“Uh, that doesn’t sound good.”

The water turned off in the bathroom.  World’s fastest shower.  He was worried about me.

“Did you even use soap?” I called.  Michelle jumped at my sudden volume.

“Wanna come sniff me?”

His muffled reply made me grin.  I shook my head and focused on Michelle again.

“What has you all nervous?”

“They asked me to come talk to you about—”

Ethan opened the door.  He had a towel wrapped around his waist and the tube of muscle cream in one hand.  When he saw Michelle, he froze.

“Good to know we have company,” he said, giving me a hard look.

“Hey, Ethan,” I called as if he were still in the shower.  “Don’t come out in a towel.  We have company.”

“You’re useless,” he said before turning around and closing himself in the bathroom once more.

I loved all this Ethan time.  Between the exercise and his constant snarky humor, I was feeling great.  It was hard to remember I’d been bashed in the head and was on the run from people who could change into dogs.  Why did I just think that?  Way to ruin a mood.

“Maybe I should come back later?” Michelle said.

“Nah, you’ve scared him for now.  We should have at least five minutes before he’s ready to show his face again.”

She moved to sit on the bed that Carlos had occupied.

“Bethi told you the basics about us, but no one’s told you anything about them, the werewolves.  The Elders thought you might have a few questions.”

Her term for the old people in the group made me want to smirk.

“If the Elders thought I had questions, why didn’t they come here?”

“You don’t seem to like any of them.”

“Yeah, well, they’re a bit bossy.  Since I am too, you can see where there might be some personality conflict.”

She remained silent for a heartbeat.

“Do you have any questions?” she asked hesitantly.

“Nope.  Honestly, I haven’t stopped to think about it, and I’m not sure I’m going to.  I’m along for the ride.  I just want to get rid of this emotion siphoning thing and move on with my life.”

She looked down at her hands, fidgeting.  There was a message they’d sent her to share.  I was sure of it.

“What questions should I be asking?” I asked.

“When I first saw Emmitt, he felt familiar, almost as if I’d recognized him, even though we’d never met.  My stomach went crazy, and I just couldn’t stop staring.  It turns out, the werewolves have this built-in sensor that goes off when they see their Mate.  A pull.  That’s what Winifred calls it.  And, apparently, we feel it too.”  She stood and moved to the door.  “Let me know if you think of any questions.”

I stared at the closed door for several minutes, too stunned by the bomb she’d just lobbed at me to react in any way.  Ethan poked his head out the door, looked around, and stepped out fully dressed.

“I hope food’s been ordered.  I’m starving,” he said, crossing the room.  He shoved his dirty clothes in his bag.  “And you can rub me in tonight.”

Shaking myself from my shock, I stood before Ethan could notice anything wrong.

“Sure.”

As we left the room to meet with the others, I refused to read into what Michelle had just said.  It was information.  That was it.  Nothing more.

*    *    *    *

The door to Charlene’s room opened before Ethan could even knock on it.  Grey stepped aside to let us in.  Everyone else was already there, and there wasn’t much room to move.  Ethan and I stayed near the door and leaned against the wall.

I glanced around the room.  When I saw Carlos, my stomach did a happy dance.  Had it done that before?  If it had, I’d never noticed it.  Usually I was too focused on everyone else’s emotions and responses to pay much attention to my own.  Why did Michelle have to go and point it out?  Now, my reaction to Carlos was probably just like that time in elementary school.  Someone had gotten lice and when the school nurse had shown up and explained why she needed to check our hair, I’d started scratching at my head like crazy.

A sudden wave of anger and frustration brought my focus back to the present situation, and I realized Ethan and I had arrived in the middle of a tense conversation.

“We need to decide,” Bethi said impatiently with a look at Winifred. “There are too many of them to keep running like this.  We almost lost Gabby and Isabelle.  The drive to find us is only going to increase as the end of the cycle approaches.”

Everyone else in the room seemed to be watching Winifred, who was giving Bethi a troubled look.

“The risks of trying to remain hidden are still better than if we expose our existence.  Once we do that, we’ll have both the humans and the Urbat hunting for us,” Winifred said.

I glanced at Ethan while Bethi nodded.  Was he as lost as I was?

“You’re right, we will,” Bethi said.  “But that’s what will make it safer.  The pressure won’t just be on us.  It will be on them as well.  Thanks to Gabby’s sonar, when we reveal ourselves, we can also reveal the Urbat and their location.  They’ll have to scramble.  During that chaos, we might just have a chance to find Olivia.  With her, we can end this.”

The importance of what they were discussing hit me.  They wanted to reveal themselves to the world.

“It could work,” Michelle said.  “If we use Blake’s name.”

“What’s to stop him from revealing ours?” Winifred asked.

“Blake needs all six Judgements,” Bethi replied.  “And he’ll know he won’t stand a chance at getting us back from humans if we are taken.  He can’t risk revealing anything about us because of that.”

It surprised me that they were even considering revealing themselves.  The panic it would cause...I shuddered.  I didn’t want to be anywhere near that wreck when it went down.

“If we do this, we’ll need to go through a reputable source so it’s not brushed off as a hoax,” Michelle said.  “A news station would be best.  Preferably one with broad coverage.”

“I agree,” Bethi said.  “We need to decide where and when, soon.  We can’t just keep running around aimlessly.  Gabby’s got to sleep sometime, and that’s all it’d take for them to get lucky again.”

“The where will help determine the when,” Michelle said.

“If we’re looking for broad news coverage,” Gabby said, speaking up for the first time, “New York would be the place to go.  But, it puts us much closer to the danger because the Urbat are primarily in northern New York.”

“That’s actually perfect,” Bethi said.  “Blake knows we need Olivia; I think once he sees we’re headed that way, he’ll call his troops back in.  You know, fortify home base.  He won’t expect us to stop at a news station.”

I liked how Bethi’s mind worked, but there were still some large holes in her logic.

“How are you going to get anyone to even listen to you, let alone put you on air?” I asked.

“Charlene will convince them,” Bethi said.

I glanced at Charlene.  She looked uncomfortable, and I felt a wave of worry roll off her.

“Will you?” I asked her.

“I’m capable of manipulating wills.  I’m not sure I should, though.  Yet, I agree that Bethi’s plan has merit.  It’s better than a life on the run.”

“Why aren’t you sure?” Winifred asked.

The worry grew stronger.

“Once we expose our existence, there’s no going back.”

I studied her for a moment longer.  It wasn’t just worry but a hint of guilt.  I spoke up.

“It’s not just the existence of the Urbat and werewolves we’re exposing. We’re risking exposing ourselves too, right?”

She held my gaze as a subtle thread of fear flavored her emotions.  Then, she nodded.  Something more was scaring her.  What?  Silence reigned for several minutes as the rest of the room thought over the situation.

Ethan shifted slightly beside me.  He was probably bored.  He had no real stake in this, and I just wanted to eat and then see if one of these guys would spar with me.  Each second standing here meant that much longer I’d need to exercise.