They shared another look. “No.”
Tim eyed them both, trying to detect whether they were telling the truth. The pair seemed on edge, but more from fear than deceit. “I see.”
If they were going against their alpha’s orders, then they had every reason to be afraid.
Mark glanced behind them, back down the road, and paused as though listening for something. “Look, it’s not that we’re doing anything wrong. Alpha Newell said that an apology needed to be given to Calloway. He didn’t specify who should do it.”
“But I imagine it was implied?”
Mark shrugged. “Maybe.”
Tim wasn’t in the habit of trusting anyone from outside his own pack, but these two had told him more than they strictly needed to. He still had to be careful. The fact that Newell was pissed off over what happened with Nathan was common knowledge. “You realise Newell probably wasn’t all that concerned about upsetting me, don’t you?”
Mark scratched at the back of his neck. “Yeah, he may have voiced his displeasure with your pack once or twice since the fight with the rogue pack.”
Will snorted. “Pack meetings have been…interesting.”
“I bet.”
“Look,”—Mark lowered his voice to barely above a whisper—“it was my cousin and his friend who were here that night.” Tim automatically tensed, but Mark was shaking his head. “No, it wasn’t really their fault. They’re just young, stupid, and impressionable.”
Tim waited. “Go on.”
“Wes talked them into it. You know how he had a thing for Nathan?” Tim nodded; he remembered Jared grumbling about it. “Well, he’s still pissed off that he chose a human instead of him.”
“Nathan didn’t justchoose, Jared. Theybonded, for fuck’s sake.”
“Never said he was the brightest member of the pack,” Will chipped in. “Since Jared is safely locked away in one of your pack houses, I suppose he thought Calloway was the next best thing.”
Tim gestured for Mark to continue.
“Wes said if they did it—scared him a little—it’d put them in good favour with Alpha Newell, and like a pair of idiots, they believed every word of it.”
Tim wanted to believe them, they seemed sincere enough, but—“Why are you telling me all this, exactly? If Newell or his betas find out, I can’t imagine they’d be impressed.”
In fact, he would put money on Newell being royally pissed off that Will and Mark were speaking this candidly with a member of Cam’s pack.
Mark sent a quick glance to Will, who nodded. “I know our two packs don’t have the best relationship right now, but not everyone….” He trailed off and ran a hand through his hair. Tim sympathised—saying anything against one’s alpha wasn’t an easy thing to do. “We don’t want to start a pack war, and there’s a few of us in P-Pack that think it’s headed that way. If we can stop that from happening, we will.”
What did he say to that? Tim was the pack doctor; he didn’t have the authority or experience to handle something like this.Fuck.I wish Alec was here. He’d know exactly what to do, what to say.
Mark and Will were watching him expectantly, waiting for his response.
He finally answered. “That’s good to know. What about the rogue shifters? Are they an actual threat?”
He didn’t really expect them to tell him the truth if Newell had made it up, but it was worth a shot. Body language told him a lot about a person.
Mark frowned and Will seemed just as confused. “Yeah, why wouldn’t they be?”
“Because I was under the impression that they all died at the raid on the warehouse.”
Now they both looked a little shifty.
Mark sighed as he ran a hand through his hair again. “We can’t talk about that. But Alpha Newell had a full pack meeting about it. The threat’s real.”
Tim didn’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand, it was a good thing Newell wasn’t lying to Cam, but the thought of rogue shifters running around, intent on some payback for Nathan and the rest of the pack, filled him with dread. If the rogue shifters were alone, isolated from what used to be their pack, then what did they have to lose? A wolf like that was as dangerous as they came. Tim couldn’t help but move closer to the open door to scent the air.
“Relax.” Will glanced behind him as he spoke. “Why do you think we’ve been watching this place? There’s no sign of them around here.”
