The thought sparked inspiration.  “We need to change the game,” I said with a growing smile.

“What do you have in mind?” Sam asked.

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for the argument that I knew would ensue.  “As I mentioned, there are six of us.  We represent different things.  Prosperity, Hope, Wisdom, Strength, Peace, and Courage.  According to Gabby and Michelle, the Urbat already have one of us.  Courage.  They can’t have any of us because all of us are needed to make a Judgement this cycle.” I knew in my heart I spoke the truth.  The world was so unbalanced it wobbled.  “We can’t get to Courage.  There’s just no way with our numbers.  That’s why we need to expose werewolves and Urbat to the humans.”

As expected, denial broke out.

“You can’t be serious,” Thomas said.

“We’ll be at their mercy,” Sam added.  “We don’t go to hospitals for a reason.”

“I first saw you at one,” Gabby pointed out.

“I was visiting a human friend,” he waved away the reason.  “We’ll end up in cages.”

“No,” I said, but no one listened.  “Just calm down,” I shouted, quieting the room.

“Hear me out.  They have the advantage.  There are more of them.  They know what’s going on, and we don’t.  Not fully...not yet, anyway.  They’ve been building up connections in the human world.” I looked to Michelle, and she nodded in agreement.  “We need to come into the light before they do.  Show the world that Werewolves exist, show we’re not bad, and then expose the Urbat, too.  We need to show that we’re different from the Urbat and that they are trying to hurt us.”

“If we direct human concern toward the Urbat and not Werewolves, we will have less to worry about.  The Urbat won’t be able to creep around trying to hunt us because the humans will be watching.  Urbat won’t be safe.”

“Neither will we,” Sam said.

“Not in your fur, you’re right.  You’ll need to let everyone know to keep it under wraps.  And the ones that can’t, shouldn’t go outside.  But we can’t expose everything until we have Peace.  She takes the panic and anxiety down to almost catatonic.  And Charlene can help keep everyone on the same page,” I added.  “Werewolves are good, Urbat are bad.”

Charlene looked uncertain.

“We’ll keep the initial group small,” I assured her.  “We need to find someone at a TV station to take us seriously enough to give us air time.  We want this to be recorded at their studio to give it more credibility.”

“I might know someone,” Michelle offered hesitantly.  “She interviewed me once.”

“Perfect!” I said, excited and feeling like I was on the right track.  “When we’re there, Charlene will need to grab everyone in the room and keep them from thinking they should call the National Guard to make us into lab rats.  Meanwhile, Peace will keep everyone in the studio from freaking out.  The first impression werewolves will give is a calm and kind one.  It wouldn’t hurt to have a spokesperson who looks sweet and unable to snap someone’s neck,” I said, knowing the Elders were communicating.

Grey laughed slightly.  “Winifred is not comfortable with being the spokesperson and wants me to remind you clothes don’t change with us.”

“We’ll bring a robe,” I promised.  “By exposing ourselves—no pun intended—we are robbing the Urbat of their advantage.  They can’t hope to win against humans in an outright war.  There are too many.  Their technology is too advanced.  A bullet in the head would kill any of the three races just the same.  If we tell the world we’re the good guys, and warn them to watch out for the bad guys, we’re more likely to make it harder for the Urbat to win this time around.”

“More likely?” Carlos questioned, speaking for the first time.

I blinked at him.  “I didn’t think you actually talked.”  He didn’t answer, just continued to look at me.  “Okay.  Well, historically, the Urbat would find as many of the Judgements they can, and torture us to get our obedience.  But one of us always dies too late in the cycle for rebirth and stops them from obtaining their goal.  So I can’t promise this will work.  It’s never been done before.”

“We agree we should find Peace before the Urbat do,” Sam said slowly.  “But we will need to further discuss revealing our race before we make a decision.  We need to do what’s best for the pack.”

“Exactly,” I stressed.  “The pack will die as it is.  It can’t stay hidden.  The Urbat are crazy desperate.  The things they’ve done...”  Luke’s fingers threaded through mine.

“We have to stop them.”

“We agree,” Grey said.  “We just need to think everything through.”

He was right.  We had time to discuss the necessity of revealing the Urbat and Werewolf races to the humans.  I held in a sigh and contented myself with his “maybe.”

“Fine.  But we need to plan our next stop.  I’m not sure if traveling together is a good thing or not, but in case we get separated, we should have a place picked ahead of time.”

Michelle used her phone to find another hotel a day’s drive east of where we were.  We all agreed on it, and she made the reservations.

Charlene excused herself and promised to bring back something to eat.  When she and Thomas returned, they had one of the turkeys and several containers of the meal they’d been working on before we left the Compound.

Everyone piled food on the plates she brought.  I sought her out.  “I’m really sorry you didn’t get to have your nice meal.”

“No, Bethi.  What we’re doing now is much more important.  For years, I’ve felt a...itch, I guess you’d say.  Like I was supposed to be doing something, but I never could figure out what.  The itch is gone now.  I know what we’re doing is right.”

She lifted her arms and offered a hug.  I went in willingly and fell into the abyss.

“Do you have Courage?” the Taupe Lady whispered from the black.

“No.  They have her.  But I hope to change that.”

“You must have Courage,” she answered.  A cool hand caressed my face and, for the first time in months, I felt completely at ease and free of the terror and desperation.

“Unite,” she whispered.  “Before it’s too late.”

Someone tapped my cheek, and I struggled to stay under, but the Taupe Lady had already faded taking the serenity with her.

I lay on the ground looking up at the bottoms of everyone’s plates.  “Go.  Away,” I mumbled.  I couldn’t even sit up.  It would kill my stomach.

“What happened?” Thomas asked.  I turned my head and saw Charlene lying next to me.

“She really shouldn’t touch any of us too much,” I muttered.  “We drain her.”  He frowned at me, but Charlene opened her eyes forestalling whatever he’d been about to say.

“I’m fine,” she reassured him.  “Just takes me a bit to pull it all back in.”  She turned and looked at me.  “What happens when we do that?  Besides draining me.”

“Our abilities flare.  Gabby’s lights ignite with no effort on her part.”  Gabby’s fork hit her plate in shock.  “Oh, sorry,” I apologized.  “The dreams are chaotic and usually painful rather than helpful, but I have actually learned a bit about us.  I didn’t mean to say something you’d rather I didn’t.”

“No,” she assured me.  “It just keeps surprising me how much you know.”

“And yet there’s so much I don’t.”

“Do you need help up?” Luke sat on his heels beside me.  He already knew the answer, but I liked that he asked first.  I nodded, and he slid an arm behind my back.

Luke helped me stand then walked me to the table to a chair.  I felt fine.  Gabby followed and sat with me while Luke went to fix me a plate.  Nana, Jim, and the two boys stormed the room looking for food.  Emmitt caught one of the boys mid-run and lifted him into the air.

“They have a waffle maker,” the boy said with a smile, wrapping his arms around Emmitt’s neck.

“Really?” Emmitt looked very interested.  “We’ll have to beat Jim down there, then.  Will you come wake us up in the morning?”