“I was thinking about what Marc said earlier. Right now the council has no use for me—no reason to keep me alive. The best way I can help myself is to prove them wrong. To prove myself useful. Indispensable. So when Dr. Carver said she might calm down for another woman…”

My father’s scowl deepened.

Shit. I shouldn’t have mentioned Dr. Carver’s part in the whole thing. Now he would get his ass chewed, too.

“It’s not his fault, Daddy. He didn’t make me do it. No one did.” But that wouldn’t matter. If I went down, the doc would go down with me. And we probably wouldn’t be alone.

I stared into the skeletal branches overhead, trying to remember what I was originally getting at. Oh, yeah… “But my point is that I finally had something to offer. Something no one else could do.”

Early-morning sunlight highlighted the gray patches at his temples as he shook his head, mouth already open to interrupt. I rushed on before he could. “No one else could have gotten her to Shift, Daddy, much less talk. She was too afraid of the guys to relax enough to even listen. She split Dr. Carver’s arm wide open!”

“Which is exactly why we said no one was to go in there alone! We’re all here trying to keep your head attached to your shoulders, yet for some reason, you feel the need to flaunt your disobedience in front of the very tribunal demanding your life! Not to mention how badly hurt you could have been. You had twenty stitches removed from your stomach not ten hours ago. We cannot afford to have you injured again.”

“I’m fine.” I spread my arms, showing him how perfectly intact I was.

“You could have been mauled.”

“Yes. I could also be struck by lightning on my way back to the cabin. Or I could be hit by a falling tree. Or run over on the crosswalk. Life isn’t safe, Daddy. Not for your little girl, and certainly not for one of your enforcers. I saw an opportunity to prove my own worth and help that poor child, and I took it. I stand by my decision.” Though I was so nervous about it my hands were starting to sweat in spite of the cold…

“And furthermore…” I rushed on, ignoring both my own nerves and whatever he’d been about to say. “I think you should be proud of me, instead of mad. I think I did exactly what you would have done in my place.”