An Alpha's Choice (Talon Pack #2)(60)

“You’re a threat to our children,” a softer-spoken man said. “If you’d just stay away like you were, everything would be fine.”

Finn shook his head. “We aren’t a threat to your children. If anything, the actions of those who hate us are a threat to our children. The thing is, you say that we should go back to when we were hidden? But we weren’t truly hidden before. We walked amongst you, and were friends with you and your neighbors. We held jobs, and married those we loved. We had children. We grew up with one another, and yet now you’ve all seemed to forget that.”

Brynn continued for him. “Before you learned to fear us, we were one of you. Now that you think you know who we are, you listen to the lies told about us rather than what you see about us, and you think we should hide away. Or worse, you try to kill us.” She waved her hand at them. “Look at you. Seven against two, and yet all we have done is walk down a sidewalk holding hands. How is that okay? How is that normal?”

“You aren’t normal,” one of them said.

“No. I guess we aren’t,” Finn agreed. “But then again, are you? Are any of us normal? We aren’t human. I will give you that. But we haven’t hurt you. We want to be able to live in peace. But it’s hard when just this week, someone kidnapped the woman I love as well as myself, cut into us with knives, and beat us. How is that okay?”

“And where are these people?”

“How are you healed now?”

Finn let out a curse. These people wouldn’t understand. They wouldn’t until something happened to make them understand. Only Finn didn’t know what that was. He’d damn well figure it out in the near future, though. They all had to.

“We will not stand for you hurting our children, our families,” Finn said, his voice firm. You lived with us once, and I hope that one day you will do so again.” He faced one onlooker who held a phone, the camera facing him. “We are not the animals you fear, but if you hurt our children, if you bomb us and threaten to kill us, then we will show you the strength we have. We are wolves, but we are not evil.”

With that, he turned his back to the humans. Brynn following suit. They’d tried acting as if they weren’t a threat and they’d been hurt. His mate had been hurt. It was time the humans knew the truth behind what they feared. The shifters wouldn’t hurt those who didn’t hurt them, but maybe it was good that some feared them.

Shifters were dominant predators for a reason.

He and Brynn made it back to his car and then drove back to the den in silence. Brynn hadn’t fully moved in yet, but she had most of her stuff at his place. Thinking of little things like that helped him keep his wolf in check. As it was, he wanted to shift and roam through the forest, in need of nature and their connections.

“Well, Kade told us to show our strength,” Brynn said wryly. “I guess words are a form of strength today. I’m glad we didn’t have to show that strength another way.”

He gripped her hand as he made his way through the den wards and toward their home. “I hate that we left and didn’t make it to the café, but I wasn’t in the mood to fight them. They might have had weapons. But worse, we would have had to show the humans exactly how strong we are physically. And I wasn’t in the mood for them to catch that on camera.”

“Again,” Brynn said softly. “They’ve seen us fighting before, and they will again.”

“It’s not over.”

“Nope. And I fear it won’t be for a while.”

When they pulled up to his—not their—home, he turned off the car then pulled her hand to his, brushing his lips over her skin.

She leaned over the console and kissed his shoulder. His wolf nudged at him, and he smiled, despite the climate of the world around him. He had his mate and his wolf, that had to count for something.

They got out of the car and went inside. He turned on the TV, needing background noise, and wanting to know if what had happened had made the local news. It was most likely on social media sites, and their team within the Pack that dealt with monitoring that would have reports for him and the Alpha soon.

“We are aware of the violence occurring between us and the ones that call themselves shifters.”

Us.

That was a telling word.

“Brynn, come listen,” Finn said as he watched Senator McMaster talk to the camera, a wooden podium in front of him, and an American flag behind him.

“Dear, goddess,” Brynn murmured. “He’s putting humans against wolves but on a national scale now.”

“I’m texting Dad.” His phone beeped. “They’re already watching.”

“We are looking into these people. We will not allow fear to overrule our actions and society. We will protect our own.” McMaster faced the camera head on. “At all costs.”

With that, he answered a few questions with non-answers, but it all left Finn with a cold feeling down his spine.

“He didn’t declare war, but damn close,” Brynn snapped. “And what about the President? Has he said anything? Damn it. We have wolves in Senate seats. Are they going to speak now?”

Finn ran a hand over his face and shook his head. “We knew it was coming. Those wolves in Senate seats will do what needs to be done. It’s not about the Talons or the Redwoods. It’s about all of us. All of our people. I don’t know what is going to happen next, but we aren’t helpless here.”