Wild Card by Mark Henwick, Lauren Sweet Page A

way you want to join the Confederation?”
    Felix shook his head angrily.
    Parts of the whole picture suddenly crystallized in my head. Felix was walking a tightrope here with the Altau on one side and the Confederation on the other. What if some of the pack didn’t agree with his stance? No wonder he was so prickly about the solidity of the pack.
    On this I was with him entirely. I’d picked up Alex’s reaction to the Confederation and that had just become my position. I didn’t want them here.
    “What about other packs who don’t want to join?” I said. “Could we form an association purely to not be in the Confederation?”
    “There’s nothing as powerful as them, and there’s no sufficient reason we could use to persuade others to get involved.”
    “They’re just going to bury their heads in the sand until it’s their turn?” I asked, even angrier.
    Silence greeted my question. I couldn’t say Felix looked happier at my outburst, but he looked less unhappy.
    “So, you can see,” Ricky said. “Our priorities are split. If the rogue goes on killing he may be caught, but he’s gotten away with it so long, what are the odds on that? On the other hand, if we don’t clear out the Matlal Were within days, we will be fighting for our lives against the Confederation.”
    “No! The rogue hasn’t been caught because no one put the clues together. No one has been thinking it’s one person. Well they are now, and it’s not just a detective in the PD, it’s the frigging FBI. With a project team that’s looking at all sorts of anomalies and which has landed right here in Denver. If they aren’t already suspecting there’s a paranormal community, they will soon, and the rogue could be what triggers that.”
    “Yes, but what Ricky says is right, too,” Felix said. “We need the Matlal cleared out in a matter of days. If we end up fighting for our lives against the Confederation, that’s an even bigger signpost to us than the rogue.”
     “A true dilemma,” Noble agreed. “I advise, again, discussing with Altau the possibility of assistance against the Matlal Were…”
    “No!” Felix made a chopping motion with his hand. “The Confederation and Altau both want to take away from us the very individuality that makes us a pack. The only difference is the speed of it.”
    “I disagree, but anyway, they wouldn’t be able to help much at the moment,” I said, and heads turned back to me. “The residual effect of Matlal.”
    “Athanate politics,” sneered Felix. He glanced at his watch. “We’ve overrun.” He pointed at me. “You have to be well away from here.”
    Noble got up and exchanged looks with Felix. There was a silent communication between them.
    I tried to catch Alex’s eye as Noble herded me toward the door, but his head was down.
    I was hating it, but Alex’s way of acceptance was better. There wasn’t an alternative at the moment. If I needed the pack, I had to accept the pack rules. So much for manipulating Felix into a position. Instead, I’d had the stark choices laid out; insanity, death or obedience. Felix had been so careful not to repeat that explicitly in front of Alex. Again, I got a sense of the whole picture facing Felix and a grudging admiration for his handling it. If he’d openly threatened me again, Alex would have responded. This way, he’d made progress toward keeping both Alex and me in check.
    And exactly what major business was coming up that would be important enough to close this conversation? Was Alex being held back to split him from me, or was he involved in whatever happened next?
    “Meet us later,” Ricky called to me. “8 p.m. at the Sten Tallrik restaurant in SoCo. We’ll brief you on the rogue and the hunt for Matlal’s pack.”
    As we reached the front door, Felix came out of the living room and held up a warning finger. “You can be briefed on the hunt for the Matlal pack, you can assist planning, but you will not get involved in any