Accidental Surrogate

Chapter 232

Ella

At Dinner that night, I finally get the chance to check in on my sister. “How are you doing?” I ask, giving her a one-armed squeeze.

“I’m okay.” She says, and I’m surprised to see she’s telling the truth. “How did the rest of the visit go?”

“It was good.” I reveal, not really ready to change the subject. I feel eyes on us, and look up to find Roger watching our exchange. What’s more, I realize Cora is staring right back at him, rather than looking at me. Suddenly I understand why she isn’t more upset – I don’t know what Roger did or said to her after we left, but he clearly worked his magic. “I think we made some progress. More importantly, we finally received a response from one of the human governments we reached out to last week – saying they were open to a meeting – so it seems like we might be gaining some traction.”

“But didn’t you reach out to a lot of human leaders?” Cora asks, genuinely intrigued. “Just one isn’t a very good rate of return.”

“One so far.” I correct her, hoping that I’m right. Vanara is so far away and these matters so complicated that we always expected any response to take a great deal of time. The humans are undoubtedly gathering their entire parliaments to consider our offer, and political debates are rarely fast. “Besides, even if no one else responds, if we can bring one government on board, then they could become a link to others – vouch for us.”

“That’s great.” Cora smiles, lighting up a bit. “What did the other Alphas think of that?”

“So far everyone but Kieran is playing their cards close to their chests – not that I blame them. Still, I think the camp visit did what we intended. Hearing about a crisis like this is nothing compared to seeing it with your own eyes.” I want to tell her about the way some of these puffed-up alpha males had dissolved to tears in the nursery, but unfortunately they’re all in hearing range. Instead I say, “Roger even showed them the video of the coast and offered to arrange a visit there as well.”

Cora blinked, jerking her eyes back to Roger, “But surely that’s not safe.”

“We’re deploying the first of the security drones tonight, and Dominic is pulling his continental spies and a few resistance forces back to the coast to shield the refugees – now it’s obvious Damon knows their location.” I reveal, “for now it’s the best we can do, and so far Damon’s focus isn’t on us. He’s too busy trying to remain in control of the territories he stole and from all appearances, it’s not going well for him.” 1

returning her gaze to me. “I thought

fighting the human armies and resistance forces have

of rogues which he cannot control, and the more shifters he targets, the more enemies he makes. We’ve even got

just hearing about this?” Cora asked,

own projects and tasks that it’s easy to lose track.” In truth, between planning the summit, my hypnosis, work with the refugees, bed rest and Sinclair’s near­death, I almost forgot about tracking

mate filled me in that I

it – are the delegations going to go to the coast?” Cora

accurate. It was obvious the chickens hadn’t wanted to take the risk, but I won’t be saying

arm before I’ve even moved. She glances around at her neighbors to make sure they aren’t paying attention. “Do you… I mean … Ella, when all that happened – earlier you were kind of

had been completely unaware of at the time. It wasn’t until they mentioned it that I even knew it happened, and I don’t know how

and Sinclair promptly slides his arm around me. How is she? He

couldn’t hear. I

eventually I tell Sinclair that I’m going to go up to our suite a bit early. Of course, this isn’t what I actually want to do. Instead I head for Roger’s rooms. He left dinner a little while ago, and I have the sneaking suspicion that he and I are on the same page. When he opens the door, he only smiles,

are we going to

a lesson, if he knows why he’s being punished, he

mean.” I ask, though I realize my

that wouldn’t appreciate being made to look like a little girl. We could turn all his clothing pink? We would only need to go down to the

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