Chapter Eight

 

“Time!”

Kate breathed a sigh of relief as the trainer called for her and the rest of the shifters around her to end their set of pushups. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she rose to her feet and willed the burning muscle pain in her arms to go away. Her first full day of training had been grueling, made no less difficult by the fact that she had not had nearly enough sleep last night.

Mostly because of Otto. Her cheeks burned at the thought, and she tried to think of something other than Otto, sure that everyone was going to see her blushing and know why.

In truth, no one was paying much mind to her now. The other shifter trainees, all men, were shuffling toward the training room’s exit, moaning about how hard the trainers had worked them that day. Kate felt a little better after hearing their complaints. She had done her best to keep up with the men, determined that they would not beat her at anything. But the day’s work had been much harder than anything she’d ever attempted. She’d almost given up several times, but she managed to make it through. Barely. Now, all she wanted was to go back to her room and collapse into her bed. She didn’t even feel like she had the energy to eat.

But before she could limp her way out of the building, one of the shifters from the resistance, a wolf shifter named Kellen, intercepted her.

“We need to call an emergency meeting,” he said in a low voice, glancing nervously around to make sure that the trainers weren’t listening in. The trainers were all still back in the training room, though. They rarely came out to the back rooms where the shifters hung out.

Kate furrowed her brow. “Why? What’s up?”

“We think that there’s going to be a special Games event soon. Usually, when the trainers start working us this hard, it means there’s an event coming up that they’re trying to prepare us for. Today was the most brutal training day I’ve ever seen. I’d say there’ll be a special event called within the week.”

Kate nodded, her heart starting to pound within her chest as she realized what that meant. “I see. So if we want to carry out our vault plan, we need to start making plans now.”

“Precisely. I think you should call a meeting for tonight.”

Kate felt uncomfortable with the fact that she had to call the meeting. Calling her own meeting felt like a complete usurpation of Otto’s power. But she didn’t have much of a choice. She was leading this charge, and she needed to make sure a plan had been put in place.

“Um, how exactly do I call a meeting?” she asked, her cheeks starting to burn a bit again. She was embarrassed to admit that she didn’t even know how to call a simple meeting. That didn’t seem like a good start for a leader.

“Just tell Leo you want to call one. He’s the best at getting together a group and telling everyone where to meet.”

Kate nodded again, then glanced back at where Otto was standing. She hadn’t even realized she was looking at him until Kellen spoke up.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s a great guy and we all respect him. But you’re right. We need to take more risks. I’ve got a family back in Bear Hollow that I’d like to be able to move back to see. And that’s never going to happen as long as we’re creeping along timidly.”

Kate sighed. She appreciated the encouragement and support, but she still felt guilty for undermining Otto’s authority. It was hard to sleep with a man and then call meetings behind his back the next day. Especially when you had a sneaking suspicion that the man in question was your lifemate.

Kate tried to push away the thoughts of lifemates, but she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t an expert on matters like this, but she knew enough to know that when you were instantly attracted to someone, then felt a warm glow in your core when you finally gave in and slept with them, chances were high that person was your lifemate, and you’d formed the lifemate bond.

Kate swallowed hard and turned back to Kellen. “I’ll have Leo set up a meeting. Be on the lookout for him to bring you details.

Kellen grinned and gave Kate a thumbs up, then turned to head out of the building. Kate looked back toward Otto one more time, wondering if she should say something to him. But Otto had disappeared now. In fact, Kate seemed to be the last one in the training building. With a heavy heart, she turned to limp out of the building. She needed to get back to her room and start making some plans for what she would say in the meeting. But it was hard to be excited about planning the raid when she knew that Otto was not going to have any part in it. She had hoped he would come around when he saw that everyone else wanted to be part of the plan, too. But the more everyone cheered the plan, the more he seemed to dig his feet in and refuse.

Just my luck that my lifemate would turn out to be the most stubborn, unreasonable man I’ve ever met.

Kate wondered as she hobbled in the direction of the Severson estate whether Otto felt any sort of lifemate bond toward her. She guessed not. If he had, wouldn’t he have come up and said something to her? Wouldn’t he feel doubly responsible for making sure that the plan to raid the vaults went smoothly? After all, lifemates were bound to protect each other no matter what. Kate frowned. Otto must not have felt anything. And if he hadn’t felt the lifemate bond, then maybe she was imagining things. After all, both parties should know it if they were lifemates. Right?

Kate determined then and there that she would push Otto out of her mind, no matter how hard it was to do so. He was a distraction, nothing more. Yes, she found him attractive. But that didn’t mean anything. Lots of men were attractive, especially shifters. If she let herself get distracted every time a handsome wolf or bear walked by, she would never make any progress toward starting the revolution.

Kate reached her room and pulled out some paper to start drawing plans. She felt her exhaustion in her bones, but it didn’t matter. She had to push through and stay awake. There was a lot of work to do.

 

* * *

 

Eight hours later, just after one in the morning, Kate sat in a crowded room with the rest of the resistance crew. The only absent member was Otto, but no one seemed to notice or care. Everyone was talking in low, excited tones, trying to keep their voices down for security reasons. But the energy in the room hung so thick that Kate almost felt like she could reach out and cut it with a knife. She felt both ecstatic and sad at the same time. She could hardly wait to present her plan to the rest of the shifters. She knew she was finally going to be making a difference in the underground war against Gilt Hollow and the oppressive full humans. But she couldn’t completely escape the sadness she felt, knowing that Otto wasn’t here, and that he didn’t support her plan.

She could not think of him without feeling at least a little bit sad. He could have been her greatest ally. They could have done great things together. Instead, they were enemies even though they were fighting for the same side.

Enemies who sleep together, apparently.

Kate felt her cheeks heating up into a blush, and she quickly began calling the meeting to order. She had to get her thoughts off of Otto.

But just when she had finally managed to get all of the excited shifters in the room to settle down into silence, a series of sharp raps sounded at the door. Kate’s heart froze in her chest. The series of knocks had been the exact sequence of knocking that the resistance used as a password. But every single shifter who was part of the resistance was here already. Every single shifter except Otto. Which could only mean one thing: the person behind the knocking was Otto.

Leo glanced at Kate with a raised eyebrow, and she nodded at him. She wondered if he’d said anything to Otto about the meeting. She hadn’t specifically told Leo not to give Otto the meeting details, but everyone knew Otto didn’t like the plan to raid the vaults. So why was he here, at this meeting?

Probably to cause trouble, Kate guessed. But still, he was a member of the resistance. If he wanted to participate in this, it was not up to her to stop him. He had as much right to be here as anyone.

When he entered the room and sat down in the back, the room had grown so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Otto met Kate’s gaze, and she thought she saw a challenge of some sort in his eyes.

“Please, proceed,” he said in a sarcastic voice. “You’re in charge here, after all.”

Kate swallowed hard and nodded, trying to swallow back the hurt feelings that filled her. She shouldn’t have been surprised by his attitude. She knew he didn’t like this plan, and that he thought she had stolen away the leadership of the resistance. Which she sort of had, even if unintentionally. But still. They had slept together last night, for crying out loud. Couldn’t he at least act civil toward her?

He’s definitely not my lifemate. Whatever she had thought she felt toward him, Kate now knew could not have been the lifemate bond. If Otto had been her fated lifemate, he would have felt the bond, too. And then he would have been doing his best to protect and care for her. He wouldn’t have waltzed into this meeting just to act like a jerk.

Kate held her head high and gave him a broad, sweet smile. “Well, then. It looks like everyone is here. Let’s get this meeting going.”

She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had gotten under her skin. And she would not get down on herself for sleeping with a guy who had turned out to be an asshole. After all, she had had some fun. He was objectively attractive, and the sex had been good. She was a grown woman who deserved a night of consensual fun now and then. She’d had a good night with him, and there was nothing wrong with that.

So why did everything feel so wrong to her? Why did she have the strange sensation that her world was falling apart?

Kate forced herself to keep smiling as she looked around at the other shifters. She would not let Otto see the pain he had caused her heart. She was too proud for that. If he was going to act like she meant nothing to him, then she would return the favor, and act like he meant nothing to her. Two could play that game.

“Thank you all for coming tonight on such short notice,” Kate said as she made eye contact with each shifter. “I’ve heard from a few of you now that you think it’s very likely that we will see a special Shifter Games event soon. The next scheduled event isn’t for a few months, but based on how hard training has been, many believe that a special event will be happening within the next week. This will give us our shot at raiding the Severson vault, as long as we are prepared. And after tonight, I hope we’ll be prepared.”

Otto snorted. “You’ll never be truly prepared. This whole idea is preposterous, and someone is going to get killed.”

Kate glared at him for a moment, then turned her attention back to the other shifters with a bright smile. “Otto brings up a good point. This will be a dangerous mission, and there is a possibility that anyone involved in it will be killed. We cannot guarantee complete safety, and if any of you are not comfortable with that, I certainly don’t want you to feel obligated to participate. No one will think any less of you if you don’t.”

“We all want to help,” Kellen said loudly from his spot near the back of the room. “That’s why we’re here. We want to bring down the Gilt Hollow system and achieve freedom for the shifters. Freedom or death, I say!”

“Freedom or death!” several of the other shifters echoed. “Freedom or death!”

Kate gave Otto a triumphant look. “I feel the same. Now, let’s lay out some possibilities for our plan.”

Kate opened the notes she had made, and for the next half-hour, she discussed possibilities for who should try to raid the vault, who should be responsible for putting on an extra-long show during one of the matches, and who should be backup in case something went wrong. There was a lot to do, and there was a role for everyone to play. Kate was impressed with how many of the shifters volunteered for the most dangerous of roles—the shifters who would actually be responsible for going to the Severson vault, taking out the guards, and breaking into the vault. Kate had thought that most would be reluctant to commit to something so dangerous, but all of these men seemed eager to lay down their lives for the cause.

All of them except Otto.

He spent the entire meeting sneering at her, with his arms crossed against his chest. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything after his initial outburst. But his presence unnerved Kate. She almost wished he would say something, just so she could fight with him and ease the tension building up inside of her. She kept telling herself to remain calm and to focus on her task at hand.

After almost two hours, Kate finally felt that she could draw the meeting to a close. There would always be more to discuss, but as things stood right now, they at least had a skeleton of a plan ready. The special Games event could be held as soon as tomorrow, and still the shifter resistance could manage to pull off the great heist they had planned. Kate hoped there would be at least a few more days, so they could get some rest and possibly have one more meeting before needing to take action. But nothing was guaranteed, and she was happy that the crew was ready, no matter when the Games event took place.

“Okay, well, I think we’re done here,” Kate said, stifling back a yawn. “Unless anyone has something they want to add last minute?”

The shifters in the room all shook their head no. All except Otto, but that didn’t surprise Kate. She figured he’d been biding his time, waiting for the very end to try to cause trouble and get the last word in.

“You’re missing something very important. And very obvious.” His arms were still crossed, and he looked at Kate with a challenge in his eyes.

“Oh? And what’s that?” Kate didn’t feel like dealing with his attitude, but she tried to stay calm for the other shifters in the room. If she had become their impromptu leader, then she needed to show them that she could handle pressure in any form—even in the form of an obnoxious wolf shifter.

“What are you going to do if the ‘long match’ you’ve set up doesn’t end up being long enough? Sure, you can drag out a match for a while. But only for so long. If you try to drag one match out for too long, the Gilt Hollow nobles are going to get suspicious. Don’t you think you should have several shifters planning to take extra long with their match? That way, you won’t have any one match going way too long, but you’ll still give the shifters raiding the vault plenty of time.”

Kate bit her lip, unsure of what to say. Otto was right. Not only was he right, but what he had said was also so obvious. She should have thought of it first, but she hadn’t. That realization made her stomach turn a bit. What other important details had she left out?

In that moment, she caught a glimpse of what Otto must have been feeling for the last several months. The last several years. She realized that any little mistake on her part might cost other shifters their lives. She would feel awful if that happened. In fact, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. The pressure was enough to make her want to abandon altogether any plan that had even the slightest bit of risk.

And suddenly, she understood where Otto was coming from. He didn’t want to miss any details that would cost anyone their lives, either. So he had held back, not wanting to take any steps forward until he’d thought of everything. Kate also understood in that moment that she needed Otto’s help. She hadn’t wanted to admit it before, but she wasn’t sure she could do this without him. He had had years of practice at looking out for these shifters. He could double check all of her plans and make sure that she wasn’t missing anything.

That’s why he came to this meeting, she realized. He hadn’t come to give her a hard time. He’d come because he truly cared about the shifters, and he knew how hard it was to manage risks for big missions. He wanted to make sure that everything had been considered. And he had waited until the end to bring up his point not because he was trying to be an asshole, but because he was trying to give Kate and the others a chance to save face and come up with solutions on their own. Kate felt humbled.

“Thank you,” she stammered out. “That’s a good point. I’ll adjust the plans to make sure we have plenty of shifters ready to do long matches.”

She stared down at her clipboard of notes, and wrote a few more names in the column where she had listed the shifters who would be responsible for fighting extra long matches. Then she looked back up at Otto.

“Um, anything else?” she asked sheepishly.

He grinned at her, giving her the same smug sort of look she’d given him dozens of times. “That’s all I’ve got for now. You did pretty good, kid.”

Kate felt herself blushing, and she quickly looked down at her clipboard again. It annoyed her that he called her kid. Was he trying to cut her down to size? Or did he mean it affectionately? God, she never should have slept with him. Doing so had stirred up all sorts of feelings and questions that never should have been stirred up.

“Okay, well, I’ll get copies of all these plans done tonight, and have Leo get a copy to each of you before the end of breakfast tomorrow. This goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway just in case: make sure you don’t leave your copy of the notes anywhere that any of the Gilt Hollow full humans could find it. Hopefully we’ll have a few more days before any Shifter Games match is announced, but in the meantime at least we know we have a base plan in place.”

And with that, the meeting ended. Kate half-expected Otto to stick around and talk to her once she had dismissed everyone, but he didn’t. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed by that, but she told herself not to waste time thinking about it right now. She had a lot of work still ahead of her tonight, if she was going to make copies of the vault raid plan for all of the shifters in time for Leo to deliver them before breakfast was over.

Sticking her chin out stubbornly, she started making her way back to her room, determined not to give Otto another thought.

Easier said than done.