Mark tipped his head back, baring his throat.
Robbie did the same, tail thumping nervously.
Elizabeth tilted her head to the side, the long column of skin muted in the starlight.
She said it then.
The one word.
And I hoped that Joe could forgive me.
Because as much as I wanted to fight this, I didn’t think I had the strength.
Not anymore.
“Alpha.”
the third year/mystical moon connection
IT WAS in the third year that Robbie moved into the main house, shortly after being recognized as part of the Bennett pack. His superiors didn’t seem surprised. A gruff man came to the house, wearing a wrinkled suit and a skinny tie. His eyes widened briefly when I entered the room, able to sense something about me I still didn’t quite understand.
He was blunt and to the point. There had been no sign of Richard Collins, no tangible proof of him for well over a year. The teams that had been searching for him since he’d fled Green Creek were coming back with nothing. There weren’t even rumors of him anymore.
The same was said of Joe and the others. We hadn’t heard anything from them, though Elizabeth kept insisting that they were alive, that she would know if something happened to them, to her sons. I didn’t have the heart to disagree with her, though I lay awake at night imagining a hundred different things that could have happened to them. That they’d found Richard and he’d killed them, becoming an Alpha. That even though they were alive, they were never coming back. That I’d never see Carter again. Or Kelly. Or Gordo.
And Joe, of course. Because he was on my mind more than the others.
The gruff man told us that they’d continue the search, but it seemed halfhearted. They spoke as if Michelle Hughes was going to be long-term, to finally have someone permanent take Thomas’s place as the head Alpha. “We’ll give it time,” he said, sipping black coffee. “But we can’t wait forever.”
He asked to speak to me privately. I glanced at Elizabeth, who nodded before agreeing. She pointed toward Thomas’s old office, and I hesitated only briefly. The others left the house. Tanner, Rico, and Chris were at the shop.
The gruff man waited until he was sure they were out of earshot before closing the door to the office. I sat behind the desk, more intimidated than I expected to be. I tried to push it down, but I think he knew.
Then, “She’s curious about you.”
I didn’t expect that. “Who?”
“Alpha Hughes.”
“Why?”
He snorted. “Because you’re human, and somehow you’ve become an Alpha. Of the Bennett pack, no less.”
“Joe’s the Alpha of the Bennett pack,” I said. I was just temporary. I’d accepted it more than I had before, but it was still a work in progress. One that I hoped would be over very, very soon.
“Joe’s not here.”
“He will be,” and I wondered if the gruff man heard the traitorous thump of my heart.
“How did you do it?” he asked. “She’ll want to know. Not because you’ve done anything wrong or because she’ll want to take anything from you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why go there first?”
He shrugged. “Because you did. And I don’t blame you. Neither does she. This pack has been put through… a lot. Which is an understatement. You don’t hand out trust easily.”
You meaning the pack. He spoke to me as if we were one out of respect. “There aren’t many people to trust.”
“Alpha Hughes—”