She glanced appealingly at Flora. “And I’m sure that you are concerned with the welfare of the shifter race as well.”
“Whatever you’re selling, please cut to the chase,” Flora said coolly. She struggled to stifle a grin of triumph. She was being rude and disrespectful – and it felt great.
An offended look crossed Ameera’s face. Outside the borders of the Badlands, she was treated with deference. Here she had no power.
Now her smile was positively pained.
“You and your cousin apparently have a fascinating genetic skill which is very unusual and potentially of enormous value. It could benefit all mankind. It could benefit America.”
“Yeah, well, America seems to have survived just fine without it so far,” Krystle said.
Ameera winced and forged on. “If you were willing to, voluntarily of course, accompany us out of the Badlands today, we would waive the thirty days in detention requirement, just for you. And we would pay you handsomely to participate in an entirely voluntary scientific study of your powers. I mean salaries in the six figures. Housing provided free. Security. Safety.”
She glanced around their surroundings with her lip curled in disdain. “After all, you don’t want to stay here.” She flicked a horrified glance at Finn and Liam. “With these kinds of people.”
Finn let out a low, rumbling growl.
“That’s my mate you’re talking about,” Flora snapped.
“Well, I suppose he could come too,” Ameera said doubtfully. Mr. Drake looked appalled at the notion.
Flora raised an eyebrow. “My mate’s family is here. My friends are, too. And I made a promise to some people here that I would stay here and look out for their welfare, and I keep my promises.”
“And I’d rather use my fire-starting powers on myself than have anything to do with you,” Krystle said.
“Well. I can see our generosity is not appreciated here. This trip was a complete waste of our time,” Mr. Drake said huffily, and stood up to leave. The squad of Enforcers did the same, looking enormously relieved.
“If you ever change your mind…”Ameera said as they headed for the door. Then she saw the looks on Krystle and Flora’s faces. “You won’t, will you? Well, the offer is always there,” she said, and followed the rest of the council crew out the door.
Epilogue
Two weeks later…
“Surprises make me nervous,” Flora protested, but she kept her hands pressed over her eyes as Finn pulled his car to a halt.
“Quit being such a fraidy-cat,” Krystle said from the back seat.
“Be nice, now,” Jose said. “Oh wait, sorry, forgot who I was talking to. Ouch! You’ll pay for that later, woman.”
“Promises, promises,” Krystle said happily.
“What kind of surprise are we talking here?” Flora demanded. “Most of my life, the kind of surprises I’ve had have been like… Surprise! You’re going to live with a new family! Surprise! There’s this guy named Loren Haig, and he’s going to be your new mate! Surprise! You can set things on fire with your mind, so we’re going to steal your babies!”
The car door opened, and Finn said, “You can look now.”
Flora opened her eyes. As far as she could tell, they were on the south side of town. They were parked in front of a row of small but adorable bungalow cottages. It looked as if they were freshly painted, in tones of cream and olive green, with shingled roofs.
“What’s this?” Flora asked as she climbed out. “Ooh, look at those flowers out front. Who lives here?”
“You do, dumb-face,” Krystle said. “That’s the surprise!”
Finn grabbed her hand and led her up the driveway. “You like?” he said.
“I love,” Flora said, staring around in wonder.
“I’m going to be living next door,” Krystle added. “With Jose.” She patted the small rounded bump on her stomach; she was starting to show now.
“So you don’t want to move to Cottonwood after all?” Flora asked.
“With all the changes that are happening in Darwin, I think it’s going to start being a better place for families. Besides, like you told that council beeyotch, we made a promise. It would be harder to protect the women here if we were on the other side of the state.”
The front door opened onto a hallway with gleaming wooden floors. As they walked into the house, Madison, Sarah and Sam jumped out from a hallway door to the left and shouted, “Surprise!” Flora let out a squeal of alarm and stumbled into Finn before she recovered.
“You should have warned me!” she cried out to Finn.