the mouth, and Graham smelled his fear, but Norval was angry enough to stand and not run away. “You got us down here with the promise that you’d take a Lupine mate from my clan or the Las Vegas ones. I can barely hold my clan together, McNeil. They’re ready to shove you out of power unless you start your dynasty.”
“I got you down here any way I could, because the humans were forcing us to leave,” Graham said. “If I didn’t agree that all my shithead Lupines would get on the buses and haul their asses to this Shiftertown, the humans were going to round us up and kill us all. Humanely, they said. Only humans could name a kind of killing after themselves. Notice they only apply it to animals.”
During the speech, the others moved uneasily. The sole woman, the second to one of the Las Vegas Lupine clan leaders, was the only one who kept still, her gaze on Graham. Females tended to be braver than males.
“You need to choose,” the woman said.
“I won’t choose you, Muriel,” Graham said. “You’re a total bitch.”
He kept his tone and stance casual, as though his clan leaders ganging up on him meant nothing to him. Inside, Graham’s heart was pounding, his mouth dry with the incessant thirst, his body heat high from the near-sex he’d had with Misty. He was drowning in feelings for her, mixed with annoyance at his Shifters and fear of what the Fae was doing to him.
“I wouldn’t touch you, Graham,” Muriel returned. “I’m already in a mate agreement.”
With another poor Lupine in Graham’s clan. An agreement they called it. She’d made the Lupine do that instead of outright mate-claim her, because Muriel wanted to keep her options open, in case she got a better offer.
“There are four unmated Lupine females among our three clans,” Norval said. “We expect you to choose one before the end of our first year in this Shiftertown. Such was your promise.”
“Things have changed.” Graham had been convinced once upon a time that any dilution of Shifter blood weakened the pack and could drag down an entire clan. But since moving here, he’d found his old ideas rearranging themselves. He’d met Iona, the half-human, half-Shifter woman Eric had mated with. He’d bet Iona could wipe up all six of these Lupines and have energy left over to take on Graham. Graham didn’t bring this up, because all Shifters had agreed not to talk about Iona’s half Shifterness. But they knew.
“You need to decide,” Norval said. “The clan leaders aren’t going to wait forever.”
Graham walked to Norval, stepping from grass to sidewalk, effectively leaving his territory to face Norval and the others on neutral ground. He didn’t need territory advantage to intimidate.
“That’s right,” Graham said. “I decide. And if I decide a human mate is the best thing for me and my clan, then you’ll have to live with it.”
“Or we challenge your leadership,” Norval said.
“Or you challenge my leadership.” Graham gave him a nod. Challenging a leader who endangered Shifters was every Shifter’s right. “But you’d better be prepared to win. And Goddess knows what Eric would say about it if you did win. You know what an interfering ass**le he is.”
He heard growls from the Las Vegas Lupines, anger at Graham for talking about Eric like that. They liked Eric leading them, Goddess help them. Lupines giving themselves over to Felines. What’s the world coming to?
“Tell you what,” Graham said. “You all go home and decide among yourselves which clan you think should be dominant. Because if I pick a female from one of your clans, you know that clan will increase in power. I hope you’re all cool with that. Once you figure out which of you should outrank the other, come back and present your females. Then I’ll give you my final answer.”
The leaders didn’t look at each other, but Graham saw them move a little bit apart from each other. Subtly.
That should shut them up for a while. They’d been so focused on forcing Graham to make a decision—or refuse to, giving them the incentive they needed to try for a leadership grab—that they hadn’t thought about the fact that Graham’s mate would increase dominance of her clan.
It was all stupid anyway, because the humans didn’t like Shifters changing leadership. The humans thought they assigned leadership; they’d barely accepted Graham to stay leader of his Shifters. Eric and Graham had talked long and hard to convince them that Graham was best at keeping the Elko Shifters under control. The humans wanted the Shifters to live quietly and not cause trouble, so they’d agreed.
Shifters knew who led and who didn’t, regardless of what humans thought, but they sometimes had to be covert about it.
“Go chew on that,” Graham said. “And stop looking in my windows.”
“You have to take a mate sooner or later,” Norval said. “You know that.”
Norval delivered his declaration with a sharp nod of his head, then he walked away, carefully not turning his back in Graham’s direction. His second drifted after him.
The Las Vegas leaders walked away too, only Muriel giving Graham any kind of deferential farewell.
Graham knew Norval was right. If Graham’s son had survived—he’d be full-grown and powerful by now—then his Shifters wouldn’t give him so much grief about his mate. Eric’s choice of half-human, half-Shifter Iona hadn’t caused a murmur, because Eric had Jace, a strong son, plus his sister Cassidy was very dominant.