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He thought for a moment, then nodded. “Agreed. I’ll try to get the others to agree also. You’re right, you are right. If we’d just talk to each other, we could prevent a lot of bad things from happening.”

“Great,” I said, and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I wanted this. I wanted them to talk to each other, to help each other.

Someone cleared their throat, softly. It made us all look at Gil. He was still huddled beside the couch, where he’d been the entire time. “You have something to say?” Donovan asked.

“How far does this new spirit of cooperation go?” he asked. His uptilted green eyes were almost round with anxiety. He gripped his knees so hard his hands were mottled. He was scared; you could smell it on him, that and a neck-ruffling scent that I didn’t recognize.

“What do you mean?” Donovan asked.

“I’m actually talking to Anita,” Gil said.

I glanced at Micah then back to the man huddled on the floor. “What do you want to know?” I asked.

“I’m the only werefox in town. I don’t have an alpha, or any family.” He stopped there and licked his lips nervously.

“And?” I said.

“How much help are you willing to give?”

“How much do you need?”

“Can I stay with you until this thing, or whatever, is caught?”

I felt my eyes go wide. I opened my mouth, closed it, exchanged a look with Micah. He shrugged. “It has to be your call. It’s your house.”

Point. I turned back to Gil. “I don’t know you at all. If you are a bad person, and you do bad things to my people, I will kill you, but if you really just want someplace to hide for a few days, you can stay.”

He seemed to get smaller, more huddled. “I won’t hurt anybody. I just want to feel safe again, that’s all.”

I looked at Donovan. “Do you know anything about him?”

“He’s scared of his own shadow. I wouldn’t trust him to help in an emergency. I think he’d save himself first.”

Gil didn’t argue with Donovan’s estimation of him, he just huddled, trembling. “If we only help the strong ones, then we’re not helping ourselves,” I said.

“You’ll take him in, knowing he can’t help you in a fight, and would probably run to save his own skin?” Donovan asked.

I looked at those wide, terror-filled eyes and saw something besides fear, a pleading. They said, “Please, please help me.”

“You can stay, and we’ll protect you, but if there is an emergency I expect you to do your best. You don’t have to fight, but don’t be a hindrance.”

“What’s that mean?” he asked.

“It means if the guns come out, hide under something, get low to the ground. Don’t make yourself a target. If my people get hurt and you have a chance to drag them to safety but leave them to die instead, you’ll be next.”

“I’m not brave, Anita, I’m not even a little bit brave.”

“Don’t be brave, Gil, just do what you’re told, do your best whatever that is, but understand the rules. Keep yourself out of the line of fire because we won’t have time to worry about you when the fighting starts. Help if you can, stay out of the way if you can’t. Simple.”

He nodded, rubbing his chin between his knees, over and over. “Simple,” he whispered, “I wish life were simple.”

“Life isn’t simple, Gil, but a fight is.” I knelt in front of him, and I hated the weakness that radiated from him. Dear God, the last thing I needed was another emotional cripple following me around. But I couldn’t kick him out. Anita the bleeding heart. who’d have thought it? I stared at him, until his frightened eyes met mine. “A fight is simple, Gil. You protect yourself, your people, and you kill the bad guys. You do whatever it takes to get yourself and your people out alive.”

“How do you know who the bad guys are?” he asked, voice almost a whisper.

“Anyone in the room that isn’t us,” I said.

“And you kill them, just like that?”

I nodded. “Exactly,” I said.

“I don’t think I could kill anyone.”

“Then hide.”

He did that chin-rubbing nod thing again, like he was scent marking his own knees. “I can hide, I know how to do that.”

I touched his face very gently. He flinched, then relaxed a little.