He shook his head. “It’s like talking to a wall.”

I sighed. “Let me ask you this, do you think Atlanta is safer now than it was ten years ago when Kate defended it?”

He didn’t answer.

“I’m not blind. I’m not peddling oppression. I’m doing my best to make sure that the ideals of individual freedom and rights don’t disappear. But I didn’t come here to convince or recruit you. I’m here because Kate is in danger. Moloch burns babies alive to power up. Can we agree that it’s bad? Will you help me stop him?”

He shook his head.

“Is that a no?”

“I’m shaking my head at myself. Because I am an idiot. Who else knows?”

“Luther.”

“You told Luther, but you didn’t tell me?”

I grimaced. “I didn’t have to tell him. He figured it out.”

Nick pondered me. “I will help you with Kate. And it’s the only thing I will assist you with. I’m watching you. Every step. Every breath.”

“Deal.”

I unloaded. I told him everything I’d learned about the murders, Derek, Ascanio, the ma’avirim, and relics.

He took it all in. “Ferara is getting worse.”

“I heard that he is aiming for the Beast Lord’s throne, but I have a hard time seeing it.”

Nick sighed again. “It’s complicated. Jim’s tired. You know he has children?”

“A boy and a girl.”

“He’s missed milestones with JJ and he doesn’t want to miss Diana’s childhood. He also restructured the Pack, pushing a lot of the burden for day-to-day functions onto the Clans. Nobody disputes that this had to be done, but the process gave the Clans a lot of autonomy. Desandra thinks too much. It will take someone as exceptional as Jim to hold them together after he retires.”

If Jim picked the wrong person, the Pack would fracture. A divided Pack would be bad for everyone.

“The alphas respect Jim,” Nick continued. “He earned their trust. Ascanio, not so much.”

“Why?”

“Part of the reason was the way he went about it. There are two paths to the top in the Pack: strategic alliances and physical power. One could say they are the sides of the same coin.”

Pack politics were a quagmire. The conflicts between individual clans could get hellishly complicated.

“Raphael made the boudas into a financial powerhouse. Both he and Andrea recognize that Ascanio is ambitious. They’re not ready to step down and make way for him, and they don’t want to fight him. Together they might win, but there is a good chance he would kill at least one of them.”

“So, they redirected his ambition away from themselves?”

“Exactly. They are advising him and plotting on his behalf. Ascanio is trying to build a coalition through money. Right now, both Clan Nimble and Clan Jackal are in the boudas’ pocket because they have joint financial ventures. Clan Heavy and Clan Cat oppose Ascanio. He tried to get a foothold in and was rebuffed.”

That made sense. Clan Heavy was still led by Mahon, who had raised Curran like his own son. In Mahon’s mind, only Curran was the proper Beast Lord. Clan Cat belonged to Jim. Cats were independent and infuriating in their stubbornness, but Jim had been their alpha before becoming Beast Lord and they would follow whoever he endorsed.

“What about the rats?”

Nick frowned. “It’s murky. They made some money off him, and they must’ve reached some sort of understanding, but rats always look out for rats. You can’t count on their support unless you get a definite yes from Thomas and Robert Lonesco, and so far Ascanio hasn’t gotten one.”

So that’s why he was running around the city unsupervised. The rats took the “wait and see” position. They observed him, they let him scheme, but they didn’t aid him. The fact that they didn’t interfere meant they thought he might succeed. Nobody would know where they stood until five minutes to midnight.

“I will say that for him, he’s gone further than anyone expected,” Nick said. “He’s good at observing people and using their weaknesses to his advantage. He doesn’t lose his temper like a typical bouda and he uses his head. Except when it comes to your boyfriend.”

“Derek Gaunt is not my boyfriend.”

“Does he know who you are?”

“No, and I plan to keep it that way. What happened between him and Ascanio?”

“This was just before Derek left, about six years ago. Ascanio needed to establish himself in Clan Bouda, so he could claim the beta spot. He tried to pull off a scheme in the city. It wasn’t exactly shady, but it was borderline.” Nick raised his hand and moved it side to side. “I don’t know all the details, but Derek got involved in it and told him to knock it off.”

That fit the pattern. As long as I’d known them, Ascanio had tried to prove that he was awesome, and Derek had showed him the error of his ways. When we were kids, Ascanio was younger and had less training. Ascanio’s own clan gave him to Kate to keep him breathing, while Derek had Curran, who treated him like a younger brother, something Ascanio envied. They were never friends.

“Things didn’t go well?” I guessed.

“Derek beat his ass in front of Ascanio’s bouda crew. They decided to jump in, and he beat them into submission. There were witnesses. People saw them cringing.”