Five slits remained in the cloth, but Tim was unrepentant. “I understand the need for you to be sure about my intentions, but as myfriend, that was a shit thing to do.”
“It was necessary.” Tim shook his head and reached for the stairwell door, but Alec stopped him with a hand on his arm. “But as your friend, I’m sorry.” He squeezed Tim’s shoulder; a rare look of contrition on his face was gone as quickly as it appeared. “Come on. They’re waiting.”
After recounting his run-in with the two shifters from P-Pack, Tim sat back in his chair. He wasn’t used to being the centre of attention like this or being involved this closely with pack affairs. It unnerved him to some extent, and the relative peace and quiet of afternoon surgery suddenly sounded very appealing.
But his curiosity was also piqued, and he never could resist asking questions. “Were they telling the truth about the rogue shifters?” He directed the question to Alec and the other betas, but it was Cam who answered.
“I believe so. Alpha Newell is of the opinion that his units did their jobs at the warehouse.” The implied “but ours didn’t” was there, but Cam didn’t voice it. “Regardless of who was at fault then, it seems likely that some of the rogue pack escaped the warehouse.”
Tim immediately thought of Seb. “You think they’ll go to the flat, hoping to find Nathan?”
“I’ve spoken to Luke,” Cam said, as if reading Tim’s mind. “Mr Calloway hasn’t left his flat. He’s safe for now.”
The “for now” didn’t sound good, and Tim leaned forward again to rest his elbows on his knees. “How many got away? Do they know?”
“Not for certain. Best guess is at least two, possibly four. There were a lot of bodies that day.”
“But some.”
“So it would seem.”
“And you think they’ll go after Sebastian?”
Alec sighed, and when Tim glanced at him, he was sharing a look with Cam.
Cam nodded, and Alec focused on Tim. “It’s possible. But I’m more concerned with how Newell will use this situation to his advantage. He said some borderline threatening things after the attack on the warehouse. He wanted Nathan punished—readdead—because of the risk he caused not only to our pack, but Newell’s own pack by association, and he made noises about going to the alpha council anyway.”
Tim’s gaze shot immediately to Cam. “Could he do that? Our packs had an agreement. He’d be going against—”
Alec stopped him. “Our agreement would hold and his claims would likely be thrown out. They were empty threats, and he knew it. The council won’t concern themselves with a matter that’s already been resolved, especially now that we have the proper paperwork in place.”
Tim relaxed slightly, but his mind worked feverishly to connect the dots. “But he’s still angry about the whole thing.”
“Yes,” Cam answered. “I believe he feels I let Nathan get away with a crime he would have punished by death or at least banishment. He suggested—in a roundabout way, of course—that I make a poor alpha in his eyes.”
Tim wanted to laugh at that statement. There was a reason the P-Pack was a lot smaller than theirs: no one with any sense would follow Newell. “You think Newell let the rogue shifters go on purpose?”
Silence.
Then Alec spoke. “It’s a possibility, but we have no evidence to support it, and getting any proof without giving Newell grounds for complaint is tricky, to say the least.”
Tim turned to face Alec, struggling to wrap his head around it all. “What does Newell have to gain by Seb getting hurt, though? I know you said he’s trying to goad Nathan into doing something rash, but how does that help him get back at Cam?”
The other three betas had stayed mainly quiet throughout the discussion, but now Gareth sat forward and cleared his throat.
“Nathan already has one black mark against him. If they can get him to react and attack without provocation, or maybe somehow blame him for an attack on Seb, then they would have grounds to call Cam’s leadership into question. Newell will suggest that if Cam had dealt with Nathan properly the first time round, then none of this would have happened. Anything that involves human authorities gives shifters as a whole a bad name, and that’s something the councilwillact upon.”
Fuck.There was logic in there somewhere. Tim rubbed at his temples. The alpha council weren’t something he thought about often, if he could help it. Not that they weren’t necessary—the pack wars were testament to that—but having that many alphas in a room together made his wolf incredibly unsettled, and he was pretty sure everyone else would feel the same way. The idea of his alpha being subjected to the others’ scrutiny didn’t sit well either. “So now what?”
“Well,” Alec paused, again looking to Cam for confirmation. “With you now in the picture and your relationship with Seb being what it is, I’m not sure Newell will see Nathan as an option for them anymore. If Nathan doesn’t go near Jared’s old flat and stays with other members of our pack, it’s harder for them to get at him. And besides, Nathan’s no longer the one who feels most protective over Mr Calloway.”
Tim refused to feel embarrassed about that. Everyone in the room had sensed it as soon as he walked through the door. “That’s a good thing, though. Right?”
“Possibly. But Alpha Newell isn’t the sort of alpha to just let things go.”
Fuck.“What do you think he’ll do now?” He looked from face to face, not liking their expressions.
“We have no idea.”
