Chapter Twelve
Asher
I left Rose early the next morning to run home. She was going to speak with her aunt, try to persuade her to let me heal her, and I'd be back later in the day. Hopefully, we'd be able to heal Paula and run away together after that. I truly was tired of the clan politics and the idea of starting a new life with Rose somewhere else, free from all of that was more appealing than anything I could imagine.
As I stepped inside my father's house, though, I could see he wasn't happy.
“Where were you?” he asked me.
I shot him an odd look. “Why does it matter?” I ask. “You've never questioned me before.”
“Listen,” he said, rubbing his temples as he spoke, “I talked to Mariana. I know everything. I know about the human.”
I leaned against his kitchen counter and shrugged. “So? We aren't prohibited from being involved with humans. As I seem to recall, you've had more than a few human girlfriends in your time.”
My father slammed his fists against the table. “You're less than six months out from your wedding, Asher,” he said, his voice low and menacing. “You're marrying the future queen of the N'gasso and you can't keep your dick in your pants a little bit longer?”
For my father to talk to me that way – after everything I'd done for the clan, everything I'd sacrificed – made the rage inside of me start to boil. Before I could stop myself, I yelled back at him with absolute fury.
“I've given my entire life to this clan, dad,” I shouted. “Everything I have. I'm even willing to marry a woman I can't stand, for the sake of this clan. But I'm done, dad. I'm just – done. I've got nothing more I can give.”
I turned away from him, trying to calm down and keep myself together.
“I guess you don't have to worry about marrying Mariana anymore,” my father said. “The agreement? Everything we fought so hard for? It's over. Mariana called off the wedding today -- which if you hadn't been so busy screwing your human whore, you might already know.”
“She's not a whore,” I said through clenched teeth. “Don't you dare speak of her that way.”
“Do you love her?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don't know. I might,” I said.
“You're not allowed to love, son,” he said. “You're next in line to the throne. You need to marry yourself a queen. And since Mariana is apparently now off the table, you're going to marry someone in our clan –”
“No, I'm not,” I countered. “I told you. I'm done.”
“Like hell you are,” he yelled. “You've brought a war to our clan, you're going to fix it. Clean up your mess, Asher. I raised you better than this.”
“The war was started before I ever got involved with Rose,” I shouted. “I know your memory is going, but I think the murders of our people – and theirs – started the ball rolling on this war.”
“Perhaps,” he said. “But you offending Mariana and the N'gasso the way you have, by carrying on with this human – you certainly didn't help matters any. You humiliated Mariana. You exacerbated the tension that already existed. This is now your mess, Asher. I expect you to clean it up.”
He was right. I hadn't started it, but I hadn't helped, either. This was now my mess. But I couldn't deny my feelings for Rose. And I deserved to be happy. I turned and glared at my father, who was staring daggers straight back at me. He was so firm and clear in that moment, it was hard to believe that five minutes from now, he might not even recall having this conversation.
But I would. I'd remember it all. And I'd resent him for it forever.
“The relationship with the human is over,” he said. “From this moment forward, you are not allowed to go anywhere near her. Are we clear?”
He stormed out of the house and went out back to the meeting area. I could hear bears roaring in the distance. My clan was there, and by the sounds of it, they were there in force. My father was whipping them into a frenzy because according to him, we were at war.
And I had no idea what I was going to do about any of it.
~ooo000ooo~
“I need to speak to Cameron,” I said. “It's vitally important, Sheriff.”
“I'm sorry, what did I say the last time?” he said, giving me a condescending smirk. “Oh, that's right. Unless you have information about the crime or are Cameron's attorney, there's no reason for you to be here.”
“Do you want a war in the streets out there, Dean?” I almost shouted. “Because unless you let me talk to him, that's very well what you may have on your hands. I'm trying to head this off, but I need some help.”
Yes, I used his first name, reminded him that I knew him before he was the Sheriff. Before he had a tin badge and a power trip to go along with that chip on his shoulder. He snarled at me when I called him by his first name, blatantly disrespecting him. But I needed to shake him up and get through to him.
“If you don't let me talk to him,” I said, doing my best to regain my composure, “you're going to get a war out there. Right now, there are others out there preparing to fight, and if I can prove that Cameron didn't shoot Clay, I think we can stop this. I think we can settle it all and let the cooler heads prevail here, man. The last thing I want to see is a war in this town. But I need your help.”
“You need my help?” he spat at me. “Do you think I care if a bunch of monsters get themselves killed in some stupid war? Hardly. In fact, I think the town might finally be taking out its own trash. And that ain't a bad thing.”
I sighed and then took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I was trying to be calm and logical about everything, but this asshole was really testing my patience.
“We run the industries around here,” I reminded him. “Most of the jobs in town, come from us. Do you really want all of that to fail just because you're on a power trip? Just because you don't like my kind very much? Are a few child molesters and rapists worth that much to you?”
He didn't answer me. He just smirked at me. The cocky son of a bitch.
“What about the innocent lives that'll be lost out there? Innocents that manage to get caught in the crossfire?” I asked. “Do you really think only the monsters are going to wind up dead in the end?”
The Sheriff nodded. “I do, actually,” he said. “In fact, let me show you something, Asher.”
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a gun. I watched as he unloaded it, sliding the bullets out of the wheel and placing them on the table in front of me.
“Do you know what you're looking at?” he asked.
“Bullets?” I said.
I was confused and didn't know what he was getting at since regular bullets didn't work on us – something he knew quite well already.
“Pick one up – but do it carefully. I'd hate for you to accidentally hurt yourself,” he said.
I reached for the bullet and as soon as my fingers touched it, a searing pain shot through me. I dropped it on the table, cursing under my breath.
“Silver bullets, Asher,” he said. “We are outfitting all of our weapons with silver bullets. So, when this little war of yours breaks out, you monsters will no longer have the upper hand. We'll be coming for you. All of you. And this time, we're not going to stop until every last one of you has been wiped off the face of this planet.”
“You've been preparing for this,” I said. “You've been planning for it.”
“Yep. For some time now, actually,” he said. “I finally found a bullet maker who'd work with us and produce our little bear killers in the volumes I needed, so we're finally good to go. If a war breaks out, we step in and shut that shit down.”
He knew about the conflict that was coming all along. Somehow, he knew this war was brewing long before we did. But how? I stared at him, long and hard, and then it hit me. He hadn't put this all together by himself. Somebody was feeding him.
“You have inside information,” I said. “Maybe, you even someone whose job is to incite conflict between us. Don't you? That's it – you wanted a war between the Q'lapa and N'gasso, and so you went out and started one.”
He shrugged, staring down at his fingernails as if he was bored with this conversation. But I noticed that he had a smug smirk on his face – and that he didn't answer my questions.
My anger bubbled up within me and it was all I could do to keep myself from throttling that prick. I should have seen this coming. I should have seen it coming and done something to stop it.
But, it was my responsibility to put a stop to it now. To put everything back together again. To save all of us, both clans, and anyone else who might get caught in the middle of it all.
So much for running away from my problems, I thought. If I ran away with Rose, I'd be leaving everyone to die. Everyone of my kind – my family, my friends and yes, even my enemies. No one deserved what the Sheriff had in store for them. No one.
Not even the N'gasso.
My dad was right. I had to fix this.