The question was, what the heck were they doing here?
Knox was probably thinking the same thing, because he voiced my thoughts out loud.
“Nice to meet you,” he said, his tone carefully neutral. “I’m Alpha Knox and this is my luna, Basilinna.”
I nodded, trying to smile at them without looking as awkward as I felt. “Hello. Just Lina is fine.”
Moonfang’s wolves looked at me with open curiosity, their gazes assessing. Ryder’s blue eyes swept over me with clinical interest, and Jasmine tilted her head slightly, a small smile playing on her lips.
Knox’s arm tightened around my waist, pulling me closer against his side. A low snarl started building in his chest, rumbling beneath my ear where I was pressed against him.
Wow. Possessive much?
Jasmine’s smile widened, amusement flickering in her green eyes. She didn’t seem offended by Knox’s territorial display. If anything, she seemed to understand it.
“We’re here because we needed to speak to you,” she said, her voice warm but serious. “Urgently. And to offer you our help.”
Knox was still scowling, his body tense, his wolf clearly unhappy about having unknown wolves in his territory near his mate. Noah cleared his throat pointedly.
“That sounds great,” Noah said, his tone forcibly pleasant. “Why don’t we all sit down?” He shot Knox a glare that clearly said stop being an ass.
There was a moment of tension, and then Knox relented, guiding me toward one of the chairs at the conference table. He pulled out my seat for me and then positioned himself right next to me, close enough that our knees touched under the table. His hand found my thigh and stayed there, a possessive weight that I found oddly comforting.
Everyone settled into seats around the table. Ryder and Jasmine sat across from us, with Sawyer standing behind them, his watchful eyes never stopping their constant sweep of the room. Hunt remained by the window, Noah took a seat next to Knox, and Cole positioned himself near the door. Knox’s father stayed at the head of the table, observing everything with quiet authority.
Ryder leaned forward, his elbows on the table, his expression grave.
“We received your email a few days ago,” he started. “Where you sent us a drawing of a woman. An arsonist.”
I stilled. The attack on the shop. The attack that had hurt Mika. When had they sent a drawing? When had they gotten a drawing? My fuzzy brain couldn’t supply the answers, couldn’t fill in the gaps in my memory.
Hunt perked up from his position by the window. “Yes, I was the one who sent it. We tried searching for the woman in Pine Valley, in Ravenshollow, even hired a private investigator to find her in human towns. No luck. She vanished. We think she’s behind the attacks against our luna.”
Ryder nodded slowly. “We answered the email the moment we received it. But we never got a response. And then...” He paused, exchanging a look with Jasmine. “The email vanished from our account entirely.”
Hunt’s scowl deepened. “We never got an answer.”
Another loaded look passed between Ryder, Jasmine, and Sawyer. There was clearly more to this story.
“We think your communications aren’t safe,” Jasmine said quietly. “Someone is intercepting them. Deleting them. That’s why we called Cole directly and drove here in person. We couldn’t risk sending another email that might disappear.”
A chill ran down my spine. Someone was monitoring our communications? Someone was deliberately keeping information from us?
“So this means you have information on the woman?” I asked, leaning forward.
Jasmine grimaced, her pretty face twisting with distaste. “Unfortunately for us, we know her.”
“Who is she?” Knox demanded.
“Mira Bennett,” Ryder said.
Knox’s eyebrows rose sharply. “Related to Jackson Bennett?”
Jasmine nodded, her jaw tight. “She’s his daughter. And she’s the woman we exiled from our pack months ago.” Her hands curled into fists on the table. “She’s a bitch, and she’s hurt me more than once.”
There was history there. Pain. I could see it in the way Jasmine’s expression hardened, in the way Ryder’s hand moved to cover hers protectively.
Knox’s palm slapped against the table, making everyone jump.
